The document provides guidance for research and experiments for a music video production project. It instructs the student to research potential production techniques from at least 3 related music videos. It also has the student collect samples and assess whether techniques can be employed or disregarded. The document then reviews 3 example music videos, noting specific shot types and editing styles. It asks the student to consider genre conventions and the chosen artist's style. Experiments are documented testing camera settings, slow motion shots, and cutting shots to the beat of the music.

1. Stage 2
Research + Experiments
Your name here

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
• I would like to use a shot
like this which starts as a
long shot and then moves
into a mid shot. The camera is very steady and it goes straight the
whole time with no slight movement or jolts. This is very similar to
my shot as it zooms in to create suspense and then he turns to reveal
his face which in this case is all bloody and blown up, whereas in
mine I look up and reveal all the tattoos etc. also this shot has lights
which focus mainly on the character which I could have if I recorded
at night.

4. Product 2
• I will most likely be using a
lot of shots like this, being a close up of jewellery and its in slow
motion. I will have to practice this shot by upping the frame rate from
the standard 25 to over 40. As shown in this photo it does still have a
little blur which means the frames don’t have to be ridiculously high.
This particular shot and also many others, move around from left to
right, up to down etc. This means that the camera movement have to
be smooth but its not too much of a big deal as they will be less
noticeable as they are in slow motion. Also some of the shots are in
less noticeable slow motion and quite a lot go from normal speed to
sow motion or from slow motion to normal speed which surprised
me.

5. Product 3
• In this music video they cut to the beat. This example is where the
speech at the beginning of a line gets jittered and the video goes
back and forth very fast to fit the jitter. One thing I also noticed with
all of these videos is that they have the black bars at the top and
bottom of the videos. This song has a lot of cuts that are very quick
and sometimes shots wont even be a second long. Once again there
are a lot of close ups in this one although it has noticeably a lot more
shots of them singing the lyrics.

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
• Many conventions used in hip-hop videos are things such as no
special transitions meaning just straight cuts, show motion shots
(close and mid mainly), quick cuts meaning not very long shots, close
ups on wrists and face, wide shots showing off cars, houses and
women and then also shots of the rappers taking or handling drugs in
some way. For my video I am going to use bad cars or funny
alternatives to poke fun at the fact that they always use big flashy
expensive cars. I am also going to use a lot of close ups and a large
majority of them will be in slow motion. This is because they do it to
show off their jewellery but it is also good as their can be a bit of
camera shaking as it wont show up as much. Also most rappers use
the black bars at the top and bottom which makes it more cinematic
and professional.

8. Genre Characteristics
• In this video, which is one part of the
genre, the video is more of a story and can
be interpreted in many ways. For example,
characteristics of this type of hip-hop
would be things such as stunning visuals,
relatable lyrics with maybe more of a sad
tone and music videos that tell a story. At
the other end of the hip-hop genre there
are the other rappers who rap more about
money and lifestyle, attempting to flex and
not be as relatable as other rappers in the
genre. Characteristics of these kind of
rappers are things such as less emotional
based lyrics, fancy clothes and cars all the
time and the videos mostly have no story
or meaning and are just full of fancy cars
and houses will lots of drugs and hot girls.

9. Chosen approach/justification
• I have chosen to do a parody of the videos the kind of rappers who
flex their money and talk about clothes and girls make. I think this
will be the best type of video for me to make because it will be funny
and I listen and watch a lot of music like this so I have a good idea of
how to approach it. I also think the end product will look better than
a story telling video and it will also be easier to film and choreograph
than a full story. Also it will be hard for me to come up with ideas to
interpret what the rapper is singing and put it into video form. My
approach in recording the video will be to record the whole song two
or three times in each location and cut the clips together. I will also
record 1 slow motion take at each location with the camera moving
around a bit more such as zooming in and getting close ups of my
face and hands.

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
To obtain a steady shot I used a vest with an arm attached and then a
fly cam with a handle for the arm and the weights attached so the
moment is smooth. I practiced by walking down the hallway, trying to
keep the shot steady whilst at a good speed. I also recorded some
shots with the steady cam of people dancing with the camera tilted
angles in 60fps so I could put the clips in slow motion.
I worked on:
• Keeping the camera in focus when trying to move between long and
mid shots.
• I had to change the camera settings to 60 fps as some clips don’t
work in slow motion.
• I had to practice taking smooth steps and not bobbing up and down
too much as I walked and recorded zoom in shots.

12. Reflection
In my final product I will use the slow motion tilted shots as that’s what most
of the rappers use. I think most of the shots worked well especially the slow
motion shots as they were very good at fillers and also representing the rap
industry's videos. I will also use the long to mid shot as the starting shot for the
starting shot of the video. I think the equipment did help me keep the camera
more steady which is good for the long to mid shot especially but also the way
the camera swung from left to right was good on the slow motions shots as it
had a little bit of sway which they have in their music videos.
In my video I will use:
• Slow motions shots with sway.
• A mid to long shot.
• A few normal pan shots or moving back and forth shots.

13. Experiment 2 - Process
On the camera I went to settings and then to the fps settings. I changed
it to 60 fps and though the picture quality went from 1080 to 720 so it
wasn’t as good resolution. This caused some problems as as I added the
black banners at the top and bottom I had to edit and move around
some of the other clips so that they were in line with the slow motion
ones. This was the only problem I ran into when recording the clips with
the 60 fps. I also found out the camera doesn’t have to be as steady
because the little shakes cant be noticed as much in slow motion.
I mainly worked on:
• Trying to recreate a few simple side angle slow motion dance shots.
• Keeping the camera as steady as possible although it didn’t matter too
much as movement cant be spotted too easily.

14. Reflection
In my final piece I will use a lot of these slow motion on a slant shots because
all the rap video I have been looking into especially in Migos and Quavo’s
videos. I will record all of my clips in 6o fps with 720 resolution. This is because
I wont have to cut and move around clips so that they all fit together and they
are all the same size. It will also mean that all of the clips will be the same
quality and I can cut any of them to go into slow motion in my final product.
This is good because in most videos the clips go from slow to fast and fast to
slow etc.
In my final product I will:
• Record all my clips in 720 and 60fps
• Use clips that go from fast to slow motion and the opposite.

15. Experiment 3 - Process
I practiced cutting to the beat of the song. I think it worked quite well
although on some of the cuts it could be a bit more accurate but I will
pay closer attention to the detail. In most rap songs they don’t cut to
the beat in identical intervals for example one cut may be 4 beats and
another may be 8 or 12.
I mainly worked on:
• Cutting most of the clips to the beat. I also did one or two slow
motions that will cut mid way as in rap videos they aren’t perfect
every time.
• Alternating with cutting to the beat and the lyrics flow.

16. Reflection
In my final product I will cut the beat but not in equal intervals because
in videos by Migos and Quavo they do not cut to the beat say every 4
or 8 beats. Also when I cut between normal and slow motion in a clip I
will cut to the beat. I will also alternate between cutting to the beat
and the lyrical rhythm so it sounds a bit more random but its not. Also
in some parts it may look better if it cuts to the lyrics and it also may
make more sense with the lyrics to cut.
In my final product I will:
• Cut to the beat.
• Cut to the flow of the lyrics.
• Change the speed of clips in time of the lyrics.