Evaluation of Websites

C.Dot

Good homepage, like the moving background, colour scheme fits the digipak, like the countdown at the bottom, not much content, add more links to other things, tour dates, gallery etc. needs more information, bare minimum on each page. 

5/10

ISO

colours are too dull, title looks too cartoony, shopping basket colour doesn't fit the colour scheme. the about page is too boring, not much content, like the news page, good information, all of social media linked. Merchandise is a bit limited, need more with different pictures.

5/10

Sweet nothing

Like the homepage, makes the band look really good, moving background takes the focus away from actual website, maybe change the opacity of the colour to take the attraction away, like the merchandise, good variety, like the animations used throughout the website, colour needs to match digipak more. 

Really good website though.

8/10

No individual

Colour scheme is too boring, doesn't match video, not much content on the website as a whole, not a fan of the front page, doesn't attract me to look at the website, pictures are good. 

4/10

Soraya

colour scheme matches digipak, like the font and the links on front page, good variety of links. need more information on events, too bare, like the gallery, good website.

8/10

Loud Summit Article Draft

Here is a draft of our first news article about our band

Tour Dates Poster

This is our tour dates poster as shown on our website. The locations we included in our tour are common locations for indie bands making them very relevant for us. Also the locations aren't too big, they are convenient for a new band.

Effects: Colour Correction

To make our music video we had to use colour correction filters on our footage. In doing this, we were able to make two shots that looks different, due to lighting appear as if they are all similar. One example of this was to make shots where the lighting made the shot look very blue, look more red and warm to fit in with the red of our video. This effect was done in adobe Premiere and the specific tool used was Fast Colour wheels. While not the most precise tool for colour correction, it was efficient as we had over 100 shots that all needed to be individually corrected to match each other.

Effects: Sound Inserts

For our video, at the start and end of the video to establish the narrative, I had to insert some sound to look as though it were digetic sound. The shots were mainly the sound of the projector whirring, the sound of it turning on and the sound of an olden film reel. These were added to make it appear as though what was happening on screen was actually happening to make the video seem more immersive than it otherwise would have. To do this in time with the rest of the video, I had to create several more audio tracks and line up the wave form with where it looks like it would play on screen.

Effects: Eye Transition

In the video, we wanted to have on shot transition into another and make it appear as though the camera was moving through the character's eye. To do this I had to learn how to use keyframes and add a keyframe in every frame of the video and manually pan the next clip to move over the first shot and gradually fade it over the top of it while adjusting the fisheye filter I put on it to make it wrap around the shape of the eyeball.

Final Music VIdeo

Film Draft Feedback

After showing some students our music video draft we received some feedback on what can be improved. Here are some of the key points that made about our music video:

- Really liked the flashback edit

- Liked the concept of music video

- Thought the editing was good

- Didn't like the performance shots

- Some of the shots were too long

- The lighting was quite poor

We will take all of this feedback into consideration and change around some things in the video. We will probably re-film the entire performance footage as the stuff we took previously didn't look good enough to use in our music video. When we re-film our performance we will change the lighting we used to make it much easier to see

Article Research

Here are a selection of indie band articles that I found on the web in order to give me a good idea of what I should include in our article when its written. It is clear that all of these articles are mainly all black and white which could be something to do with the fact they are used in newspapers which is primarily black and white. They quite often give a background on the band explaining what kind of band they are and what they've achieved in order for people who don't know much about the band to understand who they are and what they're about. They all include a picture of the band members in order to show the audience what the band look like so they can relate the band to the article they are reading. There are usually headlines going down that are usually similar to the article that you are reading so it can attract you to some articles that you may have a similar interest in.

Music Video First Draft

This is the first draft for our music video. We thought the performance footage that we used in this draft looked quite poor because of the lighting and the camera work. A lot of the shots were quite shaky and not a good quality. Many of the shots were quite static which made the camerawork look quite boring. However the flashback images looked quite good compared to the performance.

Student Reflection

Filming - Filming was quite mixed. The filming that we took in Southend and London went really smoothly as we knew exactly what we needed and filmed accordingly. The shots came out really nicely and clearly. However our first shoot in primmer for our performance shots didn't work. It came out way too dark and a really poor quality, not what we were imagining it would come out like. For this reason we re-filmed the performance shots and changed the lighting, camera angle and changed the stage. After we finished filming the second performance shots, the footage that we got looked much better. Everyone in the group contributed really well in the filming of this task.

Editing - We had a slow start to editing as out footage wasn't good enough to get going on the footage straight away. However once we got going with editing we started to include some really good, creative techniques and the video began to get cut much quicker and smoother. Max did the majority of the editing, however i did chip in a bit, editing the animation at the beginning of the video and cutting some of the clips in time.

Digipak - The digipak came out really well in the end, we chose the colour scheme to be black red and purple, which was the colour scheme of our band. We got lots of detail on things such as a lis of songs, the management, bar codes, mentions etc. I did most of the digipak with max helping me out with one or two techniques.

Website - Our website came out quite nicely, we made lots of links such as tour dates, merchandise etc. We have links with social media down the side and many other features involved. Katie did the majority of the website on wix.

Digipak Evaluations

CDot - The colour scheme of this digipak is good because it uses a nice blend of colours and it matches the colour scheme of the digipak. I like the detail, with the songs list and the mentions of people involved. The scrappy paper album lines are quite creative, not like your typical digipak. However one or too pictures could be a bit stronger.

ISO - I like the dark colours involved, and the fact that all of the pages match each other very well. However i don't think the same picture should be in there twice and i also think there could be more detail in terms of whats written in here. 

Soraya - Really like the colour scheme, they blend well together 

Digipak Research

Digipak research into similar bands from Great Baddow High School Media

Radio 4 Interview

How Our Digipak Compares to Existing Indie Band Digipaks

After completing our digipak we've decided to compare our digipak to others from similar bands, this way we can see how potentially successful it would be in the real world. As you can see the similarities between the digipaks are they all have a consistent colour scheme throughout, they have albums lines, bar codes, album names, band names, artistic pictures that represent the name of the band and the album such as the mountain used in our digipak. There is one main difference which is our digipak uses much more colour, but we don't think this is a bad thing as it still looks very much like a indie band digipak, but it also adds an element of originality to our band because our colours stand out compared to many others.

Magazine Cover

Similar Bands Performance Research

In our music video we are including a long period of performance that is shown through a lot of the video. For this reason we need to do lots of research into what kinds of features are at performances from similar bands. Here are some images of what performances from similar bands to us look like:

Lights: All the performances shown from above have some sort of lighting involved to improve the look of the concert. There is a lot of lighting behind the performers, creating a silhouette effect coming through them, this seems to be a common theme with all indie band performances. The setting is usually quite dark with spot lights used so you can see the artists. 

Stage: The stage is pretty much normal, there aren't any gimmicks or effects going on to add to the performance other than lighting. For this reason we should make the location of our performance quite simple, but pack the scene with musical equipment to make it look realistic. 

Stage Presence: There stage presence are quite powerful as they have to show the emotion of their song across to the audiences. There isn't much dancing going on, its mainly acting and being energetic on stage.

When we film our performance we should take into consideration all of the research we have collected on indie band performance as it can help us create a realistic performance which will ultimately improve our music video.

Website Draft 2

This is the current design of our bands website. It has the same purple color scheme that we have used while editing our photos and digipack to create a uniform look across our different areas. There will be working links to the store page where people will be able to buy our merchandise and we also intend to add a twitter feed banner down the side of all pages.
One thing we also wish to add to the top left of the page is a constant looping video of the waveform that goes over our logo that will play. There will also be a link to booking tickets for our tour which will also have a list of dates and locations for our tour.
We also intend to add links to an interview that we recorded of our band that will be under the video page that has a link at the top of the main page. The gallery shows photos from our various photoshoots that users of the page will be able to browse through.

Final Website

http://harragankatie.wix.com/loudsummitband

1st Website Draft

Website Feedback

This is the feedback we received on our first website draft. The feedback we received told us that the links on our website were quite useful. However the colours and the layout of the website needed improving.

Loud Summit:

I like the fact they've got updates on the side of their website, keeping everyone updated all the time.

I like their gallery on the home page but its not very necessary because they've already got an extra tab

with gallery pictures. Their merchandise needs more purple as that's their set colour.

no title saying Loud Summit?

I don't like the white background..

Also on the merchandise page, need to change the white font because you can't read anything. Also you can't select a size on merch

Loud Summit 5

Their website is coming along well, I like the layout and the social media posts on the right hand side. I think the way that the colours of the website correspond with the colours on the digipak. The layout is good and i like the contact page it looks really professional. The photos look good on the front page but maybe you could change it so that if you click them the large one on the front page changes to it or they get bigger or something so that the user can actually view them. The genre is quite clear and you can tell it is a rock band. It looks really professional as all of the social networking links work and you can follow the twitter in one click. The website is good but looks a little plain as the background is so white this makes it look a little incomplete in contrast to the main body of the website. Tours page has header image others don't which makes it look a little odd.

Loud Summit

I like the image which appears at the top of the page on the ‘Tours’ page. On the other pages when there is just blank space it looks too plain. Maybe on the home page you could put your band name here in really big lettering. I like the layout and the font when you scroll down on the home page. Reminds me of Arctic Monkeys which is good because this is your genre. I like the consistent colour theme. 

Loud Summit

I like the image which appears at the top of the page on the ‘Tours’ page. On the other pages when there is just blank space it looks too plain. Maybe on the home page you could put your band name here in really big lettering. I like the layout and the font when you scroll down on the home page. Reminds me of Arctic Monkeys which is good because this is your genre. I like the consistent colour theme. 

Loud summit - 6/7 There is a large gap at the top of the website could that be reduced? Very good detailed information on the front page. I dont like the background tho and i dont see how it links with the genre. The gallery is good. I like the tour poster page and the store. It can be improved by the background.

Loud Summit

    My first impression of the website by Loud Summit was good because there are numerous photographs which show the band therefore immediately creating a band image. The use of the purple filter on the main photo is strange as it is really bright and also feels irrelevant. The website front page gives information of the band and how they have been breaking through the music industry. The website is clever how the links to buy the tickets take you to the Ticketmaster website and this makes the website look professional. The contact us page is clever and provides information about how to contact the band. much like the ISO website the merchandise page is also good providing good products at realistic prices.

Loud summit - I feel the home page of this website is very effective and they have included many different factors such as latest news, tour date information and album signing. They have also included a gallery page but on the home page they have a nice picture navigation which shows a good use of technology skills. They have made good use of the margins on the home page which i found keep me interested in the page rather than if it was left blank. The video page is done well but is not finished yet as there is a section which still has default text. I feel the most effective part on there navigation bar is the merchandise section, they have included their bands name on some of the clothing which is effective and unique. They also have included the use of links to their facebook, twitter and youtube pages. Lastly I liked the fact they linked their tour date page to ticket master through the 'Buy now' button. I would give them a level 3 for their website. An area they could improve with is to make sure all sections are finished.

Loud Summit

What went well:

Straight away I thoroughly enjoy the colour of the page, the purple images an the creamy background compensate each other extremely well, drawing my attention from the moment I go on the page. The font is very bold and easy to read so I like that very much. The bands image is portrayed clearly as the images of the band can be seen as soon as you open the website. Each part of the website is easy to find as the hyperlink buttons are clearly shown at the top of the website.

Even better if:

The trailer video has nothing written about it so it doesn't capture my attention and desire to see the video. The photo gallery needs more photos added to it as it only has 6 photos in it. I'm not sure why there is a video of cliffs? Level - 3, 7 marks

Loud Summit: 6/10

The layout is good but the filters on some of the pictures look odd.

The home page is very informative and has all the important bits on the front page which is good because it grabs your attention.

Links to social media could be bigger so that they're more visible.

Some of the text isn't completed to follow the pictures or videos. 

Tour dates are nicely presented. 

The variety of merchandise is good. 

Loud Summit-6

I like the colour scheme and background pattern, I think it fits with your genre of band. However the front page of the website is too busy and messy to be able to see who the band are. You can’t see everything on one screen you have to left and right to be able to see everything which I don’t think should happen on a website, fans just want everything in one place.

The merchandise looks the most professional out of everything, I really like the logo that you include on it as well.

Finished Digipak

This is the Loud Summit finished digipak. We made a few changes to the first draft after recieving our feedback from students. A lot of the students said that the top left picture didn't fit in with the rest of the digipak; for this reason we have altered the colour filter of it to match the rest of the digipak to help it fit in. Also the font on the mountain picture was criticized, so we changed the font and the font effects, making it look more subtle. Also we flipped the top of the digipak upside down so it would fold up correctly when it has been printed. Lastly we have added in the alblum lines down the 2 vertical cuts, again making it fold together correctly. 

Magazine Cover Research

For our magazine cover we decided to use NME magazines as our target audience are much more likely to read it due to the fact they often have indie rock bands on the cover and they quite often give media coverage to young, up and coming bands as well. The main design features that NME tend to have is the headlines going down the left of the page, More info about whats in the magazine down the bottom and the main headline at the top of the page. When creating a magazine cover you've got to make sure you have various key features such as a bar code, band logo etc. 

Digipak Draft 2

Loud Summit Storyboard

Digipak Mountain

In the original draft of the digipack, we had a mountain but because we didn't take that picture ourselves, we were unable to use it in our final pack. To get around this. I used a Cintiq tablet and Photoshop to paint a mountain similar to the one in the original picture that we could use instead because it was an asset we made ourselves. I used a set of customized brushes to get the right textures for our it and used the colour dropper to get the colours from the original edited image so that i could make sure it would fit in with the rest of the digipack. Once I had drawn the mountain, I copy and pasted it, transformed the copy and flipped it horizontally before adding a guassian blur to it to give it the effect of being a reflection in the water.

Digipak Feedback

This is our digipak so far. Recently we have received some feedback from students telling us what they like and what they don't like about our digipak. Here is what they said: 

The good points to take from the feedback was that people liked the colour schemes we used in the digipak, with the black, purple and red. They could tell our indie back image just by looking at the digipak. They said it looked quite professionally done.

The bad points were the opening doors picture doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the digipak and they're dont quite get the picture. Also some of the font doesn't look great, for example of the mountain picture it is quite hard to read and doesn't look very sharp. 

We will take this feedback on board and improve our digipak as a result.

Album Cover

As part of our digipack, we had to create a front cover for our band. This section of the digipack, I had the most input in as it required a lot of photo manipulation in photoshop and in our group I am the most experienced with this software. To create this, I had to extend the height of the wall from the original photograph. In the original, the wall was cut off by windows that, if were in the final edit would have got in the way with the band logo and the name of the album. I remove the windows I used the clone stamp tool to sample areas of the wall that were complete and replaced the windows with the wall texture that had been sampled lower down in the image. I also added a RBG colour filter over the image to alter the amounts of red, green and blue in the image. I lowered the amount of green over all as our band's image relies mostly on purples and reds.

To create the spray paint effect on the logo and album name behind use. I wrote the words in a text layer, white for the logo and black for the name and put them behind us. To make the 'Amplify' appear as if it was behind the band members, I cut us out using the pen tool to mark us out, duplicating is and pasting a version of us over the top of the amplify layer. I then rasterized the text layers to image layers and turned them the layer style to multiply. This makes them clear and increases the brightness of them. I then  duplicated the layers to exaggerate this effect and added a guassian blur to them to make it look like it had been air brushed. I then merged the layers back together and with an erase tool with a 15% opacity, erased bits of the words to make it appear faded and seem like it had been spray painted onto the wall some time ago.

Performance Shooting Schedule

London Shooting Schedule

Club Shooting Schedule

Magazine Cover Draft

This is the layout of one of our magazine covers. Our pictures will go behind all of the text. The headlines are real headlines that have been shown recently, making our front cover look more realistic. We tried to stick to the rock theme with all the headlines, matching our band. The 'New Music' banner down the bottom of the article is a real list of up and coming bands and artists. The colour scheme of white, black and purple is the colour scheme of our band, which is often done with NME when bands headline their magazine.