Mise-en-Scene

Reasoning

For Costume, it was thought to be necessary that we present the band image through what each band member and what the narrative character wears. We chose casualwear and relatively ordinary costume due to the fact that we wish to follow conventions of the indie genre and in regards to conventional costume use in the genre there is usually regular, quite trendy, everyday items of clothing such as jeans, t shirts, jackets and trainers. For the choice of this costume we were inspired greatly by similar costume worn by the band members in Imagine Dragons who in their music videos such as 'Radioactive', 'It's time' and 'I bet my life' do in fact wear very casual items of clothing.

 

 

Setting is also a very important aspect of Mise-en-Scene that we had to take into consideration with our music video, we had to decide where the sequences of narrative would take place and where the sequences of performance would take place. The settings that we chose were both very simple in the forms of a bedroom and an open field, this is mainly due to the fact that we plan to bring the set to life and give an essence of character to it with the props and the actors in the narrative. The field was chosen for the set of the performance and the narrative as my Narrative Sketch Post states that the performance will feature in this setting on a relatively bright day signifying happiness whereas the narrative will feature in the exact same field yet it will be on a more dull, overcast day representing the emotions portrayed as a narrative. The second setting we have chosen is the small bedroom, this setting will only feature narrative and no performance will take place here whatsoever. We thought this to be a suitable setting for the narrative because it plays the part of the main characters home and the bedroom will have a chalkboard on the wall with string and pegs holding in place vintage postcards from the American states mentioned in the song. In this planning process we visualised an open spaced setting for the performance and narrative thus coming to the conclusion of a country field, in making tis decision, we gained inspiration yet again from the indie/rock genre due tot he fact that this genre is conventional for not featuring too extreme settings and the music videos tend to feature familiar or realistic settings. An artist that we did take inspiration from in terms of our setting choice was Jason Aldean in the music video for 'A little more summertime' where the performance aspect of the video is filmed from a wide shot on a beach featuring the entire band with a carnival in the background. This inspired us because of the authenticity given off by the band in the setting, we liked the idea of performance taking place in a location other than a stage or an arena yet the location is not too abstract.

It is the simplicity of a setting that we wanted to feature in our music video with the character and charisma being emitted from the actors and props being used in the sequences. Another music video that we were inspired by in terms of this simplicity in a setting was Justin Beiber 'I'll show you', and even though this of the pop genre an effective setting is still used and is effective due to its simplicity.

We feel that these two music video examples are so effective because the simple setting as a result draws focus to the other aspects of mise-en-scene in the shot.

Following the theme of Mise-en-Scene aiding the narrative, we plan for the props to be no different. The majority of the chosen props for our music video are for use in on particular narrative sequence. This narrative sequence being the part of the video where the main character's emotional/mental state is depicted with a cut from the performance to him throwing, kicking and making a general mess of the set with sed props. The majority of the props chosen for this sequence are disposable therefore are relatively easily cleaned up and are not too valuable if broken, also, these props/objects are very random and this was due to the narrative and the fact that the whole sequence depicts the characters insanity and unstable emotions. The other props we plan to use in the music video include a chalkboard, string, pegs and a variety of vintage American postcards which play a part for the narrative as well. Finally, for performance, instruments will be used in the video such as an electric guitar, drum kit with drum sticks and possibly a microphone with stand. In general, it is not overly conventional for music videos of the indie/rock genre to feature a great deal of props apart from the exceptions of instruments. However we plan to ignore these conventions and use the variety of props as mentioned due to the fact that we feel their use will have a positive impact for the narrative and will play a significant part. Some inspiration that we got for using a wide variety of relatively noticeable and familiar props is from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers music video of 'Can't stop' where a wide range of props are used such as buckets, lamps, paint and dustbins, however the difference in this music video is that it has a disjuncture narrative and we plan to expand on this use of props by using them within an amplification narrative.

In regards to lighting and make-up, we have little requirements for our music video for either of these aspects, except for the lighting in the performance and narrative scenes in the field which where the performance scenes will be on a brighter day whereas the narrative field sequence will feature on a more dull, overcast day. The narrative sequences in the bedroom will feature artificial light since it is a home environment and it would seem realistic for their to be standard lights used. Secondly, with make-up, we have decided that we do not plan to use any make-up whatsoever as we wish to follow conventions of the indie/rock genre and also our narrative does not require us to use an aspect of make-up either.