cinematography HELP! 90s music videography- cinematic beauty shots

[FashionInspired]

Hi Guys!

This is my first time using a forum but I hope someone can give some advice. I am part of a University Fashion Society in the UK and we are looking into producing some high quality videos for various projects. We are really interested in reproducing 90's style of videography seen in many RnB and Hip Hop videos. One of the techniques we want to do is some close up beauty shots, here are some examples:

Missy Elliot- The rain

Monica- Before you walk out my life

Missy Elliot- Get ur Freak on

Destiny's Child- Survivor

Aaliyah- We need a resolution

Lil Kim- Crush on you

Destiny's Child- Say my name

We will most likely be working in a studio setting but may venture out to having background. Say my Name may be a good example of a simple background.

We would love advice from the ground up- anything from on ideas of cameras, lighting and technique would be really helpful. We are looking to produce something professional looking and are only in the investigation stage of what that would involve. I think the expression "you don't know what you don't know" can really be applied to us! We realise the photos have obvious difference but I hope it gives an idea. Hopefully with your help we can be pointed in the right direction. 90s videography really interests us and we hope we can solve one part of the puzzle!

Thank you in advance

 

[sfoster]

If you want pretty eyeballs you have to have lights with special shapes.
most common is a circle of lights called a ring light

i personally really like this variation on it

 

[FashionInspired]

@sfoster Thank you for that, that is a great start! I see this can be used for glamour shots so that is great. Out of interest, Would the "before you walk out my life" example be some sort of spotlight?

Any advice anyone has on cameras would be lovely. I notice 90s vids are not as sharp as more recent vids as I'm wondering if its down to the cameras used back then. I know there are camcorders and DSLRs but I don't know where to begin. I wonder if could apply an in post filter but not sure...

 

[indietalk]

Here's a cool article for you

Why Are All the Fashion Photographers Directing Music Videos?

From Craig McDean directing Rihanna’s latest video to Herb Ritts’s work with Janet Jackson, fashion photographers may just make the best music video directors.

www.vogue.com

 

[sfoster]

@sfoster Thank you for that, that is a great start! I see this can be used for glamour shots so that is great. Out of interest, Would the "before you walk out my life" example be some sort of spotlight?

When she is sitting outside on the curb ?
yeah you could call it a spotlight.

Put her outside in the evening at dusk so that the light will show up on the camera, and then put a black funnel around the light.
Sort of like that cone you see on a dogs head to stop it from scratching at its face.

That cone will focus the light into a spotlight... but the actual light source is just a normal light. being focused by the funnel.

 

[FashionInspired]

Here's a cool article for you

Why Are All the Fashion Photographers Directing Music Videos?

From Craig McDean directing Rihanna’s latest video to Herb Ritts’s work with Janet Jackson, fashion photographers may just make the best music video directors.

www.vogue.com

Thank you for that, it was really inspiring. It's exactly why we want to go in this direction! We're going to try very hard to make something visually stunning

 

[FashionInspired]

When she is sitting outside on the curb ?
yeah you could call it a spotlight.

Put her outside in the evening at dusk so that the light will show up on the camera, and then put a black funnel around the light.
Sort of like that cone you see on a dogs head to stop it from scratching at its face.

That cone will focus the light into a spotlight... but the actual light source is just a normal light. being focused by the funnel.

Thank you for the tip! Very helpful.

 

[Vernair]

Hi! Sounds like a cool project.

Most the videos from that era were shot on 35mm film, which had/has a lot of latitude (depth) so getting a proper (s35) cinema camera would be a great start - something like a Red or Arri Mini. Then, and probably more importantly, some fast prime lenses.

Also look into White Diffusion and Black Diffusion. Back in the day, it was done by sticking a bit of pantyhose on the back of the lens to soften some of the highlights. Nowadays you can do it with an physical filter on-camera or digitally in post.

And yeah +1 on the big, frontal key light with unique shapes. Just zoom in to the reference photos eyes to see what they were doing.

 

[StoneJack]

90s videos were very cinematic - meaning that they were shot, of course, 24 fps; secondly, they had great direction and editing, when there wasn't that many effects and plugins available as now - so they had to concentrate more on overall feeling and direction, rather than zoom transitions as now. I think in general, they were much more romantic and some had breathtakingly beautiful scenes. Consider the ending in Billy Joel's "The night is still young".

I also think they used more slow motion (slow motion in 24fps looks fabulous), were less sharp. Some of best 90s videos were black and white (Police, Every step you make, Kim Wilde, Million years away).