We were given the email to our makeup artist, Jackie. A few days before the shoot, we emailed her explaining what we were looking for and sending some inspiration photos. Before we sent her the email, we needed to finalise makeup choices. We all discussed makeup once again and decided to change the blue eyeshadow to a more golden sparkly champagne shade. We thought this would look cleaner and classier than bright blue.
Shortly after that, we received a response from Jackie, explaining a bit about herself and asking us a few questions. My response to her was a copy of the shooting schedule and my phone number for her to ask me more questions over the phone.
There are only two significant props that we need. These items the school will provide for us. We will need a fan for the florescent element, so the singer's outfit blows against the lights.
We will also need a big brown leather chair. This will be for the rapper element. We want the chair to be old fashioned, but not worn down. This will match the star image of rappers. They are seen as swaggy and are presented like 'royalty', meaning that an old minted fancy chair will support that image.
However, after looking around the school does not have a leather chair, we therefore decided to use a similar fancy fabric chair. We came up with a quick solution of throwing furry coats and blankets over the chair. This gives off the similar conventions of a swaggy look, and suggests that idea of the fur coats of women that the rapper has been with. This all supports his star construction of a ladies man, and a confident, social figure.
In order to stay on top of things and be more organised on the day, we created a shooting schedule showing everyone on the crew the order of whats being shot first the times, actors, props, costumes, makeup and hair. This places everyone on the same page and lets everyone know what is happening when. We explicitly created the schedule with the wheel being the first element in mind. This is because it is such a big set which needs to be destroyed and taken out of the way for other builds. We also arranged the order that suits the makeup artist, Jackie. This is so she doesn't have to go back and forth with makeup looks. The dance makeup look is for the entire morning and there is a makeup change to florescent makeup after lunch.
We also obtained the actor's emails and phone numbers, which I have blanked out for security and privacy reasons. This is so that we can get in contact with them on the shoot day.
We wanted to get some statement jewellery for the florescent element for the singer.
The first thing we were looking for was a Gold Snake Arm Bracelet and Statement Ring.
This is to match her star image. She is mysterious, sexy, feminine and mischievous, like a snake. This ideology fits with our target audience of a young generation, as its showing conventions of girl power and confidence.
I found a snake arm bracelet from amazon, which was adjustable. This means it can wrap around her arm easily, no matter the size. The design is a tropical golden metal.
Unfortunately, we couldn't find a statement snake ring that we were satisfied with. We therefore looked for some other rings. We looked in typical cheap stores such as New Look and H&M.
We found a green statement ring, that matched the style of the arm band. We bought this in the biggest size, so we know it will fit on her finger. If it's too big, we will stuff it.
We also got some big gold statement hoops. We wanted them to be big, but not so big they draw attention. These also match the style of the arm band. We are overall happy with these designs and think that they will go well with the white florescent outfit.
We asked Lottie to help us choreograph the dance element. We showed her a video as inspiration, played her the song and explained to her the style we are going for to fit the R&B genre. We want to make sure that it can be done easily, in heels and in a confined space.
We are very thankful for Lottie to help us out. Although she included walkovers and other very full on difficult tricks, we discussed that we can tweak these and remove/replace them with another move.
We practiced this dance in the only slot where it was available. In the video, Nandi and Eden are at the back, whilst the three girls at the front are not in our music video. This was during one of Lottie's classes, but taught the class the dance and continued to choreograph.
We made sure to film this process so that Maddy, who was unfortunately not available to attend, can learn the dance and for the dancers to refer back to for practice.
Overall we are happy with the choreography, we just need to turn it down but maintaining the energy and style of the piece. We will remove the walkovers and tricks as it can't be done in heels in a 12x12ft set. We want the dancers to be in sync, therefore we want it to be as easy for them as possible.
This is the video we showed to Lottie and refer to as inspiration:
Although we are getting a makeup artist, I decided to do some research into different makeup products and what would possibly work together. This is based off the inspirations and ideas that we are thinking
Eyes: I looked at makeup brands known for their bold products, such as KIKO and MAC. I looked at different shades of blues and turquoise. This was beneficial to me to see different shades to get a real idea of how it will look on the shoot.
Eyeliner: I also looked at some gel eyeliners. I think the chrome white shade will look amazing against the bold blue eyeshadow. This will also look good against her dark skin and will match her white outfit.
Lipgloss: I then went on to look at different shades of purple. I personally like MAC's Star Trek lipgloss in the colour Warp Speed. This is a sparkly colour which is what we are looking for. I also looked at some more neutral colours for the dance element.
We began discussing hair, and wanted something out of her face, but to look sexy and feminine. We decided that a scraped back high ponytail would look good. We had looked at other modern artists such as Beyonce and Nicki Minaj and looked at inspirations from them. This means that our artist will look current and fit into Dyer's Star Theory of construction. This style is for the florescent element, where it will flow back along with the costume against the fan.
We also looked at inspirations for the singer's Jewellery. We wanted statement pieces, to support her confident and feminist figure. She has a striking persona shown through her costumes, makeup and jewellery. We liked the idea of using the snake, to suggest connotations of mystery and power.
We looked at different designs of statement pieces, such as rings, earrings, necklaces, and bracelets.
We decided we wanted a snake arm band and ring, to connote that image throughout the piece. As we had this, we felt it wasn't necessary to have statement earrings as well, and perhaps have something more subtle.
This supports Dyer's theory of star image, as we are creating this mischievous and rebellious look to our singer. This is to fit with our target audience, who will view her as a powerful and confident role model, who they can relate to.
