Alternative Music Genre Conventions

With this analysis i looked at two different music videos that were the same genre of music as our chosen song. 

Mise-en-scene

The settings for both videos are quite abnormal. Muse set theirs on a ship in the middle of the sea and The Killers setting theirs in a dessert. This show that alternative music is really trying to stay away from the typical city or suburbia shots or settings. Both bands appear to be wearing smart-casual clothing, which appears that seems to be quite popular within the genre. In ‘Starlight’ the lighting is natural as it is shot outside. However there are fire works that help light up the band and you see that the whole music video is done almost as a performance and narrative is a small section. Which is something we need to take into account. As you could say that it is the same for the Killers video as well performance is blended well with narrative. Where as when you were young’ has part shot inside where the lighting is quite limited at times. Different styles of lighting such as ‘side lighting’ are used to reflect the mood and tonality of both the music and the narrative of the video.

Camera work

High angle shots are used to establish the setting of the video There are constant close ups of both members of band and their instruments. Group shot show the bands in their entirety. Low angle shots capture the lead singers and allow them to dominate the screens. Mid shots are used to good effect to show detailed movements of people in the video Long shots are used to capture an overall image of the narrative of the video.

Editing

Editing goes to the same speed as the beat of the song.  Also known as cutting to the beat. We also see that there is Fading used when the music is at a slower tempo. So when doing our video that is something that we will factor in as pace of editing can really determine whether you have a good or bad music video. When looking at the narrative part of both music videos we se Speed of editing matches the narrative of the video. For example, if someone is angry the editing speed a quick. Whereas if someone is sad, the speed of the editing is slow