Costumes, Actors and Props

Actors:

Female Actor

I have chosen to use Sarah to play the female lead in my music video. She is the protagonist, showing throughout the video how she can't get over her relationship with her ex-boyfriend. As my video contains more than one type of music video - Performance and Narrative, I needed an actor who would be able to play the role to a high standard while also making the character believable to the audience. I believe that Sarah would be able to fit this role perfectly as she already has a lot of experience with acting - she is currently taking A level theatre studies and attends a theatre group outside of school. I chose to have a female lead for my music video because I feel that the audience will be able to relate to her more than if it was a male who was the lead character. 

Sarah is 17 years old and its into the age group of my target audience perfectly, who are ages between 15-24 years old, allowing them to be able to relate to her more. As she lives quite close to me and I see her quite often it will be easy to travel to different locations and shoot efficiently - I will also be able to plan re-shoots if needed. In addition, Sarah can drive which is very important to my music video because there is a scene where she has to get into her car and drive home - this means that public transport won't be an issue when it comes to travelling to the different locations. Because of all of these things, I am confident that Sarah will be able to play the main role perfectly.

Male Actor:

For the male lead, I have chosen to use Josh. He is shown to be the antagonist throughout the music video as he gives the main female a note that implies that the relationship between the two of them is coming to an end. Even though this character isn't featured as much as much as the female, he is still a very important part of my music video as he's mainly featured in flashbacks that the female has about the two of them. Josh has the ideal appearance for the male in the narrative portion of the music video, which will make him more relatable to the audience.

Josh is also 17 years old, the same age as Sarah, which is perfect as he also fits into the genre's audience as he will also come across as more relatable to the target audience. Furthermore, as Josh and Sarah are very close it will be a lot easier when it comes to filming scenes of them together than if the both of them didn't know each other very well, so the filming process will happen more efficiently and smoothly. 

Costumes:

The main female:

Performance aspects

For the performance aspects of my music video, Sarah is going to wear a purple hoodie. This hoodie is going to be used to show that Sarah is in denial of her relationship break up with her boyfriend - the darker colour is almost used as mourning clothes for the loss of the person she loves the most; purple is seen to connote sadness and reflects her personal emotions. However, I have used purple as it still a feminine colour and shows her stereotypical feminine gender traits.

In addition to the purple hoodie, I have chosen black mom jeans for Sarah to wear that have rips in the knee. Stereotypically, black connotes to loss or death, which reflects the death of the relationship between her and the main male character. Moreover, the combination of the purple hoodie and the black jeans are casual but reflect Sarah's internal feelings about the relationship. 

These white converse will be a contrast to the darker jeans and hoodie that Sarah will wear, but still have sad connotations - most commonly about emptiness. All together, this casual outfit will be stereotypical costume of the target audience as she fits perfectly into the age range. 

Narrative Aspects

                                                             

I have chosen for Sarah to wear a red coat in the narrative portion of my music video as it is bold and bright, which stands out to the target audience and catches their attention more quickly than darker colours would. The colourful coat is something that the target audience may wear as it's quite fashionable and trendy - it has typical connotations of love and affection which is present at the start of the music video when both the male and female are having fun on Bournemouth Pier.

Furthermore, a striped t-shirt will be a nice contrast to the red coat in Sarah's costume - the black and light grey will add texture to the costume and make it more appealing to the target audience - the use of the different colours also reinforce her age; it conveys how she fits into the target audience well. The colours in the clothes that the female will wear will reflect different emotions felt at different times throughout her break up; the grey and black referencing her sad and darker mood whereas the red coat reflects the love she had towards the male.

The blue jeans once again add to the costume and make it more eye-catching - both the male and female will be shown to be wearing blue jeans in the narrative portions of the music video to emphasise their similarities in fashion. The colour of the jeans connotes the to feeling of the 'blues' that the female will have when going through the stages of a break up. 

Lastly, Sarah will be wearing black Doc Martens which compliment the rest of the outfit, making it fashionable and up to date. This modern fashion will appeal to the target audience and make Sarah more relatable to them; the black shoes will have similar connotations as the black jeans used in the performance aspects of the video - death and mourning.

The main male:

Josh's first item of clothing will be a black coat - this coat will be a great fit for his character as he needs to demonstrate stereotypical masculine gender traits. The dark colour makes him look sophisticated while also looking trendy, which would appeal to the males in the audience. 

Furthermore, the grey and white baseball tee will compliment the black coat, and keeps the costume stylish and modern. This will once again attract the target audience, as it reinforces his age, fitting into the age range of the target audience perfectly. The contrast between the black and the white is much like Sarah's grey and white striped shirt, reinforcing the similarities between their two costumes.

The blue jeans make the costume brighter and more casual - they are unbranded and comfortable jeans which will be more relatable to the audience, who are typically seen to also wear unbranded, comfortable clothing. These jeans can also illustrate dominant masculine gender traits, in which blue can connote to confidence. 

Lastly, the white vans in the male's costume are used to symbolise the safety for the main female in the beginning of the music video when they are happy together, but is lost when he gives her the note. These white shoes offer a sense of stability, and make the female happier and safer, However, when he leaves, she is shown to wear darker colours, as the light in her life has been lost.

Props:

The iPhone plays a key role in the second verse of the song in which the female is scrolling down her phone to see the male character with another girl in an Instagram photo -  Instagram is a very popular app amongst the target audience so they will find this more relatable than if it were other social media, like Facebook or twitter. The pink/rose gold iPhone reinforces the female's stereotypical feminine gender traits.

The sorry note plays a key role throughout the whole music video, as it symbolises the start of the ending of a relationship. The handwriting on the note makes it more personal to the audience as if someone wrote it directly to them instead of it being typed. 

The photo frame will hold high significance to both the audience and the female as they are highly personal and hold many memories of the relationship between the two characters - as it's being stored it's as if the relationship is being finally buried and out of sight.