Mise en scene

In terms of mise en scene, we wanted to ensure that continuity was shown through our ancillary task and music video in order to create synergy and intertextuality between the products. By keeping aspects of the mise en scene the same throughout, we were able to create iconography between the media texts allowing the audience to diverse into a world of familiarity according to the uses and gratifications theory. 

• The costumes decided in our treatment at the initial idea stage of our process remained the same throughout our music video and our ancillary tasks. We decided on 'indie' styled costumes in order to comply with the genre of our music video for our male singers, of whom wore clothing such as skinny jeans, shirts, bow ties, braces and brogues. Having each male band member in the same styled clothing allowed the audience to identify them as a whole, creating unity within the band. By glamourising them and having the males made to suit a specific style, an indie representation was created as endeavoured, which therefore complies with Dyer's star theory. For the girls featured in our music video, we chose to go for a 60's styled costumes. Myself and Rosie (the girls featured) both wore baby blue polka dot skirts/dresses with pin curled hair and converse. We looked identical, which therefore created unity and showed that we belonged together as one. We chose this era of clothing as the girls were only featured in the narrative/conceptual part of the music video (the tea party scene) which therefore fitted well and emphasised the vintage style created. The same costumes were used in our digipak, therefore creating iconography throughout our products. This also allowed the audience to create personal relationships according to the uses and gratifications theory as they were able to being to familiarise the characters and identify them through the continuity in use of costumes.

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• Props were a widely used and important element of our music video, particulary for the narrative/conceptual scenes (tea party). After researching into the variation in props that we endeavoured to use, we gathered a strong selection. In order to emphasise and comply with the indie vintage style created, we chose a fun random selection of props such as a record player, inflatables, cupcakes, picnic blankets, a radio, fairy lights, etc. We took inspiration from Alice in Wonderland and were also inspired by artists such as The 1975 and Megan Trainor. Through props being such a big element of the narrative/conceptual parts of our video we were able to ensure that our chosen indie-pop style was being created to it's full advantage. This also allowed us to comply with Hall's theory that the audience decode the meaning of media texts in the way in which we intend them too. We featured the same props in both of our ancillary tasks. For example, close-ups of the props were used for the internal panels of our digipak and a mid shot of our tea party scene was used for the magazine advert. Through featuring these props in our ancillaries continuity is shown within our products and deeper connotations can therefore be created according to Barthes enigma code. For the performance elements, our choice of props was very different. The only form of props featured were dark coloured instruments used by the band members, speakers, and fairy lights on the background. The constrast from using a wide range of props in the narrative scene to using minimalistic props in perfomance scene was an example of binary opposites within the elements of our music video. The purpose of keeping the props simplistic within the performance scene was to ensure the main focus was on the band, supporting Dyer's star theory. 

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• We endeavoured to keep the lighting high key throughout all of our media products. For the music video, we used different methods of lighting. For the narrative scenes natural lighting was used as the video was shot on a bright sunny day which was very much to our advantage. We edited the brightness of the shots slightly in order to enhance the colours. For the performance scenes, we lit the shots using bright pink stage lighting and covered the black background in fairy lights. This was a subtle way to introduce the fun, bright 'pop' style seen in our narrative. High key lighting was used in both our digipak and magazine advert in order to maintain the same positive playful mood throughout. The use of high key lighting also contributed to the respresentation of the artists, allowing the audience to create personal identity and familiarise themselves with them according to the uses and gratifications theory. 

• In terms of location we chose to show the tea party scene (back garden) seen in the music video in both our digipak and our magazine advert. We didn't want to mix it up by showing the location of the performance scenes in our ancillaries as it would lack continuity and the audience would be unable to identify the ancillaries as a part of our main product. We chose to use the scene from the narrative oppose to the scene from the performance as there was a lot more to play around with. The quirkiness and originality of the location added to the indie style of our work; these characteristics are conventions of the genre. It also allowed for deeper connotations through the minimalistic images used in the digipak and the magazine advert, an example of Barthes enigma code, allowing the audience to decide what they want to make out of a media text according to the reception theory.

• Through showing continuity in the mise en scene of our ancillaries and our main products synergy is created within them therefore complying with Swales theory of family resemblances.