Digipak Analysis

I decided to analyse an existing Digipak in order to understand its key components. Understanding the basic structure of a Digipak will help my group when we create our own. I looked at The Strokes' 'First Impressions of Earth'. The Strokes are an indie rock band, meaning that their Digipak could provide me with inspiration for our own product which is also from the indie genre.


I really like the idea of having a contrasting CD and think that this would help to make our Digipak more unique and appealing to our audience.

Costumes in Existing Music Videos

Whilst my group was storyboarding, we started to think about potential locations and costumes. Music videos of the indie genre (like ours) usually have a smaller budget, leading to limited locations and, usually, limited costume changes. However, indie music videos also place a lot of emphasis on mise-en-scene. I have looked at existing indie music videos to gain an understanding of the typical amount of costumes that are worn, hopefully providing some inspiration for our own product.

Aurora - Runaway:



This video conforms to indie conventions as it only contains about four different costumes. I particularly liked the costume choices in 'Runaway' as they are all of the same colour palette, this colour palette is also seen in the locations. This motif adds fluidity between locations and makes the video more visually-appealing. The colour palette of our music video is a very important element, we have chosen to use contrasting locations with contrasting colour schemes, such as day time locations and dark, night locations. We also wanted some of our costumes to contrast the locations that they appear in, for example, we have planned to use a white costume in our vibrant, graffiti-covered Brick Lane location. I feel that having a contrasting colour palette will help to convey our music video's theme of confusion and disorientation, the idea of 'contrast' also reflecting our protagonist's contrasting personalities - reckless yet sophisticated.

 

 

Halsey - Hurricane:



The costumes in Halsey's 'Hurricane' are plentiful, however this is due to the inclusion of numerous characters, each only limited to one costume. The lack of costume changes helps to make the video more realistic, focusing on the narrative. The exclusion of costume changes is also fitting for the short time-span of the narrative, again, making it more realistic. The costumes and other mise-en-scene are extremely important in grounding the narrative of the video in the past - the characters are styled in typical 90s fashion. This is particularly inspirational as we want to include 'grunge' inspired costumes and locations, a style that was popular in the 1990s.

Meg Myers - Monster:



Meg Myers' music video for 'Monster' in extremely simple - it contains only one costume and one location. This allows the audience to focus on the song and the artist's emotional performance.

After looking at these music videos, it is clear that indie music videos limit their costumes, however, include thoughtful and relevant costumes and locations to the style of song and video, for example, the slower paced 'Monster' uses one costume compared to the faster paced 'Runaway' that includes three. A recurring theme within these music videos seems to be the idea of having a new costume per location, the maximum amount being three or four. We plan to include about four locations in our music video, meaning that we would need about four different costumes - this number conforms to the indie conventions. I think that this is a suitable number as we don't want to make our music video to complicated and extravagant, we want to make the narrative the focus.

Female Indie Artists

We have decided that we want a song with a female vocalist, this will allow a member of our group to star in the music video, making it more practical for filming as we won't have to rely on outside help. Starting to think about song choices, I began to research female indie artists. I discovered an article in The Telegraph, titled '10 Amazing Female Singers You Haven't Heard of Yet', which introduced me to many potential artists that we could use for our music video. It is important to look at existing videos by female artists so that I can gain inspiration and to identify common themes within the indie genre.

My favourite artists from the article, for either song and/or music video, are listed below:

Rescue -
Yuna



I really like this song as it is very upbeat and would be ideal for a performance video. The video contains some very interesting editing techniques, for example (below top), a landscape shot has been layered over a close up of the artist, making the shot more unusual. Another shot that stood out to me (below bottom) showed the sun seeping through the trees, illuminating the artist's clothing, the contrast between her golden scarf against the dark background and the light reflecting in the camera lens creates a dream-like atmosphere.

This video conforms with multiple elements of Andrew Goodwin's theory. The relationship between the music and visuals is clear, the upbeat, lively song is paired with the vibrant visuals of the locations and the artist's clothing. There is also a relationship with the lyrics. There is a theme of freedom and escaping throughout the song, 'she don't need rescuing, she's okay', this is shown through very open spaces, such as by the sea, this is further shown by the strong wind that blows her scarves throughout the video, presenting an idea of being free like a bird. The lyrics are also very hopeful, for example, 'things were bad, she was in despair...she came up for air...she found herself', this is represented through the inclusion of light in the video, making the artist look bright.

There are also many close ups of the artist, typical for an indie music video as it helps to promote the artist and create a 'star image'. The music video also fits the conventions of a performance video, there are multiple settings and there is lip-synching throughout.

Vibrant shots are shown throughout

Freedom shown through wind

Every Time the Sun Comes Up -
Sharon Van Etten



Whilst I think that this song is too slow to use for our music video, I was intrigued by its existing video. The narrative is very unusual and unique whilst also being very emotion, the viewer is able to empathise with the  main character, this is an element that I would be interested in including in our music video. Unlike most indie videos, this contains very little performance, and even then it is only an animation instead of the real artist (below), which I thought was quite entertaining.

Andrew Goodwin's theory can be applied to this music video due to its notion of 'looking', there are many television screens shown throughout, as well as mirrors. There is also a relationship with the music and visuals, the slow paced song is matched with long, drawn out shots and the use of slow motion. A relationship with the lyrics can also be seen, for example, as the lyric  'I see double' is said, there is a shot of two layered clips that give the effect of blurry vision or 'seeing double'.  I found it interesting that there was a very obvious link to the lyric 'we broke your glasses but covered our asses' where a woman can be seen holding a card with this written on.

Notion of 'looking'

'I see double'

'We broke your glasses but covered our asses'

Portrait -
Josephine



This isn't the genre/style of song that our group is looking for, we would rather indie pop or indie folk, however, I really liked the techniques used in the video. The entire video is in reverse, I found it very interesting to watch a narrative backwards. This is a technique that I think we could use in our video, possibly on a lesser scale.

Typical of a narrative video, there is no lip-synching and a clear story. Applying Goodwin's theory, there is a link between the music and visuals, the calm beat is complimented with the slow paced video, creating a relaxing atmosphere. There is also a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, for example, the lyrics talk about 'portraits' and identity so it is fitting that the video focuses on a single person, allowing the audience to connect with them. Also, the lyric 'every rose we grow' is paired with a shot of some flowers (below). Close ups of the artist throughout help to create a 'star image'.

Closer
Rae Morris



I think that this would be a good song to choose for our music video. I think that it has a strong beat that would be easy to edit to, there is also a clear differentiation between the chorus and verses, making the song less repetitive and helps to create different moods throughout, this would be helpful if we choose to create a narrative video as the atmosphere would also change throughout.

Conventions of the Indie Genre

We have decided to create an indie music video. This is because they tend to have lower budgets and limited filming locations, this is beneficial as the video will be cheaper and easier to make. We also think that indie music suits the tone of video that we are hoping to make. Here is a Prezi that I made detailing the conventions of indie music videos. This will help us to create a video that suits our song (which will be from the indie genre) and is similar to existing music videos.