Codes & Conventions of Selected Brief

My selected brief is to create a promotion package to support the release of an album, this need to include a music promo video and a cover for the album release and a magazine advertisement both as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package.)

My chosen song, White Blank Page by Mumford & Sons falls into the genres of rock/alternative/folk. It is defined as mainly indie rock artists showing heavy folk influences from country, indie rock and other scenes of folk music in the 50s, 60s and 70s. The sound can be defined by using typical instruments such as acoustic guitar, double bass, piano, drums, banjo, mandolin, violin and electric guitar. Other artists which come from the same west London folk scene as Mumford & Sons are Noah and the Whale, Laura Marling and Johnny Flynn. I have watched and considered the conventions of the following music videos: Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons, Rambling Man by Laura Marling, 5 Years Time and L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. by Noah & The Whale and The Box by Johnny Flynn.

Music videos within the genre of folk/alternative rock are typically performance and/or narrative. All of the example texts that I looked at included the artist within the video, whether it was just them performing or alongside a narrative. The artists are represented as enjoying music itself and performing music. The audience of folk/alternative indie rock are likely to be people who enjoy live music and are likely to have a high disposable income in order to pay for downloads, albums and concert tickets etc.

In terms of cinematography they generally use close-ups for the artists and showing them playing an instrument, which is also closely associated with this genre, especially the lead singer within a band. Within the videos using a narrative alongside the performance, especially in the Laura Marling video, the main point of focus still remains to be the artist, the audience aren’t can’t be sure who the man in her video is and what his purpose is. Within the music videos for bands they use an establishing shot / ELS either before or when they start to sing, so that the audience know what they are actually watching – within the Mumford & Sons video it isn’t clear what is going on, because there are cuts between different instruments and it isn't clear where they are situated until the establishing shot. I think that this creates suspense among the audience members to sell it to them, so that they keep watching the video to see what they think of the artist. A Music video is essentially an advertisement for a song; it is selling the product and the brand, being the artist, as a way of earning money. There isn't a lot of movement from the camera other than the use of steadicam follows the characters within the narrative sequence. Long shots also give the audience a better picture of what is going on, these are more typically used within the narrative style. POS shots following an eyeline match show the audience what the characters are doing within the narrative, or could be used to show the use of an instrument. An ELS within one of the videos shows the audience participating in the artist’s performance by clapping, following this a pan is used to show the audience and then pans back round to the band afterwards. A crane is used as a movement technique to show the audience whilst they are performing, this is a convention of a performance, not the narrative side of it. Reverse zoom is used to transition the camera from a close up, for example a member of the band, and then show them in a mid shot playing their instrument. Focus pulls are used to switch from out-of-focus to focus in on the lead singer, as he starts to sing. This technique really draws in the audience’s attention.

There aren't many fancy editing techniques used within this genre of music, especially because some videos don't have a narrative alongside them. Rhythmic editing is used to keep the pace of the video in time with the music, and within the Mumford & Sons example jump cuts are used to switch between the close-ups of the instruments and band members along with the beat of the music. Within a video which contains a narrative, crosscutting is used throughout to show the artist singing and the narrative which she is singing about. Eyeline matches are used along with crosscutting between the singing and the story which they are singing about, because it is as if they are telling you a story.

Within the aspect of Mise-en-Scene, the lighting is a key factor because it creates shadows and dark areas which disguise the artists’ faces many times and you can't always see them clearly, at points there is more focus towards their instruments. In parts of the videos the lighting fits to the beat of the music, henceforth accentuating the beat of the song. In terms of setting, costume and location, within this genre it is more music focused and therefore everything is fairly basic with nothing too fancy. It is just mainly focused on the artist and their instrument. Within the Mumford & Sons video it looks as though it could be set in a barn and this has typical associations with folk/country music. In terms of their clothing there is again nothing too fancy the colours used are fairly neutral, which doesn't pull any extra focus to them suggesting it is more about the music. In the Laura Marling video the man and the artist are both seen wearing winter clothing, such as a big coat and then towards the end of the video the man goes into the sea this contrasts completely from what we have already seen suggesting he is a bit mad.

The sound featured within these videos is synchronous diegetic sound including the music and the singing, but within the videos which feature a narrative the sound is partially diegetic synchronous and partly asynchronous. Due to the fact there are times when you can't see the artist singing but the audience know where the sound is coming from. Also within narrative videos there are sounds coming from the characters involved within a scene for example in the Laura Marling video when the man is coming out of the sea with a suitcase and you can hear him gasping for breath and the noise of the sea, this is also synchronous diegetic. Some of the videos start off by showing the narrative rather than the artist first so any sound of the track would be asynchronous diegetic and then becomes synchronous when we see the artist and continues to switch between the two as we see the performance and the narrative.

The form of the music videos within the genre of folk/alternative rock are mainly performance. For example within my model texts they are within a studio-like setting or just the artist and their instruments some also clips of live footage of the band whilst they were on tour. The narrative in the Laura Marling video follows the rambling man as he goes to the beach, and the video also shows a performance from Laura Marling with her guitar. The Box by Johnny Flynn is quite unusual  because it contains the drawings of a man along with a performance of the song by Johnny Flynn. Text also appears on the screen as the lyrics are sung in some parts.