Costume, hair and makeup

Costume, hair and makeup

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The items of clothing we have chosen for our male lead are a pair of ripped, black skinny jeans and a bomber jacket.

The reason we've chosen such dark clothing is because it's typical of the indie genre codes and conventions - the artists generally dress this way to show that they don't want to stand out and the simplicity shows that they want people to focus on their music, not on their appearance. Males in indie pop music videos generally look quite casual and they don't style their hair, leaving it quite messy. This is what we've gone for here because we feel like this highlights the fact that indie pop artists don't concentrate on how the world perceives them; all they care about is the music that they make and they are comfortable the way that they are. We also let him wear his own black trainers as these worked very well with the rest of his outfit and followed the codes and conventions. Additionally we also allowed him to keep his earrings in as it further emphasises the recklessness and carefree nature of this genre. Traditionally boys do not wear earrings, so looking at it in terms of that it can also portray the people who enjoy this type of music (as well as the artists themselves) as rule-breakers and not conforming to society. This links to the codes and conventions of the genre too because generally people associated with this genre do not care about what others think of them. Although he is wearing a white t-shirt under his jacket, the black clothing clearly dominates over the white which implies that there is a dark side to him.

As opposed to the pop genre, the indie genre does not sexualise or voyeurs its female actors or performers which is why we chose to make her wear clothing that she was comfortable in and didn't attract the attention away from the song. As opposed to the male, she is wearing relatively colourful clothing to show her innocence and perhaps naivety given that she has chosen to be with somebody who represents something bad, something dark. The checkered shirt and jeans that she is wearing can fall under the "hipster" category, and we wanted to make her wear it because hipsters are generally associated with the indie genre so we believed that people could relate to her more and would be able to put themselves in her shoes and understand her as a character.

Her hair is down and quite messy; as a result of our research we wanted to make her look as natural as possible because it links to the codes and conventions, which is also why we only wanted her to wear natural makeup, so she is only sporting mascara and has her eyebrows slightly enhanced. The simplistic makeup shows her to be a very real and authentic character, natural and perhaps showing that she has nothing to hide and she wants the world to see her as she is. Additionally her clothing and the colours of it also establishes her age - she seems younger than the male due to her brightness, while he looks older and more mature because of his black attire. Although her clothing is for the most part quite vibrant, she is still sporting a black coat over her checkered shirt; it is lined with white fur however again the black dominates the white and it can be interpreted as the male having some sort of control over her, almost like she represents the white and he represents the black.

It can also suggest that she needs that sort of protection that only comes from him, and that's implied through the fact that the coat matches his black apparel. We thought this would link in nicely with the narrative of our video and would emphasise how dangerous their relationship actually is. 

(our actors)

(click to enlarge)