Research for my 3 Minute Wonder

In this document I will be presenting my findings on what is currently out there regarding my chosen topic of electronic music production. I will search various different internet archives for similar interviews with other electronic musicians about their productions. The first piece of research that I conducted was to search for interviews with electronic musicians, not necessarily lasting 3 minutes, on YouTube.

The first video that I watched related to the sort of documentary I wanted to create was the video entitled Canadian Music Week interview thing, uploaded to musician Joel Zimmerman's (aka Deadmau5) YouTube channel. The piece is 55 minutes long and is a very informal conversation between Zimmerman and an interviewer who is seen on the camera and is a big part of the documentary. The interviewer discusses Zimmerman's upcoming work. The conversation is quite informal as at parts both the interviewer and Zimmerman use informal, colloquial language as well as some taboo words. The interview is a lot informal to the sort that I have in mind, however it is a good piece to view as it shows how they have set it all up.[1]


The second video that I watched was entitled House Masters: Masters At Work - Interview as uploaded to the YouTube channel of the record label Defected Records, a subsidiary of Ministry Of Sound Records. This interview works in a similar way however the interviewer is not seen, it appears as though the two members of Masters At Work (Louie Vega and Kenny Dope) are sat, facing towards the camera, discussing their music and how they met and started working together. There are also shots of Vega and Dope performing live to break up the discussions to camera. They also go on to discuss their productions with different scenes shown over their discussion to break up the long dialogue. Throughout the interview there is music playing in the background to keep it interesting. This interview seems a lot more formal than that of Zimmerman, possibly because this interview was produced as part of a series of short documentaries for the Defected Records YouTube channel. Language was kept quite formal, with a few colloquialisms however at no point did either of the musicians use taboo language.[2]


The third video that I watched was entitled DJ Armin Van Buuren on the Business of Electronic Dance Music and was uploaded to the YouTube channel "TheStreet" which is a channel that provides business and financial news. The video shows music producer Armin Van Buuren talking to the camera about music production and DJing with shots from his live shows edited in at various different points, mostly to separate two questions. At points the camera angle changed to show an interviewer who talked to Buuren about aspects of his live shows. The language was quite formal throughout on behalf of Buuren, with a similar formality shown by the interviewer. The interviewer used some colloquialisms but stayed formal throughout, with no taboo language.[3]


I also conducted a questionnaire asking a wide range of people, not only my peers but people older and younger than myself about the topic. My first question was about the participants' ages. Six people answered seventeen with eighteen, nineteen, twenty-one and twenty-eight all receiving one person respectively. The next question was regarding gender. Five people answered male, five answered female and nobody answered other. The next question asked the participants what their occupation was. Eight answered student, one answered teacher and one answered videographer. The fourth question asked the participants' opinions on electronic music. Seven of the ten participants answered that they enjoyed electronic music with the remaining three not being keen on the genre of music. The fifth question was regarding whether the respondents would want to watch a documentary about electronic music, nine of the ten said yes whereas the remaining one person said that they may be interested depending on the angle. The final question asked which three questions they would ask an electronic musician. Below is the data written in tables and made into charts where applicable.

The laws on filming in public are something that need to be taken into account as although the majority of the production will be in the music producer's studio there will be some shots such as a time-lapse sunrise. The law on filming in public in the United Kingdom is that it is perfectly acceptable as long even if it features people's faces without their permission however the filming of someone personally and relentlessly could come under the laws of harassment. There are also laws prohibiting the filming of commercial productions in Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square without permission. Similarly filming in the Royal Parks is prohibited. Also to film on private property there must be an agreement between the photographer and the landowner.[4]

Defamation and libel should always be considered when producing a factual program. If I decide to include a voice over I would need to make sure that I did not say anything that is untrue or that could defame the music producer that I will be interviewing. I will also need to ensure that I don't write anything on the screen that is untrue as this would class as libel.

Due to the nature of the proposed documentary it should not break the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. Despite this I will definitely ensure that I do not do anything that could infringe the code. One section of the code is that you cannot cause harm or offence to the audience so I will ensure that there is no taboo language in the piece so that it does not break the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. A further section is about privacy so for this reason I will not be revealing the location of the musician's studio or any personal details so that they cannot be identified. A further point in the code states that a factual program must not mislead the audience so I must ensure that the production is all factually correct.[5]


[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDdxLWBiSGg
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75BPiSUYG3Y
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht8Dt7OU2ss
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography_and_the_law#United_Kingdom
[5] http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/