Set designing

Layla and I sat down and went through the timeline for our video step by step discussing each individual set , what we wanted to be happening in each and what we would need to complete the mise en scene.

The first photo shoot we decided would be very girly and we would fill the space with balloons tied to the ground, flowers on the floor and wall, fairy lights and such things all in light pinky colours.

We thought although this picture isn’t quite our idea the colours with a girly/ slightly sexy mood are what we want to represent in this first photo shoot.

As we were unsure of exactly what we were going to have in our second shoot we moved onto the café/bar set. This image inspired the look we want for our café but we wouldn’t have it so American, we want to make it feel more like a locals café similar to the one in the Dior advert.

To create the walls of the café we discussed making a fake backdrop which would also be good as that would be something we could have the guys carry across. We initially thought we could have a similar back to that in the picture about but instade of having actual objects we would have pictures of them, which would also reinforce the fake set look. We then could have the work men take down the back and change it to night bar lights. This idea has now slightly changed as we discussed it and realised it may not look local/ Frenchy enough so we did some more research (insparation picture below) and liked the idea of having curtains on a window so it will look like you can almost look outside which will make the set more realistically fake. We have asked and the department have a chequered floor which we really want for the café so that’s great, we just need to find the round tables and chairs.

We then had an issue as Sarah and Mina really liked the Burlesque idea for the second shoot but Layla and I worked out that it would look very confusing as we have a 60s French theme throughout the rest of the video so a random burlesque shoot wouldn’t fit in at all. So moving forward we thought about using the silhouette idea in this shoot instead of trying to involve it in her dressing room which we were finding very difficult to fit in. This idea still needs more development, which we will have to do before next Wednesday when we are presenting our sets to the designer.

Costumes

While Layla and I were doing the Set design Mina and Sarah worked on our costumes. We all new we had very much decided on the 60s French style theme, so by using the internet they researched into that sort of vintage look. These are some pictures they felt represented the look we want printed off, annotated and then scanned onto the computer:

This was very helpful cause we all looked it over in our production meeting at the end of the lesson, so we all know what clothes to look out for.

We all like the idea of having glamorous clothes like fur coats on the rail in her make-up room, and we all want her to wear a 60s twiggy style dress for one of the shoots.

Mina and Sarah put forward Emma having smokey eye make-up as it relates to sexiness which will help her be more attractive to the boys so fits perfectly with the idea of the video.

Layla and I finalised our set design and the costumes are coming along well we just need to find the exact clothes we can use, so we are all feeling very positive about our video as all the work we are putting in is going in the right direction.

casting extras

In our free lesson Mina and I went through student photos to see which boys we would like to be extras on set during our video. We want them all to be boys so that Emma is surrounded by them and can be getting attention from them all over the set, and it emphasises her as the only beautiful woman. They will be moving sets around and being involved in the photographing while being teased by her.

Here are photos of the boys we think have the look and have emailed:

We chose Maxim as our first boy because we think he has a very obvious good looking boy style to him, brown hair tanned and not small. We think he is the kind of boy that girls would want to get their attention, but he also has a slight younger look to him meaning that he would be easily fooled by a beautiful boy teasing him. Maxim has also had previous acting experience so hopefully he will be able to show the other boys how to behave as he knows how this type of situation works.

Names of the boys:

Archie Clarke
Hendrik Speelmans
Jack Flammiger
Oliver Scott
Theodore Bhat
Toby Baring
Will Van Der Woude
Greg Fellows
Gil Hogarth

this is the email Mina and I sent the boys:

Props

While me and Layla were working on the storyboard Mina came up with a first draft of our props list, this is very important as we have a set designer coming to see us next idea so we need to know what we want and how it should look so we can explain it to him well so he can see our idea too.

We need to have more of a think of what props Emma will need to play with to keep the video interesting,

Props:

Vinyl

Table of sweets and cupcakes

Camera

Photography lights

Light reflectors

Dressing table and mirror

Lights

Full make-up kit

Fur coats / feather boas etc

Clothes rack full of clothes

Glamorous jewellery

Dressing screen

Small round tables

Flowers

Normal café props

Wine glasses

Alcohol bottles

As we continue to develop our idea we have thought more about the sets and are thinking the first one will be very girly with lots of balloons hung around for Emma to dance around and fairy lights which relates to girliness. We are still discussing the second shoot as we have worries now weather the burlesque idea will fit, we want to have the whole shoot as a 60s theme so I think the burlesque might be scrapped and have her in 60s clothes with some props instead.

Hopefully we will be able to gather some props by ourselves for example my Dad is a keen photographer so I have most of the stuff we will need to make it look like a photo shoot, we also think we may have someone who will be able to lend us some clothes and the make-up kit.

Here are some images of the type of props we want:

 

To help complete the mise on scene of the café/bar we thought it would be great if we could get red stools that are commonly found at bars and link witrh the 60s theme, we want to get as many props like this that will make it clear to the audience what the set is suppose to be.

Another idea that Sarah and I came up with was to have fake flowers in the café and maybe her dressing room, these will fit with the girly theme and Emma can use them. We thought she could steal them and try smelling them but then throw them away once she realises that they are fake.

finalising set designs

In today's lesson Layla and I did some research online into what we could use in our photo shoots, we found this website very helpful.

We were also looking for photos to use in the story board as Phil showed me a one which just used pictures and as I'm not very skilled at drawing people i felt it will be a better representation of the shots.

We decided to do two photo shoots, one would be very girly full of flowers, lights and pinky colours, and one of the photos from the website had lots of balloons around and I think this could be fun. The second shoot we want to be a Burlesque / glamourous style, these shoots will be competly focusing on Emma where as the cafe/bar scene will have Emma interacting with boys.

Here are some photos Layla and I found inspiring.

While we were doing this Sarah was researching costumes and Mina was looking into the props we will need.



Timeline

We spent the lesson together going through step by step working out the timeline with the timings of the song to see when we felt there should be a change of scene or she should do something special. We wrote the sections of the time line on post it notes so that we could move them around as. This isn't set in stone, we have left some breathing room for changes along the development process and no doubt we will do somethings slightly different on the filming day or in the editing stages.

The second photo shows the timeline with a slight change from when we went back over it.

We talked through the timeline with Phil and he was happy with what we had done, but wants us to think about adding one or two more locations so we could just rearranging one of the set to add another aspect so it doesn't get too repetitive and keeps the audience interested. We would have liked to have an outside in streets scene but we can't rely on the weather working in our favour as we will be filming in November it will most likely be horrible outside, so we will keep thinking about the sets.

Set development

To help us work out what different elements we needed to put in our video to keep it interesting we looked back over the Dior Addict advert and wrote down step by step what happened, what the girl did and all the different locations she went to. It was very helpful doing this as i don't think we realised how many different things/places she did.
We began taking parts of the advert that we liked and thought about how we could use a similar idea, like we liked the thought of her turning up the radio so the characters can actually hear the music that shes dancing to. We deveolped this to Emma turning on a vinyl as we thought it would give a more vintage look.

We also liked the setting of her in the cafe as it's a fun place for her to dance around in and interact with other people, like the waitors or other customers. We will be doing this all in the studio and really like the idea of having the photoshoot but being able to see it all so it's obviously a shoot, so we thought we could join this with the cafe and also have it as an obvious set, one it gives her a reason to be in there for the photoshoot, and two it will be easier for us to design and get hold of the props.

Sets

Now we have casted Emma as our leading girl we next needed to finalise ideas for the set so that we could begin writing a timeline.
The first set idea we all agreed on was to have a sort of make-up / backstage room, the inspiration i got for this location was from my parents bedroom

This sort of all creamy white colours with very elegant womanly objects decorating, everyone else liked these photos and we started thinking about actually using this room, but then when we began developing the other locations we decided it would be best to do them all in the studio and give them an obvious set look.

The next set idea is a simple classy photo shoot setting like this so it's very obvious she's on set and we would see her walking on with all the equipment on workers moving around.











A final setting we would like to incorporate is a cafe/bar type of location, but also having it obvious that it's just a set. Here is an image from the cafe in the advert:

Here are some other images from the advert that were inspiring:

Casting

The three girls we thought of as possibilities agreed to do some screen testing so we played them the music and got them to dance around to it, we gave them a chair and a jacket as props individually.
We did this in our enigma time and it all went very well accept for an issue with the music, someone thought someone else had the music but they didn't and then the video went down on youtube for some reason so that waisted 5/10 minutes but we managed to record it on Sarah's phone and play it from that, that made us realise we need to be more organised next time.
















As people said how they wanted to improve filming skills we all took it in turns to do the different jobs: camera man, sound, director and photographer. This worked well for everyone.
















Before we began filming any of the girls we asked them to do 3 poses in the style they thought represented the song and how the girl in it would be
Emma:

Leah :

Anne-sohie:

We filmed Emma first so we used her as our guinea pig for the behind a blanket shot, heres a shot clip of the footage we shot:


Layla is confident in using Final Cut Pro so volunteered to edit together all the footage we got of the three girls, she did a very good job, here is the video:


After reviewing all the girls as a group we all thought Emma suited the character of the girl the best, she is pretty with a good figure and long hair. Emma was also the most confident and understood what we were asking for the best, the way she moved around the space with and without the props cheekily and in a girly manner is just what we were looking for.