Planning : Casting / Locations / Costume / Props / Camera Equipment / Lighting / Shot List / Filming Schedule

Once you have completed the work set out below, you need to manage your own time in order to complete all of the following by the start of Term 3.

Each stage below is part of your planning evidence and must be detailed in a separate post.


Planning : Casting

This post should clearly evidence the casting of performers for your music video.

You should include video evidence of actors 'performing' so that a clear sense of their suitability can be seen.

Evidence of Level 4 planning for this aspect can be found by CLICKING HERE and HERE

Planning : Filming Locations

This post should clearly evidence the choice of locations for your music video.

You should include still image and video footage of the locations you consider. 

Evidence of Level 2 planning for this aspect can be found by CLICKING HERE - why do you think this evidence is only Level 2? What could you do to ensure that it moves beyond BASIC and into GOOD (level 3) or EXCELLENT (Level 4)?

Planning : Costume 

This post should clearly evidence the consideration of costume worn by the performers in your music video.

You should include a clear explanation of how your costume choices reflect the artist's style and the genre of music into which the song falls.

Evidence of Level 4 planning for this aspect can be found by CLICKING HERE

Planning : Props 

This post should clearly evidence the consideration of how props will be used in your music video.

Evidence of Level 4 planning for this aspect can be found by CLICKING HERE

Planning : Camera Equipment

This post should clearly evidence the planning of camera equipment for your music video.

We have a range of cameras available. You need to record test footage with these which shows that you have practised using the camera equipment before it comes to the actual filming for your music video.

You need to include photos of the equipment and of you using it.

Evidence of Level 4 planning for this aspect can be found by CLICKING HERE.

Planning : Lighting 

This post should clearly evidence the consideration of lighting for your music video.

You should show thought about the need for lighting or, if there is no need, why this is the case.

Evidence of Level 4 planning for this aspect can be found by CLICKING HERE

Planning : Shot List

You must produce a shot list which clearly shows what footage will be needed during the filming stage.

You can see a completed shot list for the music video 'Selfies' produced by Evie Brudenall by CLICKING HERE

Planning : Filming Schedule

Once everything else above is completed you are in the position of being able to produce a filming schedule.

The filming schedule draws things together and can be used as a tool to ensure that you have everything you need to be able to film successfully.

Planning : Audience Feedback

Once you have created your animatic, you need to obtain some audience feedback regarding the ideas that you have BEFORE moving any further forwards.

Show your animatic to members of your identified target audience and record their feedback in some way.

This could be via a survey or through 1:1 or group conversations.

Create a post titled Planning : Audience Feedback and record details of what you did and the feedback that you received.

You should also show some sense of reflection regarding the feedback that you receive. Is it going to make you change your ideas for your music video in any way? How helpful did you find the observations made by members of your target audience?

Planning : Storyboard and Animatic

Once you have a clear idea for your music video you need to produce a storyboard for it.

Once you have completed your storyboard, take photographs of each panel and save these to your Mac.

These need to be imported into Adobe Premiere Pro, together with an MP3 of your chosen song, in order to create an animatic for your music video.

When you are editing your animatic, you MUST take screen shots of the construction process along the way. You will need these at a later point.

Once you have edited your animatic you need to export it and upload it to Youtube.

Here are some examples of A grade animatics, together with the finished music videos, created by students in previous years.

Evie Brudenall







Panashe Charamba






Create a post titled Planning : Storyboarding and Animatic in which you do the following:

1. Explain the process that you followed to produce the storyboard panels.
2. Include images of these as evidence - the more the better.
3. Explain the process of creating the animatic - use the screen shots you took along the way to act as further supporting evidence.
4. Embed your animatic via Youtube.

This post must be detailed and contain careful explanation of your workflow up to and including the creation of the final animatic.

Planning : Are You Up To date?

The screenshot below shows the tasks you should have evidence of on your blog by the estate of today's lesson EXCEPT the storyboard animatic which I will discuss with you today.



The first thing to reflect upon is "Are you up to date?"

It is Parents' Evening this Thursday and I do not want to have to upset any of your parents by telling them that you have not been completing the work you have been set!

You will be given a Coursework Checkpoint sheet to complete in today's lesson.

Planning : Initial Ideas

Once you have completed all of the previous research tasks you can start to move into the planning stage for your music video.

This doesn't mean that you won't do any more research but your focus will shift from looking at existing products to planning your own.

Create a post with the same title as this one and present your initial ideas for your music video in a format which is engaging and makes use of new technologies.

You need to show evidence of where you have drawn inspiration from (existing videos) and how your ideas reflect your target audience in some way.

You should not be presenting 'the 'idea' for your music video but rather a range of different ideas that you will be using as your starting point.

Make a note to yourself to add Promonews  and  Video Static to your list of favourite websites.

Both sites carry lots of really useful information about music videos and they are really worth following on Twitter. Take a peek around their websites to see the range of stuff they have available.

My advice would be to look at lots of these videos and, if you see something that you like or a particular technique that intrigues you, embed that video into your blog for future reference.

Research : Who Are My Target Audience?

Once you have selected your artist and album you need to research who this artist's target audience are.

Remember that you are producing a promotional package for the release of an album and knowledge of who you are marketing the product to is essential. If you don't know who your target audience are, how can you produce a promotional package that is designed to appeal to them?

The starting point for this should be developing an understanding of the genre to which your artist belongs.

CLICK HERE to read a short article from The Balance which relates the importance of music genre.

CLICK HERE to read an article from diymusician.

You need to have some research evidence of who you will be marketing your artist's album to GENERALLY before then creating a specific profile for an individual member of your target audience such as this:

When you then move forwards into planning stages you can keep asking yourself the question "Would this appeal to Sophie?"

Advanced Portfolio Workflow to 31st October

This week you have been introduced to the stages of research and planing which need to be completed by Monday 31st October.

These stages are summarised below.

Suggestions relating to how to complete each stage will be provided in following posts here on my blog.

We also discussed how the biggest barrier to your learning and achievement is probably your mindset.

One person in the group said "I feel excited about doing this because I already have some ideas and can't wait to create them' whereas someone else felt "stressed as I'm worried I might not be able to finish it."

Read through the 10 Growth Mindset statements below to help you try to change the way you approach work that you are given.

Research : Music Magazines

As your first post on your MMA page, use the images below to describe the initial conversations we had about music magazines.

Which music magazine do you think your artist's album would be most likely to be advertised in and why?

Research : CD Digipacks Existing Products

We have looked at some classic album covers and have also considered what a CD Digipack is.

You now need to move on to completing an analysis of existing 4 panel CD digipacks in order to show awareness of the expected conventions and the ways that codes are 'decoded' by an audience.

This will help you when it comes to planning your own CD digipack for your chosen album.

Take a targeted screenshot of each of the 4 panels of the CD Digipack posted below

Once you have done this, copy each panel at a time and paste these into Powerpoint. You can then add annotations around the image in which you analyse:

• the way in which the conventions of album artwork have been used / developed / challenged 
• the messages that are communicated by the codes such as image, font, positioning, colour, etc.

On completion of this close analysis, take another targeted screenshot of each panel and your annotations and post these to the CD Digipack page of your blog with the same title as this post. 

This MUST be accompanied by a description of the task and an explanation or analysis of HOW completing this task may help you to produce a more realistic media product yourself.

Repeat the task for the following number of CDs by artist(s) from the same genre as your chosen artist.

• Minimal : 1 other CD
• Basic : 2 other CDs
• Good : 3 other CDs
• Excellent : 4 other CDs

J P Harris and the Tough Choices "I'll keep Calling"

The Red Show : Hard To Shake It, Hard To Love It

Means Nothing : Just Listen

We have looked at some classic album covers and have also considered what a CD Digipack is.

You now need to move on to completing an analysis of existing 4 panel CD digipacks in order to show awareness of the expected conventions and the ways that codes are 'decoded' by an audience.

This will help you when it comes to planning your own CD digipack for your chosen album.

Take a targeted screenshot of each of the 4 panels of the CD Digipack posted below

Once you have done this, copy each panel at a time and paste these into Powerpoint. You can then add annotations around the image in which you analyse:

• the way in which the conventions of album artwork have been used / developed / challenged 
• the messages that are communicated by the codes such as image, font, positioning, colour, etc.

On completion of this close analysis, take another targeted screenshot of each panel and your annotations and post these to the CD Digipack page of your blog with the same title as this post. 

This MUST be accompanied by a description of the task and an explanation or analysis of HOW completing this task may help you to produce a more realistic media product yourself.

Repeat the task for the following number of CDs by artist(s) from the same genre as your chosen artist.

• Minimal : 1 other CD
• Basic : 2 other CDs
• Good : 3 other CDs
• Excellent : 4 other CDs

J P Harris and the Tough Choices "I'll keep Calling"

The Red Show : Hard To Shake It, Hard To Love It

Means Nothing : Just Listen

Research : The History Of The Album Cover

Your first research evidence on your CDD page should be evidence of some research you have undertaken into the history of the album cover.

• Create a Sub-Heading with the same title as this one
• Read through the following information - we will watch the video that is linked at the end in class.
• Copy and paste the text below but add in at least one image after each paragraph which relates to that paragraph. For example, you could insert an image of an early brown paper sleeve after the first paragraph.
• Make sure that you add the link tot he video - do not try to embed it as it is restricted.

The first disc records, ones that we would recognize as such, appeared around 1910. Most often these were packaged in plain brown Paper or cardboard sleeves. Occasionally and enterprising retailer would print his store name on the sleeve but generally they were unadorned.

In the early 1920's retailers started gathering many of these cardboard sleeves and binding them together with heavy paperboard or leather covers. These looked similar to large photo albums and, borrowing the name, were sold as record albums. These albums offered much greater protection for the discs than the original packaging and were seen as indispensible to disc owners that had seen too many of their fragile records broken.

Beginning in the 1930s the record companies started using these record albums to distribute bundles of records from one performer or a collection of performers with similar musical styles. Some of the first cover designs can be traced to these albums and the record company’s desire to graphically communicate the music each album held.

Alex Steinweiss the art director for Columbia Records is given credit for the concept of modern cover art. He experimented with different concepts and images through the late 1930s and into the early 1940s. During this time Columbia Records rebounded from the terrible years they had suffered during the depression to become one of the most prominent record companies in the United States. Much of this was due to their ground breaking use of graphical design. By the close of the decade all major recording companies had graphic design professionals on staff.

The golden era of cover art design began in the early to mid 1960s and lasted into the early 1980s. During this time the major format for music was the 12 inch, long play disc or LP. Cover art became a part of the musical culture of the time. Often used to express graphically the musician’s artistic intent, it helped connect and communicate to listeners the message or underlying theme of the album.

Designers, photographers, and illustrators sometimes became famous for their cover art creations. Such notables as Andy Warhol and Frank Frazetta were taken from being known in their industry to becoming household names due to their cover art graphic design work. So respected and desired are the designs and illustrations found in cover art that there are numerous art galleries that specialize in helping collectors find rare album covers.

As the medium for recording transitioned from the LP to the compact disc many graphic designers failed to transition with it. Having worked for so long with the much larger canvas of the LP cover, switching to the smaller CD case left most designers dissatisfied with their results. Often artist and record companies simply tried to shrink the LP size art to fit the CD.

Album cover art, now almost exclusively CD and CD packaging artwork, went through a period of change and rebirth in the 1990s. Designers learned to capture snapshots and portions of the artist’s musical intent rather than trying to convey the entire message. Also designers started conveying the emotion of the music rather than the musical intent.

In the late 90s computer design programs started to overcome the physical limitations of the smaller CD packaging. With the ability to draw much tighter, finer lines and have even small details look crisp and sharp, once again designers were free to explore a larger variety of design options. As the technology continued to improve graphic designers adapted and were once again producing world class artwork.

In the present, CD design is undergoing a true renaissance. Rather than becoming obsolete in the digital age as many thought it would, graphic design is once again proving itself as the difference maker. The internet is now the largest record store imaginable. Now rather than browsing a few hundred albums or songs at a time you may be exposed to thousands and thousands. Since it would be impossible to listen to portions of all those thousands of songs the design of the accompanying artwork must cause potential listeners to stop and take notice and give this album a try.  

CLICK HERE to watch a video which provides an interesting take on the implications of album artwork in relation to marketing.

Research : Detailed Research Into Chosen Artist : Name Of Artist

Once you have chosen the artist and album that you wish to proceed with, the next step is to undertake detailed research into your chosen artist.

You need to make a post titled;

Research : Detailed Research Into Chosen Artist : Name of Artist

in which you provide, unsurprisingly, evidence of detailed research into your chosen artist. 

This should not be copied and pasted from Wikipedia but, rather, show that you have researched from lots of different sources.

The post should include 

• information about the artist's background
• information about the artist's career to date 
• the artist's discography (what they have released and when - use this website to help you)
• links to their website, Youtube channel, Twitter feed, Soundcloud feed, etc. 
• embedded videos of the artist's music promo videos
• evidence of any interviews that have been conducted with the artist.

You need to make this evidence as 'media rich' as possible so include lots of images, video and sound. This is important if you are to score highly.

Present your research as a normal blog post which contains a mixture of text, images, sound and video.

Research : 3 Potential Artists and Albums

I need you to create a presentation for 3 potential album choices.

The rules for the presentation are as follows:

• It must be 1 presentation that covers all 3 potential album choices.
• It must be created using an online presentation tool such as Emaze or Prezi.
• It must be embedded in your blog with the post title Research : 3 Potential Artists and Albums

For each potential album choice you need to include, in this order:

• The name of the artist
• A brief biography of the artist (including the genre of music they are most associated with)
• The title of the album
• The record label for the album
• The release date of the album
• The track list for the album 
• An explanation of why you think this album / artist is a good potential choice for your coursework

Please have this available on your blog for Tuesday 13th September.