Weekly Journal
Week 1
What have you been asked to
do?
How has writing the brief helped
you to finalise your idea?
What did you learn from
practising the conventions you
researched?
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
This week you worked on your research
I have chosen to create a music video. I could’ve
chosen to create a short film, documentary or
animation but I decided to do a music video
because it was something that I hadn’t done yet and
it would allow me to develop my skills in that area. The
music video must use the full song, have no excessive
swearing, and include both performance and
narrative parts.
Writing the brief allowed me to understand exactly
what I needed to do, which therefore allowed me to
create the idea easily. This was because of the fact
that I knew what needed to be included in my
production.
Practising the conventions has allowed me to learn
how certain things are filmed/made in rap music
videos. For example, I practised the different kind of
camera shots used in rap music videos, some of which
included close ups, low angles and wide angles.
Close up shots and low angles were easy to film and
looked really effective as they made the artist look
more intimidating, creating the idea that he has
power over the viewer. The wide angles were also
very effective as they allowed for lots of effects to be
added in and around the artist. This allowed me to
visualise what kind shots I wanted in my music video. I
also practised different editing techniques. From this
learnt how to make effects that are used in rap
videos, and helped me to decide which effects I
would want. Some of the editng techniques included
cutting to the beat and adding trippy effects. Cutting
to the beat was quite time consuming, but looked
really effective as it gave the video a clean look and
helped it to flow with the song. The effects that I
added were also very time consuming to create but
made the video look so much better, helping to make
it feel trippy and psychedelic.
Yes.
None.
This week you worked on your planning
How has analysing videos helped
you to understand the genre
better?
How did making infographics help
you to process your research?
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?
What issues did you have when
planning your production? How
did you overcome them?
Analysing videos has allowed me to look more closely
and specifically into different aspects of rap music
videos and exactly where certain things are used and
what effect they have on the video. This has showed
what kind of things I need in my video for it to be rap
video. For example I have learnt to include lots of
trippy effects and visuals to make the video look
psychedelic. I should also film in a rich and run down
urban area to show that the artist is now wealthy after
living in poverty. I should also make sure that the actor
wears expensive clothes and shows off their wealth to
show that they live a better life than the viewer.
Putting the information into an infographic allowed
me to visualise the findings a lot easier. This made it
easier for me to think about what I should include in
my video because I could see everything that would
usually be included in a rap video.
Consider script writing, choosing locations, actors
The planning helped me to understand exactly what
I’m going to put into my video, as well as how to
do/create these things. For example, the story board
helped me to plan exactly what I’m going to film,
what angles I’ll use in each shot and what will happen
in each shot. The location recce allowed me to
choose exactly what locations I would film in and how
I would get to these locations. The prop list allowed
me to understand exactly what props I would be
using to create the video as well as what the actor
would be wearing.
One thing that changed during the planning stage
was the amount of people that I was going to have in
the video. Originally, I was planning on having
multiple people in my video performing. However,
whilst planning I thought that having lots of people
would take away from the narrative of the video, so I
decided to reduce it to just 2 people performing.
However, one of the actors changed their mind, so I
decided to stick with just one person as I felt that this
would work well too.
One issue was the fact that we weren’t exactly sure
what each shot for every part of the song was going
to be. To overcome this, I made sure that in the story
board I drew pictures of what kind of shots and
effects I would want throughout the video so that I
knew what I had to film, rather than just for specific
parts. Another problem was thinking of exactly of
where to film, as there was so many places that we
could film. To overcome this, we thought of places
that we could easily get to as well as how they’d look
in the video.
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?
What issues did you encounter
when filming and how did you
overcome them?
What locations did you use and
why did you choose them?
I finished my story board outside of lesson.
Yes
None
This week you worked on your production
How did your planning help you when out shooting?
Did the script help your actors? Did the storyboards
ensure you moved the camera properly? Where the
locations suitable?
This week I have filmed the whole of the music video,
partly in London and partly in some woods and a
field. Planning meant that we knew exactly what we
were filming before we started, allowing us to get
filming done quicker because we didn’t need to think
about what to do whilst on location. The planning also
meant that we knew where to film.
One of the issues we encountered was the fact
people kept walking in front of the camera and
blocking things we were trying to film. To overcome
this, we filmed longer shots so that we could edit
around the crowds. Another problem was the fact
that we struggled to keep the camera still, which
made some of the shots shaky. To overcome this we
tried to move less when filming. As well as this, it was
very difficult to get the actor to lip sync the exact
lyrics. To overcome this, we made him listen to the
lines multiple times before he recorded it, as well as
recording each line multiple times so that we could
choose the best shots in editing.
Our first location was in London, specifically Picadily
Circus, Westminster bridge and Oxford street. We
chose these locations because they contained lots of
interesting and grand buildings that would be good to
add lots of effects to, such as mirror effects, just like
the Magnolia music video. These places also contain
lots of interesting people and street entertainers that
could also be used in the video as they are quirky and
funny to watch. Another location we used was a field.
This fed more into the narrative of the video, as the

How did you find the editing
process?
What new skills did you learn
when editing?
What issues did you encounter
when editing and how did you
overcome them?
How well have you worked to
your production schedule?
Are you on track for this week? If
story followed a man asleep in a dream world. I chose
a field, as well as woods, as I felt that these would be
the most suitable for a dream land. The field had big
open spaces which allowed me to add lots of green
screen effects as well as masks, and the woods had
lots of trees which meant that I could add lots of
distortion to it.
I thought that the editing process went well. I
managed to edit everything pretty easily as I had
already learnt how to edit well during the other units. I
also had previously learnt how to add lots of rap-
video style effects when practising the conventions of
rap videos. Overall, once edited, the video looked
really good. However, the editing was very time
consuming which meant that I ended up overrunning
into the next week of my production schedule. This
was because aligning the lip-sync videos with the
audio was very difficult and took lots of time in order
to get it right. Premiere pro also crashed at one point,
which resulted in half of the project being deleted.
I learnt how to mask properly, which involves marking
around an object or person with the pen tool to
remove the background or something on the screen. I
also learnt how to distort videos. This involved many
different effects. Some of these include turbulent
displace, sphereise, and mirroring. I also learnt how to
de-pixelate things in After effects and how to draw on
each frame to create cool patterns.
One of the issues I encountered when editing was
trying to sync the performance videos to the song in
the background. This was because I had to get it
exactly to the right point on the timeline or it would
look bad. To overcome this, I made sure to narrow
down the timeline. Another problem that I
encountered was the fact that premiere pro crashed
and deleted half of the project whilst I was mid-way
through editing. To overcome this I made sure to save
the project as I went along so that if it did crash I
wouldn’t delete much work.
I have worked quiet well to the production schedule
as I managed to follow it until the last week. I had to
overrun into the next week when editing because I
hadn’t given myself enough time to edit on the
production schedule. This was also because I chose to
add lots of effects to my video while editing which
resulted in it taking much longer to edit than a normal
video. Premiere pro also crashed at one point and
deleted half of the file, meaning that I had to re-edit
lots of the video which took up a lot of time.
Yes.
not, how far behind are you?
What work do you need to None.
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 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.