advanced portfolio production diary 2015 2016

A2 Media StudiesAdvanced PortfolioProduction Diary

PROGRESS UPDATE PLAN FOR NEXT MONTH / WEEK (Including Possible Contingency Plans If Problems Anticipated)

Mon W/B 01/09/15(Detailed Weekly Summary)

Last week we got introduced to A2 media. We got briefed on the course and what our options were for coursework. We got into groups and began to think about music videos. We also watched Rec to gain a better perspective on postmodernism.


We analysed song lyrics and began to pick and choose an artist, to incorporate into the music video. We also advanced ahead and began to plan individual scenes roughly, to match the lyrics of songs. We finally found a song Halsey – Hold me down.

Next week our aim is to plan dates, analyse some music videos using Lacey’s repertoire of elements to fully analyse each element of video.We also plan to watch more of Rec and write notes on how it is postmodern


We analysed the Girls Aloud video, Call The Shots and a Radiohead video. We then began to apply Lacey’s repertoire of elements to our own video plans, discussing how we would incorporate each element and how we were going to present it. This week we began learning about media theorists such as Baudrillard , to refresh our memory from last year.

Next week we are going to go out into our location to do some test shots to really get an idea of how our video is going to look and also to get inspiration for our video by exploring our chosen location (undecided)


Last week we began to really plan where we were going to film our video, choosing specific locations to film in and take pictures to help create a mood board. And to finally decide our locations of filming in Manchester. Then in our spare time from college we went into Manchester to take test shots and test videos. We also continued to look at postmodernism and began analysing different texts and different types of media. Such as the Lucy Pinder Lynx adverts.

Next week we plan to use a programme called adobe premier to manipulate videos and test shots we take in Manchester.


This week with our footage and test shots, we opened Adobe Premier and were taught how to use the software to edit and manipulate shots we completed. We added filters, onto the videos and got an understanding of how to use premier.

Next week we are going to attempt to contact Halsey’s manager to ask for permission to use her song and her name on our video, to upload to youtube and our blogs.


We have attempted to contact Halsey’s manager, via email, to ask for permission to her song and her name. In this we hope to gain access to her name as we want the video to be authentic.

Next week we are going to do a digipack analysis to gain inspiration for our ancillary task of creating our own digipack for Halsey.



This week we have completed and handed in our digipack analysis’ which allows us to gain inspiration for our own digipacks, which we have to create as a part of our coursework, individually. This allowed us to fully understand the layout of digipacks in terms of design and image. This week we watched Lady Gaga’s Applause video to reiterate the idea of postmodernism .

Next week we plan to do more idea brain storming for our music video, and then create an essay on what our ideas are.


This week we began to mind map different and new ideas for the music video, we created a finality to the planning process of what type of video our music video would be as we decided on a narrative enigma video, with snippets of conceptuality and snippets of narrative, to complete telling the story that matches the song. We also began looking at theorists for audience theory where we took notes and applied them.

Next week our plan as a class is to begin analysing advertisements for music (tours, albums and singles) found in music magazines and on billboards. Hopefully giving us an overview so we can produce our own, in form of our ancillary.


We began to analyse adverts this week for popular bands and artists of different genres, and we began to create our own ancillaries of a magazine advert for our artist Hasley, we each created our own individual one as a part of our coursework. This week we also watched Lovefield a short film to learn about reception theory and audience theory as the unexpected ending relates to that.

Next week we are going to begin planning locations and length of the actual shots for the music video.

Mon W/B26/10/15(Detailed Weekly Summary)

This week we began to shoot more shots in final practice for our official shots which we plan to complete in the next 3 weeks. We chose the length of the shots, as we have decided this week to do small snippets of conceptual images and videos.

Next week we plan to continue storyboarding specific shots to choose the order. We also plan to learn narrative theory


This week we futher storyboarded our ideas coming up with ideas of specific shots and angles we would like to use in the actual video, we also planned how long each shot would take us to film. This week we learnt about narrative theory and went over representation theory and audience theory.

Next week we plan to continue on in shooting our conceptual elements to our video, such as the lighting of a match or lighter, the application of red lipstick and the burning of a candle. We also plan to look over Genre theory.


This week we shot the conceptual elements to the video, using matches and application red lipstick, which we chose as red denotes love and danger which links to the video.

Next week we hope to have the conceptual elements mostly completed.


We also looked at genre theory this week and looked at our own videos for links to genre theory.

Mon W/B 23/11/15(Detailed Week Summary)

We completed filming some small shots of conceptual ideas, such as applying lipstick, lighting matches, and setting alight pieces of paper with words related to our video, such as ‘freedom’ ‘relax’.

Next week we hope to get again more filming completed as only the beginning is done.


This week we planned another day of filming, in a park where Abbey and Megan filmed the protagonist (abbey) playing in the snow, with dark eye make up on to represent dark themes in the video.

Next week we began working on our ancillary 1 the advert, but we all need to collect more pictures for our ideas.


XMAS BREAK – mock weeks the week before


We began taking more images for our ancillary one and two tasks especially aimed towards the digipak, we ventured out into the three sisters park near college and took some shots of nature to match the clip of Abbey in the park.

Next week we plan to begin placing our filmed shots into premier and editing them down together


We began editing some of the recent shots of our video and attempting to plan out the narrative a little further

Next week we plan to film some more conceptual elements to the video, we want to complete all of the video as soon as possible, we are aiming to have the video completely edited by March.


We filmed yet more conceptual elements, this time including small footage for our blogs, as a practice shot/test shots.

Next week we plan to upload images to our ancillaries and edit them slightly as most of our ancillaries are in black and white. Or have a bokeh effect


This week we applied our desired effects to our ancillaries (black and white) and our bokeh shots.

We plan to continue editing the footage we have and applying filters to manage the ancillaries alongside the video.

Mon W/B /01/02/16(Detailed Weekly Summary)

We continued to edit the footage as we planned to, we have decided to have the shots from the bath in black and white and the surrounding elements in colour including bokeh effect and close ups in both.

Next week we plan to take some more pictures for our ancillary tasks. We also related our music videos back to theories such as genre, narrative and representation theories.


This week we continued editing our footage creating a solid As we didn’t get a chance to take enough pictures for


concrete beginning of the video and ending to the video. We completed more filming and have decided to take more images next week

our ancillaries, we have decided to do it next week


We managed to take some images this week aimed at our ancillary tasks, we also decided to plan our ancillaries out some more. We also did tasks related to section 1A of the exam, learning how to structure and answer the question.

Next week we plan to film a small amount more for our video including bath scenes and walking shots


We completed filming some shots in the bath again, with candles actually lit in the bath surrounding the subject showing calmness and cleansing of the bad things she ‘did’ in our main footage of her in Manchester

Next week the plan is to work on our ancillary tasks, creating a plan for each ancillary and editing it until it looks good.


We began working on our ancillary for the digipak, for this we used pictures we had taken in Manchester of the city buildings at night time. We also used screenshots from the video itself particular of her hair under the water in black and white.

Next week we plan to revise looking over exam technique, structure and begin to look further into how we would answer a response, particularly of section a 1B


We began to plan a response to a section 1B question, we also continued editing our music video, we now have a first draft complete and are aiming to make a second draft before the mock exams in march.

Next week we plan to write a response to question 1B, and also to finish editing our second draft of our music video

Mon W/B 07/03 /16(Detailed Weekly Summary)

We answered question 1B, this helped me understand the exam paper thoroughly. We also almost finished a second draft of our music video, creating a clear ‘middle’.

Next week we plan to have the second draft completed and we also need to film a little bit more bath footage and city footage of the subject walking around town and going into shops.


We completed the filming we needed to do, mostly bath footage as we needed to re-do some footage due to the lighting being too bright and not equal to the last time we filmed. We also plan to go into Manchester this week to film more footage around the shops and landmarks of the city in order to complete our video. We also created a Survey Monkey survey and collected 10 responses in order to analyse.

Next week we plan to upload footage and continue editing footage. We also plan to have our ancillaries complete, and market research completed – including the survey report.


Over the weekend I completed the Market Research report and Next week we plan to begin our evaluations and


finished up any other product research we had (analysis of music videos) I uploaded the report in class and finished my digipak ancillary.

complete any remaining coursework tasks.


This week we started editing the first/second draft of our ancillaries, and experimenting with images for the digipack and adverts, as we weren’t fully happy with the images we used.

Next week we plan to continue editing our ancillaries, however aiming to fill gaps which remain within the music video final product


HAL F TERM


Half term -


This week we finished our music video first edit, and uploaded it to youtube as a draft so people could comment upon it for our evaluation question 3 and to update our survey.

Next week we need to film short clips to include in the final edit of the video, as some shots need re-doing.


This week we filmed more shots for the music video which we plan to fill gaps with.

Next week the shots we filmed for the music video will be uploaded and placed into premiere correctly


This week we filled the final gaps to our final product, and uploaded the video to Youtube and completed our evaluations to upload everything onto our blogs.PROGRESS UPDATE PLAN FOR NEXT MONTH / WEEK (Including Possible

Contingency Plans If Problems Anticipated)

advanced portfolio production diary 2015 2016

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