The genre of Western and Country is shown through mise-en-scene. It can be shown by costumes, lighting, acting and proxemics, makeup, props and the setting. The hat and boots connote the wild side of country music for example, cowboys and are a convention of the genre. This could also be shown through the “Wild West” setting. The brown colours of the lighting create a rustic style.
As media producers, we encoded this costume with the style of Country and Western. We wanted the audience to decode this and it is exactly what they had done as they had been given an organic, chill, calm, happy, romantic, quiet and relaxed vibe from him. This meant we had succeeded in producing the right costume for the genre.
This sheet shows all the poses we made our model stand in. We referenced the costume from our mood board we had made. Most of the pictures came out well, such as him looking into the distance to make him look mysterious. Despite this, I would have made some improvements, for example the lighting is very bright. It would’ve been better if we added a brown filter to make it seem like we were in the “Wild West”. Also, in a few images, he could’ve put his guitar in a different position instead of holding it the same.
This is the final image I have chosen. The outfit clearly shows the genre of Country and Western by the plaid, cowboy hat and the guitar. This image seems to work better than the others due to the position of his face and the expression he’s showing. In our reference image, it shows the country singer looking into the distance with a straight face which shows mysteriousness. Our model has done that which makes this image the most effective.
Overall, it’s really important to use mise-en-scene as it defines the genre. If we had dressed our model in a polo shirt with jeans, it would be more towards the style of pop. Also, if the lighting was dark colours, it would give the image of a punk or metal genre. This would’ve given the wrong impression to the audience.