Weekly Journal
Regular evaluation updates are required, as with every unit.
Please remember to take photos and get behind the scenes footage as
you film. You might find it easier if you note down a record of what you did
each day in a diary form.
Please use the following guidance to help you with each week.
Week 1
What have you been asked to
do?
How has writing the brief helped
you to finalise your idea?
How has analysing videos
helped you to understand the
genre better?
What did you learn from
practising the conventions you
researched?
How did making infographics
help you to process your
This week you worked on your research
This week were asked to come up for a proposal for
a new visual project to work on, where I chose to do
a horror themed music video. After we had to
research our genre so I did by doing a survey and
sending it out as well as analysing two horror styled
music videos. We then looked at the codes and
conventions of what where are doing and had to
apply them in test shooting. Finally we made an
infographic that shows all the research and testing
we’ve done into one image.
Writing the brief helped me to gather ideas of what
I wanted to do. As it was a visual focused
production we had to do I wanted at first to do a
horror short film as it tested everything that I had
done in terms of visuals, I then heard some songs
with horror lyrics in and decided to make it a music
video because that would give me more room to
experiment and improve what I wanted with my
visuals, whilst keeping to the horror genre
Analysing the videos made me look at certain
important codes and conventions of both the genre
and video style so I would have more ideas when
coming to planning and shooting. Some key aspect
codes I searched into were things like isolated
locations and lowkey lighting, two techniques
commonly used in the horror genre and both of
which I want to use in my final production because
of how well they work with the genre
One thing I learned was that in one of my test shots
that was in the dark the ISO was set to 3200 so
there would be some red noise in the shot which
made it look really bad, so whilst filming I replayed
the shot and then tuned down my iso and shutter
speed so you can see what’s happening in the
frame a lot more clearer and makes for a better
audience understanding
My infographic was good because it summarised all
my research both primary and secondary into one
research?
Are you on track for this week? If
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to
complete outside of lessons to
stay on track?
Week 2
What did you find out about
promotional campaigns for your
form of production?
What did you learn from your
planning? How has it helped you
to progress your idea?
How has your idea
developed/changed during the
planning stage?
How did you ensure that your
storyboards were to a high
enough standard?
What issues did you have what
planning your production? How
did you overcome them?
easy to read image, which looked
appealing to the eye because of the
ascetics of it, because it was so quick
and easy to read I could show more
people my information that I have
found out and researched and my
audience would understand it easier.
I’m on track for the week.
This week you worked on your planning
When researching the other artists promotional
campaigns I saw that they have a specific character
they want to portray themselves as across social
media and their websites, will things like their own
colour pallets used across their social media and
they have a meaning, an example of this is from
stormzy using the colour gold a lot, as he often
refers to himself as ‘the king of grime’. They also
link their new material multiple times per webpage
to the point it is in your face, this would make them
more likely to get clicks which means more
downloads and views- this is something I’m going to
use In my promotional website as I have seen that a
lot of artists use this technique so it must work
Planning helped me line up the shots im going to do
with the lyrics to the song, if I hadn’t planned it
would have been messier but now I know how to
link the lyrics better to what the shot is in the music
video; an example of this is when Juice WRLD has a
line about the moon when turning into a monster,
and In my planning I have lined it up with a zoom
shot of the moon
My idea has developed in the narrative of my music
video, before planning it was just going to be about
someone in a mask constantly killing people, but
now the story has a better spine because I’m going
to have a reason for him going crazy and killing
people (the moon). Planning also helped with shot
types, before I was going to do a lot more simplistic
shots but when story boarding I started developing
the idea of doing extreme close ups and more
match cuts to make my production flow better
I made a draft storyboard by just getting my main
ideas and shots in one place so that when it came
to doing my main storyboard the narrative would
make more sense and I would only include the
different shots rather than wasting space by putting
very similar close together scenes
One of my main issues in planning is coming up
with a strong narrative that I can easily develop,
and this time it took me time because I wasn’t too
sure on what to do. I made 3 rough ideas at home
and tried to develop them, but then after analysing
the song that the videos was going to be fore, I
decided to do the idea about the moon making the

How much work did you
complete outside of the lessons?
Are you on track for this week? If
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to
complete outside of lessons to
stay on track?
Week 3
What practical work have you
done and how helpful was your
earlier planning?
How will this be useful as your
production process continues?
character become a monster because
of how much this line is repeated in
the song, and I think this would make
a lot of sense in the video and the
audience will see it clearly.
The work I did outside of lesson
included planning my storyline, as
that’s something I usually take more time on than
others, and also my planning booklet was worked
on at home to iron it out
-
-
This week you worked on your production
This week I filmed my production and started to edit
it, Because of my earlier planning my recording was
efficient because I knew what scenes I needed to
record thanks to my productions schedule and
shooting script/storyboard. The detail I put in them
made it easier for me to shoot the scenes – an
example of this is doing a close up of the moon.
It will be useful when editing because of my
storyboard and shooting script as I would know
what scenes to place when, and example of this is
showing the first shot of our main character in
costume at the exact time the lyric ‘monster’ starts.
Upload your behind the scenes
photos and videos (explain what
they show)

This photo shows Bilal

putting on the mask before
we shot with the smoke
machine in my back
garden

This photo shows

the pre smoke
machine shoot,
where we put two
tables us on the
decking to create a
background to
concentrate the
 What issues did you encounter
when filming and how did you
overcome them?
What locations did you use and
why did you choose them?
How well have you worked to
your production schedule?
Are you on track for this week? If
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to
complete outside of lessons to
stay on track?
High Grade Tips
The main issue whilst filming was
getting a shot of the moon, as it was
blurry and my lens wasn’t able to
zoom enough to get a clear image of
it. To overcome I put a zoom lens on
my camera and turned down my
aperture so the moon subject would
stand out to get the moon shot
The first location was behind a hill in a park near
my house, because it had clear parallel line which I
felt was useful when shooting a music video, as well
as the fact it was a short walk from my house
meaning it was convenient to get to without any
problems
We worked exactly to our production schedule and
got all the shooting done efficiently and in time for
any deadlines.
Yes, I’m on track as I have completed filming.
We filmed our shots outside lesson at night to make
it more horror-esque.

Use screenshots to support your analysis – especially when comparing your work to
other pieces.

Considered and capable demonstration of processes – detailed documentation

of your production process – such as still images, and annotated screenshots of your
specific production and editing process – including ‘what’ and ‘why’ and not just ‘how’.

Specific – be specific! Don’t just say e.g. ‘the lighting was good’ – show us where the
lighting looked good and why you think that.

Week 4 This week you worked on editing your production

How did you find the I found the editing process difficult at first because the was
editing process? my first time ever creating a music video, and I was aware of
the challenges when I started the unit as I wanted to push my
weakness and this was one of them. I created a first draft of
the video which was practically just shots over music, no real
effects of cutting to the beat, and then after that I watched
almost an hour of music video techniques on YouTube, so
which I used in my music video to make me happier with how
it turned to be. I also used cutting to the beat more to make it
seem more natural, and not just a forced film over music.
What new skills did I learned multiple techniques of YouTube, one of which being
you learn when the ‘ghosting effect which I used in my music video. This
editing? techniques went well with my horror genre and hence I
decided to use it
 Another technique was the ‘pop up’ effect where I had
multiple shots of the monsters handprint pop up on screen, I
wanted to have this rather than play these shots individually
in the music video because I felt that would have become very
repetitive for the audience, whereas this technique goes
straight to the fact to where this monster leaves his
‘signature’ after committing a murder

Upload screenshots of
the editing process
and discuss why you
made these changes.

At first, this is how my timeline of my music video was in my

first draft. It was all done on one timeline which shows it was
just straight video with longer unnecessary gaps that have no
flow in it. There wasn’t many effects in It and I felt I wasn’t
being creative enough, which is the purpose of the music
video
 After watching the tutorials and becoming more comfortable
with editing the music video my timeline looked more
crearive, with more depth to it because of the effects that I
used, including ones where the shot changes to the beat,
(zooms out to the beat) and the pop up effect I used for the
handprints. I felt this became a lot more creative than I was
allowing myself to be in the first draft
What issues did you The main issue was I felt I was restricting myself from being as
encounter when creative as I should whilst editing a music video, to overcome
editing and how did this I watched multiple premier pro editing music video
tutorials on YouTube and this allowed me to learn new effects
you overcome them?
for this production as well as future productions
Are you on track for Yes I’m on track as I have finished the editing of my
this week? Did you production.
meet the deadline? If
not, how far behind
are you?
What work do you n/a
need to complete
outside of lessons?

High Grade Tips

Use screenshots to support your analysis – especially when comparing your work to
other pieces.

Considered and capable demonstration of processes – detailed documentation

of your production process – such as still images, and annotated screenshots of your
specific production and editing process – including ‘what’ and ‘why’ and not just ‘how’.

Specific – be specific! Don’t just say e.g. ‘the lighting was good’ – show us where the
lighting looked good and why you think that.

Week 5 This week you worked on creating your site

How did you I used a dark theme to my website as my artist was a rap artist,
design your page and this is a colour commonly used in the genre, from my
and why? (upload research of another rapper, stormzy, I used his
screenshots and websites dark theme to it and also used using my
discuss) main character of my production in the centre of my
homepage, as not only does it make him stand out
and get noticed so people become familiar with my
brand but it makes my character seem bigger than
normal people, and as its centralized the audience
would know its strange, as usually they used the grid or rule of
three in a photo, as its more appealing to the eye and more
comfortable to look at.
Stormzy’s website:

My Website:

Another thing I did was repeatedly show the release date of my

production, as I had researched with Billie Eilish and Stormzy. The
artists have this because it makes it more convenient for the
people visiting their websites and social media, and as those
people will see it on most pages of the website, it makes them
more likely to click the link and listen to the music.
Both websites that a looked into also had quick links into their
social medias, this is an important to most fans to follow their
favourite artists and celebrities online, this gives them and look at
what goes on behind the scenes, and not just what they do
performing- as I wanted to gain a following on my social media
accounts I put a drop down bar which is a straight link to the
website.
I think If I had to make the website again, not only would I have
put even more links to social media, as the more times its on the
website (the more likely someone will click on it) I would also have
tried to do a one page site, where the other ‘pages’ are there as
you scroll rather than clicking links to the drop bars, as I feel this
could make it more convenient for the audience that visit the
website, and is also the new ‘trend’ on many websites.
 In the ‘music’ tab, I have links to Eminem’s albums on two of the
most main stream music platforms, Spotify and apple music.
Instead of putting the weblinks (which look messy and
inconsistent) I made the icons on the right hand side direct links to
their music on the platform of the icon, I feel this works good
because it’s more ascetically appealing and easier for the
audience to know what the link is for.
How did you use On Instagram I posted some behind the scenes photos of the
social media to production, and I also followed some people at random who follow
help promote Eminem, the artist who’s my production is based off of. This would
make them more likely to follow the page back, and therefore it
your production?
will grow in popularity and would be a successful marketing
technique.
I feel by posting behind the scenes on social media it connects the
artists with their main fans that take the time to follow the artists
page, deserve to see exclusive content, and hence I put things like
a behind the scenes pictures that tease the music video, as well as
putting a couple ‘coming soon’ pictures on my social media. I
chose to prioritise Instagram, as seen with my research the music
market for rap and pop on that specific social media site is much,
much popular than any other, including twitter. On twitter I also
followed a lot of Eminem fans as they were more likely to follow
the page back. If I was to make these account I would have had
more of a countdown to my production as this would gain hype
and attention to the new followers, rather than just being told a
video is out which they weren’t anticipating.
How effective do I feel it is effective because it isn’t messy and gets to the point of
you feel your site what an artist’s website is for. It advertises the production,
is in promoting Eminem’s music and shows his upcoming tour dates without
making people have to look hard for these pages, it is in a
your work?
convenient drop down bar so people won’t struggle to find it.

My work is also shown on the

homepage, the page which everyone
on the website would be sent to when going on to it, and this is
convenient as they could watch the music video then and there
rather than having to wait until being redirected to a youtube link
to see it. If I made this part of the site again I would maybe embed
my social media feeds (instead of leaving it as links) just so
everyone even without an account could see the recent updates
easily, without having to go onto the social accounts- this also
makes it more convieient for fans visiting the site to preview the
 social media, to see if they want to visit it and follow
the accounts.

How does you site I used some aspects from stormzy’s website that
compare to those make him get attention, by posting large images on
you previously the homepage which will make everyone that clicks
onto the website familiar with the brand and who
researched?
my artist is. The dark colours of the rap genre is also used in my
website, this will help the audience familiar with my genre even if
they haven’t listened to the music
Like stormzy and Billie’s website I kept mine simple and easy to
navigate, like most modern day websites- both having direct links
to music, stores and social media whilst it being easy to see who’s
website it is because of pictures of the artists around the site. In
my research I also saw there was a lot of advertisements for
albums and music, and example was stormzys album being
advertised on each page, because of this I made my homepage
have multiple times, the release date so people get that date into
their head and are more likely to know when the productions
coming out as they would have seen it so many times- this is a
common marketing technique.
Are you on track Yes, I’m on track as I have completed my production, and
for this week? Did promotional materials.
you meet the
deadline? If not,
how far behind
are you?
High Grade Tips

Use screenshots to support your analysis – especially when comparing your work to
other pieces.

Considered and capable demonstration of processes – detailed documentation

of your production process – such as still images, and annotated screenshots of your
specific production and editing process – including ‘what’ and ‘why’ and not just ‘how’.

Specific – be specific! Don’t just say e.g. ‘the lighting was good’ – show us where the
lighting looked good and why you think that.