Reflections on Research and Planning Self Assessment

I have looked through your self-assessments of your blog evidence to date and have replied to your post with my own thoughts, some advice and a task for you to complete as a reply to my comment.

This only applies, however, to those of you who have posted your self-assessment!

Jake was absent on Friday morning and, therefore, the absence of this is more understandable.

Lewis and Stephen, however, were present and I expect this to be posted to your blog at the earliest possible opportunity.

I think that the strongest blog at present belongs to Jake and, therefore, I am going to make him Top Blogger.

There are several of you whose blogs are not up to date and need work and effort to bring them up to the required standard. The weakest blog at present, however, belongs to Stephen and, therefore, I will be looking for evidence of a real drive for improvement in the next week.

Research and Planning Self-Assessment

I would like us to stop and review what the evidence on your blogs suggests about your progress to date in relation to your research and planning.

Here is the Level 4 criteria in relation to Research and Planning:

There are 8 bullet points that your blog evidence will be judged against.

I would like you to look through your blog and focus on the following things:

1. Research into existing music videos
2. Research into a potential target audience
3. Work on storyboarding
4. Time management
5. Use of digital technology or ICT 
6. Communication skills
7. Level of care taken in the presentation of work

Create a post in your blog with the title Research and Planning Self Assessment

In this post I would like you to reflect on the evidence of each of the above 7 things as it stands in published posts on your blog at this moment in time.

This is the evidence that is actually there.

For each bullet point:

• Copy and paste the bullet point as a sub-title
• State whether you think that the evidence that you have on your blog is Excellent, Good, Basic or Minimal 
• Provide an explanation, including specific supporting examples, to justify your self-assessment
• Explain what you think you need to do in order to improve the quality of your blog evidence both historically and from this point onwards

I will then post a comment under your post in which I explain my judgement at present and offer advice about making improvements.

Planning : Work To Be Completed

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 end of Term 2.

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.

The best way to produce this is via Microsoft Excel.

I have a master copy that you can use - this looks like this:

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.

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 : Storyboarding and Animatic

You have all completed work relating to the production of a timeline and storyboard panels for your music video.

You should also have taken photographs of each panel from your storyboard.

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 animatics, together with the finished music videos, created by students last year:

Evie Brudenall







Panashe Charamba






Rebecca Brown







The next task is to create a post titled Planning : Storyboarding and Animatic in which you do the following:

1. Explain the process that you followed to produce the timeline and 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.