Mise en Scene, Part 1: Costumes and PropsAcross Main and Ancillary Tasks

IntroductionThe use of costumes, props, settings and objects across all three elements of our production (Digipak, Poster and Music Video) help to construct a general atmosphere that is synergetic in providing an equal effectiveness for marketing. Through spreading these elements amongst several pieces of distributed media, an audience will recognise a multi-faceted attempt to suggest the emotions connoted by mise en scene is universal, not restricted to one media format or one text. In essence, a level of cross-platform intertextuality is created that effectively promotes both the basic purpose (music) and the extended purposes (retail of Digipak; observation of poster and observation of Music VIdeo) in an effective and efficient way.

CostumesThe overarching use of costumes as a means to develop and refine the personalities and characteristics of all of the protagonists, thus allowing the audience to successfully identify a stylistic and aesthetic theme running commonly throughout all elements, effectively developing a cross-fashion statement that is important to the themes and concepts of the video. Furthermore, the use of the same costumes across both tasks provides sponsorship benefits and cross-company co-operation for the production companies involved. Product placement (clothing brands) across several different formats of media allow an association to be crystallised, in the minds of the audience, between that specific brand of clothing and the music-based productions themselves; promoting all elements, continuously and amongst several different forms of presentation, to the benefit of both the Digipak/Poster/Music Video production company and the clothing manufacturer.

PropsLikewise, the use of props continuously promotes a sense of effective synergy throughout the entire piece; the constant appearance of the photograph of the couple, throughout all three tasks, centralises the emotions being promoted by the actions of the character, the music and the lyrics, into a singular object. This level of metaphysical personification helps to make the object a recurring visual aesthetic and a point of reference for the viewpoints of the main protagonist, throughout all three elements. This constant promotion and bombardment of its visual construction, through being presented on both the main and ancillary tasks, elevates the importance of the photograph and the emotional weight behind it, effectively demonstrating the significance of props across all three elements.