Character/Costumesmise-en-scene

Band membersmise-en-scene

For the band members, they will all be wearing quite similar clothing. This is as we want to show them as a group rather than individual members. From audience research it is clear that all the band members will have to wear darker clothing, this is as it is something that appeals to this genre and is a common convention in the alternative rock genre. The main character shown will be the lead vocalist which means there will be lots of shots of him performing and less shots of the other band members which will focus heavily on their instruments rather than the characters themselves.

Performance Characters

Lead VocalistFor the vocalist we based it on the appearance of lead singer Brandon Flowers of The Killers. Like all members of the band he wears darker clothing however he has a more formal yet casual style which intrigues the audience. For the lead singer his clothing will be: a black polo shirt, black jeans and black trainers. These are quite simple yet smart clothing which the audience will notice. The main shots of this character will be a mixture of close up shots of him singing and long shots of him with the other band members. It is clear that the singer is the vocalist and he will be placed closest to the camera so the audience can identify with the singer. The character of the lead singer will use direct and indirect address to intrigue the audience in to let them know what he is thinking. Seeing lots of shots of the main singer will intrigue the audience to watch the music video as for some parts of the audience he will be the main attraction of the video.

Performance Characters

GuitaristFor the guitarist we decided to look at The Killers guitarist: David Keuning. From this we saw that he wore quite simple clothing dark clothing which is usually black and nothing that draws attention away from him playing guitar. This influenced the type of clothing we wanted the guitarist to wear in the video. We decided that the guitarist would wear simple clothing like a black jumper, black jeans and black and white converse shoes. These were quite simple choices which allows the audience to fully focus on the guitar. This is an interesting effect especially as the guitar will contrast the dark clothing. It’s also known that this will intrigue the audience as from audience research it was found that they enjoyed the idea of darker colours in this genre especially for the band members. The character won’t be shown much in the video, this is as we want the focal to be on the vocalist and this also introduces an idea to the audience that the guitarist is completely focused within the music meaning the audience may connect more with the song.

Performance Characters

BassistLooking at The Killers bassist: Mark Stoermer. It is clear that there is an occurring theme of dark clothing within the killers band. To connect to this idea we also made the bassist wear dark clothing. We decided for the bassist to wear a mixture of faded black clothing. This was because as the bass the bassist uses is black we wanted the audience to still see the person playing the instrument so they felt more connected to it. The bassist will wear simple clothing including: a short-sleeved black top, slim trousers and pumps. In contrast to the guitarist the arms of the bassist will be shown. This is because the bassist of The Killers is usually seen to be wearing clothing which reveals the arms. This means the audience will connect with this knowing who the band member is. There won’t be many face shots of the bassist as the focus will be mainly on their instrument playing. However, shots that do show the bassist face will consist of the bassist looking around in a dramatic tone to suit the tone of the song.

mise-en-scene

Narrative charactersIn contrast to the band performance the characters in the narrative won't be wearing fully black clothing. This is as it allowed us to contrast the narrative characters and the performance characters in the music video. These characters will wear simple clothing and nothing too eye catching as we want the audience to focus on the narrative.

Narrative Characters

Male CharacterFor the male character we didn’t want to give away much about his personality so we decided to make his outfit neutral. The character is travelling throughout the video to somewhere unknown. We decided to make the character wear a beige coat with blue jeans and a scarf. This sets the scene that he is outside and is on a journey somewhere, this is added with his prop of a bag. The character will also wear glasses this is as he will be able to take them off in some scenes when he is upset making an impact on the audience. We made the male character wear brown formal shoes we did this to contrast the band members and the other female character. By keeping his personality identity hidden this intrigues the audience as the only thing we know about the character is the narrative of the character. This makes the audience curious and makes them want to carry on watching them music video to see what happens to the character.

Narrative Characters

Female CharacterThe majority of the music video focuses on the idea of the female character who seems lost and is unknown. We decided to make her wear similar clothing as the male character to show they’re connected in some way. The female character wears a green parka jacket with a red-checkered shirt underneath with black jeans and converse. This is quite simple but the fact that both characters are wearing coats suggests that they’re connected and somewhat implies that the female character is going on this journey with the male character. We decided to make her wear this as this is what she is wearing when she meets the male character and this connects the audience suggesting that perhaps she is from the past. We made her wear something that wouldn’t distinguish her from the crowd as it allows us to play on this idea that the male character could be imagining all of this and it is just somebody he is mistaking for her. This makes the narrative interesting and engages the audience.