Planning Lighting and Colour

Planning Lighting and Colour

It is essential within a music video to use a varied range of different lighting styles and colours. The use of different lighting styles and colours engages the audience as this allows them to infer the video based on connotations of the colours which can be inferred to represent the artist. For example, the different lighting styles used help to represent the artists mood in the music video which will be evident to the audience, such as black which is used frequently in our music video to suggest the artists depressive and emotional state. This engages the audience as they may be able to relate to how the artist. The use of different lighting and colour styles help to engage the audience as this is interesting for them to see due to contrasts used, which also give them a clear grasp of the narrative as this could represent different locations or emotions.  

The first choice of lighting style in which we will use in our music video is high key lighting. This is a style of lighting for film or television which helps to suggest and create an upbeat mood. This lighting will predominately be used throughout the scenes were the artist is reminiscing on happier times were she was with her friends, enjoying herself. The specific scenes will possibly be when she is with her friends at the park, shopping centre or at each others houses in each others company.  This is not necessarily conventional of the soul genre as the mood within the video is usually sad and emotional due to the topics and the lyrics which the artist is singing. This lighting helps to create a positive scene which is not conventional due to the topics which the artist is singing about. However this type of lighting helps to illustrate our narrative to the target audience and makes it easier to understand that these specific scenes are of the artist reminiscing on memories which made her happier, before she found fame. However, within the soul genre light is conventional when the artist is singing about a positive message. As most soul singers tend to sing about love, usually this is a past, bad experience. Light is often synonymous with love and the overwhelming power of emotion. This could represent the artist being blinded by love and how this can leave the artist to feel vulnerable. This could build a relationship between the audience and artist as the audience may be able to relate to the emotion that the artist is portraying. Additionally, it could help to show the artist showing themselves as down to earth, allowing the audience to have an insight to their private life and to see their true, raw emotion.

The next effect which we will be using throughout our music video is the use of colour. More specifically a black and white filter over certain scenes of the music video. We will use this filter when she is thinking about her lowest moments as an artist, predominately over scenes where she is performing either on the piano or on the stage. The use of the colour black helps to represent the artists depressive emotions and negative thoughts around the subject of finding fame, as she is no longer happy as she compares her past. With this, this could reflect what the artists music contains and what the audience can expect the music video to portray. The colour black contrasts with the second use of colour white, which helps to portray happiness and innocence which could help to represent the artists life before fame to the audience and help to reiterate that these are times when she was most happy. White also represents the artist as vulnerable due to the connotations of innocence. It is clear that the artist is already feeling low and down, so a sense of vulnerability will build a relationship between the artist and audience as they begin to sympathise for her. Furthermore, the use of the colours black and white together contrast each other in regards to black representing negativity and white representing positivity. This could suggest to the audience that the artist is reflecting and reminiscing on her memories before she found fame. This is conventional to the soul music genre as the colours used help to portray the narrative clearly to the audience and help them to understand that the artist is looking back on times which she was most happy.

Another use of lighting which will be included in our music video is the style of low key lighting. This will be used throughout the entire music video, except for scenes with high key lighting which the artist is trying to represent happier memories. This type of lighting is conventional to the soul genre as this helps to represent the artists emotion which is her feeling low and down. This enables the music video to be relatable for many of the audience members as this could also reflect their mood or be able to relate to the artists feelings. Furthermore, the contrast between the high key lighting and the low key lighting could help to reiterate the narrative to the audience of how the artist is reminiscing on memories, similar to the use of the black and white filter. The dark, low key lighting scenes help to portray the scene negatively as the artist is not singing positively about the situation she is currently in. The audience may be able to relate to the artist as they may feel as though she is being presented as strong throughout the scenes of low key lighting as the artist is continuing on with being unhappy, this also helps to represent the artist as down to earth as she is not trying to cover up her true, raw emotion which the audience may respect her for as it is comforting to know that somebody else has been in a similar situation that they can relate to.

Another style of lighting which we would like to incorporate into our music video is the use of back lighting, this will be mainly used at certain points when the artist is performing on the stage. The use of back lighting will create a silhouette effect of a shadow of the artist on a backdrop or wall with the lighting at the back of the scene unfocused so that the main focus in on the silhouette of the artist. This creates an enigma and presents the artist as mysterious as the audience as they have previously seen the artist quite open around sharing her emotions and true feelings to the audience. However, this could represent another side to the artist which is conventional to the soul genre of the artist being quite timid and shy, not wanting herself to be seen, which makes the audience sympathise for the artist as this could make them question is the situation that the artist is in, made her feel so low in herself that its causing her to have a lack of self confidence and is not wanting anybody else to see her in a low state. This could also be beneficial as the artist will be able to sing the lyrics with true passion as nobody is watching her. 

Throughout our music video we will also use varied colours which have connotations which help to represent the music video and the artist conventionally. One of the colours which we will be using is the colour red. The colour red has connotations with being fiery and strong willed, which is not really conventional to the artist within a soul music genre as previously mentioned they are quite timid and shy. However, this could represent our artist as brave and admirable as she is feeling low and down about the situation she is in, but willing to fight through her bad times to come out at the other side and become happy again. This is relatable for many audience members as they may understand the feeling of wanting to give up, so this may give them hope and determination like the artist is showing. Furthermore, the colour red is conventional to the soul music genre as this has connotations with love and romance which most soul artists music is based upon. The red could suggest danger also which may suggest to the audience that the love that the artist is singing about could have put her in danger or left her feeling vulnerable which is stereotypical of a soul genre narrative. 

Overall, the target audience will be able to build a relationship with the artist through the lighting and colours which we have selected and planned out. Firstly, through the silhouette image as they have respect for the shy artist, which is replacing the performance with the passion in her singing voice which not only engages the audience but leaves them with respect for her as she is continuing on. Additionally, this is because the varied uses of lighting and colours have several connotations which help to represent that artist in certain ways in which the audience may be able to relate to. An example of this is, the low key lighting which helps to present the artists depressive and emotional state which the audience may sympathise for her as they may possibly understand how low and upset she is feeling. Planning in regards to lighting and colour has helped to ensure that we create a successful music video because it has enabled us to have the time to plan our ideas thoroughly and think of why this is conventional to the genre and how this will represent the artist in a way that the audience will be able to engage the audience and enable them to relate to the artist.