Indie genre example

Indie rock is a commonly used tag for rock music that is produced either by small, independent record labels, or by the artists themselves. Nowadays Indie music is more like soft rock and key artists include Bombay Bicycle Club, Arctic Monkeys, The Drums, etc. I will be studying Arctic Monkeys video for Fluorescent Adolescent to look at key conventions in this genre.

This video challenges typial conventions of a indie video as it is more of a story, as it contains flashbacks, and focussuses on a fight between a group of clowns and gangsters. Normally anrgy things and fights are not in indie videos and it also dosen't feature any shots of the band, which is again very unusual. Camera angles include point of view shots in the fight and through cars, with close ups focussing on main characters and long shots revealing the scale of the fight. Pan and tilt shots are used in the chase and a shot from the ground up is used to show one of the characters power. Editing is quick as it is a fight, however a lot of slow motion is used showing things smashing against walls, a car on fire, etc. Dissolve is used for the flash back as are the use of photos. The sound is just the song, with subtitles used only once in the video. Old fashioned cars and an abondoned warehouse are used in mise en scene to set the scene of the video. The outfits are elaborate and show the clear differences between the two groups of fighting people: the clowns are dressed typically as clowns with make-up, dyed hair, etc, while the gangsters are dressed in leather jackets or long coats with boots and jeans. These different groups are also shown in the flash back by the children wearing the same types of clothing.

The CD cover for this single is very boring, and is just text in the typical style of their album. Although this makes the CD stand out on the shelf it does not show what the song or video is about, therefore I do not think it is a very good example to copy if we choose to make a video fro this genre.

This video is most likely to be what ours is like, as it features key elements that were ideas we had to start off with such as the use of over the top costumes.