Generic Features - Indie Music Video

The 4 videos that me and Rebecca researched were:
The Killers - Human
The Kooks - She Moves in Her Own Way
The Killers - Bones
Maximo Park - Books from Boxes

Key generic features of an Indie music video:-
- Camerawork
A close up of the lead singers face is a main key feature, as it immediately shows the audience which member of the band the focus is on. In The Killers video, Human, a close up of Brandon Flowers portrays to the audience that he is the central member of the band. This is also shown in the other 3 videos that me and Rebecca looked at.
In 3 of the 4 videos, a mid angle, long master shot of the band is used. This very much links with the indie genre because all of the videos we looked at were performance based, meaning that the master shot emphasises the genre and shows the audience the band altogether; also showing the closeness of the group.
Extreme long mid angle shots of the band playing shows the unity of the group as a whole and seperates the performance from the narrative.
- Mise-en-scene
In all 4 of the videos the costumes were very slick, not too casual but not extremely formal. The costumes consisted of dark colours, suits and formal jeans/ trousers.
The costumes in the narrative based storyline also consisted of dark colours, helping it to blend into the video and not stand out as something completely different. It also keeps the focus on the band and the performance.
The setting of 2 of the videos was based in the city and 2 were set in the desert. As our video must be workable and realistic we would base ours in a city/ town as it would not be workable to film in the desert.
The props used in all 4 of the videos was instruments and a microphone. This is a typical feature of an indie music video because as they are mainly performance based the band must play as if to an audience. This means it must include all instruments.
- Editing
All of the videos used continuity editing, meaning that there is a beginning and an end to each. 3 of the videos followed a basic storyline whilst cutting back to the master shot of the band.
Jump cuts were also used in all of the videos, cutting from the narrative back to the performance. The performance based part of the video would show the band singing the chorus of the song, whereas the narrative would be shown during the verses.
All the video were cut off beat.
- Style of video
3 out of 4 of the videos were both performance and narrative based, meaning that they are a hybrid.
- Links between visuals and lyrics
The links were illustrated and amplifyed in all of the videos.
- Links between visuals and music
The links were illustrated and amplifyed in all of the videos.