Millagony’s Weblog

Today myself, Steph and Ronald had a little conversation relating to ideas about the music video. Ronald had a few ideas along the lines of having it like a Guitar Hero style video piece which could be quite fun would ultimately, I feel, be a bit to simplistic and very uninspired. Another of his ideas was to use stop motion, this has been a dream of mine for many a year and I think that it would work really well providing that it had a twist on it and was visually engaging. One idea was along the lines of the film Bunny and the Bull that I saw last week just plenty of visual tricks that while it may not have worked for a full feature film, the style would translate extremely to the music video medium.

What really stood out for me was just the mixture of cardboard cut outs from scenery and the childlike aesthetic while the subject matter is of a more mature nature, and its that visual contradiction that really impresses me. Also the land rover advert that uses this kids of animation, which is just photographs with compositing

Another idea idea was to do a linear narrative of someone trying to get to a date but faces a number of obstacles on his journey (isn’t that always the way?) but this lead me to think of Pixar’s short film Knick Knack which features the perfect narrative as the character has to up the stakes to leave his snow globe to reach his goal. Here it is below

But again its a good idea and I have an thought that it could work really well within a club, like trying to find a certain someone in there and the challenges, with the band playing live in the background, that could be a quite a strong idea and could be really good to use as a narrative.

My idea was to use the concept of photographs but have videos within in them and the idea of using photo booth pictures of the band for the chorus and divide the band into a different panel and play them at different speeds much like the American Idiot music video by Green Day where it features the band all playing together on the same screen but all at different speeds.

Today we had a meeting with Josh from the Wooden Pigs a band who we’ll be working for to create a music video for them. We talked about the main points as it was our first meeting and wanted to establish what they would want to get from this and how we would go about it.

For next week as a group we’ll have come up with plenty of ideas and have a vague outline for the band to see where we’re looking to take this project. I’ll be adding my notes up a little later.

Yesterday I downloaded Adobe Story, the new scriptwriting programme from Adobe which allows the users to work online and offline letting other users see and add to your work depending on what status you have given to them. This programme is moving more into the commercial side of a things with meta tagging being one of its key attributes so you can tag websites and business into a scene, like a breakfast cereal, and the clients can see where their product is, basically its for product placement. Another useful idea is character bio’s that with a simple click you can access information about the characters making it easier for contributors to add to your script and character development. One thing that isn’t quite as useful is the writing part itself, having looked over it I imagine most people would just import their already written scripts into the Story as starting from scratch in there would be very time communsing and it lacks flow which is what you need to write. So hopefully I’ll be working on this as well as other projects for my Professional Project.

This is the Unit Handbook, also I’m finishing off my learning agreement and will post that up on here as well.

Title: Professional Project
Reference: IMD513
Level: 5
Credit points: 45
Weighting: x 3.0
Study time: 450 hours
Description
Professional Project draws together your practical and professional knowledge of digital media and provides the opportunity to plan and develop the solution to a live or simulated professional brief. The brief will reflect industry standards and the area(s) of practice in which you would like to concentrate professionally after completion of the course. The unit requires you to consider all logistical and organisational aspects
of the brief and to define your proposed solution in a Learning Agreement.
Your Professional Project is the culmination of your creative and practical work on the course. You have an opportunity to develop and produce the practical work required to the highest professional standard. This will be evidenced in the form of professional quality work, displayed in an appropriate way for employment or progression to further study. The work will also be displayed in the end-of-course exhibition. The Project thus not only draws together your creative and practical knowledge and skills, but also presents your best possible work to a public and professional audience.
Through consolidation of the learning achieved through the unit and critical reflection,mstudents will have the opportunity to analyse and evaluate all aspects of their workmand achievements from the finalm professional project unit.
Outline syllabus
(An indicative guide to the content covered by this unit.)

Managing and responding to professional briefs
Project planning and management
Costing and invoicing
Completing the Learning Agreement
Developing and producing creative and practical work identified in a learning agreement.
Documentation of the development of the major project, from initial ideas to completion, including creative and logistical problems confronted and overcome.
Critical reflection on the major project, with appraisal of learning outcomes.
Method of delivery
Tutorials; research; independent study; studio practice; presentation.
Aims
A1 To develop your creativity and your knowledge and understanding of professional practice.
A2 To develop and produce a professional standard of creative work in response to a ‘live’ or simulated brief.
A3 To prepare you for employment, freelance work or further study.
A4 To develop your understanding of costing and invoicing in preparation for business.
A5 To encourage students to see critical reflection as a key element of creative thinking and practice.
Learning outcomes
On completion of this unit you will be able to:
LO1 Demonstrate a professional standard of creativity and practical ability, including:

Work that is technically comparable to that made within a specified genre.
Work that shows an awareness of contemporary trends, styles and subject matter, within commercial contexts.
Work that shows a high degree of creativity and aesthetic judgement.
LO2 Respond appropriately to the demands of a professional/self initiated brief, including:

Appropriate creative outcomes to industry/work related briefs.
LO3 Demonstrate readiness for employment, freelance work or further study with confidence in the level of your creative, practical and professional knowledge and skills.
LO4 Demonstrate understanding of relevant costing and invoicing procedures, including :

The various costing and pricing scales and structures within relevant commercial contexts.
Timescales for payment.
Legal requirements, copyright and syndication rights.
VAT, National Insurance etc.
LO5 Reflect critically upon work and to use this as a springboard for the further development of ideas and creative practice.