Performance

The use of performance is still a convention they use in the indie genre. Performance is often in the for of lip-sync, live footage and dance. Often 'live' footage is staged to make look live over real live footage. Dance is rather popular in indie video as the have a tendency to be more abstract based. In some indie music videos they may be no performance element at all, or performance will be shown but not by the artist, this is rare in other genres.   

Lorde - Royals

This video is a example of performance that is not live, the artist is performing as herself in a narrative. This is becoming popular in indie music videos, where the video will have a narrative and break into performance in sections of the video. 

Passenger - Let Her Go

This video is a example of a fake live performance, the video is shot and staged in a way that suggest the performance is live. The video also features lip-sync and a small narrative around building and setting up the performance. 

Cinematography

Cinematography can be used in a variety of ways, for example it close ups can be used to focus the audience onto a specific mise-en-scene element or to show the artist performing. Many different camera angles, zooms and tilts are used in indie music videos, and in some cases similar to performance the video can feature no camera movement at all! 

Arcade Fire - Afterlife

This video is narrative based however I think that specific camera angles and shot types drive the narrative and reflect the characters within the video. This video was also nominated for a VMA.

Broken Bells - Holding On For Life

This video is an example of how cinematography can be used to create a interesting video with a variety of shot types and angles along with good camera movement that flows well with the narrative. Close ups to introduce character in the narrative etc. 

Narrative

Recently in music videos and specificity indie music videos narrative has become popular, some narratives are straight story lines with clear messages and values however others are often more debatable and have abstract elements within them. 

Hozier - Take me To Church

This video is a good example of a clear narrative within the genre. The narrative is fairly easy to follow and understand, this video also focuses on mise-en-scene at times also. 

Alt-J - Breezeblocks

This video is an example of a unusual way of showing narrative as it is played in reverse, however at the end of the video the story becomes clear. The video has a good focus on mise-en-scene and has a large varity of cinematography.  

Mise-En-Scene

In the indie genre Mise-En-Scene tends to rather unique in the colours, lighting, locations, props, and costumes. This is all used to create a certain image and theme within a video, such as a certain colour wash will be used to make the video more abstract.    

Vance Joy - Riptide

This video is like a montage in ways as it is visual clues of the lyrics placed together to make this video. It switched location, costume, lighting, and props in every scene this type of video is rather unique and is a good example of how mise-en-scene is used to drive a music video.    

The Vaccines - If You Wanna

This video is an example of of colour is used within the mise-en-scene to create a effect and interesting video. Many video within the indie genre use colour as an overall focus in the video.