Costume and Props

Costume is a very important part of all music videos and helps audiences establish genre and style. For our genre, we needed to

create a youthful, fashionable and away from the mainstream image to match what we established as stereotypical from the genre in our deconstructions. From these we found that Aztec

patterns, vintage style clothing and fur and feathers were ideal for portraying our characters in the correct style. We both looked

through our wardrobes and found what we could that would fit the genre's characteristics.

NARRATIVE COSTUMESFor our narrative shots we chose a striking paisley/Aztec print dress with embellished jewels on the front. This was Eva's dress that she suggested and therefore fitted her perfectly. The dress is memorable and interesting which is ideal for this sort of character/storyline. The cut-out back detail will also make our shots more visually interesting and will make playing on the 'male-gaze' theory easier.

NARRATIVE PROPSImogen and I both agreed from the start of planning our videos that including the mask concept would be fitting to our genre yet individual and unique to our video. I already owned this rabbit mask from a trip to Camden Market years before that we agreed would be perfect. A rabbit is an animal that is rarely seen as they hide away in their burrows and are hunted by many other animals for food. This linked to our portrayal of youth cultures being misunderstood and discriminated by society.

NARRATIVE PROPSAfter deciding to use the other rabbit mask, we had a look online to find one that was similar for the male character in the narrative. We sent for this one off of EBay as we liked that it was very different from the other mask yet is still a rabbit and is still in keeping with the theme. The fact the two masks are different styles highlights the individuality of youths. We also liked its jolly and positive expression as this character plays the ‘night-in-shining-armour’ role and steps in to create a happy resolution to the narrative in the video.

NARRATIVE

We asked both Eva and Nik if they could bring a coat that was animal related in order to keep the theme running subtly through every element of our costumes. Eva told us she had a leopard print coat to wear and Nik, a blue coat with a fur trim. We asked Nik to wear whatever he liked but asked him to keep in mind the genre when he picked his outfit.

NARRATIVE PROPSIn initial planning we decided to use smoke bombs and glitter in our tunnel scenes (scenes 21, 22, 23, 24 + 25 on storyboard) however when we did a test run with some we got off of Ebay we were very disappointed with the quality and how it appeared on camera. The glitter did not show on screen but instead just distorted the image. The smoke bombs took a lot of effort to light and when they did lasted for only 3 seconds and therefore were impractical to use on set when filming. On top of this, the smoke bombs and glitter came to £10 as well as the mask and we therefore did not want to spend too much more money on props that added no real effect to out final product. We therefore decided to scrap our ideas that included these and instead planned to film without. We did however still include the cigarettes, lighter and phone to the list of props we needed to bring for these scenes.

PERFORMANCE COSTUMEWe asked our 4 band members to choose costumes that would fit our genre’s style and to show these to us before the day of filming. We were pleased with their choices but decided to also bring some clothes of our own for them to pick from if they chose to. These are just a few of the patterned clothes we found that we though were appropriate to the genre. We also asked our lead singer to wear the hat photographed below as we wanted her to stand out the most and be the centre of attention (something typical of lead singers in this genre.) The hat is in style and fits the genre perfectly.

PERFORMANCE PROPSFor our instruments, we asked many favours to borrow them from various people. The drums, microphone, keyboard and stand we borrowed from the music department. We asked the head for his permission and agreed to tidy the room and put them back as we found them in return for letting us borrow them for the evening. The guitar we borrowed from a good friend of ours who lent us it for the evening also. The amp we borrowed from the P.E department who offered it to us when we asked to use the hall. All instruments have been borrowed under agreement and will be returned as soon as we have finished filming.