Mise-en-scene PlanningSE7EN STUDIOS – KEERA, NADINE AND FARZEEN

Mise-en-scene planning It is important for us to establish the different characters, location and costumes we plan to use in our music video to help us with our planning stage and ensure that filming process will be easier.

For example, since we are choosing an R&B genre we must consider the conventional props which would ideally be used in R&B music videos and decide to what extent we would like to incorporate these in our video. Having said this, aspects such as dressing provocatively – as seen in our Polldaddy survey answers – is discouraged and seen as inappropriate.

We, as a group, also agree with this and believe that instead of complying to the conventional dressing of women and even men which follows this ‘Notion of Looking’ identified by Goodwin we will reject this. Thus, for clothing, we plan to have more of a cute style and a sophisticated dress sense. As for the location, as seen in our Polldaddy survey, ‘street’, ‘park’ and ‘house’ are the most desirable and realistic locations to film in. Due to the weather during the time we plan on filming, we believe a park may not be the ideal option however we have decided to stick to the remaining conventions and will take the information collected from the Polldaddy survey into careful consideration.

Casting Elijah - The character we have created as our artist is called Elijah. He will be played by Tariq. We believe he fits very well with the role as the he dresses very similar to the brand identity we have created collectively for ‘Elijah’. In addition to his sophisticated dress sense we also believe that since he seems older than his age, the music and visuals will match up well.

Justine - Justine is the character we have created as the girlfriend of Elijah. The majority of the narrative sequence will be shots of her and we will ensure she dresses in a cute and casual but semi-sophisticated way. Justine is being casted by Analayah. We believe she is the best person to cast for this role since she and Tariq are good friends and we believe that this will make recording footage easier and the clips will seem more natural as opposed to posed and unnatural. We aim to dress her in an ‘up-to-date’ way which fits in with the conventional dress sense of our target audience.

Elijah (casting: Tariq) Tariq will be dressed in his usual clothes which is slightly casual but also sophisticated (as mentioned before). His usual style consists of a black trench coat, black trousers or jeans, a simple top and potentially a chain.

We will be filming multiple different scenes and have thus set out several different outfits for Tariq:

Outfit 1: casual outfit for the ‘memories’ scenes with Ana. This would essentially consist of jeans, a top and a chain.

Outfit 2: slightly more formal to show a variety of memories and convey the idea that they have been on numerous dates, numerous times and things are serious (this narrative will be important in introducing the disequilibrium towards the end)

Outfit 3: dark colors for when Tariq is walking and singing – the dark colors will reflect and foreshadow the death of his girlfriend which will be revealed at the end of the sequence.

Elijah’s outfits

Justine (casting: Analayah) Analayah will be dressed in a very modern and fashionable way (as mentioned before). We hope to replicate the dress sense of teenagers in everyday life that fall under our target audience. This is because we want the audience members (who are watching the music video) to sympathise with the character and the best way to do this is to equate her with the audience members. If she dresses like them, she will be more relatable and the effect on the audience when she dies will be more severe – thus clearly conveying the message of the story.

Justine will be dressed in two different outfits:

Outfit 1: casual out for the memories with Elijah (as mentioned previously)

Outfit 2: a semi-smart and slightly more sophisticated outfit (with the same motive as Elijah’s outfit no. 2 previously mentioned)

Justine’s outfits

Mood board of ideasAutumn leavesWoolly hats/scarves – theme of ChristmasCentral London – South Kensington and HarrodsChristmas lightsCouple walkingCouple on date – potentially a coffee shopMistletoe – reinforce this theme of loveWinter WonderlandRain – pathetic fallacyChristmas tree/presents/décor etcDark coloured clothing as contrast (to foreshadow death)Roses – contribution to the plot

Main locations Streets – performance

Streets of Central London

Coffee shop date

Graveyard

Streets The primary location we intend on using for the majority of our music video is the streets in greater London. We plan on filming around the Hillingdon borough and specifically around the inside roads of the area of Ruislip and Ruislip Manor.

The streets are where we will have the performance aspect of the video – i.e. Elijah singing the lyrics to the song as well as simply walking. The shots we plan on using will consist mainly of close ups since this is a common convention in music videos and thus we must adhere to this.

We have decided to adapt elements of the actual music video that has been chosen (see on the next slide).

Also, we have decided to contrast these performance clips from the memories and have therefore decided to do the narrative and performance at two different locations to show a contrast and allow audience members to be able to differentiate between the two locations and times of when the story is set.

Street-walking in Kwabs’ Perfect Ruin These are screenshots from the actual music video of the song we are using. We intend on copying this style as we have noticed from our real media research that close ups are a common convention.

Central London At the time that we plan on filming, there will be a significant amount of Christmas lights and the Christmas theme will be prominent thus helping to set the scene. Our primary location will be South Kensington as we believe there is a significant amount that we can film at this location. Around Christmas time, there will be an ice rink outside the natural history museum, Harrods is close by, there are cute dessert shops and coffee shops and it is convenient to get there.

In addition to all of these elements, the lights on the Harrods building and the Christmas street lights, we believe, will contribute to a really romantic and cute Christmas vibe helping to aid our narrative and really set the scene.

Furthermore, we believe that including London despite the time of the year will give the music video a more sophisticated look. However, again we must be weary that we aren’t offending anyone by filming them or having them in the background of the shot. Thus we will need their consent.

Coffee Shop We have chosen a coffee shop for one of our locations as we believe it not only fits well with the storyline but also adds a sense of normality and thus verisimilitude. Similar to the effect of the how Analayah will be dressed in a very up-to-date and fashionable way, we hope that people will be able to relate to the coffee shop as it is a common location for dates.

However, again we must be weary of the surroundings and ensure that we seek permission from those in the coffee shop if they are in the shot as well as the staff before filming since this will be in a public area.

Graveyard The graveyard will be featured at the end of the music video. Considering the weather in the UK is generally very cloudy and grey, we are hoping that when we film the graveyard part, we can use this to our advantage. Since we are aware of the effect of ‘pathetic fallacy’ we hope to incorporate this from the weather during this scene but also potentially throughout the other scenes. Though our plans may change, we plan on filming either the entrance of PINNER CEMETARY or RUISLIP CEMETARY.

We want to avoid entering the actual cemetery since we believe filming inside is disrespectful and inconsiderate. It may also cause problems with offended members of the public. We therefore hope the footage we get will make it obvious enough that it is a graveyard.

LightingAs previously mentioned, we intend on taking advantage of the typical British weather and hope to film the street/performance parts of the music video during this time. The light will be symbolic to the ‘guidance’ he has and ‘clarity’ in Elijah’s thoughts as he has come to terms with the death. However, it can also be seen as using the element of ‘pathetic fallacy’ as the weather can be compared to the death or rather foreshadow it therefore hinting to the audience the disequilibrium that is to come.

The dark/low-key lighting will be used in the memories scenes when Elijah will be remembering all the memories he had with his girlfriend. Though it will be filmed in the evening, the artificial lighting from the shops, street lights, Christmas lights and cars will give the scenes a more light-hearted and romantic feel as opposed to harsh and entirely dark lighting which may come across as scary, eerie and slightly ominous.