In our music video we decided to conform to a lot of generic stereotypes you would typically expect to see in an illustration styled video, the illustration styled video has been used in music videos such as The fray- How to save a life and Snow Patrol - Run. As these were very similar artists to the band we were trying to re-create we decided that the because the lyrics were simple and had a chronological narrative to them we decided that this would be the best styled video for us to do. Along with this another element that conformed to indie rock videos is the idea of male hegemony, no women are featured in our video at all, because firstly our target audience is male teenagers and we wanted to portray the band as aspiration to them, we used low angle shots to help us do this and we done this because we wanted to create a feeling of when the audience member wants to be part of the band. We also included no women in the video as we wanted to represent the band as rebellious/outsiders, if we had done a narrative that showed a love story then it would of been very conventional and wouldn't portray the band as those who don't fit in with society.
Where we have subverted from many similar music videos is through the use of an enigma within the story, as we wanted the audience to listen to lyrics and come up with their own interpretation of that may be happening in the story and why the man seems to be being chased, we also used this chase sequence as a way of attract attention, as many indie rock videos don't have much high action sequences. Another way in which out video subverts from the norm is with the use of our mirror editing technique, we decided to do this because when we watch other similar products we saw that almost all of them have a hook, something that is quirky but appeals to the audience, most of the time this was the narrative, but we decided to use a clever editing technique instead in order to draw the audiences gaze.
Website
We used the Arctic Monkeys website to spot conventions that we could use and what we could subvert. Whilst looking at the websites I discovered that unlike popular pop stars, a website of an indie rock bands concentrates more on the music and news of the band, this is a convention that we decided to follow, as the website had to look as if we were a new band and we wanted to the audience to know our music as quickly as possible, this is why a feature was added that made the track play as soon as the user logs onto the website. however as we were a new band we also needed to get our image and style out there, and this is why we included a gallery, a feature that not many indie rock band website have, this is an example of use subverting the norm.Something that we found with nearly all of the websites we looked at, is that they all create a sense of community by using modern technologies, such as Facebook and twitter. We decided to conform to this as it has proven to be so popular with bands like the Arctic Monkeys receiving thousands of followers on twitter. Our website page includes a Facebook link, along with a live twitter post section, which allows the audience to follow or like the band without having to go on the social network site. We believe that this has been a success and that we have create a sense of community using modern technology.
Digi-Pack
.jpg)
Whilst researching similar artists such as Arcade Fire and Arctic Monkeys I found that the front cover focus's a lot on the band members and how they look as a collective unit. I also found that a lot of emphasis is placed on the facial expression of the band members, in many other front cover direct address is used however members have serious facial expressions and this is exactly what we've done in our front cover, it conveys that we a re serious band and also shows the style of music and genre that the band are. Another way we used to front cover to convey the genre is the placement of the amp in the middle of the image, it shows what the genre is and all conveys to the audience that music is the center of the group and intern each band member. The background behind the band is plain and simple, this puts more emphasis on the band, this has been done especially because the band is relatively unknown.When I viewed similar Digi-packs, the costumes that the band members would wear would be very similar to each other, they were also dark clothes that didn't have a brand to them, we followed this convention because we want to convey the idea that we are our own brand and that we also don't want to conform to what a stereotypical artist/s would look like.
