R+P Post 25: Costumes, Props and Make-up

To get started planning our outfits we first researched how many outfits were conventional in a girl band music video. Out of the many examples we looked at 3/4 different outfits seemed to be the most common. We have therefore decided to use three different outfits.

Outfit 1: Individual outfits for individual performances
Outfit 2: Group dance outfits
Outfit 3: Dinner scene outfit

For example in M,O's music video 'Preach' they change three outfits:

We drew inspiration from this outfit by M.O because we have a scene in our music video where it's supposed to be a fancy dinner set up so we thought we would have black tie outfits but with a twist like they have done in M.O's video.

M.O also have another outfit that we really liked and thought that it would represent our band perfectly. It's their jogging bottoms one with oversized shirts and crop tops. We really liked the way the joggers looked in the video so we decided we wanted to  use this aspect in our video too.




They also used the joggers outfit in another video: 

I really liked the bomber jacket that one of the girl's were wearing with the plain top and also the sweater.




During one of our group meetings we sat down and brainstormed some ideas for our three outfits based on our research and also our band's street identity in mind:









We then created a finalised version on the computer with pictures for reference:

Outfit 1:

Outfit 2:




























Outfit 3:





























We had most of the clothes we planned to wear in our wardrobes already but I had to order two things:

1) A black crop top

2) Grey Joggers

In order to practise our make up looks, we all went to Angela's house one weekend and tried out various different looks and made not of these looks so that we could use it for the shoot. Below I have included some photos from that day.

            

For the guys we decided on two outfits.


Outfit 1: We don't want them to stand out at all, we want the girls to be the main focal point so we decided to dress the guys in all black for the individual performance shots.

Outfit 2: We plan to use them as waitors for our dinner table scene so waitors outfits:

• White shirt
• Bowtie
• Black Shoes
• Black dress pants

Props:

• 4 red heart shaped balloons
• Coloured confetti 
• 'Wine' - Apple Juice and Lemonade
• 4 Wine Glasses 
• Wine Bottles
• Two Small Tables to make one long table
• Red/Maroon tablecloth

R+P Post 24: Planning My Digipak Panels

We sat down as a group and brainstormed some ideas based on research that we had done into existing digipaks, in order to start planning for our digipak panels.

We wrote down what we liked about them and also how we want to incorporate these ideas into our own digipak. 

After discussing all this we drew up our flatplan:

Below is the labeled version explaining in more detail our decisions:

R+P Post 23: Planning My Web Pages

In order to start planning out our web pages, we first had a group meeting and discussed specifically which web pages we wanted to include and we also researched existing band websites to draw some inspiration.

We decided to have 7 different sub sections to our website:

• Home
• Meet the Girls
• Music
• News
• Gallery
• Tour
• Store

Our reference points were: 

Neon Jungle's home page was very vibrant and inviting. It automatically draws the viewer in with bright colours and a large image as the banner. From this we decided that we wanted our home page to look this exciting with the band picture in big as the banner.

You would usually think that a 'news' page would be pretty standard and boring but Fifth Harmony have jazzed it up with vibrant colours, loads of images and a non-symmetrical format which means our eyes can scroll the page more at ease rather than a huge block of symmetrical boxes. This is something we want to incorporate in our own website. 

One Direction's tour page is really plain but it's straight to the point. It's simple to scroll through and tickets are very easy to access. We want this ease of buying things also incorporated in our website so that the audience doesn't have to work for it. The opportunity to buy tickets are presented to them quite easily. 

The merchandise page from Fifth Harmony's website was easy to use in a conventional format. Everything was presented with really nice pictures and again, very easy to use for the audience. We want to follow this format for our own store page.

Another thing that was common across all three websites was that there was a lot of interactivity, a lot for the audience to do and a lot of purchasing opportunities. 

Having looked at all these amazing websites, we set to work on drawing out our flatplan. Initially, we drew it by hand and once we finalised everything, we drew out a template on the computer.

R+P Post 22: Planning My Promo Shots

In order to begin planning our promo shots, we initially had a group meeting where we discussed how many outfits we wanted to include and also what different styles they were going to be and shared our individual research about outfits, make-up, poses etc.

We created a rough mindmap of initial ideas:

We created a moodboard for of outfits:

We roughly sketched some poses that we could do: 

                            

Then we went home, searched our wardrobes and found outfits that we thought matched our theme and vision appropriately. We then sent each other pictures via WhatsApp to get approval from all the other members.

            

Above are some of the pictures we sent each other. 

However, the outfits did end up changing slightly:

OUTFIT ONE:

For this outfit, from the moodboard we created and other research into girlbands, we decided we wanted a 'denim' look. Oversized and flannel shirts are very on trend at the moment so we decided to go for that look. Most bands wear very similar styles of clothing for their promo shots so we feel like this look helps the band look connected because they're all wearing some form of denim and a shirt. 

OUTFIT TWO:

This outfit was supposed to be the 'classy' and sophisticated black dress outfit. As per trend right now, some dresses have mesh panels so we decided that two outfits will have a mesh panel. One of the dresses is halterneck and low cut and just to mix it up a bit the other dress is a button down dress.                                                                                      .........                    Below is a better picture of my dress:                                                                                                    

INDIVIDUAL OUTFIT:

For all the individual outfits we wanted it to be really different to each other so that the unique personality of each band member came through.

R+P Post 21: My Key Shots Storyboard

After the timeline, we started on our storyboard. The storyboard will allow us to figure out the flow of our music video and pin down specific shots, not only that, we will be able to determine the framing and camera angles of each individual shot. Creating the storyboard also gave us the chance to sit as a group and finalise all our ideas.

Here is our finished storyboard and the key we used for framing:

            




Below I have identified some of our key shots:

We plan for this to be our opening shot. You won't see any of our faces as we will all be in silhouette in red lighting. We want the shot to be a long shot and the camera to be static. 

After the silhouette shot, we want to introduce each of the band members with a beauty shot framed as a close up, again with the camera in a static position.

Then for the chorus we want the group dance shots in various different backdrops. We want this to be a long shot but the camera will be on a dolly panning and tracking us. 

This shot shows one of the band members performing with their love interest. It's a mid-shot and the camera will be on a dolly panning around them.

This is the shot where the band is spray painting the name of the band onto the graffiti backdrop. This is a long shot with the camera in a static position. 

The final key shot that I have picked out is the dinner table scene where the guys are acting as our waiters and are waiting to serve us and pour us wine. This shot is primarily there to reinforce the whole power over men theme.