Costume research

Within our music video, me and my group have decided on various props and costumes that we would like our artist to seen with.

In regard to costume ideas, my group came to a collective decision to have Mikah dressed in a selective colour range. These colours included black, white, khaki and grey. We decided on these colours as they allowed us to create the grungy style for our artist. Not only does it create the perfect style, but it also allows us to appeal to our target audience who are between the ages of 16-22. We thought that this would appeal to our target audience because these are quite fashionable colours that would be most likely worn by the audience themselves. This then allows us to create a bridge between our artist and our audience because it allows them to connect with the artist like an everyday person. Also, due to these colours being of an everyday wear, they were easily accessible for us and our artist due to Mikah already having an array of these colours in her wardrobe. This meant this saved us time and money instead of having to go and buy new clothes for the music video.

We liked the idea of having Mikah in a black and white strippy top within the music video because it insinuates that of prison uniform. This then shows Goodwin's theory in practice due to the visual being somewhat prison uniform relating to the lyrics of wanting a 'Gangsta'. We dressed Mikah in a black bomber jacket and black ripped jeans to go with the black and white stripped top as previously mentioned. We felt that the use of ripped jeans compares to that of the locations we filmed in with them being dilapidated and worn out, like the jeans. Furthermore, the dark clothing allows for mikah to stand out in the music video with shots being that where there are bright and colourful graffiti in the background. We felt that this then subverts the typical R&B genre because it is not portraying Mikah in a sexual light, and is also making her stand out, making her an important and powerful female figure within the music video.

Another outfit choice that we decided on was a cropped hoodie and jeans, not for Mikah but for the dancer within the music video Chrissy. We again used similar colours to those that Mikah wore, having Chrissy wearing a cropped black and white Adidas hoodie, khaki shorts over the top of black leggings and black trainers. The dark colours correlated with the theme that we aspired to create within this part of the music video. The dark colours allow the audience again to relate to the stars within the music video, similar to the effect that Mikah is to have. Furthermore, the choice of dark clothing was chosen to make Chrissy seem mysterious. This also continues into the fact that Chrissy is dancing in front of a projection with all othe#r surrounding light turned off, leaving complete darkness. This then allows for the projection colours to show us great on Chrissy and the clothes, which wouldn't have the same effect if she was wearing brighter clothing. Also, the dark clothing was something that creates the type of character we wanted Chrissy to be with the grungy style. However, unlike Mikah, we did conform to stereotypes with Chrissy's costume. This was through having her midriff on show due to the cropped hoodie. This is similar to the typical conventions of an R&B music video but wasn't something that we are too worried about. This is because it is something that the audience expect to see, and may even grab the attention of them even more.