Planning: Lighting and colour

Planning: Lighting and Colour

Lighting and Colour

The lighting and colour used in music videos are very important as they represent the themes of the music video and atmosphere within it. For example, low key lighting and dark colours can represent a negative atmosphere and vibe or even have a dark or deeper meaning behind it that might not be clear at first. Light colours and high key lighting will represent the opposite. We analysed various music videos from various genres in order to a clear understanding regarding the lighting and colour. Some of these music videos have also given us new ideas in the way they portrayed certain colours.

Chris Brown - Fine By Me

In the music video 'Fine By Me' by Chris Brown, the lighting is low key throughout the music video which symbolises danger and also further reflects the violence taking place. Furthermore, the low-key lighting also adds some mystery to the scene as it also creates more suspense for the audience. The lighting in this video also includes top and back lighting revolving the character, this also enhances the characters power and aggressive nature. From this music video, I also want to use low-key lighting within my music video to accentuate that dark back story the artist has whilst he lip-syncs to his song. This is to inform the audience that the artist wasn't always living a comfortable life the way he is now but the opposite. This could also portray the dark things he had to do in the past to come to where he is now. 

Sia - Elastic Heart

The natural lighting used within this music video portrays innocence between the two characters. This further represents that there \is nothing to hide like they're open wide to each other, suggesting that they have a good relationship between each other. The high-key lighting is refreshing to the audience and evokes happiness and care. We also want to use high-key lighting in some parts of our music video to show that, despite the dark past he has initially come from, he is now in a happy place and is doing good for himself by pursuing this music career of his. 

The Weeknd - Low Life

In this music video, there are neutral colours throughout and tends to focus on one colour. The dark colours and low-key lighting is what I also want to achieve in  my music videos to portray what the artist has been through. This also creates mystery within the music video which can also create tension for the audience. I really like this music video as it connotes all  the themes we also want to portray in our music video therefore, we decided to use dark filters such as the ones this particular artist has used in their music video accompanied with some back and low-key lighting to enforce the same effect.

Conclusion

Overall, the lightning and colour used in each of these music videos are effective in the way are used and portrayed and because of this we decided to use the similar colours and lighting from the examples above to ensure our video gives off a similar effect. Moreover, it is important that we follow these videos as they were successful so in order to gain the same impact on our audience.