Planning Lighting and Colour - Miss Miller

Planning Lighting and Colour

A variety of lighting styles and colours are essential within a music video as they represent and connote different emotions to the audience and also sets the mood and atmosphere in the video giving the audience a further insight into how the artist wants to be represented. It also helps for the audience to understand the genre of the music video as it instantly gives a clear insight to what genre it is from. For example in a pop dance music video the lighting used will be bright, neon and flashy to connote a club like scene.

 

The first lighting technique that we will make use of in our music video will be natural lighting. We have decided to use natural lighting when the couple are relaxing and spending time with each other in an ordinary bedroom. This part of the narrative will show the natural relationship the two girls have and portray a positive light on their relationship to show the audience the good times that the two girls had in their relationship before it started to break down and turn the artist into an emotional state of distress. The natural lighting helps to represent the artist in a way that makes her look approachable and portrays her as ordinary which is what the audience want to see as this makes her seem on the same level as them which they can gain comfort from as they feel as though they are not alone when facing these problems. This is conventional to the indie music genre as the artists usually sing and write songs about personal and effective situations that they have experienced in their life and also what feelings and emotions they feel towards it and a way that they can help the audience to . The audience then feel as though they can relate to the artist as they have similarly experienced these situations and felt the same negative ways that the artist has. They can understand how the artist must be feeling and therefore can sympathise with then and gain a level of trust towards the artist; which is securing the audience as a fan and someone who will continue to follow the artist.

SCREENSHOT

The next lighting technique is low key lighting. This type of lighting will be used in the outside bonfire scene where the two girls are camping and watching the fireworks together. We have decided to use this type of lighting as it will portray a realistic effect to the audience as they would expect for it to be night time in this type of circumstance which will portray a sense of realism to the audience. Not only does this type of lighting give this scene a realistic effect but it also is conventional to the indie genre. The low key lighting is conventional to the indie genre as it connotes feelings and emotions such as sadness, depression, loneliness and isolation. These types of feelings are conventional to the indie genre as indie artists usually write songs about personal experiences that have happened to them that they feel strongly about and most of these are negative situations that they want to portray to the audience so that they can relate to them. The use of the low key lighting will give the target audience an automatic interpretation of the mood when they watch the video. The darkness and dull colours portrays to the audience that there is something wrong and that the artist is in a dark place in the video. This could help the audience to sympathise with the artist as they can see that she is unhappy with the situation and feels a need to express her feelings. The audience can then build a relationship with the artist because they may have also experienced similar situations and feelings about the subject and they need reassurance that everything is going to be ok just like how the artist portrays it by the end of the music video to show this to the audience.

SCREENSHOT



The third lighting technique that we have planned to use in our music video is high key lighting. We have decided to use this type of lighting in the outside daytime market scene and also the performing setting of the field. This type of lighting will give the scene a realistic look as the activity will be set in the day time to make it clear for the audience to understand that the couple had fun times in their relationship and bonded through different activities such as going to markets together. We have decided to use the high key lighting in the market scene as the bright colours and lighting will represent how the artist feels when she her relationship is at a high and it will portray to the audience how happy her love interest makes her feel which will make it more heart-breaking for the audience to watch when it all falls apart and the artist looses all hope and has her heart broken later in the video. This is conventional to the indie genre as the artist usually writes songs on mature yet common situations that many of their target audience may have experienced too. Therefore the audience can relate and understand how the artist must be feelings as they have also experienced the trauma in their own lives. This will ultimately help the audience to build a relationship with the artist because they want to be able to make the artist feel better by following them and believing in them which is further promoting the artist and her material and gaining trustworthy and loyal fans.

An example of high key lighting

The colours we have planned to use in our music video is blue and orange. We have planned to purchase these colour smoke cannisters to set off in the field for our artist and her love interest to dance and mess around in to show the colourful aspects of their relationships and also show a rebellious side to them with could be conventional to our target audience as some of them would be teenagers like our artist therefore making her more relatable as they could also imagine themselves being rebellious at their age. We have planned on using the colour blue not only because it is bright and vibrant but also because it has many connotations which are conventional to the indie genre. The colour blue connotes feelings such as trust, stability and power which could represent our artist. The feelings of trust, stability , power and tranquillity could strongly represent the artist in the good times of her relationship as it shows she trusts her partner, their relationship has stability and she also has a sense of power as she is confident in expressing who she is as a lesbian. This is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists usually write material on personal experiences and this will help for the audience to look up to the artist as she is portraying herself as someone who has the freedom to express herself as who she truly is. This may give the audience motivation to also express themselves as they may have been hiding away from this and now have the confidence to do the same as the artist and be themselves.

An example of the blue canister smoke that we will use in our music video

 The colour orange is also a vibrant and energetic colour which the audience will easily recognise and similarly it also has connotations that could represent the indie genre and the artists within this genre. The colour orange has connotations of happiness, attraction, warmth and enthusiasm. These feelings could also represent the artist in this happy scene where she is dancing around the field in the smoke with her partner as she is content, she has an attraction to her partner, and she has a warmth inside of her with the enthusiasm to continue her relationship. These feelings are conventional to the indie genre as the artists are usually represented as happy, humble people who are easily approachable and represented as an open book which makes them more relatable for the target audience as it makes them feel as though they can rely on the artist and they can gain advice and reassurance from them about their own personal problems and issues.

An example of the orange canister smoke that we used in our music video

The audience can build a relationship with the artist through the lighting and colours used in the music video as they represent the artist as an unharmful, open and approachable artist who is happy to share their emotions and feelings with them which makes them that much more relatable. They are not shown in an arrogant or aggressive manor in any way which steers the audience from thinking of them in this way at all. The artist is shown in a way which makes the target audience feel sorry for them and makes them want to help them which encourages them to follow them as a fan and follow their material. This planning on lighting and colour has helped me to ensure that we will create a successful music video as I have understood how different lightings and colours can convey different feelings and moods to the audience to give them a better understanding on how the artist may be feeling and what is about to happen in the music video. I feel as though the lighting gave me an instant understanding and insight to what the artist was expressing her feelings about which helped the music video to flow and work effectively on the target audience.