Make-up Inspiration

For our make-up idea, we needed to research make-up that would suit someone with a darker skin tone, like our actress. Because a certain colour would look different on every skin tone. Our research showed that dark red, purple and blue tones matched well with dark skin. We drew inspiration from celebrities such as Lupita N’yongo, Naomi Campbell and Grace Jones. 

We also were inspired by the simplistic make-up of Kylie Jenner and Zendaya, we would like to incorporate this type of make-up in our music video. 

Hair for The Lead Singer and Dancers

For the lead singer we began discussing the hair-style of our lead singer for our music video. For the first element when she is walking through the maze made of fluorescent light tubes. We want her to to have an up-do ponytail. This will give her a sleek and edge look. Below are inspirations for the hair style. 

For the second and third elements when she is in the silhouette wheel and behind the screens. We want her to have her hair to be natural and flowing. We want her hair to be full of volume and curly. This means we will not have to spend too much time styling her hair.

For the last element we want to have her sleeked back. We want to give her hair a wet look and combed effect. This same hair style will be for the lead singer and dancers. Below are images of how we imagine it to be. 

By having the artist's hair and look change throughout the video, it gives a sense of her glamour and evolution, which fits in with Dyer's Star Theory that artists are manufactured in order to make money for the insitutions. By giving the artist different looks it brands her as being fashionable and different which helps her connect to her target audience.

Final Set Design

Ella in our group went off to finalise the set design and drew each element on A3 paper.
Below are the final set designs for our music video.


This is the element which the rapper will be in, the background will just be black curtains and we will have and armchair in the middle with flourescent light tubes strewn on the floor.

This is a design for the silhouette wheel, where the lead singer will pose and perform in.

This is an overview of all the elements and all the different set designs we will have

This will be the maze of flourescent light tubes that the dancer will perform in and move through.

Meeting with Set Designer's

We met with the set designers and showed them our song on Tuesday. 

We went step by step and discussed each of our elements. We informed them about the maze of flourescent lights (which we would need around 18 flourescent light tubes, 8 pink and 8 ice blue).

We also explained the silhouette screens idea and the dark room with the rapper in the armchair. 

For the dark room with the arm chair, the set desingers told us that instead of building a room with black flats we can use black curtains instead. This will save time and money instead of building a room to film the shot in.

For the element of the room, with the 3 walls all the same colour. We were told that it might look more interesting and be easier to have the walls as trace screens with a coloured lights behind them.

When we discussed the wheel we decided that incase we were not able to build the wheel, we needed a back-up. We came up with various resolutions for building the wheel. For example, we could have a wall with a circle cut into it, then the singer could be standing on a step behind the wall, so that when shot from the front it would look like she is in a circle. We could also film the singer behind the silhouette screen and place a cylindrical tube infront of the camera lens so that it would look like she is in a tunnel from the camera's perspective.

Process of Designing the Set

As a group we were very clear from the start on the elements and set we wanted. We made a few drafts, so that we could visualise the set on paper. It also needs to be clear for when we meet the set designers. Below are a few images of the draft sketches of our set:

Set Design- Issue's in elements

The main issue that arose for our set design was the silhouette wheel. The problem with the wheel is that to build it entirely out of wood, would be extremely expensive. However, the base of the wheel needs to be strong enough to support the lead singer, especially since she will wear heels and therefore there will be alot of pressure applied to the base of the wheel. 

After speaking with the technincan Paul he said that the base needs to be built of wood to support the singer; then the rest of the wheel can be made with hard cardboard, this will save money and time. This however rises another problem because he mentioned that the cardboard may deform and crease if it is bent into a circular shape. It also needs to built in a large space and stored, and this would need to be done outside; the poblem with storing the wheel outside is that it may rain and the carboard will be destroyed by the water. 

The media department are enthusiastic about this element however, they have told us that they will discuss how to figure the logistics of builidng the wheel. In the meantime my group and I are developing different ideas if incase the wheel is not possible to build.

Planning costumes

We began planning the basic costumes we will want for our music video. We would need to plan costumes for the lead singer, dancers and rapper. 

For the lead singer:

• We want the lead singer to wear a white flowing mesh skirt and white crop top for the 1st element. This will be for the flourescent light tube maze element.

The reason we chose this outfit is because is because it heigtens the sexuality of our artist. In most music videos of the R&B genre, it is a popular convention for women to be dressed minimally and provocatively. This is meant to reflect the female empowernment message in most female R&B songs. 

• She will wear a cat suit for the silhouette wheel element, this is the 2nd element. This is because we want to create the illusion that the singer is nude.

• She will wear the same cat suit for the silhouette screens. This is because we want to create the illusion that the singer is nude.
• For the 4th element she will wear a black tube top and black pants. This will be for the dance sequence. 

The outfit for this fourth element, is fashionable and fits in with the fashion trend at the moment. This will allow the artist's target audience to identify with her and imitate her style. Therefore increasing the artists profile and notoriety in the industry by becoming an admired icon. According to Keith Negus (Media Theorist) the artist could be considered synthetic. Synthetic artists are those constructed by a record company (a similar approach on how we constructed our artist). Synthetic artist usually coencide and reflect the trends of the time and are targeted for younger audiences (just in our case, where our target audience are 18-21 year old females). Younger audiences usually consume more synthetic artist because their ideologies are less sophisticated than 'Organic' artists'. Just like synthetic artists' our singer is marketed mainly based off their looks and personality.

For the dancers (2 dancers): 

• They will wear cat suit for the silhouette screen element

• They will also wear a black tight top with black pants for the dance sequence. We also want them to wear a mesh black wraped scarf around their waist which they can take off, during the dance sequence. 

For the rapper:

• He will wear a white shirt, with jeans and timberland boots, we also would want him to be wearing some jewellry such as chains and rings.