Research into Technical Aspects...

I Fight Dragons (IFD) are generally a very niche band, assigned to independent label: Photo-finish Records. As the artist is THAT niche, I had to a) use a music video of the artist and b) a music video of another very niche artist of as similar a genre as possible. for these reasons, I will be analysing Save World Get Girl by IFD and Burn it Down by Awolnation.
The video begins with an establishing shot of a very simplistic spaceship, which is obviously a puppet - and loosely resembles the ship from Red Dwarf, this is intertextuality. This establishes that the artist is independent or is not serious in creating their video professionally, this suggests that the video is made for personal reasons rather than promotion as the single most important aspect, the set throughout is simplistic compared to mainstream artists. Most importantly, there is continued use of star image of all of the band, the shots and angles are varied however as the most important characters, such as the Captain/Lead singer is shown from a high angle almost all of the time which other characters are not shot from as close or even facing the person. This, coupled with the fact that the video is framed by showing the captain first and last, emphasises that he is most significant in the liner-narrative and the band. Despite being very niche, they still use voyeurism, conforming to all 6 of Andrew Goodwin's points on conformity. The most obvious is the 1970's style sets for Sci-fi dramas, this is a very large use of intertextuality.
Like IFD, Awolnation are a niche artist and so there is less emphasis on mise-en-scene, using relatively cheap sets or preexisting locations, such as the court and venue shown. Because of this, more emphasis is put on the representation of the people through costume, proxemics and camera shots. Key shots include... :

• The wide shot of Awol in court represents the irresponsibility of singing in the court
• the master shot of the taser conveys the idea of importance, although this is subverted. The following two shots reveals the official becoming the astronaut and the special effects lightning coming from Awol's hands. The lightning is used as a bridge between the two and represents the distant relationship.
• Synchronised editing is used between a mid close up of the singer and an establishing shot of the court, this reestablishes what is happening and what should not be happening: Awol singing in court.
• Like with Save World Get Girl, the performance and narrative is combined together and is later separated from the narrative. Furthermore, the last shot focuses on Awol.

 ~

 From this, I am going to take on board the using of a minimalistic set and focusing more on the Lead singer for star image but not to completely ignore the other band members. It is also clear to me that voyeurism and a blend between narrative and performance is used for even the independent artists so I will try to use this in my own music video, but only if relevant. I believe relevance is more important than conforming to everything.

~Jack~