This document provides monthly progress updates from a student on their A2 Media Studies advanced portfolio project from September 2013 to April 2014. It summarizes the student's completed and planned tasks, including researching existing music products, creating their own ancillary projects, filming and editing a music video with their group, and conducting audience research and evaluation. The student outlines plans for the next period and potential issues to address to ensure timely completion of their coursework.

1. A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
PROGRESS UPDATE PLAN FOR NEXT MONTH / WEEK (Including Possible
Contingency Plans If Problems Anticipated)
September 2013
(Detailed Monthly Summary)
This month I started to research for my ancillary 1 project. For my
research I gathered the front cover, back cover and CD of 3
different artists of different genres. The artists I chose were Adele
(Soul/Pop), One Direction (Pop) and The Killers (Indie Rock). I
analysed each piece from the album of each artist, and put it all
together on a word document. After analysing these products, it
gave me a better idea when it came to creating my own digipak for
my artist. I produced first drafts of a digipak using Photoshop and
placed them on my blog.
Next month I am going to start the research and
construction for my ancillary 2 project which is to
produce an album advertisement poster. I am going to
gather the posters I want to analyse (preferably from
different genres) and analyse them. After that, I will use
my knowledge that I have gathered from my research
and produce my own poster.
October 2013
(Detailed Monthly Summary)
This month I started research for my ancillary 2 project. I gathered
3 music ad posters from real magazines and scanned them onto
my PC. The posters I used were from the artists Jessie J (Pop), Plan
B (Rap) and Kings of Leon (Indie Rock). I looked carefully at the
posters and started to analyse them on paper before typing it up
onto a word document. After doing this, I gained some knowledge
that I could use when it came to producing my own music poster.
Using Photoshop, I produced a first draft of my music poster and
put it onto my blog.
Next month I am going to start research for my main
piece, the music video. I am going to choose 3 music
videos (Again, preferably from different genres) and
analyse them. I will be doing this to learn more about
the conventions of music videos and how different
genres produce different music videos that are
conventional for their genre.
November 2013
(Detailed Monthly Summary)
This month I started to research for my main piece. I chose 3 music
videos ‘The Calling – Wherever you Will Go’ (Indie Rock), ‘Eminem
– When I’m Gone’ (Rap) and ‘Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me’
(Pop). I analysed the music videos using Nick Lacey’s Repertoire of
Elements as a guide – analysing characters, narrative events,
iconography, setting and technical and audio codes. I presented
this research using ‘Prezi’.
Next month my group and I are going to start planning
our main piece. We are going to discuss our ideas and
place them all on a mind map then as a group decide
what we are going to do as our final idea. Once we’ve
decided, we are going to put together a report stating
what idea we chose and why. Once we have done this,
we are going to start scripting our music video.
December 2013
(Detailed Monthly Summary)
This month my group and I started to plan our main piece. We put
together an ideas generation mind map containing all our ideas
and putting them together in one mind map to help us choose a
final idea. After this, we put together a written summary of our
mind map, stating which ideas we chose and why we chose them.
Next week we are going to produce our storyboard. We
are going to use our finished script to do this. As a
group, we are going to fill in the scene numbers and
descriptions and illustrate what we think our music
video will look like.

2. A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
Next, we started to produce the script for our music video. We
wrote out the lyrics on the template provided matching them with
the times. We wrote out an estimate timing of our shots and
content that we wanted to include in the music video.
Mon W/B 06/01/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
This week we started to produce our storyboard. We filled in the
written parts of the story board, filling in the scene numbers and
descriptions. Then, we illustrated the scenes and shots. Once we
finished this, we scanned the storyboards onto the PC and
uploaded them to our blogs.
Next week we are going to do some market research.
We are going to use a website to produce a
questionnaire that will be asking things that our
relevant to our music video.
Mon W/B 13/01/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
This week we did our market research. We used
www.surveymonkey.com to produce a questionnaire asking
questions such as what time of music videos interest you most. We
all sent the questionnaire to friends and family via e-mail and
asked them to fill out the questionnaire.
Once we have enough responses for our questionnaire,
we are going to analyse our results and explain why
they are relevant to our coursework and what we are
doing.
Mon W/B 20/01/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
When we got enough responses from our questionnaire, we
gathered our results and looked at the graphs that the website
automatically produced. We copied and pasted the graphs onto a
word document and analysed our results, saying why the results
are relevant to our coursework and how we are going to use them.
Next week I am going to catch up with any outstanding
coursework tasks that can be done before I start filming.
I want to make sure that all completed tasks are
uploaded onto my blog so it isn’t something I have to
worry about later on in the year.
Mon W/B 27/01/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
This week went over my checklist of work that needed to be
completed and uploaded onto my blog. Any pieces that I hadn’t
completed I went back too and finished, such as finishing off my
product research and making sure it was presented clearly. I then
uploaded any outstanding work onto my blog meaning I didn’t
have to worry about them later on in the year.
Next week my group and I are going to double check our
scripts and storyboards as filming starts in a couple of
weeks.
Mon W/B 03/02/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
This week my group and I checked storyboards and scripts, making
sure they were complete and on our blogs without any problems.
We also checked for any outstanding coursework.
Next week my group and I are going to start preparing
for filming. No one in the group has had much
experience of using video cameras so we are going to
make sure we are instructed and know what we are
doing.
Mon W/B 10/02/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
This week my group and I started to prepare for filming, we made
one last check over our scripts and storyboards and made it so we
Next week we are going to start filming! The group and I
are going to get together with our characters and go to

3. A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
all had a copy. We spent a lesson being taught how to use the
video cameras that we will be equipped with, learning the basic
features of the camera. We then went around the college and
produced some test footage so we could get used to the camera
and its features. We were also shown how to briefly use Premiere
Pro, using our test footage to practice on the programme so when
we had the real footage, we knew what to do.
the relevant location to start filming.
Mon W/B 24/02/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
This week we have started to film our music video. We all got
together and took the camera to the relevant location. As it was
one of the first times using the camera, it took us a while to get
used to the camera so we didn’t get as much filming done as we’d
of liked but we did make a start.
Next week we are going to set up our project on
Premiere Pro and upload our clips. We are going to
watch through our clips and rename them so when it
comes to producing the final edit, we will know what’s
what.
Mon W/B 03/03/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
From starting to film last week, we came to a decision that
producing a narrative video would be too difficult and time
consuming. Instead, we have taken the performance elements
from our script and storyboard and use them instead to make our
video a performance video. We have uploaded our first lot of clips
onto the computer and set up our project.
Next week we are going to book the camera out again
and film some more video clips as changing our idea
means we need more performance clips for our video.
Mon W/B 10/03/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
After realizing that we didn’t have enough clips, this week we took
the camera out again and filmed some more clips for our music
video. We took the camera back to the location and told our
characters to dress exactly the same as they did the first time so it
looked like the clips were filmed on the same day. However, the
weather was slightly different on our days of filming, the first time
it was wet and dull and the second time it was fairly bright and dry.
Next week we are going to upload our new clips onto
the PC from the camera and watch through them. We
are then going to add them to our project and start
editing!
Mon W/B 17/03/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
This week we uploaded our new clips onto the PC from the
camera. We watched through the clips and renamed them, again
to make it easier to know what’s what. We then uploaded the clips
to our project and began our edit. We added the audio ‘Mr
Brightside’ to the project and started to sync the clips with the
music.
Next week we are going to continue with our edit, we
are hoping to get our edit done by the end of the week.
Mon W/B 24/03/14 This week we have continued with our edit. We have all done an Next week we are going to make finishing touches to

4. A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
(Detailed Weekly Summary) equal amount of editing between us in the group and developed
our skills and learnt from each other. We have also been shown a
brief preview of what part of our video would look like with After
Effects applied to it. This has made us look forward to getting the
edit finished and being able to start to look at things such as After
Effects.
our edits and then proceed with our Ancillary 1 and 2
projects which are the CD digipak and the album
advertisement.
Mon W/B 31/03/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
This week we have made the finishing touches to our music. When
watching it over, we discovered that our audio file was broken so
had to replace it with another. We have also briefly started with
our Ancillary projects. However, because we have had mock exams
this week, we haven’t got as much done as we’d of liked. We have
tried our best to prepare for the Easter holidays so we can start
our evaluations while we are off.
In the Easter holidays I am going to start my evaluation
and make finishing touches to my ancillary projects. I
need to complete my digipak and album advertisement
and once that is done I can start to write the answers to
my evaluation.
Mon W/B 21/04/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
In the Easter holidays, I have finished my ancillary projects. I used
Photoshop to do this and used images that we had taken using the
camera when we were filming. I have also taken some screen grabs
from the music video itself to put on the pages of my digipak. I
have made a start on my evaluation, answering questions 1, 2 and
4 whilst I’ve been off and out of college. This week my group and I
created a Facebook group and uploaded our video onto it, adding
friends and asking them to watch and comment on the music
video. This is for question 3 of the evaluation. I have also tried to
perfect my other answers to the best of my ability and transfer
them onto programmes such as Prezi and Microsoft PowerPoint as
ways to present them.
Next week once we have got our audience feedback, my
group and I are going to answer question 3 of the
evaluation together and put together a short video with
our response to the question.
Mon W/B 28/04/14
(Detailed Weekly Summary)
This week we looked through our feedback from the Facebook
focus group and analysed them together as a group. We then
answered the question and used a camera from college and filmed
a short video together as a response for question 3. We then
uploaded the clips onto the PC and quickly edited them into a
short video. Also, this week I have been looking back to my
checklist and been making sure everything is completed.
Next week I am going to again make sure all of my
coursework pieces are complete and uploaded onto my
blog as the deadline is getting closer. We are also going
to try to make any suggested improvements that were
stated in our focus group.

5. A2 Media Studies
Advanced Portfolio
Production Diary
PROGRESS UPDATE PLAN FOR NEXT MONTH / WEEK (Including Possible
Contingency Plans)