Analysis Of Indie Digipacks 3

Artist: Ben Howard
Album: Every Kingdom
Colours: Blues, greens and whites.
Font: Large, capitals, at top of cover, simplistic. Artist's name takes up a quarter of the cover rather than the album name which looks much smaller.
Editing: It looks as if it has been painted with watercolours, which is significant as the image is of a diver in the water.
Symbolism: By diving underwater it looks like Ben is travelling to another kingdom which relates to the title 'Every Kingdom'.
Composition: Ben is presented at the bottom of the image diving underwater however although he is not in the light, he is still the main focus.
Location: Underwater in the ocean.

Artist: Lucy Rose
Album: Like I Used To
Subject: Lucy lying down on the gravel listening to an old fashioned radio in a rural location.
Colours: Dull, grey back ground but with the focus upon Lucy with the fair hair and blue, chequered shirt with the beige radio.
Font: Artist not in capitals but with the scale of capitals. Typically with the album name beneath but with a different font and capitals. Matched coloured font with the vintage stereo and Lucy's hair.
Editing: Focus has been made more on the subject of the imagery (Lucy and the stereo). Perhaps a filter has been made over the background to provide a more dull image against Lucy.
Props: Old vintage stereo implying she wants to incorporate her old fashioned style of indie into her album.
Location: Looks as though she is lying down in a rural location with hills and peace, also perhaps next to a lake as there is gravel.

Analysis Of Indie Digipacks 1

Artist: Wolf Gang
Album: Suego Faults
Colours: They have used contrasting colours to emphasise the difference between the ground and the misty foreground. This has made the character more bold with a darker blue against the fog and autumn leaves.
Font: Century Gothic font used, provides a simple but accentuates the name of the album and band. They have made the band name stand out more by using capital letters, perhaps to catch the eye of their audience on a shop shelf.
Editing: Created a darkened and mysterious feel to the image, perhaps by adding a tinted blue filter to give the cover a cold/wintry look. Also the cross fade of the fog at the top of the cover provides a sense of danger.
Mise En Scene: Interesting and eye catching clothing worn by what is presumed as the male singer of the band. Dark clothing to highlight the mysterious effect, especially as the band name is Wolf Gang suggests that they want to represent a hunting/dark feel towards the listeners but intriguing as well. As Indie is known to represent a unique style, with the clothing being different to modern daily life, his costume really brings forward the genre of their music.
Location: The man seems to be standing/walking outdoors, emphasising a natural, rural location. It appears to be in the middle of nowhere.
Composition: The man appears to be in the central shot of the camera, suggesting a long shot of him which shows his clothing and the surroundings clearly and contrasting. Equal amount of negative space around him but used effectively with perhaps a deserted and mysterious forest.

Artist: The Walkmen
Album: Lisbon
Colours: Green filter used over the image with a white background giving a light but effective contrast of colour. Lady shown through the overlay of images but disguised within the green colour to provide an emphasism for the title.
Font: Similar to Wolf Gang's album cover, The Walkmen have presented their band name in bold but in black with big spacing between the letters to accentuate the name even more. In comparison to the name of the album, 'Lisbon' is shown beneath in capitals but in a much smaller font and italic, which I think provides the viewer to also take notice of the name of the album as well as the band name. It looks as though the titles are written in Times New Roman, giving a vintage feel to the cover, representing Indie. The title is also presented in the centre of the cover.
Editing: The Walkmen have used an interesting effect to their cover by overlaying two photographs giving a hidden meaning within the images. It gives the audience an interest into the cover as it makes them search perhaps obliviously for the hidden image and message as their is a girl sitting on a bench with an authentic building in the background. The cover also looks as though a green tinted filter has been used over the top but with a warm, orange feel to the corners of the main image, although there is light shining through.

Artist: Ron Pope
Album: Atlanta
Colours: There is a monochrome colour scheme throughout the album cover, which despite being a dull looking colour it also implies simplicity; which the band possibly want to be known for.
Font: White font with again spaced lettering in capitals, emphasising the name against the grey background. Name of album is slightly smaller and faded into the background, providing a focus on the artist's name.
Editing: Used an overlay of the same photo of the artist but 3 times across the album cover with a gradual fade. This helps to draw the attention to the artist's looks rather than the titles, giving the artist his distinctive own image.
Mise En Scene: Denim shirt showing the Indie side to his music and also with the slick back hair style, in the similar style of Elvis Presley.
Composition: His eyes are posing to his left as though there is something of interest in that corner. Not much facial expression, perhaps a surprised face. Eyeline at height of the viewers eyes, especially with the repeated, faded image of him across the cover, it draws the attention in.

Artist: Noah And The Whale
Album: The First Days Of Spring
Location: Outdoors, in the countryside, stood in long grass which what appears to be a windy day. The location looks as though it is related to the title of the album 'The First Days Of Spring', as it looks quite sunny and as if it was taken in Spring.
Colours: The colours seem to be quite neutral and primary, as the main two colours presented are blues and greens also linking to the Spring season.
Font: Typical Indie use in the font with capital lettering in the band name and the Times New Roman font. Album name in italics and much smaller, helping to focus the audience's eyes upon the name of the artist.
Editing: The photo looks as though it has been edited to give a more vintage feel through changing the saturation levels. Also Focus Shift has been used to emphasise the main member/singer of the band as the other members are in the background more out of focus.
Symbolism: As the 3 men in the background are looking up to the sky in search of something, this could symbolise worshipping.
Props: Camera being held looks as though it is an old film camera providing a vintage look to the album cover.
Mise En Scene: The band members are presented in casual, relaxed and simple clothing, however with the simplistic buttoned down shirt it shows that they are in the season of Spring as they aren't for example, wrapped up warm for winter, neither dressed down too much for summer.

Male/Artist's Costume Ideas

Within my group, we started to think and research different clothing ideas for our music video. We intend to go down the Indie route for the male as it will match the genre (acoustic indie) of the song. Below demonstrates some ideas we researched on sites such as www.asos.com and on google images where different outfits have been shown in a 'Look Book' on various websites. 

This outfit above establishes the typical indie look with the all buttoned up shirt, the black skinny jeans and the black vans. Because on Asos it showed full male outfits, we didn't like the top half as much as the bottom half or vice versa, therefore we had to screenshot the top half (for example) and select a different bottom half that we thought would look more appropriate for our music video. I think the black skinny jeans work well as you see generally in the Indie genre artists wearing this sort of outfit but with a baggy or long top such as a shirt as we have shown. I also think that this outfit could be seen well with an acoustic guitar which we are including in our video.

Another outfit we thought worked well together was the one shown above, with the navy blue skinny jeans, brogues and a t shirt with a parker coat over the top, it represents again the
indie genre with a skinny bottom half and a baggy outfit on the top. I think the brogues work really well with the skinny jeans and due to research I found out that trends these days in mens clothing are very popular. I also researched various Indie artists such as Bastille (which is a indie rock group) who wear brogues sometimes when performing, doing interviews, photo shoots etc. As our artist is called Mike Dignam, I looked at his style to help ideas to incorporate together as he is an important part because his style will match his style and genre of music. I noticed from this research that he wears a lot of denim (e.g a denim jacket) and he goes for the all buttoned up shirt, sometimes short sleeved or rolled up sleeved.

<--Short sleeved all buttoned up shirt

Denim jacket used with indie acoustic guitar -->

 Brogues -->

Influencing Music Videos

Olly Murs - Dear Darlin'

As a group, we are interested in the effect that is used in Olly Murs music video for 'Dear Darlin' where he uses an identical location and overlays his image to therefore identify how him and his girlfriend acted when they were together and the good times they had. This was done with Olly in the room, sitting on the sofa whilst lip syncing. I really like this effect and I think it would work well with our music choice as its a similar narrative of looking back at the good times of the love story. In order to succeed with this idea, we would have to film it twice in the same location with the camera still running throughout the scene, then we would edit it on Final Cut Express and cut, overlay and alter the opacity of the image to make it subtle but effective.

Daughter - Still

I have selected this video for one of the music videos I am influenced by as it uses an interesting, subtle effect of including the artist's image being presented on the old fashioned TV in the flat/bedroom. Although it is a slightly different genre to our chosen song/artist, it demonstrates how we could have the artist lip syncing on the TV whilst the narrative is working around it but the song being used as diagetically. This effect is creatively used as it not only represents the artists image but presents a disturbing story around the TV. Another idea we liked in this music video was the telling of the story through some framed photos and the ways in which the couple act around each other, as though they don't notice one another.

Ben Howard - Keep Your Head Up

The reason I have chosen this video as another one I am influenced by for our music video is the fun aspect and the various, effective shots where the filter has been altered to create a warm effect as it's a happy and fun video. This video is cleverly made due to the interest of the water slide and how they have created the video using a range of effective shots to draw the listener into the music video and provide the most interest to the water slide. These shots include wormview shots where we can see the characters sliding down the water, it also looks as though the some of the characters have held the camera on their stomachs to capture a reaction shot of their faces and establish how much fun they are videoing this. Another shot is a birds-eye view of the water slide and the artists sliding down it. All these shots help make the video seem fun and all help to capture the listeners attention which is what we need to aim for. The video also looks as though it can be aimed at all ages as most people can relate to it and be inspired by it due to the creativity.

Ben Howard - Only Love

Although we mention Ben Howards music videos a lot on this blog, we really like the creativity he provides and how this attracts the viewers to watch more. In one of his other music videos 'Only Love', provides interest to the viewer due to the amount of different locations and shots, for instance we see Ben first riding his bike but looking from a low angle to capture not only the power but the sunlight shining through the trees to make the video more happy and enjoyable to watch. However then we jump to a shot of urban settings in which the cuts are in time with the beat of the song, including urban shots of a city allows the interest to build up in the audience as they want to know what city is being videoed and where Ben intends to end up at. I particularly like the high angled shots of the shadow of the bike as it shows a clear indication of what's happening at the beginning of the video and establishes the scene.

Similar Artists

Ben Howard
As suggested previously as one of the main artists that we are influenced by, Ben Howard establishes part of the look we are going for in our music video. He was born on the 24th April 1987, brought up in Totnes, Devon and is known as an English singer-songwriter. His genre is Folk Indie so it is similar to Mike Dignam's music with the upbeat tunes but provides a catchy chorus to the songs.

Unlike other Indie styled artists, Ben accomplishes the non "mainstream" approach by signing with quite an unknown record label called Island Records. Ben is known as unique in contrast to other Indie artists to his unusual style of playing the guitar as he places the guitar face up on his lap therefore providing an effective tapping beat along with the tune of the guitar.
His songs include singles 'Old Pine', 'Wolves' which were released in 2011, however the biggest hit song of his was 'Keep Your Head Up' released in 2010 and which his fame all started.



Joshua Radin
American singer-songwriter Joshua Radin known for his relaxing music but fairly upbeat songs masters the acoustic indie genre which is what Mike Dignam's music is classed as. He was born on 14th June 1974, born and raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio and taught himself to sing, write music and play the guitar in New York. His fame all started when 'Scrubs' TV star Zach Braff introduced one of Radin's songs 'Winter' to show creator Bill Lawrence, who ultimately used several of Radin's songs in the hit series.
Josh enjoyed success with his 2008 release, 'Simple Times' in the UK and his song 'I'd Rather Be With You' reached No.11 on the UK singles chart and No.2 on the US Top Digital Chart. Joshua Radin not only relates to the genre of Mike Dignams music but relates to him as they are both individual singers and not part of a band/group.




Mumford and Sons (Band/Group)
Mumford & Sons are a folk rock group consisting of 4 members; Marcus Mumford (lead vocals, guitar, drums, mandolin), Ben Lovett (vocals, keyboard, drums), Winston Marshall (vocals, banjo, guitar), and Ted Dwane (vocals, string bass, drums, guitar). The band formed in December 2007, emerging from West London with artists such as Laura Marling, Johnny Flynn and Noah & The Whale.


Mumford & Sons are similar to our chosen artist as they use a distinct beat to their music which uplifts the audience and provides a lively feel to the songs. They first recorded their first EP 'Love Your Ground' to get their music out there so it was up and running, which they then performed to medium-sized venues in the UK and the United States to increase the interest from their audiences for their forthcoming album. Their debut album 'Sigh No More' was released in the UK and Ireland in October 2009, and February 2010 in the United States. Since then Mumford & Sons have gained success such as winning some awards like a Brit Award in 2011 for Best British Album.

Feedback From Audience

Our group decided to pitch our song to a Focus Group where in return they wrote down there thoughts, ideas and reactions to our song, which we can turn into ideas for our Music Video.

One of the main features that many of our focus group members brought up was the theme of a Love Story including: Boy and Girl, Relationship, Romance, Young Love and Break-Up. This leads us to believe that a key convention of our Music Video and Genre will be Lost Love.

Our Location will be an 'all natural' location as the majority of our Audience said that it would be best in a: field, river, beach, forest and include natural lighting and filters such as the sunrise and moonlight. An idea of rain was also brought forward to enhance the fact the song is sad but the nature element is till there. 

A convention we thought up in our original planning was that of 'flashbacks' or looking back to the couples memories together, the focus group also thought this up, without the influence of us, which increases our ambition to use this element in our music video. 

The Mise-En-Scene of our Video will include a scruffy casual look from the Artists and a guitar will also be present throughout to bring the music and talent of the Artist to the audience. 

Similar Artists Demographics

Artists that are similar to our chosen acoustic indie singer Mike Dignam, include:

- Ben Howard

- Jack Johnson

- Mumford and Sons (as their genre)

- Joshua Radin

- John Mayer

- Nick Camillo

- Jason Mraz

- Ed Sheeran 

- Paolo Nutini

To help provide knowledge about our target audience for our music video and genre, I will look into the demographics of some of the artists listed above by looking on their Facebook pages, Twitter, YouTube etc. 

Joshua Radin

Joshua Radin is known for his guitar in hand, acoustic indie genre and generally writes lyrics about love and girls, therefore this could be a good artist to look into. From looking at Joshua Radin's band page on Facebook, I noticed that compared to his twitter account he has more 'likes' than followers which may indicate that his listeners tend to keep up to date with his music via Facebook more than Twitter. The statistics also shows on his Facebook 'likes' that the "most popular age group" is 18-24 and with over 300,000 likes, it indicates that the majority of that number are between that age group. 

When looking into his Twitter page, I looked at the first few followers that he has and noticed there are probably more females than males but there are also a good amount of male followers. This suggests that we should be aiming for similar genders and ages but maybe focusing at females more.

However the Facebook page demonstrates that the majority of listeners live in Los Angeles, United States but this could be due to Joshua originating from there. Although this shows that our English artist will have more English listeners than from other origins. 

His YouTube video of his song 'Winter' shows the amount of views it has had which is very high of over 7 million. This indicates that his music is popular via YouTube, however he hasn't created many music videos for his songs.

Ben Howard

Ben Howard is very well known in the UK rather than Joshua Radin due to him being brought up in Cornwall, UK. He is known for his upbeat but relaxing acoustic music who has various audiences ranging from teenagers to adults.
From looking at his Facebook page I noticed that he has over 500, 000 'likes' on his band page which includes the majority of the 'likes' being aged 18-24 again. The Facebook page also shows the area in which most of the 'likes' come from which is London. 

When looking at his Twitter page, I realised the same outcome appeared to Joshua Radin's, that he has less followers than 'likes' however this could be because his target audiences like listening to his music but tend not to keep up to date on his career, tours and lifestyle etc. The followers of Ben's Twitter page also feature an equal mix of males and females unlike Joshua Radin mainly containing female listeners.


When looking at Ben's video comments underneath the music video 'Keep Your Head Up' on YouTube, I saw that there are a lot of complimentary comments about the video and how the camera men have filmed it, for example the use of the "fun" water slide in the video demonstrated something different for Indie and kept the young audience interested and entertained. The comments beneath the video include, "That looks so fun", "This video just gave me life", "Love the water slide" which suggests why they prefer that genre to other genres, that lip syncing hasn't got to be a huge part of the video and that a 'fun' side of a video is a good aspect to consider especially as our music choice includes an upbeat chorus.