Mise-en-scene:

LIGHTING:

As most of our music video is in black and white it makes sense to use similar lighting for our performance shots. However we could use colour shots too as the shots of the protagonist's 'fun' life are in colour (including the ending when he has his Epiphany.) However, these shots are part of the narrative of the music video whilst the performance shots are not. This means that we should do what is conventionally used in Indie music videos.

In the music video for 'Micheal' by Franz Ferdinand the performance shots are ghostly and darkly lit. This suits the theme of the song and blends in nicely. This is so effective we could do the same thing in ours. There is also a nice variety of performance shots which probably resulted through the same technique we will use - getting many shots and choosing which looks best. As a result we will probably do the same thing with our music video.

In the music video for 'The Dark of the Matinee' by Franz Ferdinand the performance shots are in colour despite the fact that most of the narrative shots are not. This could be to contrast the coloured shots and black and white shots of the narrative to emphasise each. We could do the same with ours, but we could use a similar thing to the 'Micheal' video instead depending on which works best. These shots are bright in comparison to most of the narrative shots.

The video for 'Walk Away' by Franz Ferdinand is similar to that of 'The Dark of the Matinee' as the performance shots are in colour and are brightly lit but the narrative shots are in black and white [well, most of them.] This is effective in creating contrast and could be to emphasise the narrative. This type of lighting has once again proved successful.

In the music video for 'Meantime' by The Futureheads the performance shots are in colour and are brightly lit but there is no narrative shots to contrast these with. This could mean that the band decided to use that convention because it worked and there are no narrative shots to consider. This could mean that this option is only used in performance music videos.

In the music video 'I'm Not Sorry' by The Pigeon Detectives the performance shots are in  black and white with bright lighting. This works well because so is the rest of the music video which includes narrative shots and performance shots combined. This shows that consistency in lighting and editing techniques is important when creating meaning in a music video. This is despite the fact that in the music video of the song 'A Button Like No Other' which was created by Pistola Kicks fans does the opposite of this which appears almost random.

I think black and white performance shots with medium lighting would be better than colour or dark lighting.