The indie genre and masks

After deciding to use costumes throughout our music video, we then researched various other videos that feature costumes and masks.
We found them to be popular, especially within the 'indie' genre.

Indie videos tend to be cut to the beat and have performances which focus on the music and instruments used. They are also usually quite low budget and so they have simple backgrounds but are also usually colourful as they are quite light-hearted.

We researched some indie videos and found many features masks and fancy dress as part of the mise en scene as it emphasises the light-hearted music and overall atmosphere. Here are a few that we found:

Canterbury- More Than Know

This video is a great example of how we analysed typical indie genre videos and moulded our concept so that it would appeal to the target audience. Masks, the setting of woods, a mixture of performance and concept and the use of split screen are all featured in this video as well as in ours. However, we are going for a more light-hearted feel and that is why we will include a narrative and various settings and extras which coincides with the lyrics and beat.

Bat For Lashes- What's A Girl To Do

This video is similar to our concept of the lead singer being followed by masked people. It also conforms to the conventions of indie genre videos as it goes with the beat of the song and is low budget as there is one simple location. However, by only having one shot, it does not conform to regular music video conventions, and we decided that we would like to have various shots of performance and narrative in our video.

Panic! At The Disco- Nine In The Afternoon

 

This is a good example of the use of the band in masks to add to the innocent fantasy-like atmosphere that is commonly used with 'indie' music. This video is also very colourful, with varying shots, and so it conforms to music video conventions in this way and so we will take inspiration from this when making our video.

Panic! At The Disco- It's Almost Halloween

We like the 'gimmicky' feel of this music video, and although it focuses specifically on Halloween, we will take influence from the bands use of fancy dress costumes and masks and the performance shots for our own music video.


We also found music videos from different genres that also use masks and costumes. Here are some that we found particularly interesting:


Deadmau5 ft. Rob Swire- Ghosts N Stuff

The Beatles- I Am The Walrus

Even thoght these videos are not the same genre as our chosen song we have still looked at them as inspiration and as research. In particular 'Ghosts N Stuff' use the idea of a sheet to make a ghost which is one of our ideas.