Production Diary 28/03/12

For the past few weeks I have been continuing to edit my music video in Adobe After Effects, which has proved to be a very time consuming task. However, I feel much happier with my music video now I am starting to add effects to the footage and get more creative with it, particularly my green screen performance shots. I think the cartoon look is very effective compared to what I originally planned, of having just a plain white screen behind the performers. I have had some difficulties, for example I accidently left a fade in between the green screen and a location shot which made it too hard to sufficiently remove the background. However, with the help of my teacher and other students I was able to overcome these, though they did end up taking up more time than I anticipated thus I have to work faster now than I had hoped.

As I can only edit my music video in school, I am currently writing my evaluation at home so as to make the most of the time and facilities I have. I have begun to create a video for question 4, importing clips of my music video, using Cam Studio to record how I made certain effects and recording a voice over of my essay.

Production Diary - 26/03/12

Production Diary 10/03/12

This week I have been working on my second draft of my music video, and have finished and exported it. I spent the time removing the shots I felt were out of focus or too similar, and instead added in the shots I recently gained from my video shoot with Verity. I feel that this make it look much more professional and interesting as the shots are more varied, for example I have included shots from her room and her in high heeled shoes. I will now collect audience feedback on this draft, and focus on how I can further improve my music video.

Production Diary 02/03/12

Yesterday I conducted an additional shoot with my main actress, in order to gain some more footage of her in extreme close ups as I felt this part of my music video was not as prominant as I first planned, instead there was a lot of perofrmance based green screen footage. I felt this went very well, as I was more familiar with the camera and how to adjust its settings such as using shallow focus to create more visually interesting shots. I also felt more prepared this time, as I went there knowing the exact shots I wanted to get thus I was able to be more clear with my actress as to what to do.

Here is some example footage that I gained from this shoot:

Production Diary 24/02/12

After recieving audience feedbakc on my music video draft from a variety of people, I have decicded to make some changes. It was sugegsted that I use more footage of the extreme close ups oif my main actress as these were very visually interesting and make the vuideo stand out from others that may be on the market. As a result I am conducting a second videoshoot with my main actress shortly. I will plan all the shots that I need to get for the music video, so that I can be more organised and precise than I was in my previous shoot.

Production Diary 08/02/12

Production Diary 30/01/12

I have just finished the first draft of my music video and am currently exporting it, which is taking longer than I anticipated as I have had a number of problems where it kept failing, perhaps because one clip was corrupt or I had too many in a short space of time. Eventually I decided to cut the video up into sections and export these, before putting them back together on a new timeline and exporting that video. I plan to try and find a way to get around this for the future, are this will make things very difficult when I have a number of drafts and want to see how my video actually runs.

Production Diary 6/1/12

This is my first coursework lesson back after the Christmas holidays. Today I have been sorting out my footage with my teacher so I am able to edit my music video. I have also been gathering audience feedback from people in my class on my drafts of my magazine advert and my digipak. I have also continued over the holidays to research into existing music videos, digipaks and magazine adverts

Production Diary 17/12/11

I recently conducted a photo shoot, in which I took an old camera that has be broken beyond repair and smashed it up, taking images at various different stages of breaking the camera. I also reassembled the camera once it was broken as I felt this looked interesting and visually appealing. I used the Canon 550D to take the images in my photo shoot, as it is particularly good for close ups, allowing me to shoot in great detail and shoot in shallow focus. I also have used this camera previously, thus I am familiar with it and how to work it.
I have now completed drafts for two of my tasks, the digipak and the magazine advert that can be found below. I will now collect audience feedback for these drafts in order to decide how I can improve them.
I am currently unable to work on my music video as there is something wrong with my footage, meaning the program closes whenever I try to open it. Therefore, for now and over the Christmas holidays I plan to improve my posts on my blog as I feel some of them may have been to brief, and lacked some explanation.

Production Diary 10/12/11

I have been continuing to research into existing products in terms of digipaks and magazine adverts, especially of the indie/rock genre. I have also been researching on the internet to find different sources of inspiration, as I have some ideas but need to further develop them.
I have also been continuing to put my video together on Adobe Premiere Pro, which is more time comsuming than I expected, but I decided to rename and organize all my clips in order to make it eaisier and speed up the process.

Production Diary 02/12/11

This week I have continued to put together my music video on Adobe Premiere, which has proved a time consuming task as I want all the cuts to be in perfect time. I have also been collecting together all the documents needed for my coursework, such as Actor Release Forms, which means I have the permission of the actor to use any footage I gain and they fully understand my aims to use it in my work, which is important as sometimes they may argue that they don't like it and don't want me to use it when I have already created the video, which would prove a serious problem. I previously also created a form of all the personnel details of those will will be involved in my video, so they know their jobs and what they need to do. I posted this onto the Facebook group I created for my music video to make sure they all ad easy access to a copy.

I have also been considering creating an introduction for my music video, as the chosen song is very short, only around one and a half minutes. I recently saw Summer Camp's video for the song 'Down' which consists solely of GIFs, which I think has created an interesting effect for the audience as it differs from normal music videos. Furthermore I think this could be successful as it may appeal to my target audience of teenagers and young adults due to the fact GIF's are very popular on the internet, particularly social networking sites such as Facebook and Tumblr, people will often create them for humour.

Production Diary - 25/11/11

Recently I uploaded my footage and began to edit and cut it, as well as renaming each clip to make them easier to find and organise. I have began to put together my music video with the clips and the music, making the first draft of my video. This is important as I will be able to improve it and also I know how much more footage I may need to shoot, for example if certain shots are out of focus. Additionally I continued to receive audience feedback from people who fit my target audience.

Production Diary - 19/11/11

I have now shot the initial footage for my music video, I took the Canon 550D away at the weekend and shot the main actress getting ready all in close ups and extreme close ups. I felt this went fairly well, as I got a variety of shots and as I shot in her room the lighting was very warm and went well with the bright colours. I did struggle at first with shooting in shallow focus however I feel some of my shots looks very effective and will be useful in my video.
I also shot on Wednesday after school in front of the green screen with one group of my actors, as well as miming the lyrics I also got them to use balloons, bubbles and silly string. I feel this effective in that not only does it make my video more fun and exciting, but it also helped my actors to relax and feel more comfortable in front of the cameras. This made them appear more natural and less rigid in their performance, thus making my footage appear more professional. However, I plan to shoot another bit of footage using a different group of actors, as my audience feedback suggested it would be difficult to direct a large group of people thus I divided my actors into two groups so I would still be able to have the variety of actors in my video.
I also craeted floor plans for each of my shoots that helped me in terms of placing everything correctly and helping my visualise what the shoot would look like and how it would work.

Prior to shooting my video I made an equipment list of everything I would need including cameras and props. This made sure that I did not forget anything on the day and that I had bought everything I would need so I would have no problems shooting.

Production Diary - 9/11/11

This week I have continued to get audience feedback from people who fit into my target audience, receiving feedback and considering how peoples comments may affect my plans for my music video n terms of how to improve it. All my comments can be found on my audience feedback page.
I also cut out each frame from my storyboard and placed them onto Adobe Premiere Pro. I added the song and placed them in the timeline to fit the song and the duration of each shot. This is my animatic, it will help me when I start to shoot and then edit my video as I will be able to keep a clear idea of my plan and simply match the real shots to the animatic. However, after doing this I decided I wanted faster cuts, so this is now a basic skeleton of what I plan to be my final music video.
I continued with my planning to create a risk assessment, this involved considering all the potential risks and problems that may occur during my shoot and how to avoid or overcome them. This will make sure I am as prepared as possible in preparation for my shoot.

Production Diary

This week I have continued to receive audience feedback on my work, including my digipak and my general ideas for my music video. I have also continued o look at similar music videos for inspiration, I found on I felt to be especially effective in shooting solely in close ups. These can all be found on my inspirations page.
I also completed the story board that has a basic outline of my shots and where they will come in the song, this will help me when shooting as it will remind me of what shots I need and for what duration. I used the timeline to do this in order to match the right shots to the different lyrics. This will ensure I get the necessary footage and do not forget any vital scenes, it also helps me to visualise what my video will look like.

Production Diary - 29/10/11

During this week it has been half term, thus at home as I am unable to use some of the software that is available in school I have been improving my posts, giving them more detail and making my work of a higher quality. Furthermore, I sketched out my storyboard for my music video, which I will scan in at school then post. This I can also use to create my animatic, by separating each frame and dropping them into Adobe Premiere with my chosen song. I also created a timeline for my song, so I know where lyrics and instrumentals occur, I feel this will aid me in the future when planning, shooting and creating my video as I will not have to keep listening to the song each time. I plan to add my own ideas for shots to a copy of this timeline to further help me and give me a good understanding of how long each shot must be when shooting.

Production Diary -19/10/11

Recently I have been mind mapping ideas for the print aspect of my brief, so all my ideas were laid out clearly for me to see and compare. I then chose the ideas I liked the best and thought would be the most effective, and created the first draft for my Digipak, the front and back cover of the case that will hold the CD. I sketched these out and scanned them into the computer so I was able to post them. I then continued to briefly explain and analyse my initial designs, saying why I thought they would be effective in attracting my target audience and explaining what the pictures were in the case that my sketching wasn't totally clear.
I have also continued to research into similar products, both music videos and album artwork to give me ideas and understand what works well in the current market. In addition, in order to receive feedback from my target audience I have placed polls on my blog.

Production Diary - 10/10/11

In my past few lessons I created a test sequence in order to begin to understand how to use the cameras and remind myself of how to use Adobe Premiere and After Effects. I tried out a variety of different effects and shots when shooting, this helped me to understand what worked well and what did not, thus preparing me to shoot my music video with confidence.
I have also been continuing to sketch drafts of my digipack and storyboard of my music video, this will be especially useful later as I will know exactly what footage I need to get, thus I will not miss anything out or shoot too much irrelevant footage. Soon I will improve these and sketch them out properly, thus giving me good guidelines and plans for my later products.

Production Diary - 20/09/11

In the past week I have been working on creating a proposal for my music video and thinking carefully about the kind I would like to make, what aspects to include and how to ensure it is successful. I will get people to give me feedback on my ideas so I understand how it would do in real life and how to improve it, especially those who fit into my target audience.

Production Diary - 12/09/11

In the past few weeks I have been completeing my screen test and my location recce, adding more detail and explanation to them. Furthermore, I have continued to improve the rest of my posts, such as my inspirations page by adding explanations as to why I chose these videos and what influence they have had on my planning. I tried to get a variety of videos, though most of them are of my chosen music genre, indie/rock music. Throughout the rest of my work I keep researching and watching existing music videos, so I have a bette runderstabding of the market, their conventions, and what I think creates a successful effective music video.