Planning Artist Image - Miss Miller*

The artist representation in a music video is essential as it allows the audience to see their personality through their costume and understand more about the artist themselves. Also, the artists image in the music video helps convey the narrative and shows the hidden meanings which are present within the music video for example red lipstick representing the artist as seductive, passionate or dangerous. In addition, the artist representation enables to the audience to build a relationship with the artist as the costumes presented may be relatable to them and make them feel like they have something in common with the artist. Overall the artist image in a music video, help assist on conveying the conventions of the genre and make the audience understand the conventions and their meanings behind them through the use of costume. Since celebrities are always changing their image for example Rihanna and Miley, their representations help to draw attention from a wider audience making them more successful. However, I am doing an indie singer, Birdy and indie artists tend to be consistent as they rely on realism and not escapism like pop artists. 

Our first costume for the artist is an outdoors outfit that consists of a leather jacket, grey dress, tights and boots. Her hair and make up will be a natural look where the make up is minimal because she'll only have winged eyeliner, red lipstick/lipgloss and wavy hair. This outfit will be seen i the bonfire scene where she is at the bonfire event with her girlfriend and their playing with the sparklers. As the outfit is suitable for the setting, this is conventional to the indie genre as it portrays a realistic image which the audience can relate to her with. Also, the black leather jacket represents the artist as a bold, daring and mysterious. She is represented as bold and daring through the black leather jacket because she's willing to do what ever with her partner. However, the grey dress represents her as mature and responsible as grey is usually associated with old age, but in reference to the music video it will associate the artist as calm and relieved from a chaotic world around her and her partner. This portrays her in the scene as being all in with her partner and not caring about the people around them. The tights and boots specifically Dr Martens, will convey the grunge element of the costume which shows her as quite edgy and fierce which the audience could be intrigued by. Moving onto make up, the winged eyeliner will link in with the song title which is wings and convey her as free and finding her self through this freedom. Also, winged eyeliner is conventional to the indie genre as seen on Lana Del Rey and Lorde in their work. The red lipstick will convey her feminine side and also represent her as passionate and confident. This excites her emotions and motivation towards her partner and also conveys the narrative of it being about a relationship as girls usually wear red lipstick when going out or to look seductive to impress someone. The use of red lipstick is conventional to the indie genre as it is usually used on the artist to foreshadow what the songs in their albums about, for example Lana Del Rey has themes of sex and relationships in her born to die video and the red lipstick she wears on the album cover symbolises these themes.  

Our next costume that the artist will be wearing in the music video, is a black turtle neck, with black ripped jeans, black high stop converses, a parker jacket and chocker as an accessory. The black turtle neck shows no voyeurism of the artist which is an element of Goodwin's theory, which is conventional to the indie genre as they do not use their body to attract their audience, but instead appeal to their audience through the realism conveyed in the narrative. Also, by having black ripped jeans, this portrays her as quite ragged and rough which could also connote darkness and enigma which the audience can explore in the music video. In addition, the ripped jeans could represent her relationship as being rough and not stable. The khaki green parker jacket connotes nature and wildlife which could represent the artist as natural and having a wild side. This could portray her as being natural and liking the outdoors which she is currently at. Her black converse high tops further represent her mysteriousness and again no voyeurism as they are high tops. These shoes are conventional to the indie genre as they are common to be worn by the target audience of 17 - 25, so it helps make her relatable to the audience and not seem stuck up as she's a celebrity. Moving onto the chocker which is the accessory that she will be wearing, it will be black and around her neck in the scene. The use of the chocker being worn could represent the relationship as controlling as the artists partner is in control of their exposure of being lesbians whereas the artist just goes with the flow because she is so in love with her. Her and make up will be the same as costume number 1 which consisted of natural wavy hair, minimal makeup with just winged eyeliner and red lipstick. This outfit will be seen when the artist is with her partner walking through camden market looking at the stalls and shops. The outfit is conventional to the indie genre, as it is simplistic and ordinary as the clothes can be purchased at affordable shops and also the ordinariness makes the artist look relatable to the audience.Through the first two outfits which consist of dark clothing, they relate to the negative aspects of the content of the video. For instance, in the Camden Market Scene she is seen wearing black turtle neck top, jeans and shoes. During this scene there will be conflict seen between the artist and her partner, and the dark outfit will portray the troubled times she's in with her partner. Therefore, the outfit connotes the conflict theme of the narrative, by visually illustrating the emotions and distress of the artist through her clothing, giving the audience a further insight on the story being told. 

The third costume that our artist will be wearing includes an oversized jumper, with leggings and her make up will be minimal and hair in a messy bun hairstyle or a pony tail. This costume will be seen when she is at home, in the house with her girlfriend. The oversized jumper and leggings portray her as being comfortable and warm in the setting that she is in and represents her as being able to be herself when she's in this environment. This outfit is conventional to the indie genre as it shows the artist as normal because they're not wearing flashy clothing indoors, which the audience can relate with as they may wear this outfit when they're at home as well because they're in the comfort of their homes. Our artist will be wearing no shoes and this will further represent the artist as being comfy and relaxed in her home environment which the audience can relate to as home is seen as a place of privacy and where everyone can be themselves. The artists make up will be minimal and natural with likely just having mascara on to represent her as loose and composed in the setting she's in. Also having barely any make up with her partner, show the audience that the artist feels like they can be themselves and look natural around their partner which portrays their relationship as honest. Her hair will either be in a mess bun or a ponytail in this scene. This also accompanies the representations of being comfortable in her home and show's she does not care about how she looks like as she's in doors. In addition, these hair styles are conventional to the indie genre as they look quite quirky and girlie and also are commonly worn by the target audience as well, which enables the audience especially girls to relate to her even more. 

The final costume that will be worn by our artist includes a cream dress with a denim jacket, black tights and Dr Marten boots. Her hair and make up will be more done, as she will have heavy eye make up, contoured cheeks and hair will be wavy, loose curls. This outfit will be seen when the artist is singing in the street and field. The cream dress will represent the artist as feminine and the colour cream connotes innocence, rare and purity which could portray our artist as rare and pure due to this song being included in her debut album. The denim jacket will portray our artist as retro and vintage which is conventional to the indie genre as these are quite 90s styled which portrays artist as old fashioned. Also, the blue in the denim jacket connotes peace, calmness and truthiness which could represent the artist this way and make the scenes where she is wearing this more sentimental and honest to her audience.Furthermore the oversized nature of the jacket could portray the hidden meaning of how all of her issues are over whelming her. However due to the connotations of being strong denim presents, this could convey that the artist is over whelmed but is trying to stay strong. Therefore, leading to her being idolised from the audience as they see her overcoming her struggles from her relationship through her costume.  She will also be wearing black tights as she will be outside, and it'll be cold because were shooting in the winter so this will make the scenes more realistic due to her wearing clothes suitable to the weather. The black tights further represent her as mysterious and dark which is used throughout the music video, which could show how she is present in the music video, but there is more to her so the audience feel intrigued to learn more about her and will do this by continuing watching her music videos. The shoes that she will be wearing are Dr Martens, which are conventional to the indie genre, as they look grungy. The use of these shoes will contrast her cream dress because instead of portraying her as innocent, these shoes will show that she is still rebellious and conveys her personality of being a rebel and unique but still feminine which allows the audience to understand her more as a person. Her hair will be loosely wavy which will represent her as natural and girly and also portray her as being free in the moment and expressive to her audience. This will help build a relationship with the audience as the loose curls will show her being as open to expressive her experiences which makes them feel entitled to know her more as an artist and person. When it comes to make up, it will be quite heavy than the make up before. She will have dark eye make up which will accompany the representation of being mystic and dark, also her face will be contoured to bring her face more defined. The use of having more make up on than the other scenes, is to show the different side of her looking quite glamorous but not too much, as she is performing to her audience and wants to look nice. Also, this supports Dyers theory of an artist being able to look ordinary and extraordinary as she is seen as ordinary in the narrative so the audience can relate to her experiences, but extraordinary when she is singing and playing an instrument so they see her as fascinating to watch in her performance. The use of this make up may be unconventional to the indie genre as they usually keep their make up natural, but were including this so that our artist stands out slightly from other indie artists so that she is seen as more unique and exclusive to her audience. 

The ways in which our target audience can build a relationship with the artist through their image is through their costume, hair and makeup. An example of this would be through make up, this is because the majority of the music video, our artist will look natural in the narrative parts which make the artist look normal and relatable to the audience as she is seen as ordinary and going through experiences that the audience can go through. Also, the connotations from the costume will help build a relationship with the audience as they can gain more understanding of the artists personality through them e.g. khaki green parker jacket connotes adventures and nature which could convey the artist as being adventurous and naturalistic. Planning artist image has helped me understand furthermore how to present our artist so that its conventional to the indie genre and appealing to the audience. Also, without planning the artists image, we wouldn't know beforehand what to include in our music video, and the costumes would not fit perfectly to our narrative because we rushed. Therefore, planning our artist image will help us connect our artist with the narrative and make it more understandable to the audience and also convey the indie genre successfully.