Representation in our video

Female character in a relationship:

The female character that is in a relationship is going to represented as being very unhappy with her boyfriend.
We plan to show these emotions through extreme close ups of her facial expressions being concerned, angry or unhappy. The use of these close ups will allow the audience to have sympathy for her. There will also be wider shots with a loose frame which will make her look alone and isolated and also very vulnerable. This will particularly work in the bed scene to enhance the idea that her boyfriend isn't there and she's laying all alone in quite a big bed and the field scene would also be effective with a loose frame as the area around her will make her look very small and alone again. For some shots we may have the camera on a high angle which again will make her looks small, vulnerable and alone as she is with her relationship.
We will use slightly darker lighting with these shots and won't put any type of warm filter on the clips in order to keep the feeling of her being cold and alone, this will contrast to the other female character in the video as although she's the same person, she's at a different stage with the relationship so a contrast is key.
The body language of this character will add to her characteristic of being very unhappy as she won't be smiling, laughing or doing scenes that involve a lot of movement as these would make her look to happy. Within the shots of this character there will be no gold, this is because in our video the gold represents her values and happiness, therefore having no gold will show the audience that because of her relationship she's lost all of her values and happiness. The costume she's wearing is in the colour black with connotes the dark and unhappy feelings inside her and helps to contrast between the two female characters within the video. We kept the costume flowy however to still make her character very girly and young as we didn't want her to look to boyish or hard looking otherwise she might be portrayed as the villain in our video when he's actually the protagonist. The makeup choice for this character is to have quite dramatic eyes but keep the lips very natural, this gives the affect of her being tired of the relationship and smoky eyes hint at her crying perhaps as its suppose to be smudged, it however gives her quite a sexy appearance which comes across in the start of the video when she stands up for herself and breaks up with her boyfriend in order to put herself first.




Female character not in a relationship:

Both female characters are based on the same person, however they differ as one girl is the girl before she broke up with her boyfriend and the other one is the girl after breaking up with her boyfriend. In order to show a contrast we've decided to represent them in complete different ways.

For this character close up shots will also be used in order to show facial expressions again but this time not to create sympathy but instead to express her feelings of happiness and content with being single and getting her values back. More medium shots will be used rather than a long shot as we don't want this character to seem alone as she's more happy with being on her own. This is particularly the case in the bed, a tight frame will be used so that there isn't much space around her so that she seems content with being the only one in the bed.

We're hoping to add a filter to most of the shots of this character in order to make them warmer, this is again to portray the character as being content and happy with being single and will enhance the gold that will be featured in these scenes. Having these clips with a warm filter will also make the scenes of the other female look even colder giving us the contrast we want. We will speed up and reverse these clips which will add to the tempo representing the mood.
The main feature of mis-en-scene that will show the representation of this character is the large amounts of gold that will be shown, in the makeup, the outfit and the props used. The gold predominantly represents the good within her and the gold comes out after the character breaks up with her boyfriend which is an idea we wanted to use as this relates to the lyrics of the song. Theres also a difference in the body language used as this character will be laughing a lot and turning and flicking her hair, giving her a girly and happy feeling that has come from not being with her boyfriend any more. In order to contrast the two girls' costumes, we've gone for similar dresses for the field scene but whereas the first girls' black, the second one is nude to connote the change in moods of them. The makeup is a lot more warm looking and a lot of glitter and gold is featured to again show her values coming out in her skin after calling off her relationship.

Male character (female character's boyfriend):

The male character is ultimately the antagonist in this video as he is the boyfriend thats made the female so unhappy in the relationship and taken all her confidence and goodness away from her.
In order to show him as being the villain first he will only appear in a few clips to show he's hardly in her life anymore and that he isn't as important as her. Also through his only appearance in the video being an argument and fighting scene and ending up in the female character crying it sums up how bitter they've got when they're together, we didn't want to show any happy memories as we wanted to enhance the fact that things have got so sour between them. His costume will be dark colours to add to the idea of him being the villain and show that he's also not happy being with her. We're also going to make sure the angles and editing we use make it obvious theres little compatibility between them anymore, e.g. not having the two characters very close or not having them doing the same thing to connote they once worked but definitely don't anymore.


Overall:

Overall, we're not challenging many stereotypes in our video. The female characters are being represented as very girly and the male character very masculine. We're keeping to a male and female relationship rather than a homosexual one simply because there are references to the song being about a male in the lyrics. We're keeping the stereotype that women can be quite submissive to men by how unhappy the female is with her boyfriend but she's stayed with him up until now.
The females have a positive representation as they're not seen to have done anything wrong which is different to the male who is represented in a negative way so he's not the one that is sympathised by the audience.
Having a positive representation on the female who is the singer will appeal to the audience as they're more likely to be a fan of someone thats represented in a positive way rather than being the antagonist in their own video.