Embedded Files
Research Plan
Research plans are a great way to outline what steps I will be taking to cover my aims as well as meet the need of primary research, secondary research, academic research and action research.
Here I have detailed the specific tasks that I aim to complete in my research. Primary research is research that I will conduct myself, I outlined that I want to complete a survey and send this to my primary audience, anyone in music that I know would have interest or understanding in this topic and my secondary audience to understand more what the general opinions are. After my survey I aim to follow up with a focus group. I am in a group chat of young music producers in the UK and America, that I met on a course and hope that they will act as my focus group. This focus group can help me gain more detailed and customised feedback that a survey wouldn't be able to provide me with. I want to conduct interviews with the relevant people to see what their opinions are on the use of ai in the music industry and why this may affect them. I may then complete an existing product analysis of participatory documentary's that I may watch to understand and learn more about the codes and conventions used.
Secondary research is research that has already been completed by someone else and is available for me to use. For my secondary research I will begin by looking into the codes and conventions of documentary's specifically participatory documentary's. This will help me begin to plan for production and start to draft the ideas and structures of my documentary that I will need to use. I want to look into any statistics I can find regarding music producers who use DAW (digital audio workstation), the rise of ai in entertainment - more specifically music, what the general publics feelings towards ai are ect. I want to find articles that are relevant to my documentary topic. As ai is a new technology this may be harder to find however I will establish what is relevant to my documentary and what is not. Along with looking into the codes and conventions of participatory documentary's I will use these to assess the filming techniques I will use whilst filming my documentary. This may involve shot types, shot movements, lighting, microphones, b - roll, interviews and sequences.
Academic research is research and findings that have been completed by someone with a degree in the relevant subject. I will use academic research to look into detailed analysis of music production, the rise in ai and what it may mean for the future, the difficulty's of making music and the use of ai in music. Again as ai is new and we are still learning more about it, there may be a lack of academic articles but I will try to look for anything relevant and helpful.
Action research is practical research which enables me to test production and filming techniques to ensure I complete my work to a high quality level. This also allows me to see what works well with each technique and what I may need to do differently in the final production and final edit. For my action research I aim to complete a camera test to see what camera quality is the best for my final edit. For the same quality reason I also want to check what microphone gives me the best sound quality. I will also be able to look into different sound effects on Premier Pro to see how these effects may differ the sound quality. Lighting tests are important to experiment with as I may want to use natural lighting or artificial lighting for interviews. This can change the atmosphere and the final affect of the interview on the audience due to the harshness of the lighting ect. I will need to test lighting to ensure I cover the best options overall to ensure high quality interviews for my documentary. In my proposal I outlined that I wanted an opening sequence which used a motion graphic/logo so I will also need to experiment with this.
The final stage of my research plan is to gain feedback on my products. This feedback may be from my primary and secondary audience as well as any stakeholders (supervisor and peers) to ensure that all the audience needs are met and the mise en scene of my documentary is a high level of quality.
Research Action Plan
This is a more detailed research plan. This shows dates and the recourses that I will use throughout my research. My action plan shows the week number in which the actions I will take will be in.
Prioritising My Tasks
Prioritising my tasks is important as I will be able to understand what tasks in my research may take longer to complete as well as what is more important than others.
This research plan is based around when the deadline is and the level of importance each task is. There are some tasks in my research plan that I will allow myself more time to complete as they may take longer or are a of a lower priority than other techniques. In the Deadline/Important section I have put getting each stage of my project as it is important I complete each stage well to ensure my work is quality. As well as this I have also put my survey as I can alter my research based on feedback from my survey which is important to do early in the project.
In the Important/Have time to do section I have listed things that are important I complete but do not have to be done at a specific time. For example, making sure that my Harvard referencing and production log covers everything I am doing and have done over my project. This will not allow me to complete these tasks straight away as they take time.
In the not that important/ take time to complete section I put existing product analysis only as I have already completed one in my proposal and will look further into different things from the proposal analysis. I also listed filming techniques as I feel as though I have an idea of what filming techniques I will need to use and look into further but these will become clearer whilst completing research. Whilst I will still complete both of these tasks and ensure they are done well, there are other tasks in my research that I feel are more important.
Overall, by completing a research plan and outlining what tasks I need to complete in my research I can ensure that I am aware of what needs to be done, why it needs to be done and how long I have to complete it. This enables me to have more structure to my research.
Primary Research
Survey
The first task I will be completing for my primary research is a survey. I find surveys a useful source of primary research as I can look at trends within a primary and secondary audience and try to understand what their needs and interests are within a documentary. I want to create two surveys - one for my primary audience (any aspiring musicians or producers and anyone interested in the rising use of ai) and one for my secondary audience (anyone with a general interest in music or new technology like ai). Based on the survey I completed in my proposal I learned that my main target was younger people (broad age demographic around 14-26) and that the music I wanted to experiment with making using ai would either be house or pop music. I also want to look further into what the audience want to see in a documentary. Whilst asking people to complete my survey I will need to make it clear only complete the relevant survey.
Survey 1 - Primary Audience
My first survey is to find out about my primary audience opinions on ai in music production. I have sent my survey out to as many aspiring artists, musicians, producers as I know and have contacts with to be about to gain important relevant insight. The largest age group was 17-20 but I was able to get feedback from someone from almost every age category to make this feedback relevant. This will help my research as it is more relevant to the music industry and its members.
My survey was taken by almost 50/50 males and females which once again gives me a good variety of feedback to take forward in my research. In my proposal, I outlined that I wanted my documentary to be for anyone so this statistic of 50% female and 41.7% male will be helpful to know about the wider opinions of my primary audience.
I asked what area the people taking my survey lived in as this would help me understand more about the psychographics and what lifestyle they live - this may influence their opinions and views. Most people lived in London or Hertfordshire but I also had responses from people who lived in further away areas like Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Kent, Leeds and Northeast USA.
As well as being able to help me understand psychographics and lifestyle traits more. This also allows me to reach more people who may have had different experiences with music production and the music industry due to the scene in that area. I want to speak to a few people from these places to get a varied amount of feedback and insight. One of these people would be the young artist and producer I know from Northeast US and one would be the aspiring artist I know from Cambridgeshire. This would help me learn more about the wider scale of music production in the US but also counter act that by keeping it local and relevant to my documentary.
I asked in my survey how long it took people before getting involved in the music industry as I know that it can be tough to get into and also expensive if you do not have the equipment. My thoughts behind asking the question was that ai makes it possible for you to start making something today and inexpensively. Most people said that it took a year or more of being interested in music but not starting production. I want to investigate this more when conduction interviews.
To get a feel for the difference that may have been presented over time by working in the music industry, I asked how long my primary audience had been involved in music production. The answers were pretty similar with most people (75%) of people saying 5 years+ and 25% of people saying a couple of years. This question also enables me to back up the validity of my responses by ensuring that the audience are experienced enough to answer questions.
I asked what it was that each person actually did in music. Responses were very varied as I wanted to gather as much relivant feedback as possible. 41.7% of people said that they were singers. 25% of people said that they were musicians and play instruments. The rest of responses were all 8.3% of people saying that they are either a Producer, a songwriter, all of the above and also a mix engineer. This once again helps my research as I am able to look into how ai may affect these job roles.
Next I asked how difficult it is for artists to write songs. I asked this as this difficulty could be taken away using ai. From 1 being ridiculously difficult and 10 being super easy the responses were very varied. On each side (1-5) and (5-10) (5 being the midway mark) there were 6 votes on each . The most consistancy sided with a rating of 7 & 8 having 2 votes each and 6 & 9 having 1 vote each.
I asked if the musicians and artists typically used a live recording or a digital audio work station. 54.5% said they used a digital audio workstation and 45.5% said they just did live recording. This is relevant as again ai can effect this.
I asked where artist's and musicians find the inspiration to write new songs as once again with ai being used more in song writing there is potential that artists do not have have to write songs if they opt for ai. Most people said that they get inspiration from their day to day life and also from listening to other artists music. When conducting interviews I want to ask more about song writing influences and what ai may take away from songs if it is used to write songs.
Next, I asked if artists used any tools to make their music. 75% of people said that they did make music using something and 25% saidf they didn't.
To follow up I wanted to know what was being used by artists, musicians and producers. Most of the answers were different digital audio work stations. Something that surprised me was that many answers were garage band as I didn't think it was as high quality compared to Logic Pro X but it is free which makes the difference. Many answers said that they also experiment with midi. Midi is computer date which is already made which can be altered. For example, a midi interface could be a type of piano or guitar which is already set up which can then be digitally altered to do what the artist wants. One again, if ai is used, this is all lost.
When asked is they would ever use ai to write their songs most people 75% said no. I found it interesting that 16.7% of people said yes the would but there was also still 8.3% on the fence saying maybe they would. I needed to understand these figures as this is the main focus of my documentary.
When asked if they were worried about ai being used in music production, 50% of people said yes it did worry them, 33.3% said it may worry them and 16.7% said it did not worry them. I asked this as I wanted to understand if people who were involved in music for their jobs were concerned over the uncertainty of ai and what it is capable of.
To follow this question up I asked if they answered yes or maybe, why did they say this. Most of the answers were that ain in music takes away creativity, originality, authenticity and also lacks the emotions that human's put into songs. There was also concern that publishers can own ai made songs meaning that they can make money out of it and puts actual artists out of a job. I want to investigate this more in interviews.
As part of my documentary will be to see if me (someone with very little music knowledge) can make a song using ai, I wanted to understand what my primary audience felt towards this. They said that 66.7% had a good chance at making a song, 25% said maybe and 8.3% said no they couldn't.
The last question I asked was to weather the primary audience were open to learning more about the posibilitys of ai in music production. 66.7% said yes they did want to learn more and 33.3% said they did not want to learn more.
Overall based on my primary audience survey, I have learnt a lot about what musicians, artists and producers feel towards ai in music production. There are a few questions I asked that I want to look further into when interviewing.
Survey 2 - Secondary audience
I wanted my secondary audience to be anyone who was interested in music, ai or documentary's. Most people who answered my secondary audience survey was aged 17-20.
The next thing I asked was what is your gender. Most people were female. I would have liked a bit more variety as it would be able to cover as many people as possible.
Once again I asked where people lived so that I was able to understand relevant psychographics. Most people said they live in Cambridge or Cambridgeshire. This will help my documentary as I will be able to make it relevant to the area.
I asked my secondary audience out of house and pop (the two most popular genres from the survey taken in my proposal)what genre did they prefer. This would be the genre that I would ask ai to make a song from. They said that pop music is their overall favourite.This is what I will get ai to make.
When asking if the secondary audience thought that ai could be used to make music they differed from the primary audience by more people (84.6%) saying it could. Maybe due to the secondary audience being younger than the primary this could mean they they are more aware of the increase of usage of ai.
To follow up, I then asked about what the secondary audiences opinions are on ai being used in music production. Most people said that it takes away from the artist and the hard work that they put into creating music. There were more people saying that is a negative thing however there were a few comments saying that if it is done well it could be good and interesting. I again want to look further into these answers in interviews.
The final question I asked was about documentary structure as I wanted to understand what an audience look for in a documentary. I asked what features they typically think of when they think about documentarys. The most common answer was interviews with 13 votes (100% of people said they think of interviews). The second most common was b - roll. B - roll will be paired witjh interviews and also with voice overs. The least said answer was cinematic shots.
Overall, from my secondary audience I have learnt more about what they think about ai in music production and what they want to see in documentarys.
Interviews
Interviews are a crucial code and convention seen in participatory documentary's. Interviews allow the filmmaker to understand more about the subject and help the audience understand more about it overall. Interviews in documentary's are commonly held with anyone of relevance to the subject and around the same area. For my documentary I have a few ideas of who I could hold an interview with that has relevance within the topic of using ai to create a song and what the general opinions of this are. Over the past two years I have tried to get involved in different groups and introductory activity's into music and music production and have met a range of different people who have interest in making music. As I outlined in my proposal, my pen portraits featured two mid - late teenagers who always had an interest in music/ music production but were on a budget and didn't particularly know where to begin so it may be beneficial to find anyone who also meets this description and can see themself in this narrative. I think that I should also see about finding someone to cover both my primary and secondary audience as well as this will add some variety to interviews and opinions stated. For example, for primary I could interview someone that I have met in the groups and activity's surrounding music as many of them were young, aspiring music producers and artists so this already would meet my primary and target audiences needs. To cover interesting my secondary audience I could interview someone who is interested in my documentary concept but is only loosely interested.
Another idea I had for an interview was to send an email or letter to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport - Lisa Nancy. I did this in last years FMP and found that this gave me relevant insight to my topic and helped me to understand the legal and political thoughts behind what I was investigating. I would send an email or letter due to not physically being able to interview her. I will begin my drafting interview questions that I could ask to each interviewee and why.
Primary Audience Member Interview
What are your main inspirations in your music as an artist?
How do you typically prepare to write a song?
Is there a process you follow when writing?
What tool's do you use when writing?
How long have you been producing music for?
Would you ever look into using ai to write a song or be given cord progressions ect?
What are your thoughts towards artists or producers using ai as an aid to create their songs?
What would you say to people just starting out in the music industry?
Secondary Audience Member Interview
How much do you know about ai?
Have you ever thought about making your own music?
Are you worried about the use of ai being used more?
If I asked you to write a song now, how long do you think it would take you?
What music do you like/who do you like?
How does music make you feel when you listen to it?
Do you think that music production should remain being done by industry professionals or should anyone be able to get involved?
Do you think its difficult to come up with a new song?
Secretary of State for Media Questions
Should we be worried about ai being used more frequently within media?
Is there concern for what the possibility's of ai are?
Is there danger to ai?
Within music, could we see ai being used for songwriting and music making in the main stream charts over the next 5 years?
What are the positives of ai in creative media and digital media?
If ai was to start being used in the mainstream music industry, should artist be worried that it is such a powerful tool that it may diminish what they have worked for in their career?
I have written up the questions for the secretary of state for culture and media and sent them over in an email. So am now waiting for a response to these questions.
As interviews are such a important aspect of documentary's I aim to do more research into shot types, camera angles, movement, microphones and lighting commonly seen within interviews.
Interview update (25/03/25)
I have now heard back from the Secretary of state for media and culture. This is my email and the response I have had from the department.
I wanted to learn about the governments views and understanding of ai as it will be more valid and will help me get a clear understanding. The email that I had back from the department mainly provided statistic's towards research that the government had conducted for example, that 38% of creative industry business have used ai and 50% using ai to improve business operations.
I have found this statistic interesting as it is a higher percentage than I expected, especially as it means that businesses are actually opting to use ai. As ai has many usages and is constantly improving so whilst I do understand why businesses are using it I do find it shocking.
This research will help me in my documentary as I may want to share with the audience these statistics to help emphasise how ai is being used more on a day to day business.
Existing Product Analysis
As I mentioned in my proposal one of my favourite and most inspirational participatory documentary makers is Stacey Dooley, and for my existing product analysis research I will be looking at more of her work.
(Youtu.be, 2025)
Stacey Dooley is a participatory documentary host and journalist in the UK. Over the years she has made countless documentary's exploring different people and their lifestyle. Stacey has released new episodes of her documentary this week so I will be doing a existing product analysis on one episode from the new series.
In this episode, Stacey spends time with gypsy travellers to get to understand their life's and the cultural and social aspects that their lifestyle affects.
The documentary opens with Stacey doing a brief introduction into Gypsy life, I want to do something like this introduction as I think it is good to have a good brief and a good structure to the beginning of the documentary. An introduction is not always used as sometimes a documentary may just begin by following the film maker at the beginning of them finding examples of things based around the subject and maybe outlining their initial ideas. I prefer to give a brief introduction as this will outline to the audience what the documentary is about and what I will be investigating. As seen in the documentary's I looked at in my proposal, some of the introductions to Stacey's series "Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over" she shows best bits from the series. I wont have this as my documentary is only a one part documentary but I want to use an introduction paired with a motion graphic.
In this clip from the documentary, Stacey introduces Chantelle and says her name, age and her living situation (who she lives with and where). It shows them meeting and then Chantelle talks about her day to day life. She talks about cleaning and also how she makes TikTok and gets a large amount of support. As this is a participatory documentary, Stacey pioneers what is seen on screen and the questions which are asked. Stacey tends to ask general conversational questions that make the interviews seem more comfortable for both parties. In my documentary, I want my interviews to be a mix of formal and also a mix of casual like they are in Stacey Dooleys documentaries as I want to fit the documentary genre conventions well. I want to aim to film one interview using lighting commonly seen in expository documentary's and also film one structured the way they are in this documentary - more conversational between the interviewee and the filmmaker.
Another aspect of Stacey's work which I enjoy is that she has moments where she separates from the interviewee/the people she is filming with and talks about her findings and her opinions on what has been done and what has been said. In terms of structure she talks whilst looking off (she never talks whilst looking down the barrel of the camera) to the camera operator as if they are having a conversation. I will need to do this in my documentary to follow the codes and convention of participatory documentary's as this is also what Louis Theroux does in his documentary's too.
The lighting throughout this clip is generally natural lighting as it seem as though it comes from windows/outside sources and then interior lights within Chantelle's home. I will need to establish what works best in the locations I am using when filming. Lighting can be used to infer tone and mood within mise en scene. If I conducted a formal interview and used a silhouette lighting where you are un able to see the interviewees face - this may infer that it is a more serious interview and the interviewee does not want to be on camera. To my understanding the natural lighting which has been used in a way that makes interviews and discussions feel more open and authentic. It provides a more comforting discussion that may not be had if it was conducted in a studio with heavy lighting used.
For sound, there is a very gentle backing track playing in some scenes and clips. It is almost used in a subliminal way where as the audience are aware that is is used but is not something that is too loud or too heavy that it draws the attention away from the subject. This is nice for the audience to have a slight bit of backing to it as when there is pause in conversation and quiet it may produce a element of awkwardness. In some interviews/moments in my documentary I may want silence, natural pauses or no backing track over conversations as this can help the point of what the subject may be talking about get through to the audience and increase the effect of the impact that may have been had. This can also reflect that the topic is more serious and more influential to the overall context of the documentary.
Filming techniques and codes and conventions which stand out to me from this documentary are the use of introductions, informal interviews (just asking questions in a general conversation way), natural lighting being used, the backing music through some clips and scenes and the reflection on opinions and thoughts and how these may have changed after discussion and interviews. I will be taking this forward for my further research and action research.
In this participatory documentary, we see Stacey "Meet the shoplifters" and try to understand how they are stealing, what they are stealing and why they are stealing things.
The documentary starts out strong with a opening which shows b roll and pre existing footage of people stealing from shops whilst Stacey explains how shoplifting levels are at their highest. She provides statistics and has a tone in her voice (over a voiceover) which the audience could infer is seriousness but also curiosity. During the voice over she tends to say a few words or a short sentence and then pause briefly. This is used for suspense and to keep the audience wondering what that means and what is next for the documentary. The opening also shows clips from what is going to be seen later on in the documentary. At the end of the opening a logo/motion graphic appears.
I really like this opening as it is a strong start to the documentary and tells us what Stacey is investigating, who she will be talking to and what we are going to be following whilst watching as well as keeping me (the audience) entertained and educated.
This documentary follows a similar structure to "Growing up Gypsy" by having Stacey look off to the side rather than down the barrel of the camera, showing moments of reflection where she talks about what has been said or done which has made her think further about something a certain way, have her lead the way in terms of questions and mise en scene, lighting typically being natural and finally the sound being quite light and simple.
I want to take these features on further as I think they add up to make a good documentary which I want to apply to my documentary.
Secondary Research
Documentary codes and Conventions
Codes and conventions of documentary's are what we typically think about or relate back to documentary's. In one of my surveys I asked "What documentary features do you think of when thinking about what is typically seen in a documentary? (select all that apply)". The most common answers were interviews with 13/13 votes, next was B - roll footage with 8 votes, then was voice over with 6 votes and finally cinematic shots with 4 votes. I also left a "other" box for people to write in what they would imagine in a documentary but no one filled this out. I will need to keep these techniques in mind and to ensure this I will be looking further into them and completing my action research based around them.
There are 5 main elements of documentary's, these are: Observations (documentary's should include footage of the subject), Mise - en - Scene (the elements that are seen on screen and helps convey a message to the audience, Interviews (talking to any experts, anyone involved in the topic so the audience can get a detailed insight into the subject), Dramatisation (using archive footage or if this is not available making a reenactment of events) and finally Exposition (voice overs explaining thoughts, feelings, opinions, context or anything additional to help the audience understand what the filmmaker is looking into. Info from(Media Studies, 2021).
Interview Techniques
As interviews are such a huge aspect of documentary's I want to do more research into them to ensure I understand what the audience would be looking for within a documentary.
I have searched for articles and videos suggesting what to look out for and what to follow what shooting interviews. This article discusses what to think about when filming documentary interviews. These main 7 steps are to: decide on location, position your subject, create cinematic lighting, record high quality audio, choose camera movements and shots, choose camera settings, film the interview. I will look further into what documentary interviews generally look like.
(mạnh nguyễn, 2025)
This is a example of how interviews and shot types are used in documentary's. In Molly - Mae's documentary Molly Mae: Behind It All, there are a number of moments where Molly sits down and completes formal style interviews where she is the main subject, with other shots overlapping. Interview answers are also seen as a form of voice over through the documentary.
Here are two screen shots from a interview from the documentary. Here I am drawn to the lighting and colour scheme. There is naturally a fair amount of lighting to make it bright but it also
follows a neutral/beige tone. It seems that there is a light source coming from above her, behind her and also from her right side. I have judged this by the shine on her hair and the shadows on her face. This is also a example of how different shot types can be used within one interview scene.
There are four main types of lighting used in interviews these are natural lighting, book lighting, rembrandt and silhouette.
(Bella, 2021)
This is natural lighting. You can see that this predominantly consists of light coming from the window. This makes interviews feel more authentic and open.
(TILL, 2017)
(TILL, 2017)
This is book lighting. This is where you aim light as a bounce board and then have a diffuser to stop all of the light hitting the subject. This gives more of a glowy, soft look.
(Deviantart.com, 2008)
(phdanielsanchez, 2019)
Rembrandt lighting consists of background lighting, key light and fill light. The key light will be aimed at a 45 degree angle from the subject and the ligthting blends together to leave triangle under the subjects eye where the light should be bright and clear why as the other side of the face is shadowed.
(Youtu.be, 2025)
(Become better creators — together., 2021)
Silhouette lighting is where a light source is behind the subject making it hide the subjects features and only show an outline of them. In documentary's silhouettes would be useful for interviewing people who may not want to be on camera.
In my participatory documentary I think that it is likely I will be using natural lighting as I believe that it would fit well with what I am envisioning for my documentary based on the use of natural lighting in the documentary's I have looked at in my existing product analysis. I will test these two lighting techniques in my action research.
Looking into AI in Music
As AI is a newer technology there is lots of uncertainty amongst the public and ai users as to what it is genuinely capable and what it can be used for. This is mainly what my documentary will focus on. My documentary is going to be exploring weather myself can make a song fully using ai - easily. I want to be looking into news story's and musicians thought on the use of ai in music.
This BBC article discusses artists who do not support the use of ai in music and why they feel this.
It talks about how YouTube has said that we need to protect artists from ai stealing or mimicking their voices and their music. Th have told other tech firms to not support the use of ai generated music as it will "undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists, or deny us fair compensation for our work". (McMahon, 2024)
It gives an example of Drake being a victim of ai voice cloning with someone creating a song "cloning his voice" and being uploaded to steaming services before being taken down.
I understand completely why artists feel that the use of ai copying and cloning is disrespectful and "devalues" the artists hard work.
Something from this article I did find interesting was that some artists support the use of their voice and style being used with ai. Grimes and David Guetta have both openly supported ai music generation with Grimes even saying that if there were any successful songs made using ai that she and the creator could split the royalties.
I want to look further into what musicians support ai usage and what these reasons are for that.
The Make It Fair campaign has been created due to the Government wanting to change laws on the use of AI - changing it so that tech company's can use British Creative Content (like music) without needing an artists permission and without paying them unless the artist specifically says no. Make It Fair has been set up so that artists and creators are rewarded and compensated for their work. This means that anything made using AI will not need to consult copyright laws. (Independent Society of Musicians, 2025) . The reason that artists and musicians are campaigning against the change of the law is that AI uses pre existing data and resources and analyses it to then make its own version of what it finds. This means that if when making my pop/house song in my documentary there maybe elements or cord usage that has been used in other pre existing pop/house songs. This once again means that the music artists and producers have worked hard to make could be stolen and altered without the artist even being consulted.
From my primary audience survey, I learnt that many musicians, producers and artists worry about ai being used in music due to it lacking creativity, human emotion and it effecting their jobs. The Make It Fair campaign backs these thoughts and feelings as it does mean that essentially the Government want to have AI take artists music and change it without the artist gaining a profit.
UK Music is an organisation which is the collective voice for the UK's music industry. UK Music represents all different aspects of the music industry. They have voiced their opinions on what the UK's music industry members think they should allow for artist and creators with the new ai laws. These are what they have come up with:
Creators’ choice: The creator, or their chosen rights holder, should be able to decide if and how they want to use their creative talent. This certainty underpinned by legal rights(copyright) should not be undermined by any exception to copyright or compulsory licensing during the input stage. Users need to respect creator’s choice as baseline for any discussions.
Record keeping: It is important that in the input stage, the tech providers keep an auditable record of the music ingested before the algorithm generates new music. This is the only point in the process when these data points can be documented.
Human creativity: Without human creativity there should be no copyright.
Labelling: Music generated by AI should be labelled as such.
Protection of personality rights: A new personality right should be created to protect the personality/image of songwriters and artists.
I agree with the points that UK music has made about ai and music creating. I think that artists/musicians and a whole team of people have put a lot of work into creating music or a song and for ai to use this and not acknowledge this must be so upsetting for the artist.
The final article I have looked into is the stories of ai in music in 2024.
This article shows where ai has been used in notable moments in music in 2024 such as the viral song "BBL Drizzy" which was originally made using Udio - an ai music making softwear. The original sample then was remixed by Metro Boomin and went viral on social media.
This article also explains that the ai music making software Udio and Suno were sued by Warner Music Group, Sony Music and Universal Music Group due to the songs that ai was creating infringing copyright laws due to ai using existing songs to make something new.
These are all story's that I may want to talk about in my interviews with artists.
Statistics
I will be finding statistics that are relevant to my documentary context and establishing why these are important, how they effect my context and if I may need to ask follow up questions in interviews or in a focus group.
I want to understand more about the figures that may effect the opinions held from musicians and artists on the industry itself and also any statistics regarding ai.
Understanding that the UK is the third largest domestic music market and it contributes to 12% of the global music market is relevant data as music production is a huge part of this. If artists and producers were not making good music that the nation enjoyed and spent money on, this statistic would be much lower.
I wanted to know about what percentages of artists write their own songs. I wanted to learn about this as if ai became more normalised in music production this may course the 95% to drop.
In a survey taken in 2024, this is the overall opinions of Americans. Whilst it is not as relevant due to it being based on America, it is still relevant as it is a good representative of society's thoughts and feelings. There is also this chart which I found interesting.
This graph shows the overall opinions that Americans have on advantages in ai. They were asked to select all that applied. The largest feeling was negative opinions. When conducting interviews or for voice over I may want to use this statistic and findings.
4. "42% of Americans think AI will have a negative impact on society, but only 27% think it will have a negative impact on them personally" (Ballard, 2024)
Once again it is not as relevant as it is based on an American study but gives good insite and interesting facts.
This table shows the different age views on the effects of ai and whether they think its positive, negative unsure or neither proitor nor negative. On average more people thought ai would have a negative effect on society, their life and the US economy.
5 . "An impressive 82% of listeners find it difficult to tell the difference between music created by AI and pieces composed by humans." (Shalwa, 2024)
This is relevant to me as I will be creating a song using ai and then I want to see if people are able to tell if its ai or not. As I am keeping the song to a genre I may be able to compare the ai song with similar songs.
6. "71% of Musicians Are Afraid of AI"
These statistics were all interesting to my research as it is solid figure that back up how musicians feel towards ai and how it may actually affect them. These statistics will really help me surprise the audience and back up the context of ai potentially having a negative impact on artists and producers. During interviews I may want to use this statistic and capture their live reaction to this.
These financial statistics are also useful I think that once again I may use them in interviews or voice overs to surprise the audience and make it more intriguing. For my primary audience this may shock them so much that they form more of an emotional connection to the documentary as they may have concern or worry.
Overall, I may use any of these statistics regarding music and ai to show depth, knowledge and as a
How does ai works?
I feel that when I get to the stage in my documentary where I will make my own song using ai, I should understand how it actually creates music. I could also potentially use this understanding in my documentary by breifly explainign how ai works to help educate the audience further.
From this article I have learnt and understood that ai websites like chatgpt take large amounts of data, understand trends patterns and what it actually means and then use all fo this to give the user the information that they asked for.
For generative music making ai websites they will take songs from the genre I will be asking for and looking at the codes and conventions of these songs. It will use the information it finds to then produce what I tell it to.
For the song, I want to ask it to make a faced paced pop song with house elements and lyrics about something new and not knowing how to feel about it (a take on ai and the thoughts and feelings that many have towards it).
Academic Research
Academic research is research, articles and books that have been made and conducted by someone with a degree in that subject. Academic research is beneficial to use as it is specialised knowledge and is relatively trust worthy to use. I will be using google scholar to look for any sources that may help my research.
(Shroff, 2024)
AI & Copyright: A Case Study of the Music Industry - Lila Shroff
This study investigates how ai works and the copyright laws and rights that are enforced behind it. Shroff looking into a number of music/ ai related news story's that I have already mentioned (Grimes saying she would take 50% if any ai songs got successful and the Drake song that was a deepfake).
This research is very helpful as it discusses different views from artists and musicians. She writes about some artists favouring ai and some fearing over its usage. This is relevant to my documentary as when I conduct interviews I will be asking each person that I interview what their thoughts are towards ai and its impact in music.
Shroff suggests that there should be a set of rules made for using ai in the music industry. These rules are to use interstate communication (where technology company's work closely with artists in designing and testing), Data set transparency (policy makers cannot make decisions about ai if they do not have the knowledge and information to bake it up), Opting out (allowing artists to opt out of having their work in data that ai is able to use) and using the fair use law more (justifying the copyright in ai law)
I found this study interesting as whilst it was opinionated it was also informative and backed up more of my own research (my survey responses ect).
(Google.co.uk, 2024)
Mastering Suno Ai for Music Production - Story's Buddies Play
Whilst this source is not very reliable and does not benefit my research much, just having a read through has helped me understand more about when it comes to the section of my documentary where I make my own song using ai, I pay use Suno so this gives me a slight bit of more background and understanding.
This book has interested me as it gives a slight overview into Suno and how it works as well as how it can be used to make music.
(Google.co.uk, 2016)
Generative AI and the New Wave of Digital Creativity - Abhijeet Sarkar
This book is extremely useful for me as it talks about how generative ai works within music. It provides a fair view of ai in music, for example in one paragraph the book states that a positive to using ai generated music would be that it can make things very quickly and can match different tones ect.
This article also goes into detail about the tools that ai uses and what people may use this for example talking about sound mixers and designers.
This book is quite simple and not as relevant to my study however does provide good information and background in to ai.
Action Research
Logo/Motion graphic for opening sequence
As I outlined in my proposal, one thing that stood out to me when looking for influences and inspirations was opening sequences and motion graphics for logos. I felt like this made the documentary's feel more authentic and set the atmosphere and tone of the documentary. I established that I wanted to look into this and see what I could create myself.
(Dope Motions, 2025)
This was one of the tutorials that whilst looking I thought would work well for my documentary. I felt that it had an element of being cinematic which I think is essential for documentary's and is also quite a cool and trendy concept which would match the contextual focus of my documentary being looking into the new technology of ai. I will be testing my performance using an after effect tutorial.
(Youtu.be, 2024)
Here I have experimented with this tutorial and created a logo/motion graphic for my documentary's opening sequence.
I aim to use a motion graphic in my documentary to make it professional, intriguing and slightly cinematic. This was a technique of editing I had seen in my inspiration research in my proposal and really liked it so wanted to take it forward in my documentary. I chose the font as I felt that it resembled the font/tyle of a parental advisory label that is constantly seen on albums so thought this worked well with the music theme.
Whilst it is a simple graphic, it is similar to the ones I had seen in my research and I am happy with it overall. I like the transitions used where it is fades in as well as each title has its own movement (the top one stretching out and the bottom one moving to the centre). It is a quick motion graphic which is straight forward and gets to the point that I am the filmmaker and I will be looking into ai and music.
When I go to create this for my final documentary there are a few changes I would make. One change would be to make make the lower tital text either smaller or a different font as I think that it does make it feel a little bit boring. I would also ensure that the text is both centralised and even as I want it to be proportionate.
Overall, I am happy with the style and movement of my title but would like to make slight adjustments to improve it for my final documentary edit.
Camera test, Microphone test, Lighting test and Interview structure
As I want my documentary to be high quality and authentic to real documentary's, I need to establish a range of production features which will increase the level of quality my documentary is. These production features are ensuring I have the best camera and microphone and the correct settings for filming and recording. Another is ensuring I have a good idea of lighting layout and set up and the best set up for interviews and insuring that for interviews make sure that I understand the codes and conventions typically seen used in documentary's.
(Youtu.be, 2025)
This is my action research where I have experimented with different cameras, microphones, lighting and interviews with b - roll. I will be discussing my findings.
The above images are all screenshots from footage that was shot on the canon camera that particularly stood out to me as I found the quality very good. I felt that the camera worked particularly well in natural light and bright sunlight as shots came out very clear and detailed.
This image (bottom left) is a screenshot form videos filmed on my phone. Due to my phone now being slightly older it is not the best quality. The image is fuzzy, blurry and not as clear. Going forward I will definitely be using the canon camera to film simply due to the quality difference.
The next equipment i will decide on what works best is the microphones. I tested 4 microphones in my action research. These were the cameras microphone, the smart lav clip on mic, the zoom mic and voice recordings on i phone. When listening to each microphone the two main ones that stand out the most are the smart lav microphone and the i phone. I have decided not to use the zoom mic due to it almost having a overpowering sound. I lowed the audio gain down and added parametric equaliser but I think that the zoom mic is actually too good so it picked up noise that I didn't want it to pick up. Whilst this is good I think that I may run into the risk of loosing the actual audio that I want for interviews ect. I ruled out the microphone in the camera as it captured too much background noise from other sources and again there is risk of loosing the sound I actually want. Out of the smart lav and the i phone the best quality would be the smart lav due to it isolating sound and also coming with a cover which may block out unwanted noise such as breath or wind. The only negative to the smartlav would be that they have quite a short cable which means that if I or someone in my documentary wears one they will need to be closer to the camera as the cable will look un-natural. The phone worked well but it would definitely pick up more unwanted noise depending on where it was used. Overall, I think I will use the smart lav microphone but also have the phone as a spare just in case.
For lighting I wanted to use the two main light sources/set ups that I thought I would follow and use in my documentary. These were using natural lighting and the key light and fill light used within Rembrandt lighting. The reason I could not complete all of the lighting on Rembrandt due to not being able to take as many lights out as I actually need. I think that both worked really well and I will just need to see what works well during filming and interviews.
And finally, the last thing I tested in my action research was interview codes and conventions. To do this I set up the lighting and the camera and asked a variety of questions which I had already planned out in my earlier research. I also filmed b - roll to go along side the interview which I think worked much better than my last attempt at this as it actually showed the interview itself.
In conclusion, based on my action research I will be using the Canon camera, the smartlav mic and if necessary my phone microphone and I have tested documentary lighting and interview techniques.
Filming Location and Production Research
Estbalishing that I know when, what, who I will be filming and where I will be filming is extremely important for me to gather my pre production before shooting. Over the course of my documentary I will be filming in a number of different places.
When interviewing one of my secondary audience members I belive I will be meeting her at her house as this is easy for her and I am able to gather b roll footage that is relivant to her and her story within music. I will be creating a location recce and a risk assessment for filming here.
Another place I will be filming is in a record shop. To learn more about what ai could mean for businesses like this if it becomes successful in music production.
(Mimoji.com, 2025)
When choosing locations, I have chosen to visit Revolution Records in Royston as it is local to me, they sell music which is relevant to the music I may make at the end of the documentary, and following my psychographics, Royston keeping within the Cambridgeshire region.
I will also be filming in my home as there are lots of opportunities for b - roll and background that are music related due to me being a music fan.
The final location I will be filming at is college as I want to complete vox pop style interviews asking teenagers if they are able to tell weather the song I've made is ai or if they think it is written and performed by a singer. These vox pops will be completed in the college grounds and will be very short.
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