analysis on 3 videos related to my genre

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1) Kate Nash - Foundations, the video is a mix of performance and narrative. The objects shown and the way she reacts to her boyfriend linking with the lyrics, show that they are falling apart and she doesn’t want him anymore. The video shows, the couples appliances representing their relationship, such as their watches and toothbrushes separating from each other, when the couple are playing cards, the game represents their relationship is a bit of a joke, and that they are playing games with eachother, the shot shows their feet, in which the man puts his feet near hers and she moves hers away, the table is seperating their feet, again we see all the bottles on the table, which are all empty, this represents his personality, showing he is very masculine, she puts a flower in one of the bottles, which shows she's making it more feminine again showing she is the most dominant in the relationship, when the two are holding hands, the light is only on one persons hands, connoting that the other hand could be seen as non existant to the partner.The lyrics "everytime we fight, I know it’s not right" we see the couples feet, hitting eachother. The ideology of the song is the fact that the relationship is ending, the man is trying to win her back, but she doesn’t care, connoting she is the strong one in the relationship, which also represents the fact she is an independent artist, she also looks at the camera a lot which connotes dominance and power. The actors in the video are wearing vintage clothes the artist would target a niche audience, who like Kate Nash, the house looks kind of retro also giving that feel, it’s a contemporary way of living, I shows that she likes unique things, which is represented in her songs. The video uses many close up shots to show the singers emotion, and also many shot reverse shot patterns to make it look like the lyrics are being said to her boyfriend in the video. Point of view shots are used to show the things she is looking at which represent their relationship. The video makes use of intercut editing making use of animation scenes, and doing domestic things, the use of straight cuts to again symbolise their relationship, its boring and not mushy, and the jump cuts makes the scenes more interesting. This song foundations was her first single from her album Made of Bricks in 2007. The artist herself is 24 years of age, but this year she hasn’t been doing much music, which could prove that most female indie/pop artists don’t last for long for example or aren’t very popular (Lily Allen and Gabriella Cilmi) I wouldn’t say that the artist is famous globally, because she is an independent
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2) Mumford & Sons - The Cave, part performance and part narrative, but what’s interesting is that the band get other people to play the music and sing while they ride around on Vespa’s which could connote their personality as Vespa’s are seen as retro and cool they aren’t wearing helmets which connotes the fact they aren’t in England, the vespa’s connote European transport, and because the band aren’t trying to break boundaries, they are bringing back old retro alternative music, but the fact that the other people are playing their instruments and sing means they don’t want to be seen as celebrities. The video makes use of tracking shots where they are riding around, and establishing shots, the video kind of reminds me of the film 'El Mariachi' in which the main character carries a gun in his guitar case. They also dress very alternative wearing linen suits which can represent the location the video is set in which I think is Mexico. The setting also connoted their style of genre, because they're in a rural area. They're narrative is separate to the lyrical content. The band members are wearing suites, but what’s interesting is that one is wearing a black suite and the rest are wearing white which could mean that he is more important than the others. To me I think the cave represents the singer’s heart. The camera angles in the video are iconic to the song; there are many long shots to establish the setting. Cinema production values, cinematic scale with the broad horizon cinema scale. Quite different to most music video’s because there is no acknowledgement of them looking at the camera in early scenes of the video. Inspiration from Godley and Crème – Cry music video in which they get random people who aren’t in the band to sing the lyrics which they do in this video with the Mexican men. They use much shallow depth of field shots using the main singer in focus and the rest of the band blurred, which is again used in cinema, this is when the lead singer then acknowledges the audience. The sun burning into the camera is an interpretation of the lyrics ”the sun it rises slowly as you walk”, the editing is very slow paced, and the camera uses pull focus to make it seem dream like. The video does not make use of continuity editing, but the song implies continuity, when the middle 8 of the song starts, the editing becomes fast paced, and the camera becomes handheld, and the shots are getting closer, having extreme close-ups on the sudo performers, at the end of the song it gets very energetic, as the lead singer accelerates out of shot. The end scene is shot when the sun sets, which is delilberate. 

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3) Florence & The Machine - Dog Days Are Over, elements of performance and narrative, the idea that the people in the woods are playing hide and seek, with Florence welsh, as the lyrics say " the horses are coming so you better run, run fast for your mother and fast for father" they want her to become one of them, as she is trying to escape. She then becomes part of their tribe, and suddenly feels like she belongs which link with the lyrics "leave all you’re loving, you loving behind, you can’t carry it with you if you want to survive". The ideology of this video connotes the similarisation of pre-Raphaelite paintings, with the iconography of the pale skin, orban hair, with that romantic myth feel, which is very inspirational especially towards Florence Welsh and also Kylie Minogue in her video 'Where the Wild Roses Grow'.  This also shows the fact that Florence doesn’t care about individuality, which proves that she is a niche artist.  The idea of purity, with the white clothes clashing with the bright bold primary colours clash to show they are having fun. Florence is wearing a man's suite connoting she is strong, but then when she gets caught, she wears a dress, with many different colours connoting a hippy vibe, as they are all dancing with flags, which could be seen like Morris dancing. There are many tracking shots used to show the singer running away and medium close ups of her and the people chasing her to show their emotion.

All of these songs are alternative, the same as the artist i have chosen (Lily Allen) to base my music video on. The conventions of music videos considering indie music, is usually a mix of performance and narrative, but i would say more narrative. Sometimes they use animation, as that is very unique.