Lighting research into our male models scenes.

LIGHTING RESEARCH

 

 

The lighting for our video will vary as our models are a variety of race. Our research helps us determine how to use the lighting in order to create the right tone yet also capture the model correctly. There is a blue tone to this video which promotes his feelings as it appears dark and dismal, this emotion is enhanced by his gestures and the close up of his head in his hands. We will do something similar to this when we create his conscience in a scene, he will use his hands and facial expression to create the tone as he will shut his eyes and drop his head in his hands. We will also experiment with a blue gel over the lens of the camera to create a similar effect as our research. The blue tint will be minimal as the room will be dark as we will control the lighting to highlight certain areas, therefore the black and slightly blue areas will create a cold tone that reflects his depression and his reflective mood.

 
These shots in the same video use a red tint this is a stark contrast to the blue tint that comes before these scenes. The colour red is brought in through the lighting, the colour alcohol and the red cups. This makes the scenes appear quite ominous as red is related to danger and sinister moods. We will use red cups in our video as a lot of our research uses them in parties, we will have some girls wearing red and we will use a red gel over one of the cameras to get footage with a red tint as well as normal footage from the other cameras. As it will be a party in a dark room the light source will be minimal with only fairy lights hanging up therefore the red tint wont be too overpowering it will be seen the most on skin which is similar to the footage in our research.

This video brings the red in by using a red light in the corner when it is mostly blue, the red scene then appears as if the reason he is feeling down, emphasized by the blue light, is because of the scenes emphasized by the red light. We will create something similar as our message is blaming the party and his drinking for our models depressive state therefore we will practice using torches that have a red gel around them to determine whether we can create a slight red light to ease the red scenes into the video in a way that will relate.

I have used this video as research into how an enigma is shown. This relates to our video as we will use footage that is created by our models mind therefore we need to highlight this so that people are aware this is a fabrication of his mind. We are using a girl similar to this video and we are using a boy that cant stop thinking about her. Therefore our plan and this video has a lot of related footage that we can take ideas from.

This woman is shown in white and it is blurred to show a fuzzy image to emphasize what he’s seeing isn’t real. The man that thinks he is seeing this woman turns quickly and uses his facial features to show disbelief as he is aware what he’s seeing isn’t real. This will be similar to our video as the girl will never be in it properly therefore people can question her existence and whether she is dead or not.

Using this research as inspiration we will blur the footage we use of the girl as it will show her existence is questionable as the picture isn’t as clear as the others. We will put her in clothing that doesn’t suit the rest of the footage such as a white dress when she is in the bath and school uniform in the images of her. She will only ever appear when he is seen to be thinking therefore showing how he produces her with his thoughts. His facial features when he thinks he sees her at the party will show disbelief as if he knows she couldn’t be there, this will ensure the audience is aware of what she is in the video.

This is another video which uses similar methods in the video to incorporate a certain colour that reflects the mood. This is using red in a different way as it is a vibrant red which grabs the audiences attention. The tone is lively in this video as the bright red is creating a fun atmosphere rather than dangerous. This shows how the brightness of the colours can determine the tone therefore the lighting is crucial in terms of the message we want to convey. This video uses red cups, red lights and red liquor which is all the same as the other video therefore these are common features in music videos that would fit into our own as it will show how our research influenced our video.

These clips highlight how the main person has entered the party, the camera remains still in order to watch him in the crowd to show his popularity and importance within the video. This video uses the camera to capture the back of him walking in, we will do something similar however the camera will be on the front of him as he enters and then the back of him to create an array of shots that capture his entrance from different angles in order to vary them in the editing.



I created this research in order to plan how we will film our video when it comes to creating shots that are similar to these ones. By researching videos that use a model of the same ethnicty to ours ensures we are aware of how to shoot our model successfully. This lighting research helped us determine that we will use red and blue gels in order to create the sinister mood. As it will be shot in a dark room the colour wont be bright and bold it will be quite dismal which relates to our message.

Research into other music video's by our chosen artist.

Reasearch into other music video's by our chosen artist.

Poetic Justice Kendrick ft Drake

• Starts in a dark desolate place, similar to the effect we are going for as it looks depressing. Dark colours – dark sky, dark roads, and dark cars.
• People start to appear seeming happy (slightly like our party scene) however, unlike swimming pools the boy is not isolated from the party and is enjoying himself with friends while watching a girl we assume he likes.
• Turns to a shot of him rapping on a podium, like the one in swimming pools, however a much lighter atmosphere as he is not hiding his face behind a hood or looking depressed.
• Back to the scene of everybody enjoying themselves, however something happens that we do not know and in slow motion everybody starts to flee as a warning to something bad happening the dark colours may have been displaying this.
• We then move onto drakes verse first with a close up shot of the phone calling Drake, one quite like what we will portray in our video, however, ours will be from several texts from his mother and friends.
• Drake’s scene is bright; he is in white clothing with white bedding and a bright room, away from the rest of the people. This clothing is similar to our main characters clothing when he is alone in a dark room.
• A shot of someone who has been shot and is lying on the floor, however, we do not know what is going on or what has happened we can use the shots he has used to keep the mystery on this with our enigma Lily as we plan to keep her as a mystery.
• Casual wear of a jumper with a black background and just a headshot of drake rapping, a girl fading in and out as we assume she is who he is rapping about.
• Drake fades out and comes a head on shot of an ambulance then the camera spins around and shows the faces of everybody we had seen earlier having a good time at the party looking sad and depressed, hinting to us that the person that has been shot was shot here.
• Camera moves smoothly across the crowd and zooms into the devastation on their faces and how they are standing/reacting proving to us that the incident did in fact take place here, the setting is no longer vibrant but the dark colours are shown with the clothes and the choice of a black and white scene.
• The words ‘love hurts’ then appears on screen with a black background and we see a downward shot of the boy shot defending his girlfriend/girl he loves as he lays on top of her, suggesting to the audience that he was protecting her.
• The girl and boy are then shown in black clothes against a white wall as he raps, however, it then keeps flicking back to the scene of them both dead, but to end the video there is a rewinding effect used and we see the scenes repeated of the party where they are both smiling together.

Overall, poetic justice is an emotional video which tells a story of a boy very much in love as he would die for his girlfriend. This can influence our music video as we want to tell a powerful story with our video we can use many of these techniques. It is evident when comparing this to our chosen song by Kendrick Swimming Pools that he uses the same techniques in his videos a lot as many of the shots are the same, especially with both videos being very dark and meaningful. He likes to portray a powerful message and manages to do this well in both videos and we can use both as inspiration.

Kendrick Lamar – Bitch Don’t kill my vibe

·         Very close shots, firstly of church seats and we see a child’s head from round the side this show innocence, purity, goodness as both children and religion teach this, it then stays as a close shot but of three men all dressed in white; again bright colours showing innocence –completely opposite from the rest of his videos which have started dark and depressed, like ours.

·         Different views of the church, everyone in white, a child praying, but then we go to Kendrick who is at the back of the church away from everybody else, however, still wearing white and the scene is very bright and light.

·         For a moment it is dark with a few candles, then we switch to Kendrick in his white outfit still in an open field, the open space could represent being free.

·         Back to the church, he leaves from where he was standing alone, walks through the crowd where everything from their clothes to the floor tiles is white and as he approaches the alter we see it is in fact a funeral, the casket being white we assume somebody innocent has died.

·         He leaves, enters a white limo we are seeing the continuity of the colour white playing out, however we are now seeing the grief on peoples faces as we have a close up of a woman crying and he is in the back of the limo looking upset, the coffin is placed in the back of a car.

·         It then switches to a shot of him and his friends partying with champagne in the back of the limo, now looking happy, switches to the countryside again I feel this represents his mind as when a meaningful lyric happens we see this shot, when he is thinking about his actions.

·         Baptism in a ‘pool full of liquor’ reference to swimming pools but also maybe religion being corrupt?

·         We then see the funeral commencing in the countryside where he was based alone, everyone again in white – ironic for a funeral as people tend to wear black they are all looking sad once again, but within an instant they are all dancing and celebrating as if to celebrate life which could be the reason for the white outfits.

·         Ends with everybody happy, but then a close up of somebody dropping the white rose then a black screen and the words ‘death to molly’ which wraps the idea of the video up, molly being a drug he wants it to be stopped. The funeral represented the death of the drug and everybody was wearing white as instead of a sad occasion this was a celebration.

 

Overall, I think that this video contrasts from the other two we have looked at by Kendrick, the light is completely different and he is seen as much happier, even though he is continuing to pursue a dark story he has gone about it in a very different way which came across as intriguing and I often found myself not knowing what was going to happen next. This relates to our video as the audience would feel this way during the scenes of Lilly the enigma as she is always a mystery within the storyline. The use of white clothes links to our music video as both our male model and Lilly wear white within some of their scenes. The hint of death links to ours but only slightly as we influence the audience to feel like Lilly is dead, however, we don’t show it as blatantly like in this video.

Ignorance Is Bliss – Kendrick Lamar

·         In this video we are tracking someone but with a very low view shot as we are following their feet as they climb over a fence and walk on the grass, they then lean down we see their outfit is all black his face hidden by a hood and he crouches by a grave – once again we know we are in for a story video.

·         We then go to a close up of him swigging alcohol through a bottle, the way he is shown with this is very helpful to us as we are using our main model as an alcoholic and this is a shot we were looking into.

·         We are back tracking him from behind again; he continues to swig from the bottle and then climbs back over the fence, away from the grave.

·         The shots are all very close as he is in a car we see the close up of the drivers hand, focusing on a tattoo – could be symbolic? He then picks up a bottle of alcohol and passes it back to Kendrick, we see a shot of just his face and the bottle hitting his lips as he swigs, he then puts the bottle down and hides his face in the hood showing a very depressed state of mind.

·         He stares out the window, the camera jumps to a group of boys that then flee the shot then jumps to Kendrick who is now holding a gun, camera goes to the floor of a bottle smashed as a boy lifts his arms in surrender – the glass dropping is another shot we plan to use and can use this as inspiration on how to show this.

·         Camera is switching between the boy who seems to be who Kendrick wants, the one responsible for the death of his friend and Kendrick, showing their facial expressions, adding to the anticipation of us wondering if he is actually going to shoot him.

·         The camera focuses on Kendrick for a while as we see determination in his face, a focus on his face as though he is fighting for a cause, the shot is fired and quickly the screen goes black with the title ‘ignorance is bliss’ an abrupt ending.

Overall, with this video once again was a story and Kendrick shows us a different way of portraying a sad story. This time it was a lot less about lighting and colours as there was not direct correlation the light outside was a bright summers day and the only darkness was in his clothing, however, the camera was really important in this video it had to make many quick switches and had a lot of work, never staying in the same shot for more than 10- 20seconds. This added much more dramatic effect and is something we should consider in our video. This links to our video when the friend passes him the bottle as our video features his friends influencing his drinking as they encourage him to drink at parties and to come out all the time. Our models clothing will be quite similar as we need the mood to appear dark and depressing throughout. Facial expressions will be used in our video to highlight the sadness in our main models face and the fear and innocence in Lilly’s face.

Research into our chosen artist.

Research into our chosen artist.

 

 
Kendrick Lamar, Born June 17, 1987.

- Signed to independent record label TopDawg, 2012 he joined a joint venture deal with aftermath and interscope records.

- His major label debut studio album good kid, m.A.A.d city, was released October 22,2012 to widespread acclaim. The album spawned the Top 40 hits "Swimming Pools (Drank)", "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe", and "Poetic Justice". Swimming Pools being the song we have decided to use for our media video.

- The album, which debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200, was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In early 2013, MTV crowned Kendrick Lamar the No.1 Hottest MC in the Game, on their annual list.

- BET awards 2013 Kendrick won best new artist.

I then went on to research Kendrick's influences so that I can look at their music and compare, this widens my knowledge of the genre of music and how to target our video to the audience we are going for.

Kendrick's Influences include:

- 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Nas and Eminem are his top five favourite rappers. Tupac Shakur arguably his biggest influence as he has not only influenced the style of music but Kendrick's day to day lifestyle.

- In terms of subject matter and technical ability, Kendrick Lamar has often been compared to Tupac, Eminem, Nas and Jay-Z.

- Kendrick also gave Lil Wayne credit for influencing his style. He has said that he also grew up listening to Rakim, Dr Dre and Tha Dogg Pound.

- He also cites rapper DMX as an influence "DMX really got me started on music."

Clips that show alcoholism and depression

Clips showing alcoholism - 

Leaving Las Vegas - Lonely Teardrops

This clip largely relates to the story of our music video as the story is based on alcoholism. This is shown in ‘leaving Las Vegas’ at the beginning of the clip when he happily puts alcohol in his shopping trolley and further along the clip he goes in a depressing drunk mode. This highlights how he is hiding from his pain through the use of alcohol. This is what we want to show in our music video. In this video being drunk is also shown with the main character lying on the floor looking at his hands.

Travie McCoy: We'll Be Alright [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

 

Alcohol is shown in this music video through the use of red cups which automatically gives the viewer an idea that they drinking alcohol. This is due to red cups being commonly used in music videos that involve drinking, therefore, they are stereotypical. The scene is at a party which gives an idea that because they are teenagers, they will be drinking alcohol. It is also shown by the way they are acting as it is different to the way people usually act if they’re not drinking.

The Black Eyed Peas - The Time (Dirty Bit)

Alcohol is shown in this video with people holding cups of drink at a club which the viewer presumes is alcohol. Alcohol is also shown being poured into a cup. This is a simple method that is common throughout many music videos. The difference between these videos is how the clips show the effect of alcohol; as some use parties and some use destructive drunks.

Eminem - Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna

The use of alcohol is used a lot in this video. One way this video shows alcoholism is through the behaviour of the characters as they become aggressive (which is shown in picture 5 above.) Another way to show that alcohol is a part of this video is to show alcohol bottles even though they may not be focused. In picture 1, the man is looking into the beer bottle which suggests that he is in deep thought. In picture 2, the man is holding a bottle of beer in front of the girl which suggests he is drunk; by using the girl in the shot it indicates how the alcohol is affecting his relationship. In picture 3, there is a bottle of alcohol in between the two characters which looks empty, therefore, suggests that the two have been drinking. In picture 4, there is a bottle out of focus behind the girl. Although it is out of focus, it automatically brings attention towards the bottle as it takes up a large part of the screen.

Showing Depression -

Eminem - Not Afraid

Depression and frustration is shown in this video through the way the man is sitting. Having his head in his hand and elbows on his knees produces the idea that he is frustrated and unhappy. The desolated building he is in reflects his mood as everything is in disarray. The setting produces the idea that he is self-destructive as he is struggling with his thoughts via his actions as reflected by the destruction of the setting. The camera angle is low which makes the chairs a large focus which acts as a frame for the model. This makes the eye focus in on the important feature of the scene.

Kendrick Lamar - Swimming Pools (Drank)

Depression is shown in this video with the use of the scenery and lighting. The room is completely empty to represent the sense of something missing which is a common reason for depression. The lighting is dark yet not black and white which ensures the scene is dingy rather than bright. This produces a shadow on the man which puts him in darkness; this is successful as darkness is a connotation of depression.

This research into how other music videos and films portray depression and alcoholism helps us determine how we will portray it in our own video. This research allows us to see what colours and setting benefits the tone better and gives us an insight into what angles and close ups to use. This will ensure our video fits with the stereotypes in order to allow the message to be portrayed clearly. This is important as the audience need to understand the topic involved in our video in order to understand the message.

mise-en-scene in our video

Mise-en-scene in our video
Our costume hair, make-up and props verse by verse:

“Pour up (drank), head shot (drank), sit down (drank), stand up (drank), pass out (drank), wake up (drank), faded (drank), faded (drank)” - repeated bridge

There will be one male character in a dark room for this part of the video, the costume will be all white. The outfit will consist of black jeans, a white shirt and trainers all in the same colour. The make up for the boy will be very natural and may only consist of some concealer or foundation in order to even out the skin and remove any shine. Hair will be left natural as it is a boy there is not much we can do here. Props that will be used in this scene will be a bottle of alcohol, a glass and a clock on a bedside table.

Verse 1:

Character 1 – small child will be dressed in young clothes, possibly school uniform, and holding a teddy bear

Character 2 – the main boy will be dressed as he was in the previous scene, keeping it consistent but then in the party scene he will be dressed in black with a white shirt once again so that he stands out. His hair will be styled instead of natural to show he has got ready for this party.

Extras (party people) – girls will be in dresses and will have dramatic make up such as smoky eyes and red lips in order to show they have made an effort for the party, boys will be dressed smartly but natural make up for boys.

Props – props in this verse will change frequently as there are many different scenes. We will use a teddy bear for the child to suggest the innocence then at the party we are going for a red theme as we are using a red gel over the camera lens and also use red cups and red fairy lights.

Chorus:

Character 1: main boy walking into the party with his friends in what he was wearing previously.

Character 2: the main girl appears in a bath she will have a bare face no make-up but will be wearing a white dress as white highlights innocence and purity.

Character 3+4: two girls in Baywatch outfits he is visioning as the main girl as though everyone is her, they will have a lot of make-up such as foundation, blusher, bronzer and eye shadow wearing a red leotard (famous from Baywatch) and hair long and down as they run, as if blowing in the wind.

Bridge repeats

Verse 2:

Character 1: Close up of the main boy so he needs to have even skin which could require minimal make-up such as foundation and concealer, but very natural so that you cannot see it.

Props: This scene focuses more on the mind of the male and is a very dark scene, his conscience talking to him warning him props used will be a doorway using a dark room and just light coming through then the use of a phone as he gets messages through, this is a very minimalistic scene as everything is very zoomed in and closed off and close up. There will be a bottle of alcohol as his use of alcohol needs to be clear throughout.

Repeat of Chorus

Bridge Repeats

Target audience for our video.

This was made on Glogster to illustrate the main groups within our target audience. It was targeted to groups of people rather than merely a gender as this video can be appreciated by both males and females. This is due to their being a male actor and female actress within the video and a common use of alcohol that can be a problem for both genders. These groups of people were collected from a website that gave a description of certain groups we then chosen the ones that fit our target audience. These groups focus on teenagers and young adults as they are the ones that commonly abuse partying and alcohol. This target group would appreciate the age of our models as they are of similar ages therefore they can relate to it and enjoy it.

Detailed final story board.

Detailed final story board.

This is our detailed final story board that depicts every scene that will be included whilst documenting the duration and the meaning of the clips. This is a useful piece of planning as it guides us when creating the video as we are already fully aware of where our clips will be placed and how long they will be shown for. This makes our job of development easier as our thorough planning will ensure little, if any, problems arise. We are aware that some of our scenes might change in terms of the angles we use and we also might improvise if we think of something that would work better while filming. This has been taken into consideration therefore we have put general images and planning on scenes such as the bath and the use of alcohol bottles as we could create better scenes whilst filming our planned ones.