1. LIGHTING IN MUSIC VIDEOS
LADY GAGA – BAD ROMANCE
RIHANNA – THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR
KENDRICK LAMAR – SWIMMING POOLS
2. BAD ROMANCE
The first shot has extremely bright lighting and
reveals Gaga as queen-like surrounded by people.
This quickly changes when the music kicks in and
the lighting goes to really dark in a new setting
revealing her as a creature-like being coming out a
coffin. The effect of the drastic change in lighting
help strengthen the creature-like character that she
is trying to create. Costume and lighting combined
together help show when she is a darker person.
Another example of this, as you can see when she is
covered in diamonds with women surrounding her,
she is in extremely bright white lighting, but the next
shot shows her slightly disformed in a much darker
lighting, again showing the combination of costume
and lighting to strengthen the effect.
3. THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR
This is the first example of significant lighting change in
the video. Rihanna begins to sing and when the main
chorus comes on the lighting suddenly goes really dark.
This synchronisation of sound and lighting works well to
kick start the song.
As you can see in the images on the right Rihanna is
surrounded by dark lighting but her face is lit up, putting
the spotlight on her draws the audience to her face.
The lighting goes dark and the lights start appearing in
synchronisation with the beat and when the drop kicks in
the walls fall down and Rhianna appears in a club with
the strobe light crazily shining everywhere, to intensify
the drop of the song.
4. SWIMMING POOL
The song is about alcoholism. The first shot shows Lamar falling in total darkness. I
interpreted this as him falling down because of alcoholism, the dark lighting helps
show that he is in a ‘dark place’ because of alcohol.
The next shot drastically changes in lighting going from black to white. This switch
in colour helps kick start the song as the shot changes from black to white.
When Lamar begins to rap the lighting gets darker as he raps in an old abandoned
room. It appears that the lyrics are quite dark with lighting helping represent it.
When Lamar changes from to rap to singing suddenly the background is pitch black
as he sings and the girl in the second shot in bright white lighting is shown in pitch
black lighting. This darker lighting helps represent Lamar talking about drinking a lot
and making it sound fun.
When the main chorus comes on the lighting goes to a darkish red with setting
being in a club. The red lighting could possibly represent how the attraction of
having fun and going out is dark and evil because it causes you to drink yourself to
a state, especially for alcoholics.
