Basic Storyboard

The image below is our intial story board which we will use for our music video. Though only rough and does not include every single shot in which we will use, it outlines briefly what shots we will use and the narrative in which we will follow when filming our music video.

Digipack Font Reseach

Researching an ideal font for our digipack is important. The font is just as important as the photos on the digipacks as it helps establish an artists or bands identity. Fonts can vary from the artists handwriting which gives a more personal touch to the digipack which the fans and purchasers of the cd will look for.

Lewis Watson's EP, which can be seen on the left, has a lack of capitalisation which implies a relaxed and more approachable personality of the artist. The contrast between the fade from 'lewi's to 'watson' gives a unique and original touch to the digipack as well as highlighting his surname more so than his first name; possibly as he wishs to be more well-known by his surname.

Florence and the Machine's album, on the right, is a perfect example of the use of an individually, stylised font. The particular font used can be seen throughout all of the bands digipacks and it is a way of keep continuity and simialrity in the band; as well as establishing themselves apart from other artists which use more standardised fonts. Like Lewis Watson's digipack, the centred position of the font is a likely preference of our group as, with many other font positionings on digipacks, by being centred it creates a focus on the name of the album; thus creating as much of an impression as the images themselves.

The digipack on the left is Emarosa's album. It differs from the previous two as it takes an off centred approach with font positioning, thus not distracting the audience's attention to the main images on the digipack. The font itself is a revearsed out copy as well as being capitalised. Capitalisation is a frequent choice of font style in indie bands digipacks as it carries connotations of newspaper headlines; another convention of the indie genre.

Micro Element: Focus Shift

Another micro element we wish to include in our music video is the camera effect of focus shift; this is where the camera, usually due to zooming in and out on a specific object, both sharpens and loses its focus on an object. This technique engages the audience's attention on certain points in the video as well as allowing for a smooth continuity in progressing through the video. The 'Beautiful Clutter' video incorporates this technique perfectly in a vintage/ indie style which is another factor my group and I wish to use. As can be seen on the images on the left, the focus shift highlights specific points which have possible symbolic meaning to the song, lyrics or artists themselves.



Beautiful Clutter from Tristan Ofield on Vimeo.

Music Video Inclusions

My group and I had a meeting on what we wanted to include in our music video; this covered shot types, props, location, shots which relate to music, shots of day to night. This helped us plan out everything we needed to include within our music video in order to prepare and not miss out on any precise details when we come to film.

 

Micro Element: Day To Night/ Carrying Objects/Outdoors

Ben Howard's music video for 'Keep Your Head Up' contains all three micro elements in which we want to use in the creation of our music video. By having all three in one music video, we are able to analyse how each micro element is used and coincides with each other to create a full product.

Day To Night
The first micro element is the inclusion of day to night in a music video. "Keep Your Head Up' frequently uses establishing shots and low shots to portray the time of day. This is a common convention of indie videos. If we were too use day to night in our music video we could also play around with camera flares which create a great affect when filming and will conform to the indie style. By identifying clearly to the audience, the time of day and the change in brightness, gives the impression that their is progress within the artist, as if the sun is setting out a literal and chronological structure to the video.

Carrying Objects
The video features Ben Howard carrying objects throughout the video in order to build a water slide. There are numerous times when the video use slow motion editing when he's carrying either a hay bale, shovel and bucket to purposely identify to the audience what indeed he is carrying. In terms of cinematography, Ben is filmed using: multiple close ups of the objects and the way he's holding them; mid shots to show the path he is following; tracking and panning shots to highlight him moving through the forest and lastly, low angled shots (as the video progresses) to impose ambiguity to the audience into what it is that he is building.

Outdoors
The outdoors shots are filmed in a similar way to the day to night shots, by using establishing shots to identify the location in where Ben is: in this case a forest. Further close ups and panning shots of the environment and the surroundings helps the audience identify what is is that's occurring in the video.

Props for Music Video

As one of our major ideas is for the artist to carry well known furniture into a forest and then build a 'make-shift' home in the woods. Therefore, my group and I have been locating various objects which would not only fit in with the household furniture aspect of our video but tie in with the lyrics as well: "I'm sleeping with a pillow, under lamplight".

As this sofa is old, it looks authentic and vintage; the precise image we want our artist to be perceived as therefore it will fit perfectly in our music video. 

Another piece of furniture we found was an old coat hanger which is a very well known and slightly old fashioned household object; thus fitting with our vintage and authentic style theme which indie is all about. 

As our artist is an indie acoustic style, an acoustic guitar is an obvious choice to feature in our video. The actor in our video will be playing along with the song as well as singing. Therefore, the inclusion of an acoustic guitar is necessary.

Indie Magazine Adverts

INDIE MAGAZINE ADVERTS on Prezi

Audience Research Results/Conclusions

We carried out an online survey in order to collect data from audience online and as we are aged in the average audience age groups of indie artists our friends on social networks are essentially our desired audience therefore we shared the link to our survey on twitter, facebook and tumblr.

1. How old are you?






















2. Do you listen to music from the Indie genre?






3. Define what you think the indie genre is.

• independence
• a genre full of music which can't be described solely as rock for example
• chilled/arty
• a genre which chooses to be against the mainstream. They usually create music which is not altered by a computer and the sounds usually come straight from the instrument. 
• a diverse genre that combines aspects from rock, acoustic and country.
• music that is not part of the mainstream conventions
• experimental music

4. What do you expect to see in an indie music video?

• vintage
• nothing specific
• orange tints, an individual artist and conceptual imagery
• lots of 'indie' clothing, for example casual attire 
• the artist playing/performing
• acoustic instruments, big emphasis on guitars
• outside setting, either in a little town or at  the countryside/beach
• unique concepts
• give of a retro feel, look as if it was filmed back in the 60's on film reel

5. How do you get your music?




From looking at the results we have collected, it is clear that the optimum age is between 18-24 however there is still a high interest with 15-17 year old. This correlates with our artist demographics research. Therefore, this age range is our target audience. As we asked the audience what they thought expected to see in an indie music video, we wanted to find out what they believe the indie conventions in a music video are so we can cater our music video to their needs. The most popular way our audience get their music is from Itunes and CD's, therefore we will have to offer bonus features for our digipack to be a success. Doing this gave us an insight to our audience and what we have to do to meet their criteria.