Lighting and Set Design

Adjusting the lighting for White Set-Up

Lighting:

For our three internal set-ups we have programmed lighting in the studio. We decided that each set-up should have differing lighting in order to differentiate between them and correspond with each mood we are trying to create.

The first set-up is where Georgie first enters the studio and sees a cupcake waiting for her. This scene also includes shots with overlayed Alice in Wonderland footage. For this set-up we are using white spot light on the subject (and the cupcake in front of her) along with white light on the backdrop. This will hopefully create a bright white appearance for this scene.

The second set-up is the balloon scene. For this, in keeping with our colour scheme we have lit the white backdrop with blue and pink lights while lighting the floor and subjects with bright white light.


The final studio set-up is performance. This lighting for this set-up proved more difficult to programme as we wanted a specific look which was harder to get than plain white light. We also had to test this lighting extensively in order to get it right, as shown in the video below:



Through testing it with people and using the camera, we were able to get a much clearer idea of what it would look like for the real thing. As there is not much going on in this scene except for performance, the lighting was incredibly important. We decided on three spotlights; blue for the two DJs and pink for the female lead. This was because it created a differentiation between the two, thus making a great impact, and was in keeping with our colour scheme.

Our external set-up will be in the forest, and so in order to get natural lighting we are going to start filming very early in the day in order to maintain natural brightness. This will be difficult due to the time of year, but we are going to try to ensure that there is consistent lighting in these scenes. In addition, if some scenes do appear to be dark, we will fix this in grading as a last resort.

Set Design:

We have a different set design for each four of our scenes/setups. A brief outline is given on these in the following Prezi: (page may need reloading to view Prezi)

Casting

Our main female role will be played by Georgie. We chose to use Georgie as she has acted in numerous media projects before, including the leading female role in our music video remake. This meant that she is confident in front of camera and will excel in a music video as she has experience in lip synching and performing. In addition, as she studied media for AS Level, Georgie understands the demands of media and the way in which music videos are produced.
 

One of our DJs will be played by Gavin. We feel that Gavin will be good in the role as he has previously acted in media projects and so is very confident on camera. He is also incredibly confident with the production side of media and so will be helpful when producing our music video. As Gavin is currently working on his own music video, we know that he will be reliable and cooperative. 

The other DJ will be played by Eugene. We chose to use Eugene as he is confident and so will be comfortable acting in front of people. He is also friends with Gavin so there will be natural on-screen chemistry between them. As he is the brother of a group member we know him very well and are assured that he will be reliable and hard working.

Website Flat Plan

For our website we have decided to go for a simple yet visually interesting design. We want it to be aesthetically pleasing and go with the colourful nature of our artist image, album cover and music video.

The above design is a very basic version of what we intend to achieve. Specifics of our website include:

• The banner will be filled with a promo shot of powder paint, used in our music video, in order to create a synergistic campaign and consistent branding.
• We will use what we see as the most important and conventional features of an artist website as our tabs below the banner. This includes; Home, News, Live, Gallery, Store and Contact. We want to include the essentials while not overwhelming the audience with choices.
• In order to increase connectivity with the audience we feel it is incredibly important to use social media. Therefore, we will have links to the social media accounts (ie. Twitter and Facebook) accessible through logos at the top of the page.
• We will also incorporate social networks into the homepage via live Twitter feeds and an Instagram feed which automatically updates, keeping the fans constantly up to date with the artist.
• In order to keep with this interactivity, we will also have Youtube videos of back stage and behind the scenes footage.
• The main appearance of our home page will be a collage of pictures including promo shots, behind the scenes photos from our shoot days, album promotional photos and other photos which we feel convey our artist image. 
• For this style, we have looked at other artist websites for inspiration:

Beyoncé Website

The 1975 Website

Third Week's Production Meetings

Now that we had our track decided we had to plan out our video in detail. In order to do so we had to create a storyboard.
However, during our production meeting at this stage, we decided that it would be most efficient for half of the group to work on the storyboard while the other half worked on other miscellaneous jobs such as costuming, makeup and props research, and we took turns in the two jobs. This allowed us to be most efficient with our time and get everything done as fast as possible.
We created the following storyboard; more can be seen about this in my storyboard post:

Meanwhile, the other half of the group worked on costume and makeup. We did extensive research into what would look best, as well as asking the actors what they have so we could source as much as possible in order to avoid unnecessary costs.

Costume & Makeup List

We made an initial list of what we would like for the costuming and after discussing these ideas in more detail came to final conclusions at a later date. We also had a meeting with an ex-student in order to learn how to do the make-up that we wanted. This proved extremely helpful and allowed us to have a clearer understanding of make-up.

Notes from our Makeup meeting

Photo of Maisie modelling our make up example

Our final costuming and makeup along with more in-depth explanations can be seen in my Costume and Makeup post.

We also looked into props so that we could get these ordered as soon as possible due to shooting being imminent. We created an essential props list and researched into all the things we needed. From researching props we were also able to find more props that would look good in our music video. We cut these down to the essentials in order to reduce costs and ordered them as soon as we could.
Once we had these factors decided, and had completed the storyboard, we then created an animatic. This gave us a visual representation of our music video along with images and time coding so we could see what it looked like with the song.
The animatic and details on this can be viewed here.

Album Flat Plan

First of all we looked into the conventions of debut album covers and what their purpose is. We decided that the key conventions we should focus on were:

• The focal image; creating an artist image and identity 
• Consistent theme; branding and styling is very important  
• Placing and styling of the artist and album name; conventional of debut to be self-titled 
• Industry conventions such as barcode and copyright information

After spending a session brainstorming together, our initial ideas for the album cover were:

• All of members of the group on the front cover
• Powder paint on the inside cover
• Colour scheme of bright colours, similar to our video
• Feeling of friendship and fun/partying
• Realistic and believable, not overly edited

After we had made these decisions, we researched into other album covers which would influence us to make further, more specific choices. Some of these influences included:

MGMT- Oracular Spectacular

What we liked about this album cover:

• Styling gives it a festival feel
• Colour scheme of background works well
• Artist shot gives a sense of friendship and closeness of the group
• Text is quite basic but very clear
• Gives a clear representation of the artist

MGMT- Oracular Spectacular

We also really liked the back cover of this album. This was because:

• Again there is a sense of friendship between the people
• The costuming is creative and interesting
• The typography is basic but the image is striking so they balance each other
  
  

  

  Radiohead- In Rainbows

 Due to paint and colour being a main concept of both our video and our artist image, this album cover was very influential. As we want an artist shot on the front, we have used this as inspiration for the inside cover of our digipak. The mix of colours is striking and effective. From this we have decided to use powder paint on the inside cover.

This is the effect we want to create on the inside cover of our digipak. We would like an image of the lead singer blowing paint across the inside cover:

It would hopefully have a similar effect to the image above, however we intend to use a white background, closer framing and the colour scheme in the image to the right;

We like this colour scheme as we feel the colours blend together really well to create a gradient, and they particularly work well with powder paint.

This colour scheme will be a consistent element of our branding across the music video, album cover, promo shots and website.

These album covers were also huge influences as we like the contrast between the simple white typography and the lightly coloured images/backgrounds. The gradient styled colouring is the sort of look we would like to achieve with our background.

After doing this research and discussing our desired album cover, we produced these final flat plans:

Front

Back

Production Meetings

Having produced our animatic, we decided that we should test out some practicalities for our video. The first of which we attempted was overlaying narrative shots with archived footage of the 1951 'Alice in Wonderland'. 

In order to do so, we filmed some basic test footage of Maisie as the subject, downloaded clips from Alice in Wonderland and then edited this over the top of the footage by changing the opacity. This was a very basic version of what we are intending to do for our actual video but follows the exact same concept.

Originally, we were going to attempt to use projections. However, having done this test we are now certain that we will use this method of video overlaying. This test was very successful and we think that it will work incredibly well in our music video.

Animatic

Once we had made the storyboard we had to put the shots into a sequence with the track in order to see how the track and visuals will fit together. This meant that we had to figure out the exact timing for each shot.
In our animatic we have used the following colour coding to represent each set-up:
Green for forest
Pink for performance
White for white studio
Blue for balloon studio
Black for neon

We have produced a sequence of our main shots as well as smaller ones that we definitely want to include. Due to the nature of our video being incredibly dependent on the footage that we get on the shoot day, we weren't able to include every single specific shot. In addition, we have re-used images various times as our video is highly based around cross-cutting between set-ups. We intend to film the whole song in each set-up and camera positioning so that we can use the best shots from each one.

After having found our storyboard incredibly useful, the animatic was even more crucial to our planning process. It enabled us to be more specific to each part of the song and see how long each shot would last. In addition, we were able to edit the animatic in order to make the video illustrative of the music. Producing the animatic gave us a realistic visualisation of the music video, and meant that we could now move on to the shoot-board and planning for the actual filming.

Storyboard

In order to produce a clear image of the music video we then created a storyboard:

This enabled us to break down the sequence into specific shots and set-ups. Each set-up is represented using different coloured post-it notes. We used yellow for the forest, pink for performance, blue for the balloon set-up, white for the white studio set up and blue with highlighter for the neon scenes.  This meant that we could visualise the sequence and determine the weighting of each set-up. We all had input in the storyboard, each drawing some shots and suggesting ways to adjust the order.This proved incredibly beneficial and led us to move some shots around. For example, we decided to introduce the performance much earlier than previously planned as we felt that it should be a clear part of the video from the beginning.

The storyboard was incredibly important to our planning process as it gave us a visual representation of the music video as opposed to purely written words as we had before. It also enabled us to visualise which shots would work and whether they were in the right place in the sequence. 

Second Week's Production Meetings

Now that we had the track decided, we tried to be more specific about the set-ups in our music video and what we would need in regards to set design:

We also decided on specific shots that we knew we wanted in our video, having produced the steal-o-matic (see previous post). After attempting to be specific from purely listening to the song, we realised that this would be incredibly difficult. Therefore, we looked at the lyrics and produced a breakdown of what we envisaged at each part of the song:

To our surprise, this proved to be one of the most beneficial parts of our planning process as it allowed us to create a relationship between the lyrics, image and music; the key basis of a music video. This stage of planning also helped us to decide whether our video would illustrate, amplify or offer disjuncture with both the music and the lyrics. We decided to make our video an illustration of the two.

Having made the key decisions behind the codes and concepts of our video, we then decided to return to the planning of our specific set-ups and set design. We found that this was much easier now we had decided on the basis for our video:

Having looked specifically at each set up with regards to both visuals and technicalities, we had a much stronger concept for our music video. This also provided us with knowledge of practicalities. For example, we previously had the idea of using neon paint, however before speaking to the media technician we didn't know if this was possible. Having discussed this, we were able to re-adjust our idea to make it practical for a smaller space as we were told we could only black-light a small room. Similarly, we changed our original idea of projections to overlaying footage as, after evaluating the practicalities, we realised that projections would not look as good in the final product. In addition to this, we created a list of things to try out which would be crucial to our video:

Throughout the planning stage, we found that making lists of things to do was very useful as it enabled us to use our time in the following meeting most productively and efficiently.

Now that we had looked at both the practical and visual side of the project, we decided that we were ready to move on to the next stage of the project.

Steal-O-Matic

Our steal-o-matic is a compilation of all of our influences and inspirations. It is made up of a range of media texts which we feel best represent our idea. This includes music videos, television clips, youtube videos, images and gifs.

The main concepts we wanted to convey from our video were:

• Dancing; with our track being a dance track we feel that this is essential to the music video
• Partying; this is quite a key concept to the genre, along with dancing, however we are particularly focused on this due to its appeal to the 16-24 audience
• Friendship; this is often incredibly important to the young audience
• Playfulness; we want our video to seem fun and enjoyable for the audience
• Vivid imagination filled with colours; this goes along with the fun aspect, but also links in with the lyrics 'my head is a jungle'

Our steal-o-matic is not only intended as a visual reference for the concept but also for some more specific shots and effects we would like to use. Some of these include:

• Reverse shots
• Balloons coming into the camera as a transition
• Neon face paint close-ups
• People throwing powder paint
• Double exposure and overlaying of videos
• Pinata explosion

In order to create a consistency throughout our video we have decided to use one main reference; Alice in Wonderland. Some footage and images of this appears in our steal-o-matic. The key elements of Alice in Wonderland that we are going to incorporate include:

• Eating a cookie/cupcake which has weird effects
• Archived footage of the 1951 movie
• Shots in a forest
• Set design and props including a giant mushroom 

We have also used performance footage from music videos in order to present the intended representation of our artist:

• Female lead; shown through artists such as Katy B and Aluna Francis as well as female leads in television such as Effy and Cassie from Skins
• Two male DJs; shown through artists such as Disclosure and Paramore

As a whole, the steal-o-matic was supposed to convey both the visual identity and genre of our music video as well as the technical specifics such as shot types, editing and lighting. The steal-o-matic has proved incredibly useful in the planning stage as it has allowed us to collectively visualise our ideas together and see if they actually work. It has also enabled us to produce a media which we can show to our audience and evaluate how effective it would be when turned into our final music video.

Track Permission

In order to use the song for our music video production, we had to ask the record label for their permission to use the track so that we did not infringe any copyright due to their ownership of the song. On behalf of our group, Maisie sent an email to a member of Universal Music to kindly ask for their permission. 

Our email request

Their reply

We were granted permission to use the track as long as it was purely for educational purposes and following the set of guideline which they attached to the email. This meant that we could use the track for our music video.

The conditions we were given

Artist

Our artist will be a three piece dance group containing a female lead and two accompanying male DJs. We chose this setup as it isn't incredibly generic, however mixed groups are becoming increasingly popular and we want to stand out from the average artists in the charts. Some examples of these are AlunaGeorge and Clean Bandit. Having a mixed gender group also widens our audience appeal, and with audience at the heart of our music video, this is incredibly important.

With our audience being determined as females of 16-24 who are fans of the dance genre, we decided to create our female lead based around an understanding of this audience. Rather than taking the form of the generic sexualised female, we wanted to create a likable and aspirational figure for the audience. Therefore, we are going to focus on making her appear strong and confident yet normal and relatable. We have based our female around artists such as Keisza, Aluna Francis, Jess Glynne and Katy B.

Influential female artists

Our two male DJs are quite stereotypical of the genre, however in order to differ them from other male artists in the music industry we are going to present them as cool and friendly as opposed to overly egotistical like some recent popular male artists. We have based our male artists around artists such as Disclosure, Nero, Wilkinson and Flume.

Influential male artists

Track

My Head is A Jungle- Wanklemut & Emma Louise (MK Remix)
We're going to keep the track name the same as we feel this is important for the concept of our music video. This line is repeated throughout the song and so it is a crucial concept for the video.

The track is originally by Wankelmut & Emma Louies but we are using the MK Remix.
The song was originally called 'Jungle' by Emma Louise before Wankelmut remixed it.
Wankelmut is a German electronic music DJ and record producer based in Berlin. This song is only his second big song so he's fairly unknown and new to the industry. Emma Louise is an Australian singer-songwriter of the pop & indie genres.
MK (Marc Kinchen) is an American DJ & music producer who is fairly well known in dance music for his remixes.

We chose to use this track as it has fun elements, for example the fast paced beat. However, it also has a deeper meaning. We felt that we could amplify the meaning of the song through a fun video with a sense of escapism. This allows for the crossover between the seriousness of its meaning, and the fun feeling of the music and beat.
Looking at Goodwin's theory, we have chosen to create an amplified relationship between the lyrics and visuals. The music and visuals, however, are going to be more illustrative, with cuts to the beat and fast paced editing with use of fun dancing and movement within the shots.

Record Label

We have decided to call our record label Technicity Records. This is due to the electronic feel of the word as this is symbiotic with the dance genre that the record label will be involved in. It is also catchy and memorable.

Technicity Records will be owned by Umbrella company Universal. This is similar to the record label Positiva which is one of the biggest dance music labels in the UK. Positiva is owned by EMI and holds artists such as Avicii and David Guetta.


Other record labels we researched included XL Recordings. They are an independent record British record label, part of the Beggars Group. They hold artists such as The Prodigy and M.I.A. This record label began as a dance music label but has now branched out into various different genres. This is part of the reason we didn't want to create an independent label like this as they would be far more likely to need to cater for a number of genres in order to remain successful, whereas a record label owned by a larger group can be specified to purely dance music. This gives the artist more chance for a successful release.

Audience

Our primary audience is 16-24 year old females.
We have adapted our idea in order to cater to this audience by using a strong female lead who is not overly sexualised and can be seen as an aspirational figure to the audience.

Our secondary audience is 16-24 year old males.
We will appeal to them not only through the attractive female lead, but the two male DJs who will accompany her to make our band.
In order to appeal to both the primary and secondary audiences, we are going to include cross-references with a nostalgic and popular culture overarching theme, which we are yet to decide on but are currently considering Alice in Wonderland.

Our tertiary audience is dance fans of any age and gender.
We will appeal to them as not only is a dance song, we are going to have lots of dancing throughout the video.
The costuming and style will also be based around a sort of 'festival' look, which is incredibly popular amongst fans of this music. We want to emphasise the fast paced nature of the song by amplifying it with visuals of dancing that the audience will enjoy.

We have looked into Blumler and Katz' theory about media texts according to audience uses and gratifications. We are intending to make a video that provides the audience with 'diversion', thus providing entertainment and escapism while also using themes which are relateable. Relatability is a key concept when considering the uses and gratifications of audiences.

First Week's Production Meetings

In our first production meeting we sat round a table and brainstormed ideas, feeding in from each others' research and initial ideas. This enabled us to put our ideas together and create something we would all be interested in. Our first idea from this session was to film a group of friends in a natural environment, in and around London. We were very keen on this idea and stayed with it until the next production meeting in which we looked at the logistics of filming so much exterior footage in November, and we soon decided that filming in the studio would be of great advantage to us and the video would definitely look better if it was predominantly interior. This took us back to the beginning of our planning.

We then sat around a computer and looked at all the research on our blogs, as well as researching new videos that were similar to all of our ideas. We thought about our audience and researched what sort of things they would like, and eventually came up with our current idea which is to be filmed almost entirely in the studio at school. It basically consists of a group of friends discovering interesting worlds and playing around with the things they find. We wrote down our ideas from this meeting and took them away, each researching for potential tracks, posting these on our individual blogs:

In the next production meeting we decided on the genre and each fed in the potential tracks we had found. Eventually after going through a lot of tracks, we decided on one that a couple of us had really liked initially, before the group planning processes had even taken place. We then went on to listen to the song and link this to our video, tailoring it to the track. We now had a much better idea of what our video was to be. 

In the following meeting, we decided on our four key decision; audience, track, record label and artist.

In order to decide on our artist, we researched into similar artists as well as potential names for our artist:

This gave us a much better idea of artist image and identity, however we still found producing an artist name incredibly difficult. As we wanted to focus on the music video itself for the time being, we decided to settle with the working title of 'Lucid' and. as seen above, made a list of things to do in the proceeding meetings.