Codes and conventions of indie/folk

Within each separate genre of music each video will follow a set of codes and conventions. I will be looking at a video for each of the genres within my song; indie and folk. The videos will either be narrative based, conceptual, performance based or a combination. Although stereotypically folk settings should be in fields, open spaces and somewhere organic and natural. This may not be the case for these videos.

This is a list of my personal favourite folk artists:

• Mumford and sons

•Show of hands

• Seth lakeman

Looking at these three videos I have managed to find genre conventions that are shared and used by each one band/artist.

These shot are taken from the 'Country life' video. In this video they use black and white to connote depression and sadness. During the

video they link the lyrics with the visuals excellently. They constantly show shots of the

band for advertisement and promotion purposes. This will allow the band to use it in their auxiliary texts. Even though the video is shot in black and white the editor has chosen to use exaggerated lighting to exaggerate the shadows and artists. There are constant close up shots of the main

singer to emphasis the advertisement side of the promotion.

Watching the Seth lakeman 'lady of the sea' video. I have managed to evaluate the fact that in multiple videos and definitely genre conventions are exaggerated lighting and shadows, small enclosed spaces, close up of the artists and shots of Instruments. Seth

lakemans video emphasises the fact that folk has its own genre codes and

conventions that are specific and unique to this genre.

• Dark shadows

• Heaving lighting

• Exaggerated shadows

• Exaggerated music playing

• Close up shots of the artists

• Close up shots on Instruments

• Black and white

• Small areas

• Camera titling

• Variation of angles

Throughout Mumford and Son’s little lion man video, they have a consistent shots of the band performing. This represents the performance aspect to the folk genre music video conventions. It allows the band to maximize the marketing of the band, and this was key for a folk band that had just made the transition into the mainstream music market. The mise ‘en’ scene within this video is the close natured environment of a theatre with the heavy lighting to create detailed and intense lighting. This allows the audience to focus directly on the band and acknowledge their talent. The director has used quick cuts of close up shots of the band members, the instruments and the band as a whole. This is one way the band targets it audience, by using a lot of shots of the band and the instruments played. This is another genre convention of folk. The use of traditional instruments in the performance aspect, for example; Guitars, violins and keyboards/pianos. The fact the band are using these traditional instruments could be an indicator to the traditional moral and values the independent artist have. This could represent the artists as traditional, customary and conventional. The lyrics could also give an indication to the artist’s life as it could be telling a story from their life or the struggles they are dealing with. My partner and I could use some of the conventions within this product to help advertise our song and artist. But our song tells a story, so we would need to have part narrative part to help empower the lyrics.

In Show of Hands Country Life video, the majority of the video is a performance of the band playing the song. This adds the performance aspect to the product. They use some of the same genre conventions used within Mumford and Sons Little Lion Man. They use heavy lighting to increase the audience’s attention onto the band, the quick cuts of the bands faces and the instruments being played. One aspect that they do which is different to Mumford and Sons is that they use quick shots of things that directly relate to the video. They don’t use a narrative or tell a story, the director has chosen to directly relate the visuals to the lyrics, for example; ‘I’ve lost two fingers in a chainsaw bite’ the director has used a shot of a man in a field holding a chainsaw. This allows the audience to engage with the song have some idea to link it two. The sadness of the song is told through the lyrics and the fact that the product is shot in black and white. This helps the director evoke the emotions and feelings related to the lyrics. This is definitely something my partner and I could use because our song tells a story of two brothers, one of which is dying. We could use the conventions of relating the lyrics and visuals through a narrative storyline.

Seth Lakeman’s Lady of the sea music video is most like Mumford and Sons in the sense that it is solely performance based to boost the advertisement and marketing of the artist. He also uses the conventions of quick cutting from close up shots of his face, instrument, the medium shots of him performing and the use of heavy lighting to keep the audience interested and engaged. The use of mise ‘en’ scene is excellently executed thanks to the puddles dotted around the abandoned space; they help exaggerate the intense lighting, which even further exemplifies the artist’s performance. The director has used a method of quick cutting from a variety of angles to further keep the audience engaged and focused on the artist. My partner and I could take a lot of inspiration from this video because the use of quick cutting is executed perfectly and shows what excellent effect this would create to our performance aspect.