My music video research

1. Stage 2
Research + Experiments
Rebecca Edwards

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
• Darwin Deez – "You Can't Be My Girl"
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GinJuHGnPkw
• The entire music video has been edited in a way that
uses stock footage, but also edits the singer into the
shots, but in a way that makes him less central to the
story or event that is taking place in the footage,
which is most likely the message of the whole song.
From this, I can take how stock images can be
implemented in a way that tells a story or conveys
the theme of a song, an example of this being the
imagery changing from romance to anger by the type
of images used and also the pace of the footage
cutting to another quickening. I can also take from
this what certain images may imply due to the type
of song or the lyrics that is playing. However, for my
project, I think I will disregard editing in an extra
person into the footage as it doesn't really apply to
the song or my video concept, it may confuse the
audience and would most likely fail to convey the
theme of the song. Additionally, I could also take
from this video the fact that the images used don't
need to be directly connected to the song, but rather
convey a theme or emotion at that point in the track
and also contribute slightly to comedic value in the
video.

4. Product 2
• Green Day - "Holiday"
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1OqtIq
zScI
• This music video is very similar to the "Song
2" video due to similar conventions and
themes used. From this video, I will take into
account how the final scene has been shot,
which is mainly a mixture of wide shots and
close ups of the singer, as they are the
central focus of the song at that point in
time. If I do have a lip-syncing portion in my
final product, I can also take from this video
how there is little to no change in the
scenery/images used as the video as a whole
when the singing isn't a primary focus.
However, in my video I have chosen not to
use a green screen for any editing purposes
in my video as I don't have the editing skills
necessary to be able to generate a
background as this video did for the majority
of its duration, seen in every car scene used.
I could also take into account how some of
the clips shot for the video have been
recorded in slow motion in order to make
the final recording faster and use this in a
similar context in my video, especially during
the chorus of my chosen song.

5. Product 3
• Landon Groves - "Where The Waves Break"
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jFIbJ0_
_DE.
• This music video, very much like Product 1, is a
music video made up entirely of stock footage,
only is a more recent make and doesn't have
the artist edited into any of the shots.
However, the footage has been selected and
edited in various ways. Due to the style of the
song being more relaxed and sombre rather
than upbeat, the footage has been edited in
some shots to appear in slow motion, mainly
the footage of the waves, which I could use in
an opposing way to this video when editing my
own footage, instead speeding up some of my
footage to match the pace of the song at that
point in time, most likely during the chorus. I
will either achieve this through the editing or
simply cutting footage together to make the
transitions quicker instead, substituting the
need for this type of editing. From this video, I
can also take into account how certain shots
have been selected in a way that creates a link
between the lyrics and the video, but may
need to disregard this fact when creating my
own video due to the ambiguity of "Song 2" 's
lyrics and how they don't seem to tell a
coherent story. I could consider for my own
filmed footage how certain shots of the people
in the stock footage have been taken, such as
how their faces are always visible in certain
shots, how as they're walking, the camera
films behind them and how the shots always
keep them as a central focus in that particular
scene

6. 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].

7. Conventions
• Overall, I believe that the editing techniques and the mis-en-scene
are the most important conventions for my music video. This is
mainly due to the majority of my music video being a combination of
lip sync clips and stock footage closely linked with the track, either
explicitly like with an instrument playing or implicitly like a clip that
may evoke or convey a certain emotion or is connected to the beat of
the song somehow. I should also make sure to use well known editing
techniques such as cutting to the beat, when the beat of a song
changes in some way and at that point, the video cuts to another
scene, an example of this being when the chorus of a song picks up,
which seems the most appropriate for my chosen song. The mis-en-
scene will also be really important for my video as the song’s lyrics
don’t seem to tell any type of story that could be conveyed in a music
video, so I will use colour scheme and imagery in order to convey the
genre and possibly the era of the song.

8. Genre Characteristics
• The main genre characteristics of my chosen artist are mainly
alternative or indie rock/punk music, which I plan to employ heavily
in my video, due to my main use of stock footage rather than footage
I’ve filmed myself. I plan to convey the genre through mediums such
as camera angles, mainly being wide shots and close ups, common in
punk music videos. I also hope to be able to alter some of the colours
of the footage to make it look more like early 2000 footage, when
“Song 2” was written and first released. Additionally, most rock and
punk music videos contain something almost "extreme" about them,
such as the "Song 2" music video having the main effect of the band
members slamming into the walls and the "Holiday" music video
containing scenes such as the band members riding round in a car in
what seems like a dangerous manner or participating in "deviant"
behaviour such as partying, which I could try and incorporate by my
use of stock footage selection or where I choose to film various
scenes such as a garage etc.

9. Chosen approach/justification
• I have chosen this certain approach with my video because it mainly
conveys the lack of narrative in my chosen song and could also
represent the uncontrolled and disorienting song style. I have also
chosen this type of music video idea as it seems to be a simpler
alternative to finding a cast and crew as I don't know anyone who
could star in my video or any way I could make one of my original
ideas work, such as certain editing techniques being
unattainable, certain locations being inaccessible or video concepts
overall being too complex. Additionally, I chose this certain video
concept as it will also display various tropes and imagery associated
with the rock/punk genre such as maybe instruments shown on
screen or the location of where I film some of my own footage, such
as a garage or a darkly lit room. This will also be seen in the selection
of stock footage I choose, with the imagery being loud, dangerous or
possibly linked to the subject of music or the genre in some way.

10. 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.

11. Experiment 1 - Process
• For this experiment, I decided to focus
on one of the edited features I wanted
my video to have, which is the highly
saturated colour that the majority of film
shot in the early 2000's had, such as the
"Song 2" and "Holiday" music videos
where this style is heavily prominent
throughout the videos. To achieve this, I
shot some footage around college that I
could use when editing and imported it
into Premiere Pro. I then went to the
Colour tab at the top of the page and
then the chosen video until the colour
tab appeared on the right hand side. I
then used the tools like the Saturation
and vibrance bars to change the videos
look until I could compare it to the early
2000 video colour contrast. Additionally,
I also used the Brightness and Contrast
sliders in Effects to add on to the colour
saturation to better give the look of
overexposure in my videos.

12. Reflection
• I have decided to use this effect throughout my video footage so to
help establish a stronger link between the video and the song genre
as, due to the non – narrative lyrics, it will help explain more about
the song genre and origin by connecting it to previous punk/rock
music videos from the early 2000's, so to create an intertextual
reference to those videos. Furthermore, I believe that this effect may
help to further enhance my filmed footage in order to help it stand
out more against all the stock footage I'll be using (if I decide that I
wont add the effect to any of the stock footage beforehand)

13. Experiment 2 - Process
• For this experiment, I decided to
look at a range of different camera
angles for filming in order to
determine which works best for
the type of music video I'm
making. To create this, I simply
used the camera to take shots of
the same place at different angles,
compiling and editing them in
Premiere to see how it all looked
as a whole (using the Rasor tool to
take parts of the original clips
out). Whilst filimg, I tried to
consider some of the shots I could
use, mainly the wide shot and
possibly an angled shot.

14. Reflection
• I plan to implement a lot of these shots into my final video. The most
prominent shot I will use will be the wide shot and close up in order
to create the connection to previous rock/punk videos and keep the
focus of the video on a certain point or person. I believe this will also
benefit me when filming my scenes as due to the majority of the
footage being stock footage, I will have no control over how most of
the footage will look or from what angles it has been shot from, so
my own filmed footage, these certain shots will be vital in order to
create an intertextual link.