Progress Tracker Term 1

We have reached the time when I have to enter information onto your Progress Trackers.

Please look at your Progress Tracker (an image of this is below) and use this to let me know the grade you think you should receive for each of the criteria.

• Quality of Work In Lessons
• Organisation
• Quality Of Work Outside Lessons
• Attitude To Learning

I would also like you to use the criteria on the Progress Tracker to help you explain why you think this is the grade that should be awarded.

This should be completed in a comment below this post.

Planning : Storyboard And Animatic

Once you have committed an idea for your music video to paper in the form of your treatment, you need to move on to the process of storyboarding.

We know that the exam board are very keen for evidence of this stage of planing to be provided in a more complex and detailed way than for your AS production work. This means that you will need to dedicate quite a considerable amount of time to it.

The storyboarding process is vital as it shows your journey towards the creation of a finished product. There are, however, no set rules regarding how your finished storyboard should look and we will not be using a template like we did last year.

Here is a guide to how to go about storyboarding a music video provided by Independent Music Advice.If you are not artistic enough to draw your storyboard you could consider taking photographs or, perhaps, using one of the web based storyboarding tools such as Storyboard That.

Animatics - Yes Please!

I would like all of you to be able to produce an animatic as the end product of the storyboarding process.

Here is an explanation of what an animatic is taken from Robert Safir's book titled 'Make Your Music Video and Put It Online'.

Here is an explanation of what an animatic is taken from Robert Safir's book titled 'Make Your Music Video and Put It Online'.

Here is the animatic and completed music video for Gorillaz and their song 'Dirty Harry'.

Planning : Treatment For My Music Video

Remember that the main purpose of the music video you will be directing is to act as a promotional tool for the artist you have chosen. 

Your pitch sells your idea, but you now need to start thinking like a director and develop your idea more fully through a treatment.

Here is the process I would like you to follow and evidence on your blog.

Create a post titled 'Planning : Treatment For My Music Video"

INTRODUCE YOUR TREATMENT

Artist's Name & Track Title

Director's Name (you)

A summary of your idea - this can be the 60 second pitch you used previously.

EXPLAIN YOUR IDEA 

Write out exactly how you envisage the finished music video looking. This must be more detailed than the pitch which is the general idea in a nutshell.

Whilst explaining your treatment you could reference other video work, of course showing these examples is key. Attaching links to videos works well OR you could embed them into the post. 

If an element of the video requires technical aspects try and explain these moments, how you will achieve them. This will give the examiner an idea of how you are going to achieve these parts of the video. 

Fill this part of the post with screenshots of what you want the video to you look like; everyone takes ideas from other videos so this is okay. Find anything you like that is relevant:

- A certain camera angle
- The colour scheme you are looking for
- Make up images
- Costume designs you want to include
- The look and feel of the character in the video (if there is one)

The list of references could be endless, but make sure they are relevant.

After someone has read this part of the treatment, they should have a much clearer understanding of what you hope to create.

You can CLICK HERE to read the music video treatment prepared by director/producer Jonathan Scott Chinn for the song 'Idea Maker' by Ladycop.

I like the concept of this video as it is one-take. I also like the fact that everything is filmed in a single location and urge you to consider the possibilities of this for your own video.

CLICK HERE to see the same director's treatment for Michael Todd's song 'Too Much Of Me'. This is a different genre to Ladycop so you can se how the director approaches videos to compliment the artist's style.

Advanced Portfolio Planning Tasks

You will be given a document outlining all of the planning tasks which need to be undertaken before you begin the construction phase of your coursework.

There are lots of tasks that need to be completed in order for your productions to be successful.

You will need to complete these tasks individually using lesson time, your study periods and homework.

All of these tasks need to be completed by the start of Term 3 (January 2018)

This may seem like a long time but you will have to plan your time effectively in order to complete all tasks to the required standard.

Whilst you will be able to work on these tasks in lesson time, we will also be using lesson time to complete other activities related to the successful construction of your productions.

This will include:

• Editing to the beat
• Lip Syncing 
• Photography Basics
• Adobe Photoshop Basics
• Creating a CDD / MMA from a template in Adobe Photoshop

Here are screenshots of the planning sheets you have copies of for reference: