Set design research, developing our idea

After proposing our initial idea to Matt, we needed to make our set ideas more concrete so that we could start placing costume and makeup to each set as well as start to piece together a shot list. 

I made mood boards which corresponded to each set we wanted to create. Keeping some ideas which we initially pitched to Matt but also thinking of new ideas: 

A distressed wall- keeping in the colour scheme of warm tones (cream, orange etc.). This is good for close up and cut away shots- creates a focus on the artist. 

A black and white scene. Extras crowded round a table with candles on it and smashed clocks (things related to time like metronomes as well). We thought that this would look good aesthetically but also tie in with the theme of time we want to weave in throughout our music video. 

A scene of her in a bohemian style living room lying on a sofa. In this we can include birds eye view shots of her lip-syncing. 

The wall of clocks. A central scene in our piece that relates to the song 'Golden Hour'. 

To make our video more interesting, we needed to think of more set designs which would look good in our music video. I then came up with the idea of having our artist lying on a distressed wooden floor rearranging scrabble pieces into words that corresponded to the lyrics in the song. 

After creating this, we spoke to Matt, pitching our idea in more detail as well as pitching our new ideas (like the scrabble). 

The FEEDBACK we received: 

Matt continued to express how he enjoyed the set design of the wall of clocks and the overall theme of 'time' throughout our piece but brought up some things we could change: 

• The extras round the table could make the video seem less professional and doesn't really make sense in the video as we are trying to focus on the artist. 
• In terms of the sofa set, it could come across as boring so what can we do to add to this? 
• How can we create some sets that subtly relate to time but are not too obvious? 

How we addressed the feedback: 

First, we thought of things that relate to time to stimulate ideas: 

• pendulums 
• roman numerals 
• aging 
• day and night
• right age right time 

Then, we created some new, better set ideas with Matt that would make our video unique and much more interesting and coherent. 

SET LIST: 

• WALL OF CLOCKS

We kept this set design as we really like it and think that it'll come out well on camera in terms of wide shots and close up shots. It also translates to the theme of the whole video. 

• ROMAN NUMERALS GOBO 

After thinking of objects that relate to time and then finding the concept of roman numerals, we had the idea to have the artist lying on the distressed wooden floor whilst projected roman numerals all over the floor using a gobo light or projector as this will relate to our music video's concept better than the scrabble pieces which didn't really relate to our music video idea. 

• TABLE WITH SMASHED CLOCKS

We wanted to keep the table idea which contained references to time but decided to not include extras, just the artist. We then decided to look at the concept of 'right age right time' and then came up with the idea of duplicating the artist on screen, having her sit at both ends of the table, looking at herself. We were unsure whether or not we should create this scene in black and white because the name of the song is 'golden hour' and therefore has a a reference to colour. We discussed with Matt that we would shoot it in colour and then decide whether or not we would change it to black and white when editing the video. 

• PENDULUM LIGHTING

When we mentioned pendulums we had the idea of created some sort of swinging lights or objects that would cross over the artist in a set location. This is quite an abstract idea of 'time' but still relates to it subtly. 

• SOFA COMBINED WITH DISTRESSED WALL 

Because the distressed wall and sofa sets were quite plain on their own, we decided to combine them together so we could then film the artist in multiple different places in the room. We also had the idea to get a vintage phone for the artist to interact with- this also relates to the lyrics in the song: 'call me at the perfect time' and 'call me at the golden hour'. 

THINGS WE NOW NEED TO CONSIDER: 

• Do we want to use a sunset lamp? We can see how it works with different sets and how it shows up on camera. 
• Need to make sure we have consistent warm lighting that continues throughout each set that is slighting moving to add texture but also to make our video coherent. 
• sourcing props- need to find clocks and other props. 
• Start to think of each costume and which costume we want to match with each set (along with hair and make-up).