research and experiments

1. Stage 2
Research + Experiments
Ewan Wild

2. Production techniques research
• Research potential production techniques you might want to use or
feel would be most appropriate – these can be related to camera,
editing, story, sound, etc
• You should look at a minimum of 3 related products in your research.
• You should collect clips/still images/how to guides/etc that might
help you. When watching scenes from films, etc you could also ask
potential target audience what they think.
• You may need to add extra slides!
• With each technique you should assess whether you can use it or
how you might employ or why you may want to disregard it
completely
• Always think about your investigations links to your intentions and
production!

3. Product 1 – Baby Driver (Tequila)

4. The shootout from Baby driver is a very good example of a technique
I’ll be using in my music video. In this scene during the fighting, the
song Tequila plays in the background. Everything in the scene is in time
with the song, down to the gunfire, reloading of weapons and the final
car explosion at the end of the scene. This links in with my music video
very well as I will be doing something similar. I will make sure heavy
actions are done on the beat. It adds emphasis to both areas and adds
a smooth flow to the music video that would not be there if it didn’t
follow the music.
Product 1 – Baby Driver (Tequila)

5. Product 1 – Baby Driver (Tequila)
Edgar Wright purposefully made the whole film follow this idea of
characters doing actions in time with the music from the very start
until the very end, as though the entire film is one long music video,
which makes it a very good example for different technical elements I
could use in my music video. I used this scene as an example as well
because although you can easily tell that everything is in time with
one another, the music doesn’t take anything away from the intensity
of the scene, and vice-versa, even when a character is shot, Tequila is
still playing away in the background. That’s something I want to
concentrate on. Does my video take anything away from the song?
Both would need to be working together to boost each other up and
make one another seem even better, rather than my video ruining the
song completely.

6. Product 2 - My Blood – Music Video

7. Product 2 - My Blood – Music Video
My Blood by Twenty One Pilots is about the best a music video that
tells a story can get, in my opinion. It contains everything a music video
has to make it good, a variety of cuts, a story which makes people
invested in the characters, and a plot twist. This music video is really
one to look up to. It also cuts on the beat at the start of the music
video, which is something I was talking about in product one, though
this does it in a different way. Instead of actions in the video happening
on the beat, it cuts to a different scene, which gives us a short
background to the story. It’s brief, but it does it well. I will try to
incorporate this into my video however it will be hard to do all the
time as I have some longer scenes, and so changing on the beat will be
a bigger challenge.
Before a beat (real life) Switched to on the beat (memory)

8. Product 2 - My Blood – Music Video
Another thing I want to incorporate is the transitions they use in the
music video, specifically one towards the end. We find out a plot twist
to this music video when he helps his brother into the house then they
get through the door and it’s just him. The transition is smooth and is
made to look like one full take, which is what I want to do. For some
areas I don’t want to make my cuts and transitions look like what they
are, the perfect example being this scene from My Blood, which is
shown at the bottom. This will be difficult to do as I will have real walls
and so will have to use other objects such as beams to be able to do
this well.

9. Product 3 - Sin City (Elements)

10. Product 3 - Sin City (Elements)
The reason I included Sin City is because of one specific element that
the film is famous for. The masking. In the film only small areas actually
have colour, and the rest is black and white, which is what I want to be
doing by the end of my music video, except for one area. This masking
is a technique that I know I can do well and it looks very good, adding
meaning to my music video as well as a whole new aesthetic. They will
be very different in every way, Sin City and my music video, however I
like the masking that the movie has and want to try that for myself and
so I will add it to a portion of my own music video.

11. Genre and artist breakdown
• Think about the conventions of music video and which of these you
feel are the most appropriate for you video and why
• Think about the genre characteristics for your chosen artist – how do
you plan to employ these?
• Which techniques and styles do you think fans of your chosen genre
prefer? What should you expect to see in that type of music video?
• Use the following slides to show your ideas and explain these using
good illustrative examples – this is where your research and
explorations should start. Remember to consider the aspects we
looked at in class [and the academic things from Goodwin, etc].

12. Conventions
• One convention of music videos is how the mix of camera shots
shows meaning, whether it is from long shots or close ups, the
camera will mean something. It will be used to add emphasis onto
different parts of the music video that’s important, such as the
characters emotions, the location, or an item. Whichever one im
trying to show will have a different shot.
• Another big convention that I will use is mise-en-scene. This is the
addition of representation through anything. For example, a door
around a character shows how they might be closed off from the rest
of the world. As there’s no dialog in music videos, this will be an
important way to show some backstory or a different way to show
the emotion in the character, as constantly doing the same thing
might get boring after a while.

13. Genre Characteristics
• My genre is seen as very generic, there isn’t many characteristics that
makes it stand out, however the songs usually have a very mixed
pace, so I will try to incorporate that in with the video. For example, I
will try to match the speed of the music with the lengths of the shots
and scenes, such as the slower parts of the song are matched with
longer lasting shots.
• One convention of a lot of videos in my chosen genre is the
relationship between the music and the video. I am definitely sticking
to this characteristic as my whole video is about nightmares and
insomnia, which is exactly what the song is about. You tend to see
this more in Pop music than any other genre as the stories are usually
easy to follow, and a lot of fans like a music video in a short movie
style.

14. Chosen approach/justification
• I think fans of my chosen genre will like a short movie style music
video, as they are very common in the genre and consistently get a
lot of positive feedback. Looking back at the My Blood music video, it
has got nearly 21 million views with mostly positive feedback. Twenty
One Pilots is a similar genre to my music, so the fans obviously like
this story telling style. This isn’t the only band to do videos like this
though. “Happier” By Marshmello and Bastille tells a story over the
course of many years that has the power to make people cry. This
song as well as the video is also extremely popular with over 138
million views and 2.7 million likes. Most of the comments on this
video are very positive about the music video, and how well it can
play with people’s emotions.

15. Experiments
Camera/Editing/Audio Experiments
This is for you to evidence the filming and editing tests we did.
Be prepared to add extra slides.
You can add more experiments as you do them as the project progresses.

16. Experiment 1 - Process
• The first experiment I did is a
smooth cut between two
different scenes. This is a very
simple transition that just
requires two shots to be next
to each other, but it can be an
effective way of changing the
scenes. In a smooth and
effective way. If this transition
is done in a way so that the
change is completely black, it is
easy to add in another short
clip of a black screen. It won’t
be noticeable but will change
the transition to make it look
better and smoother.
(Experiment in blog)

17. Reflection
• What elements of your experiment will you include in your final
product?
• This is my favourite transition, I think it looks good, and it works very
well as a smooth way of changing the scene. I will include it to change
scenes completely rather than just going from one shot to another.
However I will need to watch out for my bias opinion of this shot.
Because I like it I run the risk of overusing it, so I need to watch out
and be sure to use it only once or twice. Any more could lower my
grade and ruin the video completely.
• This cut isn’t limited to a person walking, the camera could go
towards a solid object and then move back out to a different one.
Because of this, it gives me lots of freedom with how I could use it,
and it allows me to create many different variations.
• When I do this next time, I will make sure the camera is more in focus
than in the experiment. This was a test, and there wasn’t a big need
for the shot to be perfect in a way that doesn’t matter.

18. Experiment 2 - Process
• My second experiment is a
little more complicated,
masking. Using the calculations
effect to create a black and
white filter, then use a mask to
have this filter in only one
section. When inverting it, I am
able to choose what parts of
the screen I want in colour, and
then the surrounding area will
become black and white. This
premier will then follow what
I’ve chosen to mask, allowing
moving images to be masked.
My shot is simply a phone with
a bright colour on it as an
example of how a mask works

19. Reflection
• What elements of your experiments will you include in your final
product? What about this process has been notable [positive and
negative]?
• Masking is a good skill to have when using premier, as it is an
effective effect. I will want to use it in my final piece as a
representative effect, it will show how the life is draining from my
character after the insomnia, however before I can do that,
improvements will be needed. The tracking on premier pro doesn’t
work very well, and so if I want to add this mask to my final piece, I
will have to add a mask manually for each little frame, which will take
up a lot of time for one effect. If I have the time though, it will be a
very good and effective effect to use.