COSTUME
Costume is a very key element to my piece as I wish to create strong bonds of intertextuality A way i can best achieve this is through costume. I will ensure to dress my cast members in 50's and 60's inspired clothing to give the illusion they are part of a different era in time. My main aim I aspire towards is showing how the theme of 'young love' is timeless and so relatable and desirable to a 'mass-market' audience. By setting it in a 'retro' time period I hope to also create a sense of nostalgia. This is increasingly demanded by the mass audience in terms of fashion trends, what is their TV program content and movie narratives.
I will need a minimum of four clothing sets for each main actor to my piece as well as a single set of 50's inspired clothing for background actors/actresses.
Costume mood boards:
Mood board of clothing for my main actor -
Microphone - Lights and diner scenes - To make the performance more realistic
Amp - Lights and diner scenes - To make the performance more realistic
Pink 50's glasses - Diner scene - Intertextuality ('retro')
Milkshake glasses - Diner scene - Classic diner milkshakes will emphasise interetxtuality and make scenes natural
Lipstick (retro) - Diner scene - Iconic to the 50's/60's in a new age of makeup and femininity.
Polaroid Camera - Beach scene - As well as being interetextual (vintage), it will imply young lovers want to create 'memories', which is an idea audiences will understand and recognise to be part of love.
Bucket and spade - Beach scene - Makes scene more realistic
Picnic blanket - Picnic date scene - Adds to the overall image of a 'perfect' date
Fudge/food - Picnic date scene - old fashioned packaging is interetextuality
'pink lemonade' - Picnic date scene - Big hint to the song itself
Note with number written on it - Final diner scene - Important to narrative and iconic to romance films.
Location is important within media as it will often put action and narrative into context. It is also important for me to assess Location choices as I may need to request permission to film in certain places.
For my Music video, I aim to use mostly naturalistic settings to emphasise the realism of the narrative and ensure focus is on the young couple starring in the video. These locations will then either look 50's/60's inspired or be free of any periodic influence (as in a beach viewed in the 50's essentially will look the same now).
However, this use of naturalism I also aim to mix with a sense of surrealism with the intention of making my stars 'rockstar' image more defined.
Location will be close to where the actors are based to allow for more accessibility.
I have chosen to shoot all my scenes during strong daylight in order to fully benefit from the natural lighting, This is as I am intentionally creating a very 'real' feeling piece.
This term encompasses the most recognisable attributes of a film – the setting and the actors; it includes costumes and make-up, props, and all the other natural and artificial details that characterise the spaces filmed. The term is borrowed from a French theatrical expression, meaning roughly “put into the scene”. In other words, mise-en-scène describes the stuff in the frame and the way it is shown and arranged
I want the overall mis-en-scene of my own piece to be an aesthetically pleasing music video which resonates the vintage/retro era of the 50's and 60's. I aim to achieve this assisted by use of heterosexuality to play on the mass-audiences ideas drawn from iconic retro films like 'Grease' and 'Dirty Dancing'. During the editing phase of this videos production process, I wish to use turquoise, Bubblegum bright filters as in Kings of Leon's 'Supersoaker' to further aid the fun, upbeat lyrics and tone of the song and connote a colour iconic to the era of American diners and Jukeboxes. Furthermore, I want to convey the emotional aspect of the song through my actors expression, telling the romantic ups and downs of love at first sight in a true fantastical and 'cheesy' way. I want my mis-en-scene to be over the top and obvious in this way. I hope this will relate to the audiences ideas of 'young love' and appeal to the 'mass markets' thirst for nostalgic, retro imagery as well.
Intertextuality, for my music video, is very important as I feel it is the main focus point to attract an audience as my key theme is the 50's and 60's nostalgic vibe. I feel intertextuality is important to connect with the mainstream demographic as I can use very famous concepts to interest and captivate an audience which is increasingly becoming fascinated by all things 'vintage' as demonstrated by fashion, movie and social trends. The 50's/60's theme, in itself, is intertextuality as it will involve using iconic imagery (such as shooting at a diner) to recreate the retro look.
Beyond this, I also aim to layer in other 'easter eggs' of intertextuality.
My main ideas centre around using iconic 'romance' film scenes to further play into my own theme of 'young love'. Although the series 'The end of the f*cking world' and the music video for 'you' by Matilda are not 50's/retro themed, they are very clear representations of how young love can be so special. Furthermore, audiences of who are 'fun-loving and mass-market' will hopefully either recognise the iconography of movies like 'Grease' or alternatively find interetextuality in the more modern forms of media. This is perhaps as the series is aimed for their own demographic and successful on Netflix.
GREASE - Intertextuality will be created in both my 'Diner' scenes and section filmed from on the beach
'YOU' BY MATILDA - Intertextuality will be drawn to this music video in the scene filmed whilst having a 'picnic' date
THE NOTEBOOK - My Music video will be interetextual to this scene as my actors frolic on the beach
THE END OF THE F*CKING WORLD - My music video will draw reference to this series during the beach scene
LA LA LAND - A short section of my music video will be shot on a pier/waterfront which can be deemed intertextual with this scene of the movie
I decided to create a storyboard of my video narrative as I believed working with a flatplan to change and grow my ideas would help give a better sense of direction for the overall look Im aiming to achieve. The storyboard is a starting point which eventually helps towards planning coverage (all the angles I want to shoot of a scene).
The term 'Intertextuality' refers to the process of creating references to any kind of media text via another media text. Media texts often can borrow iconic imagery in this way in order to help promote an idea or image, create more connection to an audience, reach a more educated audience or pay homage to other media texts. Using concepts and images familiar to the audience may generate both nostalgic associations and new ideas. John Stuart's description of the music video as 'incorporating, raiding and reconstructing' is essentially the essence of intertextuality as it is clear across all types of music videos that they often each take ideas from each other, movies, art and history itself.
EXAMPLES OF INTERTEXTUALITY
EXAMPLE 1: MADONNA 'MATERIAL GIRL' & MARILYN MONROE IN THE FILM 'GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES'
- Madonna's music video for 'Material girl' is a perfect example of how media texts borrow the iconic imagery of other media texts as the video paints Madonna similar to Monroe's classic 'Diamonds are a girls best friend' look, donning a pink dress and diamond accessories.
EXAMPLE 2: RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS 'CALIFORNICATION'
- Red hot chili pepper's music video for 'Californication' depicts the band members as video game characters. During the 90's, the video game culture was on the rise and a cartoon style video was at its time very interesting to the young, hip, rock audience.
EXAMPLE 3: BOWLING FOR SOUP'S '1985' AND ROBERT PALMER'S 'ADDICTED TO LOVE'
- The music video for '1985' is comedic and shows how fun the band are as they don't take themselves very seriously. A section of the video 'spoofs' the iconic music video for 'addicted for love' which is a very 'serious' music video, making Bowling for soup's version therefore a funnier version. This is achieved by placing the male members of the band in high heels and dresses like the girls of Robert Palmer's video, making fun of how serious and sexualised the other, earlier music video ultimately is.
