Production Diary

September 19th - Today me, Jess and Pru who are together in a group discussed and decided that as our final music video, we were going to do Naive by Lily Allen, which is taken from The Kooks.

September 26th - Me, Jess and Tafi from the other group were given a sheet of shots which we had to practice and see how well we were at doing them and which ones we struggled with. Jess was our actor in these shots. We varied from all different types, for example we did, long shots, close up shots, emotional shots, establishing shots, tracking shots, panning shots, zooming in, zooming out, high angles and low angles. By doing this it helped us in learning all the different shots and what looks the most effective. When we now come to shooting our video, we wont struggle so much as we have practiced the shots before.

October 3rd - Today I started to draw out the story board while Jess did a practice lip sync. We then showed each other what we had done. By working on our own we got more done as we then shared what we had done at the end of the lesson. We also together, with our spare time captured a shot which we use three times in the video, therefore got our first piece of filming done.

October 5th - I was the only one from our group present today. At the beginning we all three as a group said that we need to make sure that if anyone is absent, progress is still made as we didn't want to run out of time and still got more work done. Therefore, i finished off the story board, and filmed it so i could edit it to put onto the computer to sync in time with the song.

October 8th - Today me Jess and Pru went to the park to do some filming. We captured some of our 'memory' scenes. We decided that we should make these scenes black and white, so the audience can clearly see that it is in the past.

October 9th - Today i continued with the story board and synced a few more scenes in time with the song. This is a very long process but am now half way there.

October 12th - Today we started to put together a collage to use as the background.

October 14th - We carried on with the background today.

October 17th - Today me and Jess worked together to finish off the storyboard ready for filming next time.

October 19th - Today I was the only one in my group present therefore i re-filmed the story board as realized that the way i had started doing it was going to take me a very long time. So the way i did it was put the song on and film it so it is in time with the song now. I also took pictures of the background and explained why the things that were on there and their reason for it.
November 1st - We had half term so we thought we would use this time wisely to get lots of filming done. Today we got together with our two friends Pia and Chris as they wanted to take part in our music video and help us. We decided that because Pia and Chris are both drama students they might look a bit more natural than me and Jess. So we decided to change the story slightly and rather than doing it about a friendship. We changed to do it about a boyfriend and girlfriends relationship. We got lots of filming done. We captured the being part of the song, and the three memories which we will use to show that they were actually once happy together.

November 5th - Today was our first lesson back and we decided that the best thing to do was put the filming aside for a few lessons and make sure our blogs are as up to date as possible. This gave me time to change a few things as the storyline as changed slightly to a few bits on my blog needed to be also changed.

November 6th - Jess wasn't in today so i had to get on with work on my own. Jess text me and said she would update her blog and make sure it is the best we can possible make it. This lesson i uploaded the filming we did during the half term and linked the song with and and synced some of it so the lip syncing was in time with the song.

November 7th - I was alone again today but thought i should use the lesson wisely to get some more filming done. I filmed Pia in front of our background we had made so we can use it as the carpet. We have done this a few times before but not since we have changed characters.

November 8th - Today i haven't been in school so have used the time to update more on my blog and complete everything which has been set up until now.

November 16th - We edited a bit more of the footage we have and cut bits which we didnt need.

November 22nd - Today we wrote out a shooting schedule. Me and Jess were going to Brighton for the weekend so we thought that filming there would be effective and would fit in well with our song.

November 24th/25th - We tried to film whilst we were in Brighton this weekend but we unfortunately couldn't. The weather was raing and windy and the fog was too thick to be able to film. We had to re think our ideas and couldn't use the beach as one of our locations.

November 27th - Today i updated more of my blog whilst Jess edited a bit more of the footage.

November 28th - We re filmed part with Pia singing on her own straight to the camera

December 2nd - Today i edited lots on my blog and updated lots more new tasks and research that i had done.

December 6th - The past two or three lessons we have focused mainly on editing the footage we have and started with looking at making the website and playing around to get to know the website a little bit more.

December 9th - We have looked at our video and all the work that we have so far and are unhappy with what we have so far, there for we have decided that changing the song is our best option.

December 12th - Today we did a sort of photo shoot. We took pictures of our artist to put on the website. We tried a few different outfits to get different shots. Some close up but also some long shots so we had a variety to choose from.

December 14th - Today we started the website. We learnt a bit more how to change things around and what the different tools did.

December 17th - Today we focused on the digipak. We also updated the Twitter and Facebook pages with posts and information to the fans of what the artist had been up to.

December 21st - Today we made a list of the things which needed to be edited and completed over the Christmas holidays as we could use the time off of school to make sure we are up to date and happy with the stage we were at.

January 5th - Today we got a lot of filming done as since we changed the song, we havent yet captured any footage and also started on some editing.

January 7th - Today was our first day back after Christmas so we checked we completed every thing on our check list we made before the holidays and then edited some of the new filming we had captured over the break. We placed it in the parts of the music video where we had gaps and moved things around to see what was best where.

January 11th - As the school has new computers we decided that exporting our work from the older computers onto the newer ones because they are a lot fasted and more updated so our video and work will be of a much better quality as it has better software.

January 14th - When transferring the video over, all the shots and cuts in the video had all been mixed into one. So we spent this lesson cutting the shots back to how they were before and putting the video back in the right places.

January 16th - Today we focused on the digipak. We did a bit more work on the website and updated it with more details. We put links to our Twitter and Facebook pages, so our fans can see what we have been up to regularly.

January 21st - Over the weekend we planned to re shot some of out shots. However due to heavy snow fall we were unable to do so as our current shots would not fit in with the snow.

January 23rd - Today we decided which picture we wanted to use as our album cover which was going to be placed on the digipak. We also did a lot of editing on the website. We compared other websites with our own and looked at what worked well and what didn't.

January 25th - Today we thought about what merchandise we can sell to promote our artist. We agreed that beauty products is something lots of female artists do and we thought this would be a good idea.

January 28th - We re shot some of the scenes today as we wanted to compare the quality and try and improve what we already had.

January 29th - Today me and Jess worked separately. To make sure we make progress we agreed that Jess was going to work on the website and i will work on the digipak. So this is what we did. Jess updated more on the website, she put the artists 'bio' on there and a bit of news to let fans know what has been happening recently. As for me, I decided on the album title and i made a list of songs which would also feature in the album. I also in my own time spent a lot of time on my blog uploading more research that i had done and updating things which i thought needed changing.

January 30th - We continued to do the same thing today, work separately and get along with our Digipak and the website as we seemed to work well doing it this way yesterday.

January 31st - Today our Media lesson was cancelled due to parents evening so me and Jess continued our work at home, and uploaded more pictures to our blog and completed more tasks. I also wrote a list of songs which would also feature in digipak and confirmed them with Jess. We are still yet to choose the ones we will finally use in our digipak.

February 4th - Today Jess continued with the blog, and i completed our front cover for our Digipak and started with the inside page.

February 5th - Today we stopped doing our coursework and started on our exam preparation.

February 6th - We spent a lesson doing more coursework, i uploaded more tasks which i had completed. These tasks were; Other album covers, Photo shoot, Other artists websites, Our album front cover and the list of our song names.

February 7th - Today i did lots of work on my blog. Uploading new pictures down the side, and editing a few of the tasks i had uploaded yesterday. I re arranged a few things into different places and under different headings to make sure i was more organized and up to date.

February 8th- We have planned our next filming session today (Wednesday 13th), as the weather over the weekend predicts that there will be snow so our oringinal plans to film more on Sunday are likely to not be able to happen. In this shoot, we want to get a few more shots done and re film anything that we would like to re do.

February 11th- We focused on the website today, found appropriate quotes and pictures. We have chosen our house style which we would like to be light grey as the background and the writing black and red throughout.

February 13th- Today we focused on the digipak. So far we have completed the front cover, back cover with the list of songs on and the first open page with a welcome note inside.
After school today we also did some filming, we did a variety of shots at different angles. Jess wore a plain full black outfit with a fur coat over the top and bright red lip stick. We filmed her in front of a plain brick wall as this is the type of look we want to get across. Quite 'different' but also quite a girly girly with a slight edge to her. We also tried to film the part with sparklers, but the sparklers wouldn't work, which i think could have been due to the coldness and wind, and we also figured it would be best to film this in the dark as it would look much more effective.

February 14th - Today in class we did exam work so we didnt have the chance to do more work in our lesson, so i thought that in a free hour i had at school it would be a good chance to work on more of the editing and uploading more of the filming that we did yesterday. I imported all the scenes we did and cut them into the different sections we needed them. I edited the colours on some of the pictures and did a few more tweets on @JessThomasMusic.

February 15th - Today we did more work on our blogs and edited a few more of the pictures.

February 18th - Now we have finished the front cover, welcome note, and back page of the digipak, we are starting on the other three pages.

February 21st - I did more work on the digipak and Jess worked more on the website.

February 25th - Today we planned for our next filming shoot. We decided on the locations, the outfits for both Jess & Josh and then ideas what what else we will do.

March 1st - Today we did more work on the blog

March 8th - This evening i worked with Josh and we did some filming of him singing the first part of his bit. But it got dark quite quickly and didnt look very affective so we stopped and waited for the next day which we had planned to do filming all three of us.

March 9th - Jess was ill today so she couldnt film with us, because of that we re scheduled to do it. We did some filming until the camera ran out so had to finish for the day.

March 13th - We edited some more and did more work on the website as we dont have long until our deadline therefor finishing touches need to be done very soon. We have made ourselves a to do list so we know where we are and can make sure we get everything done that we want to.

March 15th - We decided we need to reshoot a few seconds of footage for our music video to ensure its the best we can get it. We didnt use a tripod the first time and have realised this is a major piece of equipment that makes alot of difference.

March 19th- Today we have began our evaulation.

March 21st - Today we finished our video, we came to a point that we felt we are happy with our what we had and felt we could leave it and just go back to it to editing anything that we thought we could add that would look effective.

March 24th - We have finished our website, digipak and video, we are now focusing on our evaluation questions.

March 26th - Today we filmed our audience feedback. We got a variety of different people who we thought would be interested in our video. We made sure we got feedback from both girls and boys so we didn't have biased answers.

March 27th - We have edited our audience feedback, we added the song into the back round and put the people in the order that we felt went well.

April 5th - Over the last week or so we have done our evaluation questions, we did one questions each and then read over each others and added in things which we felt the other one had missed. We felt this was the best way to do things as we could get it done quicker and both of our ideas are better than just one of ours.

April 7th - We uploaded our music video and our audience feedback to Youtube today. This took quite a while as we had to work out how to put it on as it wasnt straight forward, we had to change the format of things and because they were quite big files they took a while to finally upload.