Mise-en-scene in our own Music Video

Mise-en-scene is an essential part of all media productions whether it is on film and TV, in theatre productions or in music videos it enables us to shape our own ideas and make it possible. Below is a mind-map outlining all the key areas of mise-en-scene.




We had to think carefully and consider all the different elements within mise-en-scene. For instance, as we are creating a music video using Rita Ora's song 'Love and War' which is categorised in the genre of R'n'B we had to consider other R'n'B music videos examples, as this enabled us to research what clothes, props, make-up and locations are used, so that our own music video can fit into the genre of R'n'B.

Clothes/ costumes

We decided on using a casual but modern approach to clothing. We wanted the clothing to fit into the lyrics of the song and by using casual (but not too casual) clothes helps the audience relate to the artist as they too may have the same/ similar fashion taste or may even attract them and see the artist as a role model, which may help a variety of business as well as the sales in her music. When researching artists costumes such as Rita Ora, they too are wearing casual, but up to date clothing especially denim which is very popular worldwide.

 In this image Rita Ora is wearing a denim jacket, denim shorts and pink shoes with a black hat. All this items of clothing are casual but stylish and fits well into the style of R'n'B. Rita's hair has also been styled with a modern popular, dyed hair look that many female teenagers and young adults relate to and share similar tastes with make-up, jewellery and hair.

This screen grab taken from Melanie Fiona's music video 'This Time featuring J Cole shows J Cole's fashion sense. He is wearing a casual jacket, a simple black top, with 'bling' and a hat which is specifically related to to the genre and are conventions of R'n'B.



Therefore as a lot of contemporary modern R'n'B artists seem to wear a lot of casual clothing including denim we felt that our artist should do the same. We decided that for the female artist she should wear a denim shirt/jacket and denim shorts to fit this similar clothing genre description. We also thought that the male artist should also wear casual clothes but also a hat as they seem to be a main mise-en-scene feature in R'n'B.


Lighting and Location

We decided to use a range of lighting both natural (when filming outside) and artificial lights (for use with the green screen). As we wanted to use different background locations we chose to use a tranquil, friendly quiet setting to show their relationship or to show isolation when the artist is portrayed as quiet and alone. We also chose to use the green screen so that we can use effects. We want to create a similar lighting effect to Ellie Goulding's music video 'Lights' and possibly a similar affect like we have seen in Rihanna's music video.

  Ellie Goulding's 'Lights' (above and below)

Taken from Rihanna's music video (above)