Coursework Progress Diary.

AS Media Studies Coursework Progress Diary.

15/09/10

At this point, Alex and me can’t even decide on a band we want to make a music video for, let alone a song. We’ve been throwing around the idea of maybe doing a song by Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Avenged Sevenfold or Theory of a Dead man. To be honest, were spoilt for choice, but I like the idea of doing Limp Bizkit, then again, they are one of my favourite bands, so maybe I’m a bit bias.

18/09/10

We’ve decided on either Limp Bizkit or Papa Roach, right that’s the choice of bands narrowed down, now its just the matter of choosing what song we would want to do for both bands. At the minute for Papa Roach we might do either ‘Kick In The Teeth’ or ‘Hollywood Whore’ and for Limp Bizkit we might do either ‘Break Stuff’ or ‘Eat You Alive’.

20/09/10

We’ve FINALLY decided on a song; ‘Break Stuff’ by Limp Bizkit. Since Alex isn’t actually in my media class, I’ve got to do all of the research tasks, analysis etc. by myself. I suppose getting group members from outside the entire media course wasn’t such a bright idea. Oh well, either way we’ve been discussing the narrative and performance segments of the music video, for the performance we’ve decided that I’ll be playing the part of vocalist, and Alex will play the part of lead guitarist. For the performance part of it, we were thinking about recording on site at college in The Hack (Music Department) so I’ll have to see if we can book some space in there for recording.

22/09/10

We’ve enlisted a new member for the music video; Tom’s going to be playing bass in the performance segment, and since he does a music course in The Hack, he’s going to book us a room for recording when were done planning. We were thinking about the narrative part of the video, and thought we might go along the lines of an implosive anger theme; meaning that the main character of the narrative is repeatedly harmed, put down etc. until he explodes with rage. This resulting explosion of rage fits perfectly with the final chorus of the song, which is similarly as explosive. After I’ve finished the other research tasks, I’ll start on a draft storyboard.

08/10/10

By now, the research tasks are just about finished. We’ve got some solid ideas for the music video laid down, but now we just need to start storyboarding. I need to get around to taking digital images of the film locations; but we still need to decide one for the narrative segment of the video. I also need to start putting together some ideas for my digipak.

15/10/10

I've finally got my final idea for the music video (Performance and Narrative segments aswell as what camera shots I will use and how I will edit the footage) posted up ont he blog. The research tasks are nearly finished, but I just need to concentrate on storyboarding and getting rough ideas for the digipak down.

22/10/10

I've started the storyboard, but it has a long way to go before it fully articulates what I want my video to be. I've also started some research on Limp Bizkit; Target audience etc. and I've started analyzing their CD covers as to identify some kind of conventions between them that I can apply to my Digi-Pak cover.

5/11/10

After identifying the conventions between Limp Bizkits CD covers, I've come up with an idea for my digi-pak that will include most of the conventions. As my digi-pak will be 6 panels, the front panel will be a front profile mug shot of a character with a pixelated face, holding an information panel that has the bands name and CD title on it. The next panel that is seen after the first one is turned is a side profile version of the previous panel. I now need to work out what I will use the other panels for.

16/11/10

I've now drawn up a sketch draft of what I plan for the digi-pak to be and what it's panels will have on them, you can see what I've planned in the 'Digi-Pak Idea' blogpost. Filming for the performance segment seems to finally be organised; with the enlistings of 2 cameramen and a time slot where all the cast members are available for filming. The one problem is the college music department, who dont seem to like the idea of a media student using up one of their music rooms. I now need to hunt down the teacher that will be teaching on monday afternoon and see if she has a music room spare that I can use for recording and since apparently media students can't be trusted, I'll need a member of staff from the Media Department to come and supervise us whilst we film. I finally get my filming organised and the media department HAVE to go and make it harder for me.

19/11/10

There's no room free for monday afternoon. Time to improvise, I'll use monday afternoon to film the narrative segment of the music video instead, just need to find 2 more people to fill the cast. If I can, I'd like to take some photos on monday afternoon aswell, maybe get the magazine advert photo taken and maybe get the band photo for the digi-pak taken.

23/11/10

After letting me down repeatedly, I've decided to cut Alex from the project and replace him with Mark. I was unable to film on monday afternoon due to Alex not telling his teacher in advance that he'd be out of lesson, but since he didnt he wasnt allowed to. Then when I organised to use a room in The Hack, Alex said that he couldnt be bothered to wait around until after college to do it, so I decided to replace him with someone more flexible and eager to participate. So now I've had to re-arrange the cast and their roles, plus I need someone new to fill in Marks original role, but I've gotta say, it's a whole lot easier working with someone who's cooperative and actually enjoys taking part in my project. But yeah, a rooms been booked for Tuesday after college 4:00-4:30, Mark and Tom have got their guitars, Marks got everything for his costume, the equipments booked out, so the performance segment should be filmed and finished by 4:30. Maybe if we have time, I can get some of the pictures I need taken today aswell, such as the band pose picture and maybe even the magazine advert picture. It's FINALLY coming together.

3/12/10

A whole lots happened since the last update; we filmed the performance segment and I've just finished editing the footage. My plan is to use the edited performance footage as a base for the music video, and to add clips of the yet to be taken narrative segment footage over it, this will save me having to re-synch the footage to the music. I've also got the photo's for the magazine advert taken, all I've got to do now is edit it accordingly. The last few things on my to do list are to film the narrative segment and finish editing the whole music video, finish editing the magazine advert, take the photo's for the digi-pak and then finally get the digi-pak fully produced. Havent got alot of time before the deadline though.

8/12/10

Since the last update I've made a rather radical change to the music video. I've decided to not have any narrative in my music video and to have it solely made up of the performance footage. You can find my reasons for this decision in a more recent blog entry, but basically I decided to keep the music video to just performance footage as to have my video in the style of Limp Bizkits other music video 'The Truth', I also feel that by doing this I'd be following alot more conventions of Limp bizkits music videos. This change means that the panels of the narrative segment in my storyboard and no longer valid and the cast list needs to be edited. All the photos have beent aken now and just need to be edited.

13/12/10

Music video finished and all print products are finished. :)