- The layering of the band onto narrative performance or just one of the band members
- Have black & white for some of the shots
- The editing pace should link to the track pace
- Have a limited amount of special effects
Layering:
The layering in music videos in the Indie/Alt - rock genre contains mainly performance footage layered on top of narrative or a cutaway shot or a scene of some sort. This gives a good visual effect alongside still haveing performance in the music video which is key to this genre. Below are a few examples on how it is incorporated.
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| Bishop Briggs - River |
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| The Cure - Picture Of You |
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| The Smiths- Panic |
Colouring:
As blogged on previously Indie/ Alt - rock commonly has black and white footage.
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| The Cranberries - Zombie (this music video has a mix of coloured and b&w footage) |
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| Oasis - Wonderwall |
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| Catfish and the Bottlemen - Twice |
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| Kasabian - Underdog |
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| Sam Fender - The Sound |
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| Oasis - Don't Look Back in Anger |
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| The Smiths - Ask |
Pace:
Generally the editing pace reflects on the pace of the song. Slower in the calmer parts and then when the beat drops it speeds up to make the drop more powerful visual.
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In this example of 'Sun Goes Down' by Arctic Monkeys you can guess where the drop is with the sheer increase in editing pace and the shakiness of the camera. The takes become much shorter than before and they become more action movie like. Compare the medium shot of the woman in the snow which is quite a calm shot and a longish take to the POV shots in the car of short takes quickly followed by one another. The next example (Barns Courtney - Fire) you can see the change in pace as well when the drop happens. this time the background changes and there is colour correction at the drop to make it more vibrant. The combination of changing the cinematography and editing to match the pace of the music video is part of Andrew Goodwins theory on how the music links to the music video....
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Special Effects:
Considering budgets for Indie music videos aren't very large due to the whole origin of Indie being independent and the do it yourself attitude. special effects won't be as prominent or at the same variety as a mainstream band or artist who has many companies backing them up for a music video production. Sometimes the most special effects you are going to get is a b&w filter with layering which are two of the common conventions for this genre anyways.
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| Oasis - Wonderwall |
The focus is on the band and what they can produce/ how they play the instruments. The focus is not on visually striking special effects that are hard to produce and require a large budget.
