Image On Digipack/Adverts/Videos

Here are 3 artists we are mainly focusing on Ed Sheeran, Frank Turner and Joshua Radin, from all these images and albums front covers between the three of the you can see they all vary in there own way but they all are portraying similar messages that they are a bit messy and love to just strum away on there guitar which you can tell by the clothes they are wearing. But they can clean up when they want to and pull off wearing a suit which is shown in the picture of Frank Turner. Main things that are carried consistently across the genre is the messy, I don't care that much attitude you can see all 3 of these artists showing this off in pictures above. Acoustic guitars are carried consistently across the genre as well purely because its the main instrument used within this particular genre therefore it is always going to be used. Sight lines within images above there is at least one picture from each artists where they are looking directly at the audience to connect with them and they feel more involved by doing this.

 All three music videos have there own separate narratives but there all from the same genre. They all three relate together by the lyrics of the song matching and relating to what is happening within the music video also another key reference to the genre is in all three videos there is an acoustic guitar included and the artists is playing it. Having a narrative along side a mini performance helps for audience enjoyment as when we did our audience research we found out it was most popular to have a mini performance running alongside a narrative in this particular genre.

Ed Sheeran - Narrative.

Here is Ed Sheerans music video of You Need Me, I don't Need You as it is based around a man signaling sign language to match the lyrics of the song. There is a lot of cuts to many other things within the music video which also match the lyrics but that is later on. To start with its just the man doing his sign language jumping to Ed Sheeran himself but you only see very short clips of him so the audience know its him but don't actually get a clear shot of him until the end of the video this is to keep the audience glued in and waiting. There is also a lot of change in background of just shades of blacks and whites this is because if it was just a plain background it would be such a boring video.

This is a video that is not the normally for this sort of genre so Ed Sheeran is giving the audience the latest video for this certain genre which they will look to follow. Because the man who is doing all the sign language has to do it so fast in the parts of the song it sort of looks like he is dancing therefore later on in the clip they start of by bringing one dancer in and then a few more just to keep the audience entertained and not get bored with just one person dancing. Many things like standing on the pedal and blowing the speaker and showing a couch after singing the line 'plus i live on a couch' so these are direct links between the lyrics and showing items that are included within the lyrics which is giving the audience a better understanding of the song as its linking the words with the items they really our. So they don't just think about what's being said they actually get to see parts.

There is also a link the his debut album as they show + win white with a black background, its a very short shot but its just linking back to his album to gain more popularity and promoting it for the audience that don't own it or know it but when they see it they will remember the video. Right at the end it is a slow title shot of the camera moving up and showing Ed's body and face off and then dissolving into the darkness. He does this as throughout the video there were short snip shot to him playing but you never saw him properly so he is giving the audience what they want at the end as its showing off himself. The audience want to see him as Ed is the person they want to be following or looking up to and its hard to do that if you don't get to see him within the music video.

Ed Sheeran - Image

Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran was born on 17th February 1992 and is an English singer, songweiter who is currently signed to Asylum/Atlantic Records. Sheeran broke through commercially in June 2011, when his debut single "The A Team' debuted at number 3 on the UK chart.


He is a messy teenager from West Yorkshire who likes to make his own music and get high with friends. The image he is creating as a star is very laid back, not really bothered about the political and economic climate as it doesn't bother him therefore he has no interest in it. His interests are mainly just dossing around and playing his guitar, possible before he became a huge star he would have place a few bars gigs and done some busking. As a person he is a lovely guy but as a star he is appearing as someone who isn't bothered about much. 

He gives the impression he likes to get high and you get this message from listening to his music as he talks about getting high within his lyrics. You can tell he is a messy teenagers with a serious talent who doesn't care about all situations going on by his dress sense. Obviously he is fairly intelligent but he doesn't care about school his main focus use to be get high and play his guitar now its to please to get and play gigs. Many teenagers love this image as they think smoking weed is cool as its illegal unlike if it was legal it wouldn't have the same hype about it.

Ed Sheeran - Look.

Clothing and Style- Very messy, standard jeans, hoodies, t shirts and trainers. There normally very dull and a bit ragged clothes as you can see from the picture shown above but there is also an image of him in a suit which also shows to us that he can clean up quite well if he wants to but he wants to make it look like he hasn't made much of an effort and just got out of bed. His hair is all over the place to match the style of a messy teenager.

Props- Within many picture and even if you saw Ed Sheeran out on the street the only prop you would ever see that he is associated with would be an acoustic guitar. He tends to only use very basic props within his live gigs as he wants the main focus on him and his guitar not other flashing things all going on in the background.

From the pictures above there are two where his sight lines are looking directly at the camera to connect with the audience. But within the other 4 he is looking away from the camera so the main focus is on something else for example in the picture where he is wearing a suit because he's got a cheeky smile and is looking to the right like he is hiding in his suit. The audience don't get the strong connection as his sight lines are not looking directly at them but they still have some connection but the main focus isn't on his eyes its on what he is doing instead.

He's not really the sort of artists to pull many big poses unless he is probably told to like the image above of him in a suit. The other 5 picture don't show him posing in any really way to gain audience attention, he is more of the sort of guy that had a brilliant reputation built up already around him he doesn't really need to pull off fancy poses to get noticed as he isn't that sort of artists. He likes chilled environment not one when everything is hectic.

References We Plan To Include In Our Music Video

The main reference we tend to include in our music video is the idea of having a narrative running along side a small performance of the artists as when we did our audience research we found out having both happening in the video was most popular. Another reason we think it is a good idea as many other artists have done it such as 'Frank Turner' and 'Joshua Radin' so if we include this into our music video its not only what the audience want it is also a reference to the genre acoustic indie.

The other main reference we want to include is the lyric matching the actions of the video as personally I believe if you hear the lyrics of a slow song and the video is also complementing it, it allows the audience to gain a greater perception of the video as they can hear it and see it. This is a good way of creating the look of your artists as the audience will see him and how he reacts within the video and then this can also determines or help to build/change his star image.

We will also stick to the main idea of clothing but might slight aim for the younger crowd by making the artists wear a designer polo by 'Fred Perry' or 'Lyle & Scott' as the fans that will recognise the designer polo will be flattered by it as they own clothing from the same brand so this is a good way of getting more loyal fans just by showing off our artists in a designer polo.

References In Videos In Acoustic Indie.

A common reference I have come across when watching acoustic indie music video is that the artists is normally cutting from the narrative to them playing there acoustic guitar like 'Joshua Radin' I'd rather be with you and 'Frank Turner' photosynthesis. There is also often a girl involved if the song is quite a slow one this is also showed in Joshua Radin' I'd rather be with you and 'Ed Sheerans' the a team.

The lyrics are a huge part of acoustic indie music as lots of artists are portraying there lyrics and feelings more so than a rock band which sometimes is more based on the riff of the song. In the music videos of acoustic indie artists they trying to link in the lyrics as much as possible to the narrative that is going on at the same time so the audience gets to not only hear what they are saying about situations but they also get to picture it in there head. As our lyrics are about how he wants to hold onto his girl as it feels like he's living in a day dream, everything is so good.

A very cheesy common reference is the artists laying in a field playing his acoustic guitar singing, dreaming about a girl he wants or has lost. We are going to try and avoid this as it wont be as interesting and we could end up losing fans because whenever you think of acoustic indie you think of someone just laying in a field playing therefore we will not use this reference in out music video.

When the artist is singing in the music video they very rarely will use a microphone and they have slow cutting rates to mate the pace of the song and they use a lot of long shots. lots of acoustic indie artists film there songs in city's therefore we are thinking of filming part of our video in cambridge as it is a very beautiful city and will match our songs nicely.

Clothing- Normally you see shirts and jeans or just plain tops and jeans being warn within the music videos of acoustic artists as they are not trying to show off they are just trying to gain the main focus to the music and there acoustic guitar.

This information will affect our production because we will only try to include the certain references that only some audience members will expect to see and when the few notice this they will feel flattered by this. Plus avoiding the stereotypical video of a man playing in a field dreaming of a girl will help our music video appeal to the people that are wanting to be different but in a normal way so not listening to the mainstream but still listening and watching good music.

Possible Locations.

These are some possible locations we may include within our music video as there very pretty areas and they will match the nature of our song. There in Cambridge.