Dear Moderator,
My name is Lauren Davies and my candidate number is 7028. The centre number is 16829. Thank you for taking the time to view my blog and hope you enjoy it. You will find my finished media products along with the planning and research.
Here is the link to my other team member's blog: http://millsmcgov.blogspot.co.uk/
Friday, 3 May 2013
Thursday, 2 May 2013
Evaluation Questions!
As part of the brief we are required to evaluate our work. I am going to use Prezi to do so. We have been given a set of questions that we are required to answer to help us with our evaluation. Th qustions ar listed below;
1. What did you learn from your audience feedback?
2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
3. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
1. What did you learn from your audience feedback?
2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
3. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Website-Photos!
One other aspect of my wesbite would be the photo gallery. All websites include pictures of the artist so I thought it would be effective in drawing in the attention of the target audience if I were to provide them with a few pictures of the band. The gallery slides a long so the audience can enjoy a variety of pictures of the boys, like a slideshow.
One last aspect of my website would be the menu bar. If my brief required me to create the whole website including each page mentioned on the menu bar, these would be listed here and would have links to the correct pages. The menu bar shows the contents that would be on my website.
One last aspect of my website would be the menu bar. If my brief required me to create the whole website including each page mentioned on the menu bar, these would be listed here and would have links to the correct pages. The menu bar shows the contents that would be on my website.
Website-Tour dates!
I also thought it would be a good idea to include tour dates on the website as this is something that many band's websites include as it is something that the target audience are interested in. The fans will want to know when the band are touring so that if they want to get tickets they will know when to get them for.
Above you can see the tour dates I have created. I thought it would be useful to create the 'Crash' tour. I feel that the more I try to promote the track 'Crash' the more the fans will become familiar with it which will create more views for my music promo. I have also listed the USA tour which I mentioned in my latest news updates. I have also given the audience the opportunity to purchase tickets for these tours on the website.
Above you can see the tour dates I have created. I thought it would be useful to create the 'Crash' tour. I feel that the more I try to promote the track 'Crash' the more the fans will become familiar with it which will create more views for my music promo. I have also listed the USA tour which I mentioned in my latest news updates. I have also given the audience the opportunity to purchase tickets for these tours on the website.
Website- Merchandise!
The next section of my website is 'Merchandise'. This section will focus on the band's clothing. My target audience research showed me that the fans are highly influenced by clothing and fasjion labels and icons. This is why I feel it is important to include this aspect on my website as I know it will be effective in attracting their attention. In our music promo, Millie and I took into consideration how important the clothes used could be to our audience which is why we decided to use clothes from the fashion labels that I identified they were influenced by and ones that they would be familiar with.
Cheer up clothing label;
The Cheer Up Clothing label was created by You Me At Six's band member Matt Barnes. This clothing label therefore would be one that the audience would be very familiar with which is why I have decided to include it on my website. The audience is able to shop online and check out this clothing label. However as the brief does not require me to create the whole website I will not be creating the merchandise page, rather just mentioning it on the homepage to get it noticed. In our music promo we had Millie wear a cheer up clothing top. This top will be included under the merchandise heading. If the target audience have seen our website they wil recognise the top from here and this would hopefully influence their decision to purchase it or even just check it out. We took a photograph of the t-shirt that we could use for this part of the website.
However I noticed that this picture included the hanger and the door in the background which made the picture look unprofessional and not suited for a website. I decided to use photoshop to edit the background out and place the top on a plain white background, similarly to the real website's clothing page for the band. The new image can be seen below.
I also included an image of a T-shirt that I have taken from the original website.. www.youmeatsix.co.uk. I chose to use this T-shirt as it was made for the single Crash, which suits my website as this was the track used for my music promo, this helps to promote it further. The image is shown below.
Cheer up clothing label;
The Cheer Up Clothing label was created by You Me At Six's band member Matt Barnes. This clothing label therefore would be one that the audience would be very familiar with which is why I have decided to include it on my website. The audience is able to shop online and check out this clothing label. However as the brief does not require me to create the whole website I will not be creating the merchandise page, rather just mentioning it on the homepage to get it noticed. In our music promo we had Millie wear a cheer up clothing top. This top will be included under the merchandise heading. If the target audience have seen our website they wil recognise the top from here and this would hopefully influence their decision to purchase it or even just check it out. We took a photograph of the t-shirt that we could use for this part of the website.
Next I decided to create a paragraph about the clothing ranges provided by the band. My target audience research showed me that the audience are highly influences by brands such as American Aparell and Topshop, as well as many other fashion labels. This is why I decided to explain that the boys were bringing out a clothing range in these stores in the new year. This would give the fans something to look forward to and would hopefully influence them to keep checking the website to see if these clothing ranges have been added to the 'Merchandise' part of my website yet. A print screen shows this below.
Website- Social Networking!
When researching my target audience I have previously mentioned that I checked my facebook to see the types of people that 'liked' the You Me At Six facebook page, as these people would be my 'facebook friends' I would have an even clearer insight into the whole target market. I identified that a larhe majority of my friends had liked this page which meant a lot of fans use social networking, also when searching the band on twitter I found that they had thousands and thousands of followers which is why I felt it would be a good idea to include social networking on my website. This would allow the viewers to feel more involved with the website and the band themselves.
I also added a social networking bar. This includes twitter, facebook and Google+. Again I have done this to attract the attention of my audience as they will all be social networks that they will be familiar with.
I added a 'twitter feed' to my website. I linked this to You Me At Six's twitter account to make the website seem more realistic. This feed allows the fans to keep up to date with the band's tweets so they can find out what they have been up to and what they are currently doing. This feed also allows the viewers to 'join the conversation' if they have twitter. If they click this link this will take them directly to the band's twitter account shown below. Using social networking will draw in the attention of the target audience as it is something they are likely to be familiar with as Twitter is a very world-wide popular site so the fans are likely to enjoy this section of the website.
Also underneath the twitter feed I have also created another small link that allows the audience to follow the band if they wish to. If they are not already doing so this link will take them directly to the option where they can start following them. This link also states how many followers the band has which could influence the viewers to be one of them. This can be found below. Sound Cloud!
When carrying out my audience research I searched You Me At Six on my facebook page to find out more about my potential audience. As well as identifting the target audience from my facebook friends I also identified that the fans were listening to the band on 'Sound cloud'. This software allows people to listen to a variety of different music that they are in to. I thought it would be a good idea for these reasons to include a link to soundcloud on my website so that the viewers can play You Me At Six's music whilst enjoying the site. I have linked it to one of their other songs. I first of all thought about linking it to my music promo track 'Crash' however as the video is located next to this I did not want to 'over play' the song as the viewers may feel slighly like they are being pushed to listen to it so I thought it would be best to use another song produced by the boys. Below is a print screen of this. I had to use a link from one of the You Me At Six's sound cloud links as I could not find the original track posted by the band. Sound Cloud involves tracks being posted by individuals that are not necessarily the ones that have produced it, people can share whatever music they wish to on this site. I copied the link to this section so that the music is able to play. This is why above the song it says EMI music.
Website- latest news!
One of the main reasons the target audience are likely to want to visit the website is to check the latest news and updates on the boys to find out what they have been up to and find out information on upcoming plans they may have. This is why I have added the 'Latest News' section of my website. This will provide the audience with information on upcoming tours, events the boys have visited, live appearances etc. Below are the news updates I created.
The first news update I decided to create was the USA tour. If the boys are travelling away from the UK, the fans are likely to want to know about it. This is also likely to keep the audience interested in viewing the site regularly to be updated with the activities that boys are participating in whilst on tour. I also included another message from the boys in this news update to make it seem more realistic and to show the direct link between the editors and the band.
The next update I created involved the Klaxons. I talked about a surprise visit from this band at one of You Me At Six's gigs. I decided to focus on the Klaxons for this post as when carrying out my audience research on indie scensters and the types of individuals interested in the band and this genre of music I identified that the Klaxons are one of their favourite indie bands. By using them in my news updates this is likely to draw in the attention of my target audience as they will be interested in reading about them. I also stated that the audience can view pictures o both bands together which is something that they are really likely to want to see. As the brief for this ancillary task only requires me to create the home page of my website I will not be creating the gallery, however if I was creating the whole website these photographs would be found on this page. The Klaxons are a band that will highly influence the audience, as well as You Me At Six so having them both together in this news story is likely to be very effective.
The next news update focuses on Kerrang. Kerrang is a radio station that can be viewed on TV as well as a magazine. Again during my research on my target audience I identified that indie scensters and You Me At Six's fans all together, enjoy Kerrang. I feel this is therefore a good way to attract their attention more. I have also mentioned the track used for my music promo to promote that further. I have said that if the viewers tune into this channel they can watch a clip from the promo.
The first news update I decided to create was the USA tour. If the boys are travelling away from the UK, the fans are likely to want to know about it. This is also likely to keep the audience interested in viewing the site regularly to be updated with the activities that boys are participating in whilst on tour. I also included another message from the boys in this news update to make it seem more realistic and to show the direct link between the editors and the band.
The next update I created involved the Klaxons. I talked about a surprise visit from this band at one of You Me At Six's gigs. I decided to focus on the Klaxons for this post as when carrying out my audience research on indie scensters and the types of individuals interested in the band and this genre of music I identified that the Klaxons are one of their favourite indie bands. By using them in my news updates this is likely to draw in the attention of my target audience as they will be interested in reading about them. I also stated that the audience can view pictures o both bands together which is something that they are really likely to want to see. As the brief for this ancillary task only requires me to create the home page of my website I will not be creating the gallery, however if I was creating the whole website these photographs would be found on this page. The Klaxons are a band that will highly influence the audience, as well as You Me At Six so having them both together in this news story is likely to be very effective.
Creating my website!- First steps
I will be using the online programme Wix to create my website. I first began by choosing to look at the music templates as this would help give me a clear structured layout to work from. I chose the best one that was most suitable for the kind of website I wanted to create, the first thing I noticed was that there were already images on this website so I made sure that I removed these as the images I use for my website need to be original footage that myself and Millie produced. This left me with a plain black and white background which was exactly what I was looking for. The next step I took was creating the title. I wanted to make this stand out to attract the audience's attention. I thought it would be a good idea to include the band's name in the website name at the top so that the audience would know straight away who this website belongs to. Below is a print screen of the title.
I chose this particular font as I felt it made the name stand out more and fits nicely with the genre of music indie/rock. Next I decided that I was going to make all of the titles on the web page white to match the title above, as well as using the black strip background. I then wanted the paragraphed text to be in black font to matcht he black and white theme I realised that the plain white background looked slightly dull so I decided to use a slightly darker gray colour to add a bit more colour to the theme. Although I did not want to make it too colourful as I felt this would stray too far away from the genre of music, which my research shows me tends to use darker colours.
As the website would be used for updating the band's fans with news on the boys and for promoting my new music promo I thought it would be a good idea for the video to be one of the first things the viewers would see on the website. This would get it easily noticed, if I were to leave my music promo until the bottom of the website this would not emphasise its importance as a new single and the audience could end up ignoring it. By placing it at the top this ensures it will get noticed and draw in the audience's attention. By including the video actually on the website rather than just providing a link to the promo on youtube this is enabling the viewers to view it straight away which would be meeting their expectations of the site as they are more likely to want to watch it there and then rather than having to navigate to another page. Also by doing this they are not likely to get distracted by another page such as youtube, once they have finished watching they can carrying on enjoying the rest of the site. Below you can see where I have placed the video.
Just above this I decided to have an introduction to my website. This introduction would explain to the viewers what this website is used for to influence them to carry on viewing it. If I did not provide them with this small bit of information they may not know what is going to be on the site and then may not bother looking at it at all. The text for this is shown below. I checked the text on a word document first of all to ensure there were no spelling mistakes or grammar errors.
'SIXERS' is the nickname I have identified for You Me At Six's fans. By including them here and using their known nickname this will help them to feel more involved in the website which is likely to make them want to view it more. I have started off by saying a little bit about the year the boy's have had and giving the fans credit for making this possible. Again this small piece of text will draw in the audience's attention as it will make them feel part responsible for the boy's success. This should influence them to stay on the site and will also make them feel more connected to the boys. I have then explained that the website will regularly be updated so they will know to keep coming back and checking on it. I have also mentioned KERRANG which is something that the fan's will be very familiar with as they are interested in this genre of music that Kerrang is based around. My audience research also showed me that the target audience are very interested and influenced by Kerrang which is why I decided to include this in my introduction to keep their interest.
Next I decided to add a message from the boys on my website. I thought this would really draw in the attention of the audience as they are likely to want to hear from the boys on this site. By including a message from the boys this will make all of the information provided on the website seem more realistic to the fans. The boys are not the ones that create the website, the editors are however the editors have direct links with the band and it is important for the audience to know this. The message I have written can be seen below.
I wanted the boys to be talking about their new release to influence the audience to look at it, this is another reason why I placed this message next to the music promo. This message allows the audience to connect more with the boys and feel like they are talking directly to them. Knowing that the boys also comment on this site as well as the editors is likely to influence the target audience to keep viewing the site which would increase its popularity.
Next I wanted to add an image of the boys to draw in the viewers attention even more. When creating my music promo it was identified using Andrew Goodwin's theory that it would be expected and wanted for there to be a lot of close ups of the band. I also think its important to provide images of the band together on the website as this is what the fans would expect to see on it. This will make it more eye-catching. Below is the picture I decided to use.
I have placed it next to the introduction and underneath the title of the website. This means it will not be ignored by the viewers and is easily noticeable to the target audience. Again the audience will know straigth away who the website belongs to. Also if the viewer is new to the band and this is the first time they have viewed the website, they will straigth away be able to see what they look like, influencing their decision to stay on the website.
I chose this particular font as I felt it made the name stand out more and fits nicely with the genre of music indie/rock. Next I decided that I was going to make all of the titles on the web page white to match the title above, as well as using the black strip background. I then wanted the paragraphed text to be in black font to matcht he black and white theme I realised that the plain white background looked slightly dull so I decided to use a slightly darker gray colour to add a bit more colour to the theme. Although I did not want to make it too colourful as I felt this would stray too far away from the genre of music, which my research shows me tends to use darker colours.
As the website would be used for updating the band's fans with news on the boys and for promoting my new music promo I thought it would be a good idea for the video to be one of the first things the viewers would see on the website. This would get it easily noticed, if I were to leave my music promo until the bottom of the website this would not emphasise its importance as a new single and the audience could end up ignoring it. By placing it at the top this ensures it will get noticed and draw in the audience's attention. By including the video actually on the website rather than just providing a link to the promo on youtube this is enabling the viewers to view it straight away which would be meeting their expectations of the site as they are more likely to want to watch it there and then rather than having to navigate to another page. Also by doing this they are not likely to get distracted by another page such as youtube, once they have finished watching they can carrying on enjoying the rest of the site. Below you can see where I have placed the video.
Next I decided to add a message from the boys on my website. I thought this would really draw in the attention of the audience as they are likely to want to hear from the boys on this site. By including a message from the boys this will make all of the information provided on the website seem more realistic to the fans. The boys are not the ones that create the website, the editors are however the editors have direct links with the band and it is important for the audience to know this. The message I have written can be seen below.
Next I wanted to add an image of the boys to draw in the viewers attention even more. When creating my music promo it was identified using Andrew Goodwin's theory that it would be expected and wanted for there to be a lot of close ups of the band. I also think its important to provide images of the band together on the website as this is what the fans would expect to see on it. This will make it more eye-catching. Below is the picture I decided to use.
This was one of the images used for my digipak. I thought it would be good to use this photo again as the audience would hopefully recognise it from the digipak. However I noticed that you could still see the curtain in the background and this would not fit in well with the black and white theme background of my website. I decided to use photoshop to edit this so that the boys were on a plain background. I used the magnetic tool to cut out the boys and place them on a black background. Below you can see how I have done this.
Below I have taken a print screen of where I have placed this image on my website.
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