The document provides information on research and experiments for a music video production. It discusses researching production techniques from 3 related music videos and assessing their applicability. It also details experiments with lip syncing, quick costume changes through cuts, and smooth walking-in/out transitions. The goal is to practice editing skills and identify techniques to use in depicting a story of being chased to the pacing of a progressive rock song. Bizarre imagery, suspense, and not taking itself too seriously will match the genre's conventions.

1. Stage 2
Research + Experiments
Will Anderson

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 - The Moody Blues: The Other Side
of Life
• Camera Panning: Used in many Progressive Rock videos. I can use this
technique to help give a feeling of being chased.
• Close-ups: Used to capture and emphasise bizarre imagery, especially
people’s faces. I can use this to help capture the fear on the running
person’s face, as well as the person chasing them later on. By doing
this, I can emphasise the fear and seriousness of the situation at one
point whilst later exaggerating the jovial nature of the video.
• Black&White/Low-saturation: Although this is likely due to the time
when the song was made, a lack of colour would help to give my
video a more serious and eerie tone. I can then increase the colour
later into the song when the tone changes.

4. Product 2 – YES: Owner of a Lonely Heart
• Abstract Imagery: Close-ups of unusual faces and other imagery is
used to add to the video’s bizarre nature whilst simultaneously
allowing the video to not be taking itself too seriously.
• Colour change: The colour of the video changes from certain points
from coloured to black and white. I can use this to help separate
certain events that are occurring in the video e.g. by making the
screen black and white when the band is playing, I can help it stand
out from the story, which will remain coloured.
• Establishing Shot: A long shot used to establish the setting of the
story. I can use this to do just that whilst also using it to show the
distance between the two characters.

5. Product 3 – Jethro Tull: Heavy Horses
• Band – The video frequently cuts to the band playing the song.
• Overlapping- Different images overlapping one another e.g. the band
overlapping the horses.
• Make-up – Make-up is used to create more unusual imagery. Whilst it
doesn’t specifically have to be make-up, I can utilise character design
to help provide the video with the target feel.
• Long Lasting Shots – Many of the shots and pans take a long time to
finish. I will not be utilising this technique and I want my cuts and
edits to line up with the pacing of the song, which in my case would
be a quicker pace for the most part.

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
Unlike most music genres, Progressive Rock is not bound by many particular
structures. This is due to it originating from many different genres of rock. The few
conventions that there are that I will utilise are:
-Long-lasting shots: When the songs tempo is slow, the camera shots last a while
before fading to the next one. I will use this technique (As well as faster edits for
when the tempo rises) so that my music video reflects the pacing of the song.
-Tracking shots: I will use this to follow the characters around, making the viewer
feel like they are in the scene and that they are also being chased.
-Cutting between a story and musicians: I will use this to help create a more direct
connection between the video and the music.
- Bizzare Imagery: I will use this to give the video a jovial feel to it after building up
a more serious tone. This will subvert expectations whilst simultaneously
supporting the want for Progressive Rock to not take itself too seriously.

8. Genre Chacteristics
As seen from critics and fans alike, when artists in the Progressive Rock
Genre take their music too seriously, it is negatively received.
Therefore, in order to provide a tone for the video that will appeal to
fans of the genre, I will ensure the video reflects the feeling of not
being too serious. Likely due to when many Progressive Rock song
were made, their music videos usually have an unsaturated quality to
them.

9. Chosen approach/justification
Due to critics and fans alike having negative reactions to progressive
rock bands taking their songs too seriously, I want to make sure I
reflect this in my videos, hence the jovial nature. This is mainly done
through bizarre imagery, including over-exaggerated close-ups and
alien cliché parodies. I also want to give the video a sense of eeriness
and mystery to juxtapose this nature, which I will do by not showing
what the creature chasing the person is until near the end of the video,
growing the suspense.

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. Lip Syncing
I began my experiments by practicing
lip syncing, as no matter the song it is
always important. If lip syncing is off,
then the entire rhythm of the video to
the music won’t fit. To do this, I formed
a small group of three and we simply
played different songs and sang along
with them on whilst recording. We then
used Adobe Premiere to line up the
muted video with the raw audio from
the song to compare how well they
synced up. We repeated this for
multiple songs.

12. Reflection
• Although my video won’t utilise lip-syncing much, the technique of
doing so will help with syncing up the audio with video cuts and
movements of characters. Because of how close the lip-syncing has
to be to the lyrics, practicing this will let me learn how to sync-up to
an accurate degree. Although not completely decided on, I will very
likely include a few short shots of a band playing the song whilst
singing along to it. Therefore lip-syncing will be very important here.

13. Walking behind object – cut to different
clothes
We did this to practice quick edits
between two separate videos in
order to make them seemingly flow
into one another. For this technique
we had one person acting as an
object whilst another person
walked behind them. The
cameraman would then stop
recording as the person who was
walking now changed their clothes
a bit. We then resumed recording
as the person walked out from
behind. We repeated this in order
to improve on the smoothness of
the edit.

14. Reflection
• Whilst I have no specific moments where I would like to
use this technique at the moment, I very well may use it
or a cut similar to it at some point as it is a quick and
effective way of changing what is on the screen whilst not
being too jarring of a transition.
• Could possibly be used to show the passage of time
• Although this would be a slightly different technique, by
having the object closer to the camera I could use it to cut
to an entirely different shot as it completely covers the
camera.

15. Smooth cut of walking in to and from camera
Similar to the previous
experiment, this technique
utilises cutting between two shots
in a seamless fashion in order to
create the illusion of it being just
the one shot. Unlike the last
experiment, this one does so by
covering the entire camera lens
with the focused object/person
and then having the
object/person move away from
the lens.

16. Reflection
• Whilst I feel that I will use this technique in my own video for the
person running, I believe this edit can only be used once as you can’t
really do it any different way. This would result in too much repetition
in the video. However, when it is used it will allow for a smooth
transition for the person running towards a and away from the
camera, making it appear as just a single shot. Furthermore, as I am
wanting my cuts to line up with the trumpets of the song, I will need
to ensure that this transition doesn’t seem out of place.