The document discusses various production techniques that could be used for a music video project, including stop-motion animation, fast cuts, and transitions. It describes experiments conducted with these techniques, such as creating a short stop-motion scene, using camera blocking to transition between shots, masking shots together for a tracking transition, and filming with the intent of using fast cuts in editing. Reflections on each experiment note what worked well and how the techniques could be applied to the final music video project.

1. Stage 2
Research + Experiments
Joe Duffy

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. Stop-Motion
I would like to use stop-motion in my video to add a certain
randomness to the visuals as the song has. I think the easiest way to do
so is through LEGO as I can adjust the pieces easily. Through my
research I have witnessed that a lot of production goes into the fluent
movement of each part. This can be seen through all the work on the
YouTube channel, “Brotherhood Workshop”, with many parts of the
scene having movement instead of just the central part. This is very
noticeable in their fast-paced production of Harry Potter in 90 seconds.
However I might cut a few frames in between each movement style to
go with the song’s faster pace. This would also save time where I could,
giving me more time on parts I hadn’t yet finished. Hopefully I can take
some images and edit them next to each other to show movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnbBcAr7XGo

4. Product - Moving On: A Stop-Motion Music Video
for 'James' Made with Yarn by Ainslie Henderson
While I will not use stop-motion for my whole video as well s not
making it fully fluent, I found that I still wanted to use this video as the
Product to describe how effective it can be, even if the theming of the
particular song is far from my own. The use of stop-motion in this
particular product allows the creator to represent something through
visual means, which in my opinion made the video more impactful and
therefore more memorable. I hope I can make my video memorable
because of it’s different visuals but with far more “positive” emotions
than this particular product.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-nWkITWMoQ

5. Fast Cuts
I would also like to do fast cuts during my video which I would do for still
images of different housing that I could hopefully do in the same way I plan to
create the stop-motion segment. I would also want to test out the editing style
that directors like Edgar Wright use in films like Shaun of the Dead and Hot
Fuzz, that move a scene speedily. I am not positive on whether I will use the
technique, with it really depending on how I could adjust it to fit in with the
song’s beat. However I do believe this makes the video more visually
interesting as opposed to stiller shots. The channel Thom Gibson made a video
detailing the easiest way to make the effect, by using the razor tool in Premiere
you can select what parts of the video who want, so you can delete the
segments you decided wouldn’t work. For more dynamic shots I might need to
either move the camera during a single shot and cut the middle part to give a
more interesting visual or do multiple shots and cut between them which may
be more difficult to accomplish.
Editing Fast Cuts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOVXs7Tv2Z0
Hot Fuzz Fast Cuts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWyChDbc_ZU

6. Transitions
I want to practise creating more interesting transitions between some shots
because, due to the faster editing, many different things will be shown on
screen fairly quickly after each other. This will give my video a visually striking
style as opposed to just using basic cuts the entire time. The video by Peter
McKinnon describes the way to make a tracking-mask in which the camera
adjusts it’s picture by motion into the next part, as well as camera blocking in
which something covers the lens and when taken away the scene has
transitioned into the next part. These on top of the use of quick cuts should
hopefully allow for my more random style of video to flow better, without
seeming too messy.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find an original source that uses the
Tracking Mask effect so I cannot describe it's effect in other mediums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF0tfqIx4cc

7. Genre and Artist Breakdown
• Think about the conventions of music video and which of these you
feel are the most appropriate for your 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].

8. Conventions
One of the conventions of music videos I think could be useful in my
own is having close up shots of faces. I think this could exaggerate
certain emotions, perhaps adding to the comedic side of the visuals. I
could use the previously mentioned cuts to transition between zoom
outs into the closer shots as an interesting way to move the visuals
along. Another convention is linking the tempo of the song with the
tempo of the video so in my case, I will attempt to keep the visuals at a
faster rate since the song is a high energy pop song.

9. Genre Characteristics
The genre characteristics for my artist or group in this case, being
Madness, is having an eccentric style that fits their relatable songs that
are set in a way that exaggerates the goings-on of the average person.
This could be done with over the top acting and random camera angles
and cuts littered throughout their own videos. I hope to replicate this
style as well as I can by setting my video where is relatable for me,
being York’s town and my own home of course. I will try to use
exaggerated shots and hopefully some over the top performances
depending on willingness!!

10. Chosen Approach/Justification
The parts of the group's style I would like to try in my own video
include their faster editing to replicate the music’s on-going speed.
Showing different locations as they do would also keep the audience’s
attention throughout. I hope to apply different transition techniques in
my video to create more visual appeal that the group’s own videos did,
while also keeping the fast pace that they applied. The surreal acting
could also be used well to provide a more comedic effect throughout
the video, adding more entertainment value to the visuals.

11. 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.

12. Experiment 1 “Stop-Motion” - Process
I had a go at a small piece of stop-motion
work which I really enjoyed. I attempted
to show the part of the start of the story
in “The Hobbit” where Bilbo is
interrupted from one of his meals by
Gandalf and many Dwarfs. I tried to show
the character of Bilbo’s expressions by
using different faces which I think worked
pretty effectively. During this process, I
had to place a stand for my phone to get
the correct angle for the shot which
didn’t work great as it wasn’t very stable.
Hopefully when I do the actual video I will
have an actual camera to do each shot.
The only worry other than that was
knowing where each part would go to
keep continuity with placement. Other
than that, the experiment was a success
as I only had to make sure I took an image
of each change and place them side by
side on Premiere to show the motion.

13. Stop-Motion Reflection
The animation isn’t very fluent but I still believe it works well enough to the point
where I will try not to be too fussy about about the exact movements of the
characters when doing the final piece, instead focusing on how the scene is
portrayed. Setting each character’s positions was fairly difficult so that will take up
most of the time or the final part. I will try to be efficient during the making of this
particular segment of the video as it could eat into my time quite heavily. I believe,
for my first attempt ever or in a very long time, the experiment was very successful
in what it was intended for, to function well and teach what parts I should look out
for for my final piece.

14. Experiment 2 Camera Blocking - Process
I practiced the Camera Blocking technique as a
part of my attempt at learning more ways to
transition between shots. I gave it a go by putting
the camera on the smaller versions of Harry Potter
and his Owl, Hedwig, and then placing the lens
onto the table, making it go dark. For the next
part, I started filming o the table surface, and
pulled away to show the larger versions of the
characters. I wanted to make the scene seem as
“realistic” as possible by putting the figures in the
same spot to give the impression they’re the same
figures.
The process was very easy to accomplish, with the
only necessity being you cover the camera with
the same colour as what you plan to transition to,
making a fluent movement from one shot to the
next. This can be done easily by just covering the
lens so it becomes black after filming a particular
shot and when making the next shot, just make
sure to come out from covering the lens. Once you
place the individual shots next to each other, it will
give the illusion that within the short amount of
time the shot is being covered something in the
scene has changed, or you have moved into an
entirely new location.

15. Reflection
I think this transition will be a useful tool in the final product due to it’s simplicity.
However, even though the trick is easy to create, that doesn’t take away from the
more interesting visual it can show especially compared to the basic cuts that
could be used. This way I can use normal cuts while adding an extra dynamic with
little work. The transitions would also work well within the song as it can be made
faster and the pace would make the camera seem even more impressive.

16. Experiment 3 Tracking Mask - Process
The Tracking Mask is another transition technique I
practiced to use to make my video more interesting. The
process is not as easy to make as the previously described
Camera Blocking with most of the work being done after
the filming, in Premiere. It requires you to show a scene
and have an object so close to the lens hat the frame is
filled from top to bottom. This will be the area that will cut
to the next part. To keep the illusion of movement, the
different shots have to put into the same motion. The
second piece of footage is made in a different area to keep
the momentum of the transition. I chose my Living Room
and Kitchen as the areas to go into each other with the
fireplace as the divider. To blend the scenes together, I used
the masking tool on Premiere to cover the areas after the
fireplace on the first segment. I had to mask each frame
which took a decent amount of time as I had to change the
shape of the area to mask. After doing so, I put the second
piece of footage underneath the masked part of video
which, when played, made the scene play out almost
seamlessly. Thankfully the colours of the background were
similar so that lent itself to the movement but the masking
could have been more precise.

17. Reflection
While this transition can be impressive, I believe it will be pretty
situational as it requires a lot of intentional camera work that may not
be able to be made convincingly without forcing it into the song.
However, due to it’s energetic tone it would be nice to place into my
video since it would fit the song’s style.

18. Experiment 4 Fast Cuts - Process
This technique would be beneficial in two ways. As
a kind of semi-transition to keep the video moving I
an interesting way as well as matching the music’s
tempo in a more intense form. This was one of my
more enjoyable experiments to make, with it’s
structure revolving around the making of Popcorn.
The basic plot allowed me to make it appear more
interesting by making faster motions that would be
amplified in the later editing phase. I felt that,
while I was recording it, I was thinking more and
more about how each shot would look once it was
being edited. With each shot I attempted to portray
a real energy with what was being done, so that
even with faster editing, the motion of each part
didn’t lose the viewer’s interest and was clear on
what each cut represented in the overall making of
the Popcorn. When editing on Premiere, I cut out
the parts of each segment that didn’t involve
movement or would stop the flow. I reckon I got
better at choosing what parts to keep and cut as I
went in that regard as well.

19. Reflection
I think this process would be an interesting way to keep the pace of the
video, perhaps with each cut being signaled by the beat of the song
while keeping to the random style that Madness uses themselves. I
would have to think about how I would use it, and how to edit it during
the filming process if I do use it in my video.