M3 - Codes and Conventions of my Music Video

 M3 - CODES AND CONVENTIONS

When creating my music video I wanted to ensure that I was sticking to all the codes and conventions relevant to my video, as instructed to in my brief/proposal. This is in reference to the music video conventions theory by Andrew Goodwin.

The song 'The Night We Met' is by the band Lord Huron. This song is in the alternative/indie genre and the artist often sticks to this genre and also mixes around in styles of rock and folk etc. I realised I wanted to follow all the conventions of the indie genre, not subvert them. I wasn't making a statement against anything in my music video, or following a theme that would make sense for me to do this. I felt the song was suited to the indie genre so I decided to follow this when creating my video. The conventions of the indie genre are often seen as having an old/vintage look to the video (as well as costume), often in a narrative concept which may deal with more meaningful issues, unusual settings, close up/wide shots often used as well as using cinematic effects to make it look more film-like. 

The style of my music video is narrative. I chose this to fit in line with the conventions of the indie genre. I also felt like it fit the musicality of the song and the lyrics of the song. I chose to create a song about someone leaving your life and the feeling of sadness/guilt afterwards as this is what the story follows. I wanted to make this narrative somewhat interpretable for the audience whilst not making the audience confused. Making this means that the audience can feel as if the narrative is personal and important to them individually, if the story was too niche the audience wouldn't be able to relate to it, this is why a story of loss is versatile and relevant to everyone. This means I can sufficiently target my audience psychometric profile of being explorers and strugglers, and them consuming the media text for escapism and to help their personal identity. This is I reference to the uses and gratifications theory by Blumer and Katz. 

When filming my video I was looking to stick to these conventions in the locations. I filmed on the moors as often indie videos include an outdoor element, it also helped me with the narrative I was trying to create. I filmed in a bedroom to link with my audiences personal identity, representing a character that they could maybe relate to in some way. Representing the characters in the correct way was very important to me so that I could make sure the audience felt like they could relate to the video. This is in reference to the Representaton theory by Stuart Hall. The roof and projection scenes were agin to link with the unusual setting that link to indie videos, they also helped me to create a more cinematic look to the video and help the audience emotionally relate to the character in these sections. I wanted to use a wide range of setting and locations to keep the audience interested in the video and also because I am using a narrative style, having really striking visuals is important to get the audience captivated in the video. I also noticed when doing my research that lots of Lord Hurons videos are relatively unusual, so I didn't want to leave out using a range of different setting in my video. 

The costume was a really important factor to be able to create a character the audience could relate to. I tried to use outfits that had an old/vintage look to them, going to charity shops to find items. For example, in the projection scene I dressed her in a colourful jumper with a white collar as this looks more vintage than trendy clothes now and also fits with what people who support the indie genre may wear. I also wanted them to be relevant to the character, being a young girl I was conscious to not make her outfits that fit the male gaze (the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey). For example, I didn't want her in too little clothing especially because my video is set in the winter and it wouldn't have made any sense with my story. I wanted the clothing to be an assistance to the narrative I was creating; we can see the protagonist in darker clothing (to connote sadness, melancholy) in the slower and sadder elements of the song, and the most colourful items (connote passion and emotion) during the most intense parts of the song. I wanted to clothes to represent something my audience may wear as well. Considering my audience is in the demographic of C1 and C2 workers, I made sure not to add any designer clothes with flashy labels as this doesn't correctly represent something my audience would wear. 

When filming I wanted to include a wide range of shots but especially use wide shots and close up shots as this is a key convention of indie videos. These help to set the scene, key for the development of a narrative video and also enhance the emotional value of the video which is very important in indie videos. having close ups throughout the whole video help the audience clearly see the change in emotion form the protagonist this helps them to not get confused about the narrative in the video. I mostly used eye level angles in my video. I did this to make the audience feel like they were on the same level as the protagonist, using lots of high or low angles could have suggested to the audience that the protagonist was on a higher/lower status to them and I was not trying to suggest this. I used a range of angles depending on the shot but mainly tried to focus on them being eye level as in my research I found that this is what lots of other indie videos used as well. I didn't use a wide range of camera movements when filming, only a few shots having movement in them. This is because I didn't want to distract from the song and the narrative by the audience being distracted with lots of camera movements. I also felt like this didn't fit the narrative I was trying to create. It also wasn't something I had noticed that other indie videos or Lord Huron do in their videos, so I decided not to focus on this when filming. 

I included all natural lighting apart from the projection scene. This was because I wanted to try and create this old/vintage look indie videos often have, and using lots of false lighting would mean this wouldn't look natural when I edited later. I also had to take into consideration my low budget operation of filming, and the fact that lots of other indie videos are filmed this way so I decided to choose setting where the natural lighting would be enough. on the roof scene this caused bait of graininess I had to fix later but ultimately created the natural shot I was going for. for the projection scene I didn't use any additional lighting other than the projector so we could see the image clearly on the camera. This meant I had to not show the protagonists body in the shot, but that the face was in lighting so I could get a clear close up of the characters emotions.

To fit this old/vintage look I edited a sepia filter on top of my shots. This made the shots to be warmer, which is something most indie videos use and I felt like fit my videos that were more cool toned from using this natural lighting. This helped my video look more cinematic and like a film which is a convention of indie videos. It also meant all the colour in my video became more like the colours I was hoping to show. I also edited to make my shots look less grainy, although I didn't think this was too much of an issue as lots of indie/alternative videos purposefully add grain to make it look older. I edited my videos together to make slower sections of clips to match slower sections of music and then faster sections of clips to link to faster paced music, this is so I can link my visuals with my music to link to Andrew Goodwins music video conventions. 

I also added a title to the end of the video. Most of the videos I was doing research into had a title somewhere in them and I felt like it fit my video. I researched to find the same font as is in the lyric/song cover. This is important because it means the audience - especially Lord Hurons fans - feel a sense of familiarity, it will feel more personal to the artist so they can feel like they have somewhat a relationship with them. This is referring to the personal identity and escapism use of the video in the Uses and Gratifications theory by Blumer and Katz. I turned this title orange because this is one of the colours that features throughout the video, complements the shot its on, and also is heavily featured in indie coloured palettes. I also added the bands logo at the beginning of the video for this same reason, it helps the audience to feel like they understand the artist more. If they expect to see something, when it does occur it will make them feel seen and like they are in the artists community so I thought it was important to include it.