Creating a Website

Using 'wix.com' i have created a website for my band 'The Harrier Comics' (from the random album cover exercise).

• The website allows you either choose from a set of pre-made templates or create a website from scratch.
• For the purposes of this skills development i used a premade template, however when creating my real website i will start from scratch. 
• Below is the website i created:

http://gracecc80.wix.com/theharriercomicsband

• For my website development i used a pre-made theme which i believed would suit my bands indie genre, i also thought that the background of the theme went particularly well with the album cover.
• When i create my real site however i will add more tabs for the user to explore, such as 'News', 'Shop' and 'Videos'.
• I also chose to have a banner underneath my image of the bands album cover, promoting the release, stating that it can be purchased on iTunes - as this is a very typical convention of band/artists websites.

Within this task I have also found that keeping the website simple will be most effective - we don't want to create a website that is so overcrowded it is hard for the user to navigate. However we do want a good amount of information for the user to look through, therefore when making our own website we may wish to focus on the news/social media feeds. Having these feeds all in one place may also be something that we should consider as it will improve the usability of the website as a whole.

Band Websites

Band websites are created to promote the artist(s) to their fans and provide a central hub for them to go to in order to get all the latest music and updates from the artist.
These websites can allow other fans to interact with one another and share their view/opinions on the artist, this can also help to build up the existing fan base as it gives one central place in which they can discover all about them (their music, how they formed, music videos etc).

Bruno Mars' Website:

• The Bruno Mars website is very simplistic in its looks, opting for a minimal style theme for the overall website.
• There is a simple background throughout, making it look quite dull and plain however. 
• The site is user friendly as the tabs are organised into clear sections, so that the site can be easily navigated.

One Direction Website:

• The One Direction website is very different from the Bruno Mars one as it is much more vibrant and colourful - this may be due to it being aimed at a younger audience - specifically teenage girls.
• The website itself has many more interactive features, as it aims to get the fans more involved with the band.
• On this site fans are able to sign up to a newsletter, in order to get all the latest updates from the band.
• The colour scheme of the websites suits the bands 'brand' as their signature colour is red, and this reoccurs throughout the site.

You Me At Six Website:

• The website for 'You Me At Six' follows quite a dark colour scheme - again fitting in with the bands 'brand'.
• The colours and style of the site also reflect the bands genre, which is rock.
• The site is quite limited however in that there are few tabs to explore the site on, meaning that it is not as interactive as the One Direction website.

Random Album Cover Exercise

We were tasked to create a 'random album cover' using random wiki page generators and a random image generator on Flickr.

• For the name of my band i got 'Harrier Comics' and for the title of the album 'More Important Than Any One Thing'.
• I then used Photoshop to add text onto the image that i generated to quickly mock up an album cover.
• This would be one of six panels on my Digipak.

• For my cover i decided to keep it simple and only use the one central image.
• I also used a simple, burnt out looking font as i believe this suited both the image i used and the overall indie style genre that i was aiming towards.
• For the band name i also used a larger font size as i wanted it to stand out more on the cover.

From this task I have found that keeping the digipak quite simple will probably be most effective - a simple design that be carried through all of our products will probably be best. I have also found that bands often have their own font/logo; therefore when creating our own digipak we may wish to consider making a logo, as this can also be carried through to our website and even merchandise for our artsist/band.

What is a Digipak?

A Digipak is a CD insert that consists of six panels, typically featuring images of the band/artist.
It is used to promote the artist and convey the overall theme of the album. The Digipak can also communicate the genre of music to the audience, so that it can be easily recognised when on a shelf etc.

One Direction Album:

• This Digipak represents them as a stereotypical 'boy band' as they can be seen in simple/casual clothing having a good time on a beach. 
• The front image shows them all huddled up together in one close up shot, giving it a sense of brotherhood - they are all friends with one another.
• The lighting is also very soft on this album, this will appeal to their target audience of teenage girls as they will like the light tones.
• The Digipak overall will be created to attract their target audience of teenage girls - particularly the closeup shot of all the band members, as this shows direct address (looking directly at the audience).

The Killers:

• The Digipak for this album creates a much different vibe compared to the the previous one. The colour scheme is much darker, making the cover appear rugged and edgy. This reflects the music genre of the band - being rock.
• The band themselves appear very distant - as a long shot is used, this suggests that the band are focused more on their music as opposed to their 'star image'.
• This appeals more to their target audience - who in this case will me much older than One Direction fans and predominantly male. 

Katy Perry:

• She has a stereotypical 'girl next door' look about her yet, the background of the images she is photographed in are quite dark, meaning that the genre of her music is not quite clear from the packaging.
• Katy's album cover appeals to a much wider target audience compared to the previous two. She appeals to the young, female teenage audience through her use of bright colours and interesting fonts within her Digipak. However she also appeals to a male audience by sexualising herself on the cover (lack of/tight clothing).

Andrew Godwin Theory in Practice

From looking at Godwin's theory many of my initial video ideas have been influenced. When planning the content of my video I will now have to take into consideration the following:
- The relationship between lyrics and visuals: When coming up with an idea for my music video I will have to heavily take into consideration the lyrics within the song I choose, as these will have to represented accurately by my video. On the other hand I could subvert these expectations and have my video as something completely different from the lyrics, which would give it a unique selling point.
- Thought beats - when editing my video I will try and cut the shots within the rhythm of the music (so that the shot changes on the beat) this will make the video flow better and overall be more aesthetically pleasing.
- Genre Characteristics: Whatever genre I choose to work under I will have to ensure that my video fits accordingly to the song, for example if I choose a pop song I will have to use bright colours and possibly a fast editing pace.
- Voyeurism: I may not want to include this heavily within my video as it may cause some controversy.
- Inter-textual reference: depending on the sound I select I may wish to have some inter-textual referencing within my video as this is done quite often within the industry.
- Close-ups: I will also try and involve plenty of close ups of my artist(s) when filming as they need to be the main focus of the video, and the viewers eyes should be drawn to them.

Initial Music Video Research - 'Somebody To You' by The Vamps

By analysing this video also it has given me a very sharp contrast as to the different music videos that are out there. In this video a much larger range of props, costumes, shot/angles are used. This makes the video overall feel much more upbeat and happy, suiting the pop genre of the artists. So again i will have to make sure that my music video style is going to suit the style of the artists, and be appealing to the audience that it is aimed at.

Initial Music Video Research - 'Stay With Me' by Sam Smith

From Analysing this video i have found that you can have a very simple idea for a music video and it can still be effective; as in this video the props, locations and costumes are very simplistic, yet this method works very effectively for the artist. Therefore when planning my own video i will thoroughly take into consideration the genre of the artist and the overall 'look' i am wanting to create within the video.

Andrew Godwin's Theory

Group Members

For my coursework this year I will be working in a pair with Aidan Smith:

When making blog posts individually we will put our names underneath.

Video Editing Skills Development

During this skills development session i created a short music video from a variety of footage that we were given of a band performing. In doing this i learnt a new technique for editing my music video; in that you line up all the footage with the track so that it is in sync with the music. Using Final Cut you the adjust the opacity of each clip depending on which shot you would like to use at that particular moment.
I found this particular technique very helpful as it will help me to keep my footage organised and easily accessible for when i want to use certain shots.
Below is my completed video:

Jake Wynne Editing Tips

During our session with Jake Wynne he gave us various hints and tips for the editing process:

• When editing your final music video ensure that you edit it all to the music first and focus on the details later
• When choosing the song try to pick one that is 3 minutes or under as this is an ideal time and will also make the editing process much easier.
• Make sure you plan thoroughly and have a good idea of what you want your music video to look like prior to filming. This will mean that during the editing process you already know what you want your video to look like.
• Ensure that all the actors in your video are full of enthusiasm when filming as this will make the overall video feel more authentic and professional.

Editing Skills Development

During the Music Video Workshop we also had a chance to develop our skills in editing. We were given a selection of footage and various sound tracks and tasked to edit them together to create 30 seconds worth of a music video. Below is the video that i created:

In creating this video it gave me the chance to practice editing footage to music and how to sync it up correctly. These are all skills which i will require when creating/editing my own music video.

Music Video Event

Music Video Top Tips

During the Music Video Event Workshop we were given hints and tips for our A2 coursework (to create a music video) by Peter, the chief examiner and Jake Wynne, an industry professional. This advice has helped my greatly and i will be taking it all on board when creating my own music video.
Here are some examples of some of the tips that we were given during the workshop:

1. Plan - the primary tip that we were given was to plan extensively; this include props, costumes, locations, what shots we intend to take. We were also advised to plan our music video on a timeline, like the one below. This will allow us to better visualise what our finished product will look like, proving extremely beneficial in the editing stages.
2. Prior to Shooting - I should ensure that i am familiarised with all my equipment - ensure that it is working and is suitable for the job i need it for. Therefore when creating my own music video i will conduct various test shots with different locations and lighting, so that when it does come to my day of shooting i am already prepared and know exactly what i want my shots to look like.
3. The Shoot - We have been advised to shoot our music videos at least 10 times, from various different angles, and a with a variety of shots.
4. Editing - When editing we were advised to sync up all our footage to the music first, and then focus on the details after this. This will mean that my footage is much more organised, and as its already synced it will make it much easier and faster to edit overall.

All these tips that we have been given will now influence the choices i make when planning for and creating my own music video:

• I will ensure that i plan thoroughly before my shoot, so that i can be well prepared and organised as to not waste any studio time.
• I will take test shots/storyboard and shots i wish to take so that i do not have to collect additional footage further down the line.
• I will also ensure that i collect a large quantity and variety of footage so that i have plenty to choose from when editing my video together.
• I will organise all of my footage once i have collected it so i can easily find what I'm looking for when editing.

Recreating 'Let Me Entertain You' by Robbie Williams

We also had a practical session with Jake Wynne in which he helped us to recreate the music video for Robbie William's 'Let Me Entertain You'. We all took turns in both acting and operating various different cameras around the studio. This session was extremely beneficial to me as it helped me to further understand the amount of takes that are required and the different camera set ups that i could use for my own music video.

Music Video Studay Day from QE Media Studies on Vimeo.
This is the video that we ended up creating from the session.

Skills Development Work

Over the course of A2 fortnight we were tasked to recreate various music videos in groups. My group recreated:

- Frozen - Do you want to build a snowman

- Green Day - American Idiot
-  Iggy Azalea - Fancy

Whilst creating my three segments of music videos I have learnt a lot about the process and the organisation required to create a video of a high standard.
The main issue I found when creating our music videos was managing our time effectively. We had a very short amount of time to plan, film and edit our product. This meant that we had to be highly organised and work efficiently all of the time. I found that it was important to plan the majority of shots that we intended to take, as we had to set up three cameras which would be simultaneously recording. Therefore we needed to ensure that we knew what we wanted each shot to look like, in order for us to record the footage efficiently. I also learnt that when recording my final product I should do numerous takes of each shot; as when we came to editing our footage we found that there were problems with some of our shots, but we did not have any spare footage to replace it.
Another element of organisation I found to be important were costumes and props. When filming our music videos we encountered the problem that we forgot some of our props on our first day of filming. This meant that we had to rush filming the designated shots on the second day, meaning that they were of a lower quality. Therefore when filming my real music video I will ensure that I have both the costumes and props prepared in advance.
I have also learnt that it is very important for the actors/actresses to practice the song thoroughly prior to filming, as when filming our videos a lot of the lip syncing was out of time, making it very hard to rectify during the editing process.
Whilst creating our music videos I have developed numerous skills in cinematography and editing, which I will be able to take forward with me when creating my final product.
I have learnt how to create various effective shots, from different angles and distances using specialised equipment such as a tripod, fig-rig and track. I used this professional equipment to my advantage, allowing us to collect a wide variety of interesting and visually pleasing footage for our different music videos. It also allowed us to try out different techniques for each of the videos we were recreating. As each video had a different style, some of the equipment was suited better for individual shots. For example the Figrig was ideal for shooting the segment of 'fancy' that we were recreating as it meant that the camera remained steady whilst moving backwards, tracking the singer as they walked down the hallway
I found editing our video footage and soundtrack together quite difficult, as it was hard to get the images and sound perfectly in sync with one another. This was mainly due to the lip synching being slightly out of time when we recorded, making it difficult to amend in postproduction. When editing it was simple however to add effects and transitions to our video using Final Cut Express, creating a more professional looking overall product.
From this skills development work I now believe that I will be able to create my own coursework to a high and professional standard. When planning my own music video there are now numerous thing that I believe I must focus on in detail. I feel I should conduct thorough research into existing products, in order to gain an understanding of the different shooting styles that are currently used in professional music videos.
When planning the video I intend to shoot I will also create detailed storyboards and shot lists of the shots I wish to take - explaining angles, distances and equipment needed to film it. I will also try and account for any re-shoots that I may need to conduct if there are any problems with my footage/if I need to collect a wider variety of shots.
I will create a full plan of all costumes and props that I will need for the video. Which I intend to organise into days of shooting, so that nothing will be forgotten/needed when filming. This will save valuable time which I may need to collect further footage. It will also mean that I will have a record of which costumes/props I will need for each shot, which will be particularly beneficial if I need to reshoot any of my footage.