R+P Post 26: Set design, locations, and props

We also had to finalise the details of our set design. Our plan is for quite a minimalist look, with only a few set props, most of which we could make ourselves in order to maintain our DIY cardboard aesthetic. Otherwise, we wanted complete control over the set so that we could create the pastel, dreamlike side of our aesthetic, and thus we turned to lighting. We will be shooting entirely in studio, so that we can use various different lighting set-ups on the cylorama, and thus we did a reccie of the studio to learn a bit about the lights, and even started working on the set-ups. Our plan is to have a distinct colour for each set-up, to complement the props and costumes and even themes of the set-up. For example, the "Alice in Wonderland" set-up is purple, to complement Casey's blue dress and the green of the tree (if any of the props were purple or even pink the purple might interfere,) as well as to reference the purple Cheshire Cat from the same source media.

The studio as we found it when we went in for our reccie. The cylcorama ensures a blank white canvas for us to shoot on, and the various lights you can see above allow for precise manipulation of the colours displayed. Click to enlarge.

Jack being guided through how to operate the lights from the floor, while Noa and I watched and learned alongside him. You can see our "Alice in Wonderland" lighting set-up in the background, or at least a preliminary version of it, with the tree prop in the middle of being set up. Click to enlarge.

We took inspiration from a few different videos. We noticed having a plain studio is quite conventional for music videos, and thus we adapted this convention to our own needs. Studio-shot music videos tend to have only a few props so that the aesthetic can be carefully constructed and controlled, in comparison to on-location videos which tend to have a lot of props in order to simulate real life more.

Some of Jessie J's music video for her song "Price Tag." While it is somewhat outside of our genre, this was still an influential video on us because it has very similar set design to what we hope to achieve. There is a plain white room with different colours used for different scenes, with only one or even no big props. We also hope to emulate the success of songs and videos such as this one. Click to enlarge.

Some of Echosmith's music video for their song "Cool Kids." This is a song and video we were already familiar with, from a band that has been an influence from within the genre throughout the project, so we looked to this video for inspiration. While they use less colours than we are planning to, they still have a lot of variation in the kinds of lighting they use, and they do have at least some colour variation between white, grey, and pink. Click to enlarge.

Most of the props that we are planning to use to build the sets we are going to make- besides the sofa and some other miscellaneous things. They are directly inspired by the lyrics and our interpretation of them, as well as the pieces of media we are referencing. For example, we looked at the lamppost in "Singing in the Rain," and then decided to replicate it in cardboard and paper to fit our aesthetic. It is going to be the only set prop in its set-up.

The lamppost from "Singing in the Rain." We looked at images such as this for all four pieces of media, in order to determine if we'd need set props, and what they should be if so. For this one, the lamppost is integral to this famous scene, and very recognisable besides, so we decided to rework it in our cardboard aesthetic. Click to enlarge.

A photo of Jack working on the lamppost prop. We used a layer of cardboard as the structure of the post, and then surrounded it in black paper to make it look more similar to the original, while retaining the homemade look. We tried to shape it into a recognisable approximate version of the original. Click to enlarge.

A picture of the completed lamppost, in the wings of the studio waiting to be used. We built it on top of a 'swingball' base to aid in standing it up, and built some small lights into the paper approximation of the lamp to make it give off a nice glow and resemble the light of the original a bit more.

We followed a similar process for every single set prop- it differed slightly when it came to set-ups like the apartment, as that one is set in the 'real world.' Thus we just used a sofa, and in certain shots we used as normal props various items relating to the pieces of media throughout the dreams in the video, such as a "Singing in the Rain" VHS box and a "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" vinyl record cover.

Our set props for each set-up that required them. Certain set-ups, like Mortal Kombat, had normal props that we created by hand in a similar fashion to certain props on this list, but not free-standing pieces of set design like the ones shown here.