Planning Iconography and Setting - Miss Georgiou.

Within a music video the setting and iconography used is extremely important in creating a certain atmosphere and complying with the codes and conventions of the genre. The setting and iconography is also pivotal within narrative based videos as it makes the narrative motte believable and relatable to the target audience. The setting and iconography is more so important within the dance genre as the setting and iconography used is usually extremely conventional and stereotypical as almost all dance genre music videos are set in a club setting which contains all conventional micro-elements which are used within the genre.

The first setting which we plan to use within our music video is a dark street corner. We have planned to use this setting because we wish to present the character who is seen in this location as a homeless young girl. This setting successfully presents the girl as homeless because it is stereotypical setting which is associated with homeless people, we plan to create this because it adds to our narrative introduces the audience to the character and allows to form a relationship with the character as they sympathise with her situation. This location is unconventional to the dance genre because within the dance genre they are usually seen in a club setting, this is because the videos within this genre are usually performance based and aim to create a upbeat atmosphere through the use of lighting and editing but contrastingly our video we plan to create will be narrative based and therefore we need this specific setting as it adds to the narrative and create a more dull depressing atmosphere. This location will only be used for a short period of time to initially introduce the character to the audience therefore we will just use a close up shot which shows the character sitting on the street corner depressed. The main problem when shooting this shot is that we are filming in a busy street at a busy time of day, this means that there is going to be large amounts of people walking up and down the street. This means that this location limits to the amount of shots we can capture as we can't move about to much without causing to much of a disturbance to the people walking past. This busyness of the streets could also have numerous health and safety risks as we could possibly knock into one of the pedestrians with our big, bulky tripod. The weather could have a huge impact on how we film this location as it is set outside therefore if it is raining then we would struggle to film this location as the rain would ruin the camera button the other hand it would make the scene more depressing, which is what we are trying to create. To prevent this we could use a umbrella to protect the camera or maybe change to a different inside location. We chose to use this specific location because within the lyrics it says the line 'brush off my shoulders, but not 'cause its colder', from this line we inferred that the narrative voice of the song has to be a homeless person because her brushing off her shoulders suggests that she has been through a struggle and also may suggest she's dirty. Within that line it also refers to the coldness so we decided to use this particular setting so it presents the character as rather cold as she has to sleep on the streets. We also chose the iconography of a sleeping bag (below) to support this point.

The iconography used within this specific setting will be a sleeping bag, something to catch the money in and a cup of coffee. Each of these emphasises the fact that the girl is homeless as they are stereotypical objects which are carried by homeless people. The use of the sleeping bag shows to the audience that the character is sleeping on the streets and has no where to live. The 'change catcher' emphasises the girls poverty as it shows that she has no money and has to resort to begging other people to get money. The cup of coffee is representative of the only warmth she has left and is the only thing which can keep the character warm throughout the night. All of these props are used to help the audience recognise that the girl is homeless and poor. This will allow for the audience to sympathise with her and therefore form a bond with her as they will feel sorry for her situation. This use of iconography is unconventional to the dance genre as rarely within the genre do you see a narrative based video and within this specific narrative is the only place in which these props will be seen.

Another piece of iconography which we plan to use is a briefcase, which will be held by the focal male character. We plan to use this specific type of iconography for this character because it emphasises the fact that he is a successful business man as it suggests to the audience that he is carrying important work and has a lot to do at work if he has to carry his work stuff to and from work to complete it at home. A briefcase is also a stylish accessory which is the image we want to portray to the audience as we want the male focal character to appear as a very desirable character. Using this particular iconography also emphasises the contrast between the male character and the female character as she is a character who doesn't look like their working and therefore wouldn't need a briefcase to carry around her stuff instead she has a bin bag. This use of iconography is extremely unconventional to the dance genre as within this genre you never see a individual going to work instead you usually see them in settings such as clubs and festivals in which a briefcase isn't required. We chose to use this unconventional form of iconography because it represents the character in the young successful way which we planned in order for it to drive our narrative and emphasise the contrast between him and the homeless female.

The next setting which will be seen within our music video is a busy train station. We have chosen to use this setting because it will accurately portray one of our focal characters in a way in which we intend to use to add to the narrative. Within the train station will be our young successful male protagonist who is seen smartly dressed and be on his commute from his work. We plan to use this setting because, much like the first setting, it will make it obvious to the audience that the character is living a successful life. Therefore this setting allows for a evident contrast between the first setting and the second and the audience can clearly see how the two characters differ which shows the development in the narrative. Within this setting not much action will take place but the audience will briefly see the character waiting for the train, boarding then on the train. Despite the scenes only being short there are still numerous limitations to what we will be able to film and what we will be unable to film, this is because both the train and the train station will be extremely busy therefore we might not be able to position our character in certain places like we had previously planned and will have to film wherever there is space. The size of the tripod will also be a issue as it will take up a lot of room therefore we will have not very many spaces in which we can use it and therefore we may have to find alternatives when filming in this location. Similar to the first location the busyness of this setting will cause numerous health and safety risks as there is a high chance of us and the characters bumping into pedestrians. To over come this we will have to be very careful when moving about within this setting. Another health and safety risk is that filming in a train station means that there is the obvious threat of the train and the train tracks which could both cause severe harm to those filming and the characters. To other come this hazard we will again have to be very careful as we film and be constantly aware of these threats. The weather will not impact this setting as it is inside therefore the weather won't make a difference, this is a benefit to our group as it means that the weather will not be able to stop the filming and we can stick to our filming schedule as much as possible. Within this setting there will be little iconography used. The only iconography we will use is a briefcase, this will emphasise the fact that the character is successful as it suggests that he is a businessman which connotes to the audience that he is hard working and clever.

The final setting we plan to use is a club setting. Unlike all the other settings within our video this video is extremely conventional to the dance genre and is a setting which is seen in almost all dance music videos. This setting is used within dance videos as the atmosphere it creates through the use of lighting as within this setting flashing lighting is always used as it is upbeat and matches the music in order to get the audience dancing. We also plan to use this setting because it evokes good memories for the artist as they have most likely experienced this setting, which means they can relate to the situation and therefore the characters. Within this setting we will use numerous camera shots which will show the artist, for the first time within the video, performing at the front of a crowd which we will also frequently film and will feature both out two focal characters. There are many limitations with this setting. The main one being the fact that none of the members of out group are old enough to get into a club. This means that we will have to create our own setting and try to make it as similar as possible to a club setting and try to create the same atmosphere. This setting will have less safety risks than the other two settings as it will take place in a private place which means that there is no risks from the other pedestrians and therefore will be minimal risks as it is in a private place and the only risks will be ones caused by ourselves. The iconography used within this setting will again be influential on the scene but unlike the other use of iconography it will be conventional to the dance genre as we will be using headphones and a laptop. This will make it evident who the artist is and will make it conventional to the genre as they frequently use these settings to show the artist performing and make it evident that he is the artist.

In conclusion this planning of iconography and setting is gonna help us when filming in these settings and using these props. This planning will help us when filming within particular settings as it informed us of exactly we plan to film here and what can prevent us from achieving this. This means that we can avoid these limitations and film everything possible as well as staying safe within each location. This means that we will be able to film as much as possible at each location and hopefully successfully capture what we can at each setting which will benefit our narrative and make each scene as accurate to what we have planned and therefore allow us to capture everything which we plan to.