The first choice we made when planning our music video was to edit the video in black and white. This presented the video as elegant, sophisticated yet meaningful - something we felt that indie-pop fans would appreciate. Greyscale is quite frequently used in indie-pop music video because it can connote many themes such as grittiness, good vs bad, simplicity, social realism etc.
After shooting I decided to edit and cutting quickly would be one of the best ways in which to generate excitement for the audience when watching the video. This is a classic convention of the indie-pop genre, and most up-beat music genres. Firstly it makes the music video as a whole seem more thrilling, but also it can put emphasis on the different dynamic parts of a song. For example in our song, the drum beat at the beginning is the most noticeable instrument within the song - therefore we decided to cut very strongly to the beat and very quickly in order to generate as much interest in the opening section as possible. A convention which we decided early on to challenge was voyeurism featured in many music videos (especially R'n'B and rap music videos - but occasionally pop). Goodwin has identified 6 different conventions of music videos, one of which is voyeurism.
Due to the deep and meaningful lyrics, especially the line 'do you see your own face in his eyes do you see him like I do?' contains many heavy connotations which we viewed would not suit featuring any shots appealing to the male gaze. At first I thought of featuring a couple as the main characters in the video, possibly the woman in the relationship was undergoing domestic abuse. However after exploring this idea, we decided it was too conventional to have a plot line which focused heavily on a couple's relationship. Therefore we began exploring the idea of using a young girl who comes from an abusive background and in the video, (in keeping with the tone of the lyrics and the song) would escape from a world which she did not fit in or feel safe in. Since a physically abusive father-daughter relationship would be too difficult and controversial to film, we decided upon a more subtle yet equally impacting mental abuse.
The young girl comes from a family which made her feel neglected, lost and unwanted. I used a young girl because it appeals to the age of the audience, hopefully creating a common ground amongst young indie-pop fans and thereby generating an interest in the band's music. It also is a very unusual concept for a music video - of any genre- to cover. However we felt that it added another layer of meaning to the song itself, where an audience would be able to attach their own connotations to the song because of what we did.
Despite it being conventional in some indie-pop music videos to have a young female as a key character in the narrative, sometimes this shall be for voyeuristic purposes, often it will be as the other half of a couple or shall tell the narrative of a young girls life (for example Daughter's music video for 'Still' gradually reveals aspects of the main characters life throughout the video).
However we thought that the difficult home/family life would be more effective to the audience if the main character was a very young girl, it would certainly evoke more empathy. When developing this idea, I knew the target audience was older than the young girl in the video, however they could relate to her and having difficulties growing up. By the artist having a music video which makes a social statement, they are represented as down to earth and intelligent. I thought that this type of music video would be more effective than a video of a young girl provocatively dancing with no real meaning or depth.
Our main locations we used for the music video throughout are set outside, we used a lot of outside imagry such as rivers, fields, trees and pathways in order to create tranquil tone to the music video. This aspect merges well with the representation of the young girl as lost and in search of peace and quiet. This is another convention we decided to go against, (indie-pop videos being set inside, in stylish houses (such as Tom O'dell's 'Another Love'), set at a party scene or somewhere that provides excitement).
We decided against having our music video set in one of these locations due to the fact that despite some of those settings do appeal to the young indie-pop fans because it is a scene that they can relate to and see themselves. However I aimed more for the audience to watch the video and be able to escape from any pressures in their lives in a similar way to the girl in the music video. The tranquil locations are also visually appealing to the audience, therefore creating quite a angelic looking music video as a whole. Indie-pop fans do appreciate visual attractiveness because they tend to have many cultural interests perhaps landscapes for example. We also developed this idea in order to keep the video exciting, therefore when shooting we spun hand holding the camera in order to create a disorientated, uneasy tone to the shot. When editing I found that these shots worked well as transitions in order to keep the pace of the music video flowing throughout the entirety of it.
One of the key concepts we used, that we had from the starting point of planning, was the idea of using flashing lighting. I thought it would look most effective set in an old abandoned house, with lamps surrounding our key character of the young girl turning on and off at the same time, which we could place at the beginning of the video in order to help reinforce the beat (and audience interest) as the music video begins. However when we started filming, we experimented with this idea and found that the lights flickering at different times also creates a disorientated, dream-like effect which we could use at points in the song where the instruments and vocals come to a climax. Although the lamp idea wasn't wholly conventional, many music videos use defining lighting effects in order to captivate the imagination of their audience.
Both Katy B's 'Crying for No Reason' and Disclosure's 'F for you' use lighting effects in order to create a visually interesting music video. In a similar way to our music video (despite being very different in other aspects) the lighting is used to highlight particularly interesting points of the beat in the song, and the song as a whole. Both video's use minimalist locations so that the lighting effects are not too alienating, it also enables the characters in the music video to also be presented as more interesting. Including my music video, the three use lighting which creates shadows on the characters in the video. Therefore the band/artist is not fully seen, which makes the impression that their music is more important to them than their image. We also, like these two videos, conventionally used quite a lot of black in the video as well as shadows in order to highlight the dark lyrics. For example in my video, when the father character walks towards the door, only his silhouette can be seen which creates this enigma around him but at the same time bring the audience's attention to 'stolen from your mothers bedside'. The mysterious lyric implies that there is something going on which firstly has taken a childhood away from a young girl, but also that her mother doesn't know about. This is one of the reasons we began to construct a music video featuring a problematic father-daughter relationship.
The music video has a very strong linear narrative, which is conventional of an indie-pop genre music video. Various genres such as punk, rock and R'n'B are less reliant on a narrative and rely more heavily on instrument shots, dancing girls and shots of the artist. Whereas indie-pop genres often feature a narrative that does not even involve the artist, but a message or story that they wish to portray.
One of the main, however small ideas we had from the initial stages of planning we valued the idea of having dogs at various points in the music video. There is a reference in the lyrics of 'never where the dogs bark' which gave us the idea. We took inspiration from Drake's video of 'Take Care' where a variation of animals are presented to the audience, often in slow motion, in order to emphasise how the artist is feeling. For example the bird used at the beginning connotes a desire for freedom and to escape. Having dogs throughout the music video, in the young girls arms often, connote vulnerability, loyalty and a genuine persona.
This reflects the representation we aimed for with Ellie but not only that, seeing the young character with the animals presents her as nurturing and therefore creates sympathy for her, which makes the song as a whole more impacting. Our shots of the dogs we included in the music video were shown in slow motion as well, so any movement seemed more sincere (such as the dog looking up at Ellie). 'Take care' also uses similar dim lighting, (and black and white) in order to get across to the audience the expressive, profound tone of the video. I didn't subvert the convention of having the visuals of the video suit the tone of the song. We incorporated the drumming against the table very deliberately, in order to reiterate the strong beat at the beginning of the song. This only once more appears in the song sequence, highlighting when the dynamics of the song change, helps to emphasise the talent behind the song I believe.
Another similarity between our music video and 'Take Care' is the focus on carefully stylised imagry throughout. From the beginning of planning the music video, I knew I wanted to focus on having different unique strong images; such as the flashing lights, the hilltop view of a city with focus on Norwich Cathedral, dark bare trees against a white sky etc. In a similar way that 'Take Care' features mountains, burning woodlands, dancers and changing background shading. This creates the impression that the artist takes care in constructing their music video and therefore suggests that they are passionate about their music and album. It highlights the fact that the artist spend time on constructing a message to their audience, and therefore their music is their passion (which helps to promote their brand). 
Another convention that both ours and Drake's music video uses is the use of the elements. Despite being a conventional method to use the elements to emphasise the mood and tone of the song, it is not conventional at all to use all four elements.
Our use of the elements
The first element I decided to use was fire, as one of the first shots in the music video I aimed to create the impression of destruction in the family home. Since the young girl is looking into the fire it creates the illusion that her life is being destroyed in front of her. The light from the fire flickering on her face suggests that because of this destruction in her life and she is stronger because of this - as if a Phoenix rising from the ashes, stronger because of her circumstance. The fire reappears throughout the music at points in the narrative where the young girl finds her freedom and her piece of mind to reiterate this.
The second element we used was water - which was mainly used on my digipack however appeared in various shots throughout the music video in the form of a number of shots of the river. This was mainly to incorporate the feeling that comes along with water - claustrophobia and entrapment. The images used on the front and back cover of my digipack was inspired by the emotions we aimed to portray with the young girl. The idea of struggling to breath and feeling surrounded directly not only links to the young girls feelings, but the lyrics within the song of 'praying at the dinner table, for you to come around' (loneliness). This appeals to the indie-pop fans because often music fans alike like to be reassured that they are not alone in feeling certain ways sometimes (including being lonely).
The third element featured in our music video is the use of earth/natural images, throughout the narrative we included shots of trees, forest land and fields. The wind and the nature is where the young girl finds solace, it thereby represents her free state of mind by being in a place of freedom and tranquillity. I used this because I wanted the audience to relate to Ellie, whether it is through the outside or not, everyone has a way of finding peace. Therefore using clips such as the flowing river, the audience connect peacefulness and moments of the song. The fourth element was incorporated into this, we used wind affecting the water etc. which in itself creates the impression of a path/journey (which is a frequent convention of music videos as the main point of a narrative). Overall the elements added to the particular strong images I wanted to achieve, not just in a few shots, however throughout the music video - constantly impressing the audience.
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