The document provides guidance for stage 2 of a research and experimentation process. It instructs the reader to research potential production techniques for their project by looking at a minimum of 3 related examples. It then shares 3 example products that demonstrate techniques for editing video, color grading, and shooting music videos. The document also prompts the reader to consider conventions and genre characteristics for their chosen artist and genre. Finally, it includes sections for the reader to document their camera, editing, and audio experiments as they develop their project.

1. Stage 2
Research + Experiments
Jack Lowes

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
• https://blog.ted.com/10-tips-for-editing-video/
• A worker from TED explaining how to dynamically edit videos
showing experiences in there own office.
• The blog explains how to effectively use cuts, how to use camera
angles, how and when to edit a video, how to mask mistakes etc
giving examples with video clips.

4. Product 2
• https://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/color-grading/ ]
• The article explains how to accuratly colour corrected (taking it step
by step)
• It also explains the use of tools like Vectorscopes to Help achieve a
higher level of accuracy and quality.

5. Product 3
• http://schoolvideonews.com/Videography/Im-With-The-Band-How-
To-Shoot-a-Music-Video-with-DSLRs
• This post displays instructions on how to properly operate a camera
as well as small tips and tricks
• It covers areas like Exposure, lighting, colour temperature and audio.

6. 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].

7. Conventions
• Often there will be choreography / performance
- The idea of a pop video is to entertain and capture the audiences
attention so well created choregraphy / performance elements are a
must have to a succeful pop video.
• A lot of the time there will be bright colours and themes.
- The use of bright colour schemes can often be attention seeking
and, depending on coordination, very appealing pulling in the
potential audience to watch the video.
• Sometimes Narraration
- similarly to the reason for choreography, narration is there to
interest the audience and draw them into a story they can feel. Both
conventions can work without the other but if both are executed well
together they can create a very in depth video.

8. Genre Chacteristics
• Bebe Rexha Uses danced choreography in most of her videos usually with
many back up dancers alongside her
• Many of her videos have a more natural look to them and don’t have lots of
bright saturated colours being thrown around. In some videos they are used
very specifically to force tension / action etc.
• In some of her videos she Flickers some her shots over the top of the current
shot where usually you can see both at the same time for a split second. This
can have different effects based on the video, music and visual.
• A lot of her videos are shot in more desolate areas (like in a desert for "I got
you" and "meant to be" as well as a baron cityscape for "F.F.F") No matter
the location, more often than not they look empty

9. Chosen approach/justification
In this video I plan to use a performer to symbolise the feeling of
craziness. This actor will follow a second actor throughout the video
interrupting there life. My justification for this is that the feeling of
love can make people crazy for their love interest and so they spend
more of there time being distracted by them and thinking about them
rather than being productive. I wanted to symbolise this in a creative
way so I chose to make the feeling of craziness a "real person" which
could make the direct impact of these feelings more obvious.

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 the first experiment I thought I would practice editing to the
beat. I gathered some basic images from google and uploaded them
to adobe premiere. I found a free beat to practice with as well and
uploaded this into premiere too.
Once I had the audio put in I started adding images to the video. I
figured out where the beat was using the waves on the Audio track
and listening for them. Once I knew which waves to be looking for I
would randomly cut the current image on one of them and insert a
new one. This created an assortment of random (what would be)
shots cut to the beat of the song.

12. Reflection
Obviously I will continue practicing to edit perfectly to the beat and do so for my
final product. I should take a small amount more care to listen closely to the final
track as I feel that there are a few moments in these experiments where the cuts
feel slightly out of sync with the beat. I should also keep in mind it may be slightly
harder to do this with actual video footage as I need to worry about lip syncing,
the possibility to cut on gestures, etc.

13. Experiment 2 - Process
This experiment focuses on lip syncing but also took the elements I had learned from the
previous experiments. I wanted multiple clips to work with so I had a lot of footage that I
could practice with and sync. This also forced me to cut back and forth between the footage
so I got more practice cutting to the beat.
The Process was very similar to the last experiment in terms of cutting the footage and
getting it all in place however I also had to think about how my cuts could reflect the music
at that time. If the music got faster I would also cut more often to help add to any build up,
tension, etc.
As for the lip syncing I would sync up the audio clip for the studio version of the music with
the same music being played through the footage and lip synced to. This helped greatly in
making the lip syncing believable as I could sync the footage and audio as closely as
possible this way.

14. Reflection
Although not directly linked to the experiment, the first thing I noticed whilst
gathering the footage was how unsteady I was whilst holding the camera. I
definitely underestimated the need for a tripod and this is something I'll take
into account when I film my final product.
As for the lip syncing itself, this was especially hard to put together in some
scenes as one of the people I worked with felt to awkward to play the music
out loud. This was especially difficult and near impossible to perfectly sync the
video footage with the audio. Not only will I remember that it is a necessity to
play the music out loud but I will also think more carefully about the people I
choose to use moving forward.