Inspiration | Research

When coming up with visual ideas for some of the lines in the poem, there were a few pictures I had previously seen, and scenes in TV series that I had watched, that gave me some inspiration.

"Fighting the darkness for a moment of peace"

For this line in the poem, I had an image of a candle either being lit or already lit against a black background. To help me bring this image to life I researched that type of composition online and found a picture that replicated my idea.

The lit candle will portray the symbol of hope, while the darkness of the background will follow the line of the poem. To create this scene I will light a candle and set it in front of a black background. To present the difference between darkness and peace, I will shoot the candle being blown out, and in the editing process I will experiment with the reverse effect, so the candle being blown out will be shown in reverse order.

"To see the flames within your own"

For this line in the poem, I have a few different ideas depending on which one works the best. My first idea was a distorted flame from either a candle or a fire pit, and my second idea was the characters face blending with flames. When researching similar images to this idea I found a photo that gave me another idea that I might like to try.

This is a double exposure effect that makes the flames fit inside the outline of the model. I really liked this effect and thought it would be a nice effect to try out, however if it doesn't fit in with the rest of my imagery, which will be quite simple, then I will have to decide whether to go with my first idea or stick with this one.

"And we put on a song to dance to"

For this line in the poem, I wanted to show music playing but instead of using an actual instrument I wanted to add an vintage type of effect with a record player. When researching into record player photography, in order to make the visual effect, I found an image that helped me.

Although the colour won't be the same, the image will be slightly similar. The character will be in my visual, so I will start off with this composition of the record player playing the music, then there will be a focus pull from the player to the character.
I find this line quite emotional and almost makes me think of a memory being thought about, so I want to make this shot impactful and quite emotional for the viewer, and I think this visual will create this.

"To be Black, to be a woman,"

"To be poor and told your whole life" 

 "Things that make you compose a list"

"Of a million ways to kill yourself"

For these four lines in the poem, I wanted to replicate a scene from the TV series 'One Tree Hill'. In Season 6 one of the main characters gets attacked while closing her store, and there is a scene a few episodes afterwards, where she looks in the mirror and words are surrounding her on the mirror.

The image I thought about was very similar to this, however on the mirror, the shapes circling areas of her face and body won't be replicated. Although, similar to this, I will have words on the mirror in red lipstick.

The words that will be on the mirror for my visual are 'black', 'woman', 'poor' and 'kill yourself'.
There is another scene in 'One Tree Hill' that is very similar to this one, but instead of lipstick on the mirror, it's a projection of a piece of paper.

This scene is from Season 4, episode 13, and the words covering the actress are insults to herself, which is similar to my idea.




Then when thinking about the colour of the visuals for my video, I wanted a very de-saturated look, similar to these images.

The reasoning for the decision of de-saturated images, is due to the tone I want to create. The poem is about depression, and I have used that as my main theme for the video. I feel like having the colour de-saturated would create a depressing tone and will help towards showing the characters emotions.