Since my music video is being based within a club, I will need to research some club scenes in movies or TV shows in order to find inspiration or why they used certain lights/angles.
My first film will be from John Wick 2, this film is special to me cinematography wise and has club scene. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y0vZnKLS2o)
In this first shot, it doesn’t show much and doesn’t actually look like a club, but it is a big club in the film and this is set in Rome, hence why the walls are all made from rock, this club is clearly taken place in some old building which Rome is known for, for this shot I won’t be looking at the walls or lighting, but in fact the people in the background that make this scene feel so full.
As you can see there are many people in the background of just this one shot, it makes the club feel full and adds a certain atmosphere, for my video, we will only have a limited cast so I cannot use this type of shot in my video, the people will have to all tight together giving the impact of a full club.
In this shot, here we have an actual real looking club/concert. Here I will be looking into the lights used and how effective they may be. The red mixed with blue is a classic club colour, many can interpret this to their own meanings, the red could mean that because they’re drinking so much, possibly finding someone to have sex with, or anything along these lines, red could mean lust or just sin in general, the blue could possibly mean freedom, or even with the whole 3 colours here put together have the prime colours of the American flag which also targets around freedom. Many people think they have a lot of freedom whilst in the club and don’t bother to think twice of what could even happen next, like a possible shooting here when John Wick gets caught by guards.
Here we have a close up of the crowd and John himself, the camera pace =is very fast and is hard to find a static shot, which makes sense as it’s a club, there’s high movement and action going, on, which I’ll keep in mind when filming mine. Here the lights are just pure red and because there’s a shootout going on, this could possibly mean that the red stands out as bloodshed, fear or sin.
The next TV Show is a very new one called The Umbrella Academy, this club scene from Episode 7 I found very interesting.
Here we have one of the proper rave clubs, where there’s a bunch of neon lights and people using drugs, etc. This first shot is one of the first shots of this scene and they’re basically establishing shots, showing all the colours and how people are dressed. This close up of a man with neon glasses is really cool and I would love to be able to have this certain look in my video.
In this shot I will be focusing on the pinky red colours and how it was made from all the other colours, the main lights in this club were red, blue and yellow. All of these together made this pinky colour. Although this could be a coincidence but pink is normally the colour for love, and within this scene the man on screen is trying not to take the drug that has been thrown to the ground and take his brother home from the club. The pink showcases his pure love for the drug while he’s trying his best not to take it, also furthure into the scene he goes in for the drug and sees his dead boyfriend laying there, which can work for the lighting too. Although I won’t use this certain pink or meaning in my video, I am using red for lust and this is as similar as I can get in this scene.
The next one I will be looking into a Music Video for it, which is appropriate as I will be doing that.
This music video will be 50 Cent – In Da Club. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qm8PH4xAss)
This first shot I have is 50 Cent in the club walking around with a bunch of people around him, although he is not in the centre of the shot the light is shined on him the most, making him just as seeable.
The colours are mainly a very dim red, which is one of the colours I am using in my video.
This next shot is him in the corner of the club chilling with all the other people, showing that he isn’t just always dancing he is also sitting down talking to people.
The composition here is well done since you can tell it’s a corner and the way the people are sat still shows this is a club. No lights here that I would use although 50 is still has a main spotlight on him.
Here we have a mid shot of all the people dancing in the club, without 50 in the shot. It’s just to establish many people are still dancing.
The lighting here is similar to the first shot I showed, it seems the main colour scheme here is red.
here we have 50 cent in a recording booth with a piece of paper reading his lyrics while rapping it – a pretty common trend used in rap videos which may be implemented in the Ludacris parts.
The video has a lot of fast cuts and barely shows much club scenes, when they do appear though it all looks very similar, probably showing that it’s just a basic club party and there’s nothing too special about it. It featured a lot of people dancing, a variety of races and genders which you’ll typically see within the club. All the people were dressed like you would see them in the club at this time period. A few wide shots of people dancing and just the same red/spotlight lighting throughout all the video.
For my video, I don’t think many of the aspects of this video really came to me, it all seemed pretty average. Especially the lighting.
REFERENCES –
John Wick Chapter 2 – 2017
Director – Chad Stahelski & David Leitch
Cinematography – Dan Laustsen
Distributed by: Lionsgate
THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY – 2019
Director – Peter Hoar, Andrew Bernstein, Ellen Kuras, Stephen Surjik & Jeremy Webb
Cinematography – Neville Kidd & Craig Wrobleski
Distributed by; Netflix & Universal Cable Productions
50 Cent – In Da Club – 2009 Link; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qm8PH4xAss
Director – Philip Atwell
Cinematography – N/A
Distributed by; Universal
TV and Film Production 