When I started planning ideas for my music video I didn't think of what conventions are associated with the rock genre. Therefore, when I was creating my video it wasn't intentional whether or not I followed or refuted conventions, it was just a case of me doing what I thought looked best and would be most appealing to my target audience.
Follows:
I followed the typical convention of having a close-up of each band, particularly the singer. This is something that is common in rock music videos as they like to focus on the whole band in order to show the importance of the band, the music, and "musicianship". They feel that the focus shouldn't be on anything else, and this is something I agree with, which is why I chose to follow it in my own product.
As you can see in Green Day's American Idiot the camera rarely moves off the band or a band member for more than a few seconds which emphasises the fact the video is about the band and the music.
Rock bands tend to perform wearing smart casual clothing, which I commented on in a much earlier costume post. This is something I was definitely going to follow as I wanted my band to be able to move around comfortably to ensure they performed naturally. I also feel that the look my band went for, and the look rock bands go for tends to be smarter than that of pop artists and I wanted my band to look smart and clean as I feel that is a significant factor when watching a music video.
In this video Don Broco pair a polo shirt with jeans and trainers. It not only looks smart but allows them to move freely when they're running and jumping around enjoying themselves. I think it is key that you can tell the band are enjoying themselves in a music video because it makes the viewer enjoy it more as well, which is why it was something I wanted to portray in my video.
It is a typical trait of rock videos to be edited to the beat so that the timing is exact. I feel that by doing this they make their videos a lot more exciting due to the fast pace cuts, something which I recreated in my own video. I also think that editing to the beat makes the video more exciting, as you wonder what will come on the next big beat and it leaves you full of anticipation.
Although this song is slower it still fits to the beat. For example, at the beginning there are four drum beats and of each drum beat you see a new band member, which creates a contrast by speeding up the process before it slows down again.
The final convention I chose to follow was to have my singer "performing to the camera". I decided to keep this convention as I feel it makes the audience relate more to the singer, as it is as if they are singing to them. Therefore it creates a relationship between the two, as they have a direct link, which may make the viewer relate more to what they are singing.
The viewer fells like a part of the action as it is almost as if Fall Out Boy's lead singer is singing to them as if they are there with them.
Refutes:
I chose to use bright colours in my video to create black silhouettes. Bright colours in music videos are usually associated with pop and the more synthesised music, whereas rock is associated with darker colours such as blues, purples, blacks, and greys. I chose to refute this due to the fact that the song I chose is very upbeat and therefore I didn't think dark, moody colours would work. It is also common lighting wise to have a strobe light. I refuted this again as I thought it would be unnecessary in my video and not add anything extra to it.
The lights on the band themselves are sepia and grey which doesn't give the effect I wanted to create, even if it is typical rock.
Rock videos also tend to be set in abnormal locations or derelict sites, such as an abandoned warehouse. I chose for a theatre as it just looks like the band are performing on an average stage, as they would be if they were doing a performance. I think that over the top locations take away from the song itself as they usually don't quite match up.
Starlight is set on an abandoned boat in the middle of the sea, you can't really get much more abnormal that that.
The final convention that I chose to refute was including a heavy amount of second footage to my video like the majority of those above to. Although I have included some car footage it's not a 50/50% mix like most rock videos appear to be nowadays. I personally believe that, particularly with rock, the video should focus on the music, and not other things going on around it. Therefore, I decided to refute this convention as it is not one I agree with.
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