In order to get a better idea of what audiences expect and want from the Indie genre we decided to create a questionnaire and hand them out to determine: the sex, age, interests and disinterests of our audience, therefore giving us more knowledge of what to include within our own music video.
The questions we asked were:
1- What is your gender?
2- What is your age?
3- What is your favourite genre of music?
4- What is the band you first think of when you hear 'indie'?
5- What is your favourite music video of all time, why?
6- What location would you associate with an indie music video?
7- What props would you associate with the indie genre?
We gave options that could be ticked for questions 1, 2 , 3 and 6. Questions 4, 5 and 7 were open answer questions to provide us with some qualitative data.
The video starts with the frontman (Jesse Rutherford) lay in what looks like a wooden coffin in order to relate the video to the title of the song R.I.P to my youth. The bands logo then appears on the screen to tell the audience that that symbol represents the band. The camera then cuts to the frontman from a birds eye view to confirm that he is lay in a coffin, also the name of an artist (Hype Williams) who is also in the video appears on the screen to show that he will make an appearance within the video. At 0:18 the bands name finally appears on the screen, before cutting to a bass drum to create thought beats this continues from 0:22 and continues to appear throughout the entire video.
At 0:32 the drummer of the Neighbourhood is fully shown on camera to create star image, this continues at 0:39 when a guitar is shown to be playing along with the music.
Both band members have also been shown on camera topless and are both covered in tattoos, this could be to try and show the audience that tattoos are seen as being 'cool'.
At 0:59 the bassist is finally shown playing along to the song. At this point all of the band members have been shown during the video in order of importance, showing the frontman first then the drummer, guitarist and finally bassist. Vevo can also be seen in the bottom right hand corner, this is shown as the video was made by the well known music company showing that The Neighbourhood are a well established band.
Finally the whole band is shown together at 1:54 to bring the video together for the audience. From 1:55-3:30 the video transitions more towards a live video of them playing rather than a video with a story.
For the first 32 seconds of the 'R U Crazy' music video Conor is seen with a band behind him looking like a typical music video. It allows the audience to understand who the main star is as well as promoting his star image. As well as this it gives the music video a different kind of genre included as the instruments that are used wouldn't usually be used in a 'pop' type of video. This makes it overall more of an 'indie' type song. At 0:18 Conor faces the camera with a red light shining over him. The red connotes love which also links with the video. After that we see lights on the ceiling which helps to set the scene and see the contrast between the two places.
Thought beats are shown in the first part of the video. When the beat first drops and Conor says 'R U Crazy' the camera shakes as if there has been a real drop.
Throughout the video it changes between Conor singing the song in the hallway and the event he is singing about happening. This helps the audience to picture what he is singing about and connect with the lyrics.
The cuts between the parts where the couple are arguing are much quicker to show the tension between them both as they argue.
As the video continues there are close up shots of Conor. This helps to portray his star image whilst keeping the attention on him. It allows the audience to see him singing the song, he also keeps eye contact with the camera keeping direct address with the audience.
The use of the female throughout the video also links with the male gaze theory. She is seen in different outfits some of which are figure hugging and therefore will interest the male gender especially.
The First video I am going to analyse is 'R U Mine' by The Arctic Monkeys. As the video begins the first thing the audience see is a radio presenter introducing the station. We can tell this because of the mise en scene within this shot. For example, he is holding a microphone, wearing a set of headphones and has cables around the room creating a studio type setting. This then fades into seeing the view from the car window and then star inside a car with his fellow band members, his drummer Matt and bassist Nick. We can assume that this was shot on a handheld camera because of the quality and the movement within the video which is achieved when using this type of camera. Shortly after it fades back into the radio presenter introducing the song before showing the star again. This allows the audience to link the two things together, the song and artist, if they didn't know already. It also promotes their 'star image' because we see the star within the video as well as the radio presenter introducing them using their band name. As soon as the beat kicks in we see the two band members act as if they are drumming to the beat which creates thought beats and directly links the two together. The genre of The Arctic Monkeys is indie rock. Throughout the video there is a black and white effect which works together with the handheld camera work to create simplicity within the video. This is a common theme throughout the indie genre as often they do not have the funds to be able to afford technical equipment.
At 0:44 we see the main star, Alex Turner, stand up in the car showing his tattoo whilst doing so.
His tattoo is of the Yorkshire Rose. This helps to promote his star image as it shows the audience where he is from. In this case he is from the Sheffield area therefore allowing the audience to link him to the place. As well as this, throughout the music video they are seen to be wearing sunglasses which we associate with celebrities and a star image.
Thought beats are shown throughout the entire video at different points. A significant time this happens is at 1:43 shown in the screenshot. The drummer of the Arctic Monkeys Matt Helders taps the drum sticks onto his shoulder in time with the drum sound in the video. When this is done it links him directly to the music and shows the audience that he is not just the driver but also a band member and an important character in the music that has been made, if they didn't know so already.
At 2:08 two girls are seen in the back of the car with the bassist Nick O'Malley. The girls are seen to be wearing masks and hats as he sings the song facing into the camera. Female gaze is then created as the females are later seen at the band area. This is good as the main audience for the Arctic Monkeys is males. Therefore it will attract their attention to the video.
Finally, at the end of the video we see the band performing the song surrounded by smoke. As well as this there is a TV with a picture of Jamie Cooke the lead guitarist. He wasn't able to go to the video filming as it was his wedding day! The band still chose to include him in the video even though he wasn't able to make it. This allows the audience to see the entire band performing the song which we haven't yet seen throughout the video.
I enjoy lots of different genres of music. My favourite artist is Beyoncé, I have recently been to see her in concert! Her genre is generally R&B. As well as this I enjoy listening to The Neighbourhood, The Arctic Monkeys and the 1975. The Genre of music video we have chosen to do is indie because the majority of our artist favourites fit into this genre. Our chosen song is Prey by The Neighbourhood. This song will be a great task for us to work on as we've already gathered some initial ideas of how we would like the video to be made. The Neighbourhood have also not released a video for Prey making it easier for us to put our own ideas into the video making process.
