This presentation looks into the lighting and colour decisions I made when creating my music video, as well as explaining my reasoning behind them.

1. Colour And Lighting Decisions
For The Music Video
By Matthew Haddock

2. Colour Theory: Overview
• Colour theory is the use of colours to provoke an audience response, it has been in
use since the days of black and white silent films, where different scenes were
projected with coloured overlays to give them a purposeful single-colour tint.
• The main distinction in colour theory is between “warm” and “cool” colours. Warm
colours like orange and red are associated with intense feelings, love and danger
for example. Cool colours, like blue and turquoise, show calmer and more relaxed
emotions.
• I have taken care to use filters and mise-en-scene to create a colour code for my
music video, centred around the extremes of orange and blue, with white used as
a transitional colour, and natural colour employed only in the final scene.
• The politician is associated with the colour blue, a cool colour that shows his safety
and stable position in society, and the assassin is associated with the colour red, a
hot colour, to show his more unpredictable and reckless nature.
• Overall, scenes with a cooler colour scheme see the characters in a safer and more
controlled position, and scenes with a warmer colour scheme convey a sense of
instability and danger. The use of cool filters decreases as the video goes on, as
both of the main characters find themselves in more intense situations.

3. Colour Theory: The Politician
• The politician is associated with blue; a colour with connotations of calmness and
serenity, as well as high positions in society, the phrases “blue ribbon”, “blue chip”
and “blue-blooded” being indicators of great esteem and quality. The politician
initially is safe as a result of the protection afforded by his high status, however his
deteriorating mental state sees blue being associated with him less frequently as
his high position in society now makes him at risk as a public figure, he no longer
sees himself as safe.
• In the mise-en-scene, the politician is associated with the colour blue through his
wearing of a blue tie, distinguishing him from the other politicians featured as they
all wear black ties. The image of the politician affixed to the assassin’s planning
board is secured with a blue pin. When the politician is seen giving his speech, the
podium he speaks from has a blue cloth draped over it.
• In shots where the politician is in a position of safety and control, such as when he
authorises the drone strike in the opening sequence, and when he is eating
breakfast and getting dressed in the safety of his own home, a prominent cool
colour filter is used, giving the shots a blue tint.

4. Colour Theory: The Assassin
• The assassin is associated with the colour red, a colour with connotations
of aggression, danger, and desire that relate to his emotionally-motivated
vengefulness.
• In the mise-en-scene the assassin is associated with the colour red in that
his hair is red, his bedroom is decorated with red lamps and a red chair, he
uses a red pen to draw his assassination plans, he wears a red shirt when
carrying out the assassination, and he carries out the assassination in a
corridor that features a prominent red carpet.
• For the most part, the assassin is shown in a state of emotional volatility,
which is why most of the shots he is in are given a warmer colour filter, to
signify the danger and unpredictability of his position, giving the shots an
orange tint. A cooler colour filter is only used in the place in the narrative
where the character feels completely in control: when he draws up plans
for his assassination plot, late at night in his bedroom.

5. Colour Theory: Red/Orange
• These colours are associated with scenes of danger, anger and instability, when characters are feeling their most
intense emotions.
• Red and orange are used in the mise-en-scene in the sequence wherein the politician has his first hallucination, he
is in a place where the walls are covered in completely red wallpaper, reflecting the intense paranoia he feels at
the time. In the final assassination sequence, there is a red carpet on the floor, relating to connotations of red as a
colour signifiying danger and violence.
• I have made much more prominent use of this colour scheme through colour filtering as opposed to what is
present in the mise-en-scene. The orange colourisation was turned up high in the opening scene that shows the
assassin’s father being held hostage. As the sequence shows him waking up to discover he is tied up in an
unfamiliar tunnel, I wanted there to be a strong orange tint to the scene to convey how scared and helpless the
character is feeling. The scenes in which the politician is in self-imposed isolation in his loft are heavily tinted with
orange to convey how dangerous and unhealthy this decision is despite its illusion of safety. I have given scenes an
orange tint varying on the intensity of the situation. For example: When the politician gets into his car, realising
the implications of his actions, there is a subtler orange colourisation that illustrates that this worrying is just the
beginning of where his actions will take him, foreshadowing the more overt colourisation that is to come. In
sequences where the characters are feeling anger, such as when the assassin reflects on home videos of himself
and his father, or purchases a weapon online, I employed orange filters to show the assassin’s mind as being
clouded with rage. When the assassin is given the weapon, an orange filter is also used, this conveys the danger of
his situation, as he has now committed a criminal act. Throughout, scenes with more of a red/orange tint
showcase negative situations that see the characters within them undergoing stress.

6. Colour Theory: Blue
• This colour is associated with scenes of safety and control, where the characters are in situations
where they are protected from danger, and feel stable and in control of their situation.
• I have used colour filters for the majority of scenes which incorporate the colour blue, however
there are some examples of blue being present in the mise-en-scene, such as the prominence of
the assassin’s blue jacket and blue curtains in the scene where he plans out the assassination. This
is a scene where the assassin feels completely in control of events, in opposition to other scenes
where he feels unstable that emphasise his red shirt, red chair, red lamp and other red possessions
of his.
• Colour filters are used to create a blue visual in the opening scene, showing politicians in a meeting,
deciding whether or not to carry out a drone strike. The blue tint of the scene shows the safety of
the politicians, in contrast to the situation of the hostage, which is given an orange tint. In a sealed
room, the politicians have little to fear, they can discuss the matter while completely detached from
the action itself, being far, far away from the site of the strike. The blue reflects the calmness and
safety of their position. I also employed a blue colour filter in the scene where the politician is
getting dressed for work, showing the safety he has within his house, however the phone call he
receives soon disrupts this feeling of security. While the assassin’s scenes mostly incorporate an
orange colour filter, the notable exception is, as mentioned above, the sequence where he plots the
politician’s assassination. This was done to create a feeling of calculation and control, the assassin
feeling secure in his decision, confident in his plan.

7. Colour Theory: White
• I have used white as a transitional colour, as it is not tinted towards blue or orange, lying squarely in
the centre of the colour wheel, giving these transitional scenes a distinct visual style. This was not
done with intent to play towards expected connotations of the colour white, rather it is a unique
element of the visual language I created for the music video.
• White is prominent in the mise-en-scene of transitional scenes, such as the scene where the
politician leaves his bedroom, looking up at his loft, bridging the gap between the part of the
narrative where he isolates himself in his loft and the part before. The ceiling, door, loft door, and
fire alarm in this scene are all white. When the politician leaves the loft to attend a meeting, the
first thing that is seen is a close-up shot of his tie as he adjusts it while preparing to go to the
meeting, his white shirt takes up the majority of centre frame, this sequence is a transition
between the politician leaving his loft and attending his meeting.
• To emphasise the colour white in these scenes I turned up the light sensitivity of the camera, so
that they would appear to be brighter and whiter than they were in real life, emphasizing white’s
place as a transitional colour. For example; in the aforementioned close-up shot of the politician
adjusting his tie, the politician’s hands take on an extremely pale colouration due to the light
sensitivity being increased. I also recorded this shot close to a white light source in order to make
the shot as bright as possible. This sensitivity adjustment is also used in the sequences where the
assassin finds out that the politician’s whereabouts are unknown, and the sequence where he
discovers he is present at a meeting. These scenes are very bright, the walls appearing much whiter
than they do in the other shots of the assassin, and they act as transitional scenes, giving the
audience context for the confusion of the politicians in the succeeding shots in the scene where the
assassin finds out the politician’s location is not known, and providing a transition between the
assassin being in his bedroom to heading out towards the meeting in the scene where he finds out
the politician’s whereabouts.

8. Colour Theory: Natural Colour
• Only in the final scene, starting with the politician attending the meeting, is natural and unfiltered
colour used.
• This is to create a contrast with the rest of the music video, and make sure that the ending feels
distinct.
• After the use of colour filters throughout the video, some very extreme, the use of natural colour
feels like a conclusion, the story has been resolved and all is well.
• While it is true that the story is resolved in this sequence, all is not well, this is a case of
misdirection, the audience may expect the politician to have a happy ending, he no longer
hallucinates and there are no colour filters to express strong emotions, while the use of natural
colour is intended to showcase this, it also serves the purpose of making the assassination
sequence more jarring.
• Following a long pattern of high-emotion sequences being shot with a prominent orange colour
filter, seeing that the most violent and aggressive scene in the video occurs in unedited and natural
colour makes the act of violence seem more grounded and realistic, the lack of filters enhancing
the realism of the scene.
• The assassination scene is intended to be a “sequence-breaker” in the video; the assassin and
politician have never been in the same place until this scene, no physical violence occurs until this
scene, and the music changes from a 4/4 to a 3/4 time signature, playing a bizarre guitar solo that is
at odds with the rest of the track. The change from filtered to natural lighting is another example of
this “sequence-breaking”, adding to the surprising and distinct quality of this final scene.

9. Use of Chiaroscuro
• Chiaroscuro is a style of lighting where there is much contrast between light and shadow in the frame.
• I have employed this style in several scenes in my music video to convey a sense of secrecy and isolation.
• Chiaroscuro is present in the first sequence of the music video, where politicians are shown in a meeting, deciding whether or not to carry out a
drone strike. The characters are shown in a dark room, their table spotlighted, with everything else around it shrouded in shadow, relating to the
sensitive and secretive nature of this discussion, and the isolation and detachment that these kind of meetings have from the everyday outside
world. The room in this scene was actually well-lit; the lighting effect was created by turning down the camera’s light sensitivity as far as it would go.
This reduced the amount of nuance visible in the lighting, creating a greater contrast between the lighter and darker elements of the mise-en-scene,
resulting in the chiaroscuro effect in the finished video.
• I also employed chiaroscuro in the sequence where the assassin uses the internet to buy a weapon. The character’s face is illuminated directly, this
was done by pointing a desk lamp at his face, and shadows are cast when he moves his hands as a result of this bright light source, his background is
also much darker than his foreground, creating a high contrast between his well-lit skin and all of the other elements of the mise-en-scene, which are
show as much darker. This effect is emphasized by the fact that the assassin is wearing a black T-shirt, creating a distinct contrast between his
clothing and exposed skin. Here chiaroscuro is used to emphasise the character’s isolated and singular drive towards the purchase of this weapon,
and as weapons cannot be readily bought without paperwork and testing, this is a shady and illegal purchase that occurs on the deep web, a highly
secretive deal.
• Chiraroscuro is also used in the scene where the assassin plots out the assassination, the room is darkly lit, with the curtains drawn, two small lamps
being the only sources of light. The light casts shadows of raised pins, twine and newspaper clippings on the board that the assassin uses to map out
his plan. When he places his weapon on the top of his wardrobe, the background is relatively well-lit, but the assassin himself appears as a silhouette.
This contrast in lighting shows, once again, the assassin’s isolation in carrying out this plan, keeping it secret from the world as it is a highly dangerous
and illegal plot. I achieved this look by lighting the scene with a desk lamp and a bedside lamp, as well as turning the light sensitivity of the camera
down to create a darker appearance.
• I have also employed chiaroscuro to show the isolation that the politician feels that leads him to hide himself in his loft, as well as the secretive
nature of this coping mechanism. The loft is illuminated by a single light bulb, many shadows are created as a result of there only being one light
source in the entire space. The most notable example of chiaroscuro being employed in the loft is the shot that sees the politician climbing into it.
The character himself is not seen, however his shadow is, here chiaroscuro is being used to illustrate a part of the narrative, creating a more secretive
and visually unique shot than would be possible if the loft was well-lit.
• Aside from subsequent shots in the loft, the final use of chiaroscuro in the video comes in the shot where the politician’s wife is lying in bed alone,
frustrated that he is acting so irrationally. The bedroom is illuminated solely by the small bedside lamp, meaning that the character’s face is well-lit,
but the area outside of the cone of light is in shadow. This conveys her isolation in that she is tired of her husband’s erratic behavior and feels alone
in having to deal with it, giving the scene an element of secrecy.

10. Use of Low Lighting
• Low lighting was used infrequently in the music video, this was mainly due to the fact that my camera did not pick
up very high quality images at lower light levels.
• There was only one sequence that I had to change to accommodate this. The scene where the politician is
watching television and drops his remote control was intended to have similar lighting to the sequence where he
is getting dressed for work, but there was no way to accomplish this without the footage becoming overly grainy
or creating an unwanted chiaroscuro effect in attempting to boost the lighting. Having said that, I am happy with
the finished scene as I feel that it would have felt too dramatic with lower lighting, plus the audience can get a
better look at the politician’s facial expression at the higher light level, which is the most important element of the
scene, narrative-wise.
• Low lighting did end up being employed in the sequence where the politician gets dressed for work, the tracking
shot where he is silhouetted against his curtains before looking down at his phone was one of my earliest clear
visions for the video, and I wanted to make sure it was possible. Here, low lighting is used primarily for aesthetic
purposes. There is still a narrative purpose to it, however, the grainy close-ups of the politician’s face as he breaks
down serve to emphasise his loosening grasp on sanity by obscuring the details of his face with a lower quality
image. The audience’s visual image of the character is compromised much in the same way that the character’s
image of himself is compromised through his worsening mental health.
• The other examples of low lighting in the video are the shots of the politician in bed, waking up from his
nightmare, and getting out of bed. These were shot in low lighting to convey to the audience that this was
happening at some time in the night, and the vastly increased grain shows that the character is at the end of his
tether mentally, making the drastic decision of hiding himself in his loft due to his emotionally unstable state. This
grainy image also serves to create a visual contrast to the well-lit and high-quality dream sequence.
• While the lighting is not very low in these shots, lowering of lighting is used with a narrative purpose in the
sequence where the politician has breakfast, his wife hands him a newspaper, he reads the newspaper, and the
touchpaper is lit for his mental decline. Once the politician looks at the newspaper, the lighting grows darker with
every subsequent shot, until the scene ends with a cupboard door being closed on the camera, lowering the
lighting to almost pitch black. This is to subtly illustrate the politician’s declining mental stability.

11. Use of Strong/Bright Lighting
• Bright lighting was mainly used for the transition sequences, to heighten the white
colourisation.
• Notably, the transitional close-up shot of the politician adjusting his tie was
accomplished by mounting the camera on the edge of a lampshade while the lamp
was turned on, emitting a strong white light. I then stood close to the light and
adjusted the tie, this meant that the shot was very well-lit with prominent white
colouring, fitting in with my use of white as a transitional colour. This was the most
deliberate use of bright lighting in the entire video, for the most part available light
was used, in the form of lighting appliances intended to light the rooms that were
filmed in, as well as natural sunlight.
• Bright lighting was, however, used in a non-transitional shot without a prominent
use of white. That shot being the shot of the assassin looking angrily at old footage
of him and his father. The scene has an orange tint, however the lighting is so
strong as to give the shot a startling yellow hue that is the most intense of any
colourisation in the entire video. The character’s face is so strongly illuminated
that his features become somewhat indistinct under the light, the background is
also well-lit from the bright lighting. This was done to convey the intense anger,
and vengeful anguish felt by the assassin after discovering his father was killed, the
character’s emotions blind his reason much in the same way that the aggressive
yellow visuals are blinding to the viewer.