18/09/17 – To begin our music video coursework we decided on which groups we wanted to work in, I grouped up with Antonio, Harry and Sam. Once in our groups we were given the task of discussing what genre music we wanted to create and what songs appealed to each of us. This would then next lead to further group discussions and song pitches.
19/09/17 – Following our initial group discussion and individual pitches we narrowed our song choices down to 4 songs, these were; ‘I’m falling apart’, ‘no option’, ‘money made me do it’ by Post Malone and ‘505’ by the arctic monkeys’. With these songs as a group we were given the task to create a presentation on which songs have appealed to us and each individual idea for each song.
20/09/17 – With our presentations created we were now asked to present them and pitch each idea to every other group of our class. With this we received positive feedback as well as constructive criticism. Personally, our groups preferred song was ‘I’m falling apart’ by post Malone, however the feedback we received saw a preferred choice of ‘505’ by the arctic monkeys. The reason for this was due to the pace and beat to the song allowing a greater variety of video possibilities.
21/09/17 – Today we continued with the feedback process and presentations. This included our group giving feedback and ideas in concern to each song whilst also further discussing our feedback and song choices. By listening to the other groups ideas we could give constructive feedback and also help improve their ideas so that they are able to decide on what type of image they wish to portray.
22/09/17 – In this lesson, we were sat in our groups and watched music videos from previous years and had to mark them according to the mark scheme. This helps us as a group as we are aware that our video must fit the genre of the song otherwise it is difficult to gain a high mark. Additionally, we could see the progression of student videos through the years which motivates us to do well and perform to the high standard that is set.
25/09/17 – Today we confirmed the song we wanted to use for our music video, this song is ‘Drugs’ by Adam Jensen. We decided to choose this song because it allows us to have a indie band image and experiment with different representations of genres.
26/09/17 – Following the decision of our song today as a group we started to produce some video ideas to each other and also begun our lip sync task in order to find a suitable performer. With this we would then begin putting our ideas together after deciding our main performer.
27/09/17 – As further preparation and research we continued to research similar bands into take inspiration from and piece together some more location ideas and video ideas.
28/09/17 – After researching similar bands and completing our lip sync task we had the task of editing each individual lip sync performance together and then collecting feedback on which performer both suited the image and performed the best.
02/10/17 – Today we assigned each group member a task to complete, I was given the task of completing research tasks, Antonio completed the lip sync editing and Harry begun our syn-o-matic task to relate imagery and footage to our song.
05/10/17 – As a group we decide to assign separate tasks or each other to progress with our research and planning. Sam was given the task to begin producing a story board and planning our ideas, Harry continued with our steal-o-matic task to research more detailed video ideas, Antonio finished editing the final details of our lip sync task and finally I was given the task to complete any research tasks and begin producing ideas for camera shots and timings onto our storyboard.
06/10/17 – Following our previous group meeting today we each individually produced independent research on what it takes to produce a successful artist/band website. To do this we used an online software called ‘screencastify’ to produce a visual tour and description of what a successful website consists of and how we will produce a similar website for our groups band.
09/10/17 – In today’s lesson we all contributed to our story board, we established what locations we will use, these include; Willingale village and a swimming pool at our friend’s house. We decided to use these places because they fit with the genre of the music and we will be able to use multiple outdoor shots.
11/10/17 – Today we completed our steel-o-matic. We chose five videos that we found matched our ideas for our final music video. We took these videos from YouTube and then imported them onto Adobe Premiere. We placed our song as a backing track and had the videos overlap the music. From this we could gain an insight to what visuals would be suited to our song.
13/10/17 – In this lesson, we created a twitter account named @PalemeOffical after deciding Paleme as the name for our artist (Jordan). Along with a twitter account we made an Instagram profile where we can post photos of Paleme when we complete our photoshoot. The twitter account can be used for updates and to advertise our artist.
16/10/17 – In Monday’s lesson, Jordan conducted some costume research. Our song is alternative rock/pop and our aim is to have the costumes match the nature of the song which is quite relaxed and casual. When we decided on costumes we posted these ideas on our blogs.
17/10/17 – On Tuesday, we began our Risk Assessment. As a group, we discussed the different risks that are possible while filming in the three different locations. One location involves the use of a swimming pool therefore the obvious dangers include drowning, slipping and dropping electrical equipment in the pool.
18/10/17 – Our day consisted of learning about cross-media synergism. We looked at Daft Punk and saw how they use synergy across their products. For example, they have used an ongoing theme of science fiction and dark colours. From this, we acknowledged how important it is introducing synergy across our work.
26/10/17 – (half term break) – We filmed in three different locations on the Thursday during half term week. We all met as a group in the morning around 10.30 AM and began filming at 11 AM. Luckily, we had two cameras available in case one run out of battery or the SD card became full.
30/10/17 – With most of filming ready to be edited, Sam transferred the files onto a computer and ran Adobe Premiere. After this, Sam placed all the footage onto Adobe so that all the content was readily available whenever he needed to use it.
1/11/17 – In today’s lesson, Jordan began the editing of our magazine cover for Billboard. We decided that the cover photo would be a full body shot of Paleme in an outdoors environment with a scenery containing leaves and the colour green. He is editing the magazine cover on Adobe Photoshop because it is suitable when you want to cut shapes from pictures and add effects.
3/11/17 – After deciding on “The New Pioneer” to be our album name, I could begin building a template for the digipak. I researched some iconic album covers from the likes of Arctic Monkeys and based our album design on this research.
6/11/17 – On Monday’s lesson we began preparing for our halfway evaluation. Sam finished the edit of the first draft so that we could show the rest of the class ready for Friday’s lesson.
7/11/17 – Today we presented our halfway evaluations to our classmates – the aim of this was to give our audience an insight of our artist and his musical background.
9/11/17 – I completed the first draft of the digipak in today’s hour. After this, I printed it out on A3 paper. This is because the rest of the class could see our digipak and write feedback around it which I would then consider when starting the next draft of the digipak.
13/11/17 – Harry published the first draft of the website today and then we all uploaded it to our blogs.
14/11/17 - In Tuesday’s lesson, we went out to scout for more locations and we found a local park in Galleywood with many trees and leaves on the floor. We felt this
16/11/17 – we went out as a group to film because we were missing footage as it was out of focus from the first session of filming. We noticed that Sam’s camera produced much more quality footage rather than Josh’s camera.
18/11/17 – On this date we had a guest come into the school who works for ITV. He spoke to us about his career in media and productions. This gave us an insight to projects on a larger scale compared to the music video project we done.
22/11/17 – Sam continued editing the music video and added in the new footage to experiment which shots are good and which shots are not worthy enough to overwrite the footage we already have.
23/11/17 - Today, we published our Twitter account and submitted our first tweet which reads “the album is coming” implying that our digipack is nearly complete.
24/11/17 – Our Instagram account was created today – we feel it is important to create social media following because our target audience is very teenager orientated and these people are most likely use social media often.
27/11/17 – Jordan created the Paleme snapchat profile in our lesson today and we ensured the account was made public so that when another user adds Paleme, we do not have to accept the request instead the user can see Paleme’s activity instantly.
28/11/17 – Today Sam continued editing and completed the second draft of the video. We got feedback from peers and then recorded what still needed to be done to improve.
30/11/17 – The final completed version of the digipack was completed today allowing us to concentrate on improving the website as this was lacking attention to detail. We all helped each other on the website to try and make it better.
4/12/17 – On Monday’s lesson we dedicated the hour to creating an interview. This took about 20 minutes to plan the questions for Paleme. Then it took a duration of 30 minutes to record the interview in front of the green screen.
5/12/17 – Sam was in charge of editing the interview, he placed subtitles when the interviewer asked Paleme questions. He also used effects to alter the background colour.
11/12/17 – The final music video was completed however we had difficulties with exporting and uploading the video. This meant that we could not publish it on YouTube for a while until we knew why we could not export it.
13/12/17 – As our final deadline was approaching we made sure we changed any small defects in our three ancillary texts. One error we saw was that the merchandise page on the website was not fully complete so we took this time to ensure this was corrected.
15/12/17 – This was the last Friday before the deadline so we had to make sure all our blogs had all our planning and research tasks placed on there with labels. The interview was published by Sam and he put it on YouTube for the group to use the embed code to place it on our blogs.
19/12/17 – This was the deadline for our construction stage of the coursework project. We began thinking about our evaluation questions and deciding which member of the group would do the four different evaluation question. We made sure each of the productions: music video, digipack and website were all placed at the top of our blogs so that it made easy access for the teacher and examiners to view these media texts.
