Mise en Scene

Mise en Scene in my music video

A French term meaning what is put into a scene or frame and communicates essential information to the audience.

It is made up of 5 elements:

Setting and Props
Costume, Hair and Make-Up
Facial Expressions and Body Language
Lighting and Colour
The positioning of Characters and Objects within the frame

Setting and Props

Drama Studio in School

My first location is a drama studio at my school. This was the location used for the performance aspect of my music video. The black curtains around the room made it easier to ensure the spotlights used could emphasize each band members appropriately. The props I used in this location consisted of different instruments: a microphone, drum-kit and guitar. These instruments allowed the band members to play along with the song as if it was them playing the actual song. The guitar we used was an electric guitar, as opposed to an acoustic guitar. This is because, in my rock genre research, I noticed that electric guitars are more popular to use. Acoustic guitars are for slower songs and due to my chosen song 'Run' not being slow for the majority of the music video, I decided not to choose one. I think that electric guitars look more effective in these types of songs in the rock genre because it does look edgier and emphasised. In the first few seconds of the music video, Alex- the guitarist, has a spotlight on him and the guitar and this works well with the song starts to build up. This would not have been possible without the room choice.

We did have an amp which the guitar was plugged into, more for the band practice and the look of a rock band. I did put the amp in some of the shots but didn't emphasise it a great deal because I didn't think the audience would need to see an amp to realise it was an electric guitar that he was using.

Mangotsfield Cycle Path

My Second Location was an outdoor location near to the school. It contains a cycle path and an old train station, which worked well for displaying the lonely and upset mood the character was portraying. I used a variety of shots when portraying this character's mood and this location allowed me to explore height too as the train track is a much higher platform than the cycle track itself. I found this location helpful is some ways and unhelpful in others. This is due to the fact that it is an outdoor location. With the drama studio, I could control factors such as lighting and so this made it easier for me to emphasise the individuals playing their instruments. However, the cycle path location was outdoors and I am unable to control sunlight etc. Despite this obstacle, the location did not give me any issues with the footage I captured. If I could have changed the lighting, I may have made the lighting less bleached at times. The positive aspect of this location having different levels, allowed me to capture an end of song jump. I think this worked well with the song and the genre of rock as it shows that the music is powerful and has an effect on the singer and therefore would create an effect on the audience.

Driving through various locations in a car

My final location was shot when I was travelling back from a holiday. I decided to shoot some clips of the cars in front of my car in order to portray that the character in the narrative aspect of my music video was travelling somewhere and trying to get away. As the song suggests someone trying to get away (run away) from daily struggles, I think this location works well with the portrayed narrative and the lyrics of 'Run'.

Costume, Hair and Make-up

Considering my characters or band members were of a teenage/young adult age and also representing the rock genre, I decided that they would wear a casual, jeans and top outfit. I believe this worked well because the rock genre portrays a more relaxed persona compared to the pop genre etc. They all also wore dark colours and despite the video being in black and white, this works well too. This is because if they had worn bright colours they would make them look lighter and I don't think the same effect would have been presented as it is now.

For the styling of the individuals' hair, I decided to keep this very casual too. My main singer had his hair down with no product in and this worked extremely well for when he was headbanging along to the song. This showed aggression and similarly to existing rock music videos emphasised the power their music and lyrics have upon the band and audience.

Make-up used in my music video

Foo Fighters

KISS

I decided not to use any make-up within my music video. This is because rock genre based music videos and bands generally do not use make-up very much anymore. This was popular many years ago but as time has progressed, rock bands, such as: 'Foo Fighters' and 'Nirvana' do have a more relaxed and casual approach to their music and do not wear noticeable makeup. This has changed dramatically from when the rock band 'KISS' were popular. They wore exaggerated music a lot more frequently but as times progressed it died out.

Facial Expressions and Body Language

I made sure that during the music video the facial expressions and body language portrayed by the members of the band expressed how they felt. The examples shown to the left of the page, show that the main singer is able to display aggression and power when singing but he also can display hurt and sadness in the narrative aspect of the music video. His arms are holding onto the microphone in the performance images and he appears to be more confident due to his facial expressions. This is contrasted well with him sat on a bench and a wall with his hat on and him looking away from the camera. This makes the audience believe he is shy and not confident, presenting this idea that these are two different people and he is hiding behind his performance side every day.

Lighting and Colour

For the lighting used in my music video, I used spotlights for introducing the different members of the band. The first band member shown was the guitarist. The lighting helped to introduce him and identify him to the audience. I created the shown example to the left by slowly introducing light into the frame. As you first see the guitarist, he is not lit up enough to see his face and I think this effect produces the audience with a mystery they have to wait to uncover, making them an active part in the video.

The colours used in this example and also throughout the majority of the music video are black and white. This is because I felt that typical rock videos had little or no colour and some videos have black and white layered over the top too. I think that the black and white presents a higher quality finish compared to colour enhanced videos. it worked well with the rock genre due to the majority of existing rock artists proving it links well with the style and mood of the music. An example of this would be: from the Foo Fighter's song 'Run', the lyrics being about running away from problems you may have etc. The lyrics present a more miserable narrative and would use darker colours or black and white to represent the mood portrayed. I used red a lot throughout the progress of my music video and in the final pieces (digipak and magazine advert) due to red having various connotations linking to the rock genre.

The positioning of the characters within the frame

From the beginning of the research and planning for the music video, I decided to make sure that the lead singer or lead band member was in the centre and the other two band members (guitarist and drummer) were behind or to the side of him. In doing so, it allows the audience to know which character is the main character and this can then give them an indication to what the narrative (if there is one) is and how it affects them as a person.

Foo Fighters

I made the positioning of my band similar to the Foo Fighters. This is because I think that the positioning of the band members is helpful for the audience. They have also placed the drummer towards the back of the formation, this is because the drummer is one of the less iconic members of the band. Despite this, I believe that without the drummer the band is not complete. I think I would have made sure my singer was more in front of the other members of the band to portray his importance if I was to improve my work again.