Discussing and Designing lighting

We decided to discuss the lighting that we wanted to have throughout our video so that we wouldn't have to waste time on shoot day deciding on our lighting choices. 

As a group we talked through how we wanted the lighting to be similar throughout in order to maintain a coherent video. Because the music video is based on the 'golden hour', we want to replicate this in our lighting by using orange/yellow flood lights that will also compliment our model's skin tone. 

After watching Mahalia's music video 'Simmer', this really inspired us to replicate her lighting in our own music video as the orange wash that is used in her video looks really effective the r&b style music video. 

We also discussed that it would be really effective if we replicated a sunset in our lighting by having the lights move from left to right to imply the 'golden hour'. During our sofa set, we want more brighter lighting so that the props in the scene will be more prominent. During the projections set we decided that although we still want orange toned lighting, we want it to be more dark and low-key so that the roman numeral projections are as obvious as possible. 

Van Zoonen: feminist theories

 Van Zoonen came up with multiple theories: 

• we get our ideas about gender from discourse (written and moving image communication). Like magazines, video games etc. We learn what it is to be female/male from the media products we consume. We see repeated representations of men being portrayed as action heroes and therefore we believe that men have to be heroic and powerful. Seeing females as the damsel in distress in films make us believe that femininity means to be vulnerable. 

• Our ideas about gender have to be looked at in terms of the context, historical context and cultural context- the ideas of gender change depending on this factors. Our ideas of what is was to be feminine in the 1980s may have differed from our perception of being feminine in 2021. 

In the 1980s, being domestic was seen as a feminine attribute. 

• She believes that women are often objectified in the media - this can be seen in a variety of media. She believes that this objectification is present because we live in a patriarchal society. Women are particularly objectified within the music industry: 

• She believes women and men are represented as two very different genders. Women are domestic, men are for the workplace and are involved in politics, men are seen as more individualistic.
• She also believes that men and women's bodies are presented in different ways. Men's bodies are seem as 'spectacle' meaning that men's bodies are seem as spectacular and strong (muscles, abs). We should admire men's bodies through the hard work they have done to achieve this body type. However, females bodies are something we should lust over, not something that they have worked hard to gain. 

Jean Kilbourne: gender theory

Jean Kilbourne wrote a book called 'Killing Us Softly' which particularly focused on the reputation of women in advertising, but her theories can be applied to a range of media products (like music videos). 

Her theories: 

1. believes that the media sexualises and objectifies women's bodies - portraying their bodies as the most important part about them.
2. Believes the media places a huge importance on thinness and losing weight, and demonises women that are not thin. A focus on women trying to be thin, an unhealthy ideal. 
3. She thought that the media plays on women's insecurities to sell them addictive products with the promise of being able to change their bodies. For example: selling dietary products. 
4. Believes that the media glamourizes violence, particularly sexualised images of violence, against women. 
5. Women are presented as needing to be flawless- having no pores, no moles, no facial hair, no wrinkles etc. In comparison, men did not have to be constantly shown like this in the media. 
6. She believed that women were often seen as passive in media products
7. Believes that women are often dismembered by framing in media products, with the focus on their body parts as decoration, and not on their face, or them as being human. A lot of the time in advertising, women's faces are actually cut off so only their body parts are present; the idea that it is the body that is what's seen as important, not the face or personality. 

In this image you can see how violence and dominance over women is normalized and actually romanticised in the Dolce and Gabbana advert.

In this advert, flawless skin is shown as perfection and what is needed to be achieved- normal skin is not in the media and therefore women think that it is bed. 

In this Fendi advert, only the models legs are on display suggesting that her legs are the only significant part of her as her face is cut out. 

This magazine cover shows how women's only purpose is to have a 'sexy' body and be portrayed for the male gaze only. 

Laura Mulvey: the male gaze

Laura Mulvey is a feminist theorist who believes that women in the media are often represented through the 'male gaze' -we are shown women from the perspective of heterosexual men. For example, close ups are shown sexualizing female body parts, women are dressed in revealing clothing designed to be attractive to a male audience. 

Mulvey stated that 'In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly'. 

This means that the media products assume the audience is straight and male based, and presents women to them for their pleasure. 

Something that Mulvey noticed during her research was that men in film were often in the centre of the action and narrative; often presented as powerful and dominant, playing an active role in the plot. She found that women were primarily passive, playing only minor roles in the narrative. Women had things done to them rather than doing things themselves (stereotypically). In conclusion, she believed that narratives are heavily gendered in a binary way, with men being the active heroes, and women being the passive decorations/damsels. 

Mulvey also argues that for women, the result of media being presented from the perspective of men and through the male gaze, women find themselves, at time, taking of the male gaze- only being able to view themselves through a man's eyes. Women therefore gaze at other women in the same way a male would, and thus end up objectifying other women. This has proven toxic in today's society as women constantly compare themselves to other women in order to make themselves feel attractive towards heterosexual men. 

Combining set with costume

Because we want our artist to be presented as fashionable and cool in terms of her star persona, we wanted to focus on her costume a lot to make it appealing to an audience. We started to look at images online of similar clothing we want our artist to wear for each set:

Costume 1 and set 1:

Set one is the wall of clocks. As a group we wanted an outfit that would make our artist come across as stylish and trendy yet not take away anything from the detail that the wall of clocks will be creating. Having her wear something simplistic will allow the audience to draw attention to the set yet we still want her to be fashionable due to the star persona we want to create for her.

 costume ideas for this set: 

We opted for some sort of oversized blazer as this is a current item of clothing that is trending at the moment. We thought that a brown tweed blazer would match the authentic look we are trying to create for the artist but also be coherent with some of the clocks in the background set.

 

 

 

 

 

To pair with the blazer, we chose a simple white vest top. This is because the blazer is quite a statement and therefore we wouldn't want the outfit to be too much. We were also potentially thinking that we could dress her in an orange vest top under the blazer as it would go together with the theme of the 'golden hour' - this is a detail we will decide closer to our shoot day when we make final decisions. 

 

 

 

 

 

We will pair this with a black mini skirt. 

 

We want her to wear black boots/doc martins as we feel this will give her an 'edge' in terms of her star persona. These will also make her look more personable and grounded in a way as she will look more casual. 

Costume 2 and set 2:

Set 2 will be our apartment set up where our artist will be lip syncing throughout various different parts of the set. For this, we want our artist to look more casual so that she looks like she is actually at a home in a sense. 

costume ideas for this set:  

We decided we wanted our model to wear an oversized orange top to incorporate the theme of the 'Golden Hour', an oversized top will also make her look more relaxed and casual. 

 

 

 

We would pair the oversized top with satin shorts, this will not only look fashionable but also relaxed which is what we are aiming for for this set.  

 

  

Having her wear leg warmers so that it emphasises the idea of comfort and warmth.

 

 

 

 

Costume 3 and set 3:

Set three will show our artist interacting with a large handing pendulum which indicates the theme of time. Because this set does not have any elaborate colours or striking features, we would like to use this section of the music video to dress our artist in something more cool and fashionable.

 

costume ideas for this set:

We want her to be wearing an orange silky dress, this will look classy and also fit in with the colour scheme and aesthetic of the video that we want to achieve. 

  

 

As a hair accessory we wanted to use this green bandana, as green and orange work well together. 

 

  

Then to add more detail to the outfit we wanted to put her in cowboy boots that have orange embroidered detailing. 

     

Costume 4 and set 4:

For this set, our artist will be sitting at a table displayed with objects that reference time scattered on the table. With editing techniques, we will show her sitting with herself on the table- facing herself.

 

So for this costume idea, we wanted to use:

 

 We chose a white button down shirt, this will make her look formal yet trendy. 

 

we will pair this oversized shirt with a black mini skirt.  

 

 

Costume 5 and set 5:

For our fifth set, the artist will be lying on a wooden floor with roman numerals projected over her body. For this, we want her to look high fashion whilst continuing to match the colour scheme.

 

 

costume ideas for this set:

We want to try and find a loose fitted mesh top that she could wear. Potentially with something underneath it. 

 

  

I also believe that choosing this with these low waisted pink embroidered trousers would bring a more light tone into the outfit. Although, we might change this idea due to pink not necessarily matching our initial colour scheme so it may look out of place. 

Then from the previous scene we could reuse her Dr Martens and use them to add edge to the outfit and make it more edgy. 

 

Although these costume ideas may change and develop as we move on with our project, I feel more stable now that we have these initial ideas about what kind of fashion we want our artist dressed in. 

Editing workshop - editing a music video

When editing music videos, there is a very particular order in which you have to edit. what you do first if all is a performance cut (this is slightly different for solo artists), then a narrative cut, and finally you place any effects work that needs to be done. After all this is edited, you then use colouring to finalize and perfect the video. 

List of the order of editing (particularly for a band's music video):

• Performance cut 
• narrative cut 
• special effects 
• colouring

If you edit in this order, you wont be get into a situation where you spend too much time on creating an effect that ends up getting cut from the video. 

When first loading up a project on Adobe Premiere Pro, there is a screen on the left hand side that is context sensitive which will keep changing according to what clip is being looked at. On the right hand side, it displays the video screen which shows the video you have edited. On the bottom right of the screen, it shows the sequence of videos which you cut to your liking and on the bottom left side of the screen it displays the rushes (un-cut videos from your shoot day).

When first receiving the rushes back to start editing, the first job to do is to sync up the footage with the music. This is done by using a clapper board, this is a screen which displays a running number visible in the shot before the filming is done which we are then able to match up with the time code of the song. The clapper board beeps and counts in the song. To sync up the video with the song, you drop in the video on the display screen and place it on the same number that is seen in the footage on the timeline. You can then play the video footage with the music to see if you have synced it up correctly. 

When putting together footage on the timeline, it is really important to label the footage on timeline as clear and specific as possible so that the editing process does not become confusing. 

It is crucial when editing to keep your footage organized so that the video doesn't therefore become harder to edit and refine at the end. It is also important when editing to take your time when altering footage to make sure you are completing tasks correctly. 

When editing your music video you need to follow these main rules: 

• listen to the music and illustrate what is heard 

This means that your footage and shot durations should correlate with the rhythm and timing of the music. Or, if there is a significant lyric, the singer should be shown in a close up. Similarly, if there is an instrumental section of the music, the band should be shown in a wide shot. 

• group your shots together

If there is an image of, for example a guitarist, the video should display at least 2 shots of the guitarist before moving onto a different image (instead of just a singular shot). This stops the video looking random and helps to make the video look more coherent. 

• follow the movement in your footage 

This means that if you have the artist doing the same movement in two different sets, you can cut footage together where the artist completes the movement- making a seamless cut. Similarly, if the artist is performed a gesture, you can also mimic the gesture with the camera movement. 

Editing a solo artist is much more difficult compared to editing a music video for  a band. For a band, you do a performance cut of the band whereas for a solo artist you cannot do this. 

When looking at editing for a solo artist, we took a look a Katy Perry music video ('I kissed a girl'). 

The sets on screen and the artists delivery have to be really well thought out as that's where the audiences focus is on. In this music video, the set location changes throughout about every 30 seconds (whenever the music changes) before reprising all the sets at the end. However, some solo artist music videos use different sets throughout the music video and intertwine different footage in editing. Because you cannot do performance cuts, you can use the artist movement to demonstrate the beat in the music - this is shown in the Katy Perry music video. 

It is important whilst editing to have a storyboard so that you know what to do when editing your video- this will be our next step. 

Target Audience

When establishing target audience, we had to consider genre, ethnicity and gender so that we could target our video to an audience that would create the most successful response. 

Looking into genre and gender: 

Typically, the R&B genre targets young adults from 13-25, this is because the artists are commonly big stars in the industry. As well as this, the male artists in the R&B genre attract young females because of their looks and vice versa; if a female artist is in the video it attracts a younger male audience because of their sexualized nature and therefore are viewed through the 'male gaze'. As well as this, female R&B artists are often young and dressed in high-fashion outfits which are popular for young women. 

Looking into ethnicity:

Music videos containing people of colour typically attract those of colour (as well as other ethnicities) because they can be seen as a role model or as a figure to aspire to be. 

I then researched into similar artists to our own and researched into their target audiences: 

SZA's target audience (research found from 'AdTargeting'): 

Those of ages 25-34 accounted for 42.16% of listeners and the age group of 18-24 accounted for 37.32%. Women accounted for 35.2% and men accounted for 64.8%. 

Jorja Smith's target audience (research found from 'InfluencerIntelligence'): 

Her audience typically falls within the 20-24 age bracket, accounting for slightly more female followers across all her platforms. 

Ella Mai's target audience (research found from 'starngage'): 

On her social media platforms, 50.4% of her audience are female and the other 49.6% are male.

Our target audience: 

After completing research regarding target audiences of the same genre and looking into artists with similar music and ethnicities, we came to a conclusion that our age range for our target audience would be 15-30. This is because in all the research completed, R&B music videos typically are more popular with younger audiences. We also think that our campaign will predominantly be more popular with women (especially women of colour) as this is the same gender of our artist. However, our campaign will also aim to be popular with male audiences as our artist will be presented with the 'male gaze' in mind. 

Research into music videos with similar visual elements

In order to make our video as successful as possible, I decided to look into music videos which contain similar visual elements to our music video plan. 

I first created a list naming some of the imagery that will be seen in our music video: 

• distressed wall 
• theme of time 
• sofa, chill apartment 
• Long table with the artist on 
• duplicating the artist on screen 
• low key lighting- orange, sunset feel 
• potentially the video will be partially black and white 
• projections 
• fashionable- focus on the artist and her style and star persona

I then did my research into finding multiple different music videos which contain one or more of these elements to see how they are visually communicated to the audience so I could create a gage of why and how they are appealing to an audience. 

Music videos I found --> 

Olivia Nelson's 'Oblivion'

Similar visual elements that this video contains: 

• distressed wall 
• shot inspiration 

I think this music video contains a lot of similarity of how we would like our music video to come across in terms of star persona and overall atmosphere. The video seems laid back and chilled yet it keeps the audience interested due to the editing style as well as the lighting. 

I really liked the types of shots used in this music video (like upside down shots, panning shots and interesting transitions) and I think that taking inspiration from this will help to uplift and elevate  our music video to the next level. 

Olivia Nelson's 'Oblivion', also contains a distressed wall similar to our own, it helps to create an aesthetic for the video as she places herself by the wall in various different positions which is what we will do similarly in our video. Because she is a smaller artist, it is also a small budget video but still looks professional and well made which is what we are aiming to create for our music video. 

The artist also wears extravagant eye-makeup which helps to enhance her star persona as an artist and we will similarly do this when styling our artist. 

Craig David's '7 days'

Similar visual elements that this video contains: 

• Theme of time 

When researching into music videos with clocks or a theme of time, I could not find a music video with a direct link to our music video (for example, finding a music video with a wall of clocks). However, I found Craig David's '7 days' which displays a running theme of time like our own. 

This song has lyrics that match the theme of time like 'nine was the time' and 'we chilled on Sunday'- the video reflects this. This is very alike to our own because we also have a running theme of time due to our lyrics (like 'call me at the perfect time' and 'golden hour') which will be interwoven throughout our video. 

The video interweaves shots of a digital clock throughout the music video to help enhance the narrative and keep the audience engaged which is what we will be doing with our 'wall of clocks' set.  

Jorja Smith's 'Be Honest'

Similar visual elements that this video contains: 

• Sofa set

In Jorja Smith's R&B, she displays a similar vibe to the atmosphere of our music video: chilled and relaxed by using a living room set. She lies on the sofa like how we want our artist too. From analysing this music video, I can tell that this set is particularly interesting for an audience because it has loads of visual elements within it. The detail that is involved within the set (like lampshades, photos, fans) helps to keep the audience engaged is something I would like to involve in our music video for example using posters, a lamp, an old telephone. 

Jorja Smith's 'Home'

Similar visual elements that this video contains:

• table 

In this music video 'Home' by Jorja Smith, there is a prominent scene where we see extras gathered round a table set involved in some sort of dinner. The video includes multiple different shots like panning shots of the table and mid shots of characters facial expressions. However, the shots which I thought were really clever were the close ups of different things on the table like wine glasses. The shots are visually appealing because of the composition but also because the focus pulls onto different elements of the close ups throughout which is something I think we should use and take into account when filming our music video. The lighting is also quite dark and low-key, similar to our plan for our shoot day. 

Kylie Minogue's 'Come into my World'

Similar visual elements that this video contains: 

• Duplicate screen 

In Kylie Minogue's 'Come into my World', the videos narrative focuses on the artist walking around France. The camera tracks her walking past shops living care free. About one minute into the video, Kylie Minogue becomes duplicated on screen and we see two of her walking on the street. This is visually appealing for the audience because it is unique but also we are able to see her do two things at once, it adds texture to the video. Her and the duplicate of herself take in turns to sing the lyrics as well as also singing in unison at points which looks cool to the eye. I'm hoping that this concept will too look visually pleasing in our video as we have the artist looking at herself across a long table. 

Mahalia's 'Simmer'

Similar visual elements this this video contains: 

• lighting 

In Mahalia's video for her R&B song 'Simmer', I noticed how she uses lighting to create a strong atmosphere and vibe in her music video- her lighting has strongly influenced me into how I would like the lighting to turn out in our music video. The lighting is soft and orange and continues throughout the video to make it look put together. In our music video, I would like to try and imitate this lighting as it would immediately reflect the 'golden hour' image that the song is entirely based on. Having a visual representation of the lighting that we want to achieve is useful as we can now look back and reference this video. 

Jorja Smith's 'blue lights'

Similar visual elements that this video contains: 

• black and white inspiration 

Although we are still undecided whether or not we would like to include a black and white sequence in our music video I thought as though it was still important to do some research into it to look at shot composition to see if it would be effective in our video if we decided to change our table scene into black and white during editing. In this 'Blue Lights' music video, the black and white works really well as it helps to create more detail and atmosphere as the music video itself is quite simple and therefore I think that if we did decide to include this in our video it would hopefully have the same effect. 

Willow's 'sweater' 

Similar visual elements that this music video contains: 

• projections 

In our music video, we will be projecting roman numerals onto our artist to thread through the theme of time and the golden hour throughout. Although I could not find a straight relation to this in a music video, I did find Willow's 'Sweater' which uses projections throughout to show different locations. The projections are extremely effective as they help to drive the narrative as well as creating a unique take on suggesting locations in a music video as the artist stays in the same white box the whole music video whilst multiple projects are reflected onto him. After analysing this video, it made me confident that our projections would work well in our music video as they are work really well visually in 'sweater'. 

SZA's 'Drew Barrymore'

Similar visual elements that this video contains: 

• lowkey lighting
• fashionable 
• sofa in apartment

SZA's Drew Barrymore contains multiple different elements that are similar to our music video pitch. She uses low-key lighting throughout to help create a chilled, relaxed atmosphere throughout which is also what we would like to replicate. Throughout the video, the artist wears high fashion outfits which help to contribute to her star persona which is what we would also like to do to create a focus on our artist and to also imply her high fashion persona. At the beginning of the music video, SZA wakes up in an apartment and lies on a sofa (we similarly have a sofa set in our music video), I particularly liked how she was shot from a birds-eye view perspective and think that we could also use this as inspiration in our video in terms of shot types. 

Shoot day roles

We decided to allocate roles for shoot day in order to work efficiently as possible and therefore create the best music video we can. Allocating these roles will also keep us more organised, we will be able to individually focus on certain tasks and therefore each detail of our music video will be executed with more effort. 

Director : Everyone

Because this is a collaborative project where we all donated ideas in contribution to our music video, we think that we should all take on this role on shoot day. We all have a strong grasp of what our music video is focused and therefore will all be able to give direction on the day as a group. 

Editor : Poppy (me) 

I would like primarily be in charge of editing once our music video is finished filming as I really enjoyed this process when creating opening sequence in my first year coursework. I think that I have an eye for detail and therefore I can look for continuity within our video and then piece together shots that look visually appealing together. 

Hair and Make-up : Poppy and Anna 

Both me and Anna will be taking charge of hair and make-up on shoot day. We both enjoy practicing these things in our spare time hence we have experience to make our artists features stand out and look good in the music video- doing her hair and make-up in relation to the aesthetic of our video. 

Costume : Tilly 

Tilly has a strong interest in fashion and works well with colour pallets and so we assigned her this role because she can source costumes that will match the aesthetic of each set in our video. 

Lighting : Poppy

Because I enjoyed the lighting workshop with Matt, I said that I could look over the lighting design for our video. We want to keep the lighting similar throughout to make a coherent video and therefore I will do my best to keep the lighting low-key on shoot day. 

Camera operator : Anna

Anna has a good experience in working with cameras from working over summer and therefore understands the camera well and so she said she would enjoy doing this role on shoot day. 

Clapper board : Poppy

This role is important because it helps to sync up the music with the video being shot- because I am not filming the piece (Anna is), I said that I would take on this role and would be able to focus on keeping the sync between the video and music. 

Behind the scenes photography and videos : Everyone

We are all present on shoot day and therefore will all be able to take photos of the process which we can use in our blogs but also when advertising our artist on social media.

Digipak and Social Media page photography : Tilly

Tilly takes photography A Level so she can then shoot professional pictures of our artist which we can advertise on her social media page as well as put on the digipak. 

Digipak design / construction : Everyone 

We would all like to contribute to the digipak design as we want to make sure we are all content with the design and layout of it. 

Social Media page design / construction : Everyone

Similar to the digipak, we would all like to have roles in creating our social media page for the artist so we can all collaberate with ideas and then be happy on the outcome. 

Set Design meeting

Today, we met with the set designer (Fran) to discuss our idea for our music video. We first talked through our pitch and what our music video was about and played her the song 'Golden Hour' so she could grasp an idea for the aesthetic we were going for. Then, we showed her visual pictures of what we wanted each of our sets to look like and we talked through them, discussing what she could make and what we had to source. 

There were no problems with any of our pitches which was convenient as we now don't have to adapt our idea. She said that she could create a distressed wall for us and a rustic wooden table. In terms of her creating the wooden table, we had to think about how much of the table legs we wanted in our music video shots, we came to the conclusion that the table legs did not to be seen and therefore she could create a more realistic table that relates to our initial idea the most. This table will also be able to be detachable from its legs and therefore we can use it as the floor in one of our sets. 

We discussed the idea of having some sort of swinging pendulums and she said that she could create something for us that imitates the movement of the clock piece. 

After this meeting, I made a set and props checklist, naming who needed to source what to keep us organised and prepared for our shoot day. Having all our set pieces on one document is also useful so we can visualize the video as a whole as well as to make sure we don't have anything missing on the day we shoot our music video. 

We need about 20 clocks for our shoot and have to source these ourselves so we need to search for clocks in charity shops and car boot sales etc. because we want to make sure the wall of clocks is full. 

SET AND PROPLIST CHECKLIST: 

Lighting workshop

Today, Matt took us through a lighting workshop and guided us through lighting techniques that we could use in our music videos. He discusses with us multiple different types of lighting so that we could chose the relevant lighting that would relate to the style of our music videos. 

This light is called a 'red head' (normally the body of the light is red, hence the name). Red head lights are key lights which are very bright and powerful which is why they have a protective mesh over the bulb so that when the bulb breaks (which is inevitable), the glass won't create a hazard. To diffuse the strong red head lighter, you use 'trace' which is a waxy paper that goes on top of the bulb which makes the lighting softer and less harsh on the models face. 

 

  

Another key lighting term we learnt were the use of 'fill lights', these lights help to fill in light which is not covered by the key light, eliminating shadows. 

 

A 'blonde' light is used placed behind the artist to fill out background lighting. The style of lighting was originally created in the 1970s. 

Matt then talked us through 'beauty lighting' as well as 'blade runner lighting'. Blade runner lighting is creating a harsh line of light around the artist (this may be good for rock bands potentially). Beauty lighting is essentially created a huge bathroom light for the artist, Matt used a huge diffuser (a big white board) and a polystyrene board which helped to bounce light back on the other side of the model's face. 

 This is a 'matte box' which helps to block out any unwanted lighting and to keep the focus on the model. 

We then looked at fluorescent lighting where beams of led lights are used to illuminate the artist. These lights also look good aesthetically so there is also the option of them being able to be in shot in a music video. 

We then looked at 'photo flo' lighting, which is a lightweight and versatile light which gives out a flattering soft key lighting effect: 

 

This light is called a 'photon beard' which creates a warm blue effect.