First day of filming

Lighting, props and location 

Tonight I started filming shots 1-9 of my music video. I decided to film in my living room as it was the only plain, light coloured wall I knew I had guaranteed access to. Therefore I had to plan the mise-en-scene carefully to avoid the set simply looking like my living room i.e. with the television and sofas on show as this would effect the overall believability of the music video. I took influence from Rihanna's "We Found Love" video:

My video

Rihanna's video

• The mattress with minimal colour scheme with unpolished look to appeal to the target audience
• Some small decoration was added to the "effortlessly" unkempt look (long dream catcher weaving in and out of the stack of pillows and onto the mattress and decorative lighting) 

• Sombre lighting- I used a lamp with a cream cover to: 
• 1) balance the harsh, white spotlight on the left
• 2) to avoid the shots looking too flat and dull on camera, adds some dimension like in Rihanna's video with the coloured string lights against the harsh bedside lamp
• I also used wicker ball string lights and a similar light-up heart for decorative purposes, I maintained the clean, white colour scheme to avoid the set looking too cluttered
• I also used a third light slightly off-centre. By comparing the picture of the set above with the front lamp on and the picture of the set below (costume and makeup) with the front lamp off the minor issues have visibly been resolved. It acted as: 
• 1) a softer light to reduce the contrast between the spotlight (left) and the lamp with cover (right)
• 2) a highlighter to ensure that my face was not too dark 
• 3) amplified the shadow behind me slightly to stop the image looking too flat 
• 4) softened the shadows in the creases of the sheets which made the set look too scruffy 
• I used candles in some close-up shots however I didn't use them during filming because:
• 1) they did not fit in the frame; if I had filmed them, the unwanted plug sockets and wires would be on show
• 2) I found that they practically did nothing in adding to the overall lighting effect
• 3) it would have been an extreme fire hazard as there were flammable materials very close to the candles and I found that the smoke machine made the flames larger which could have made them uncontrollable
• To resolve this issue while keeping the illustrative mellow feel that candles can achieve in place, I filmed a close up tracking shot after my performance shots. 

Lamp with cover (right)

Spotlight (left)

Rihanna's video

• "SFX": I don't have access to a projector which would have further enhanced the appearance and believability of the video however I attempted to mimic this effect by using a mirror reflection
• The mirror has a decorative mosaic effect around the edge which projects onto the wall quite nicely
• The reflection was created by "spotlight (light)"
• I also used a smoke machine to illustrate the lyrics "I don't need to breathe, breathe, breathe..." etc. It also made the set look less like I had filmed it at home.

Mirror used for makeshift "SFX"

Although this was mainly directed and filmed by myself, I had my younger sister's assistance in ensuring that still shots remained in their position. She also helped with a shot where I wanted moving extreme close-up of my leg and arm that I will hopefully use for the line: "steam on my skin from the heat within, no limit to your touch".

Costume and make-up

I incorporated the glitter eye make-up look from my mood board and maintained the "dark", grunge feel with a darker lip. I wore a loose black baseball shirt and leather leggings with a gold ring and bracelet to achieve the desired modern grunge, yet urban look. 

Close-up of make-up

Still from a mid-shot, showing outfit

Overall, I found it challenging and time-consuming to film around ten whole takes. The song is roughly 3 minutes 50 seconds but filming lasted for almost 4 hours - this includes the set up and set down, positioning the camera, reviewing shots etc. But this only motivated me to plan more filming, I may even repeat this scene to include more shots like a pan shot with even more angles. I feel that I filmed a sufficient amount of shots but I want this scene to be the main "location" i.e. I will keep returning to this scene throughout the video so I may need additional takes. However I plan to upload to footage to Premiere Pro and thoroughly review the footage before making further plans.