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
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?
This week you worked on your research
Primary and Secondary research on my chosen type
of production, which is music videos.
Writing my proposal made me think about the type
of production I wanted to create for this unit. It
allowed me to single out some of weaknesses I
showed in my other previous projects. For example,
in one of my preceding productions I wrote about
my lack of interesting camera angles in the final
evaluation. This is something I aim to improve in
this unit and I wrote about how I can achieve it in
my proposal.
Analysing music videos allowed me to gain a
greater understanding of the filming techniques
used. For example, I learnt about why some music
videos use different types of camera angles to
achieve different visual effects. It has also helped
me to become more familiar with the stylistic codes
and conventions of the genre that I have chosen for
my production.
From practicing the conventions that I researched, I
was able to freely experiment with such things as
camera angles. In my practice piece I tried using a
high angle to make the actor look smaller as he
walked up a case of stairs. I was also able to
practice my editing skills with codes such as cutting
to the beat. An aspect of my previous productions,
that I was not so good at doing, as I mentioned in
my brief.
Creating infographics allowed me to present my
primary research in a more interesting fashion and
make the statistics from my survey easier to digest.
It helped to make the data appear clearer to me.
This week, I am not on track. However, I am not far
off from finishing the incomplete parts.
I need to film and analyse a focus group, along with
re-doing a lot of my secondary research.
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?
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?
This week you worked on your
planning
By analysing the promotional
campaigns for music videos from
other artists, I learned about the
importance of having a well-designed
website. One of the pages I researched was
purposefully difficult to navigate but I strongly
believe that this limited the artist’s engagement
with a wider audience.
This is the first time I have worked on a music video
so writing a shooting script provided me with some
experience at it and allowed me to become more
familiar with how they work in relation to the
production itself. It helped me to finalise my idea
for the music video. Creating storyboards
essentially forced me into working out what kind of
music video would suit the genre best.
My idea has changed significantly from being a
combination of a concept and a performance piece
into a concept music video with a very vague
narrative in order to keep it interesting for the
audience. I made this decision after working on my
storyboards and initially struggling on techniques to
mix the performance aspects with the concept
aspects.
At this point in the planning stage, I have not
completed my story boards to the standard that I’d
like to. I want to ensure that the storyboards are
clear enough for me to make use of when I’m
actually recording the music video over the half
term break.
I struggled with writing the shooting script for my
production because my original idea was to compile
a lot of sped up footage of different industrial
buildings from around London. After acknowledging
the probable lack of viewer engagement in this
idea, I decided I wanted to incorporate a
performance element before realising this would
not work as the song I wanted to use is an
electronic instrumental piece. This is when I
decided to introduce the chicken character played
by Evan. The chicken has no deeper meaning or
relation to the track, I just felt the video would be
rather dull without it.
I completed a great deal of the promotional
campaign research outside of lesson as I did not
immediately understand what the task itself was.
Yes, but I plan to complete this work all over this
coming weekend.
I need to finish off parts of my planning, in specific
the final shooting script, storyboards and location
recces.
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?
Upload your behind the scenes
photos and videos (explain what
they show)
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
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
This week you worked on your
production
I have finished shooting all the
footage for my music video
production. I have also begun to put
the clips together in premier pro. I
found my earlier planning very
helpful, my storyboards especially because they
allowed me to precisely work out the types of shots
and angles I wanted to use before it was time to
record all the footage.
Unfortunately, I did not take any behind the scenes
photos and videos, partly because I had forgotten
and because there was only ever two of us on set at
one time (Myself and Evan, who was acting).
However, I can provide some detailed descriptions
on how the equipment was set up for each take.
Next time I would make sure that my actor is more
comfortable performing in their costume before
shooting.
Evan was unable to see properly through the eyes
of the mask, making it difficult for him to navigate
through each scene. This resulted in him constantly
adjusting the mask during shots, making a
substantial amount of the footage unusable.
I chose to film specifically on trains and industrial
sites around London. This was because the two
videos I conducted my secondary research on were
both shot in exclusively urban environments. I felt
that the dull colours would contrast with the energy
of my chosen song.
I have not worked to my production schedule as I
was unable shoot when I had originally planned to.
This was because Evan (my actor) was unavailable
to get into London on the day I had suggested.
Consequently, my editing schedule was delayed.
This week, I am on track.
N/A
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 editing
process?
What new skills did you learn
when editing?
Upload screenshots of the
editing process and discuss why
you made these changes.
I found that the editing process made me feel a lot
more confident with my production as I was able to
add in more visual effects. After I had finished
shooting, I was rather discontent with the footage I
had captured with Evan. The editing process
allowed me to be more creative with the visuals.
During the editing stage of my production, I learnt
how to sequence an effect through key frames and
create my own transitions between different shots.

I decided to make 4 of the same pieces of footage

appear on the screen at the same time in order to
make the video more interesting visually.

In editing, I also made the decision to reverse some

 of the footage, again to make the
visuals more exciting to watch.

What issues did you encounter
when editing and how did you
overcome them?
Are you on track for this week?
Did you meet the deadline? If
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to
complete outside of lessons?
I had to cut out a lot of the footage
because Evan was not comfortable
with wearing the mask and he kept
taking it off right in the middle of
each scene. Despite my efforts to prevent this from
reoccurring, I still ended up with a great deal of
unusable recordings.
This week, I am on track.
N/A

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 design your page
and why? (upload screenshots
and discuss)
I designed my promotional webpage by using
mostly dark colours and letting the content (the
music video) stand out. This minimalistic approach
was inspired by Death Grips’ own webpage, which I
analysed for my primary research on advertising
methods for music videos. I also included links to
both of the social media accounts that I created for
the campaign on the homepage.
 I included more information on the
artist himself and where you could
listen to more of his music.

The music video is the first thing that any visitor to

How did you use social media to
help promote your production?
How effective do you feel your
site is in promoting your work?
How does you site compare to
those you previously
researched?
Are you on track for this week?
Did you meet the deadline? If
not, how far behind are you?
High Grade Tips
the site will see.
I created an Instagram account and posted the
music video on the story. I also put a link to the
music video in the bio of the Instagram account so
that people can find it with ease. Next time, I would
spend more time building up hype for the music
video before I upload it to YouTube in order to
potentially reach a wider audience. I also created a
Twitter account that I was planning to do a similar
thing on. However, I had an issue where I was able
to log in and post the thing I wanted to.
Overall, I would say that my site is reasonably
effective at promoting my work on the music video.
I tried to keep the theme plain and simple so that
the site could be easy to navigate for almost
anyone. After speaking to Evan about how he felt
about final outcome of the whole campaign, he
seemed content with everything.
I took inspiration from the dark colours used on the
websites that I analysed during the primary
research phase of the promotional campaign.
Specifically, Death Grips’ website really intrigued
me. I thought that their use of mostly dark colours
was a great way to let the content itself breathe
and do its own thing.
Yes, I met the deadline.

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.