Website - Audience Feedback

Today we gathered a group of students to receive audience feedback on our current website design. We made sure that some of the student from the ones we have picked were part of our target audience. From this feedback we learnt that people find it is simple to navigate through the site and find information about our artist and their music. When designing our website this was the kind of simplicity we were looking towards creating, therefore we were pleased with this feedback. Our group was then told that the font used throughout the site does not comply with the visual imagery. One student pointed out it is a font that would be used on a newspaper. I took note of this comment and will alter the font throughout the website to suit the imagery and type of presentation. Finally we have learnt from some of the feedback that it is at times difficult to distinguish our sites genre as house. I will attempt to fix this issue by altering some of the imagery and background colours throughout the website. Overall this feedback has allowed me and my group to see what works on our site and what other final developments we must submit to our site in order to finish this part of the campaign.

Website - Rough Draft

The images below represent my groups rough draft of the website for our artist. The images display what would be seen if one was to scroll through the website and/or activate the links leading to the music, tour, and about pages.

Website - Design Process

When creating a website for my groups artist I used the program Wix. This program allows its user to with ease design and construct a website. The following images represent the tools and processes by which I have designed the website for our artist. The first image shown to the right displays the text tool that I have used to create text within the website. As can be seen through the use of this tool I could decide upon the font, size, and style of the text.

Another tool that I have used was the background select tool. This tool has allowed me to select images for background across the website.

The change video tool had simply given me the ability to place my groups music video within the homepage of the website.

The Wix Music tool has on the other hand allowed me to create a playlist and album at the bottom of the homepage and on the music page. This tool has enabled me to create  a playlist and album in a way that allows visitors of the site to play and download the given music.

To the right I have attached an image of how working with the Wix Music tool has allowed me to create a copy of the album Colour at the bottom of the homepage. Continuing in general Wix has provided me with simple to use tools that have made it easy for me to design a website for my groups lead artist.

Website - Idea Development

Today I discussed with my group what our website design should be. We spoke about the different elements our website needs to possess. For instance we agreed that our artists website will have a homepage, music page, tour page, and an about page. Continuing we settled on the idea that our artists newest music video an album will be present on the homepage of our website. After further discussion we came to the conclusion that our website like the other websites we studies needs to promote our artists newest content that in this case is the music video and digipak. Therefore we agreed to use images we took during the shoot of our music video and others we took afterwards for various backgrounds and transitions between content on our website. My group members thought it would be optimal to have stationary pages. I was although able to convince them that it moving pages would be more appealing and at the same time would follow the conventions of house music videos. Additionally we set out to create a black based theme as we thought it would fit well with the music video.  Once we had a set idea of the layout of our website I helped my group pick out the images we thought would be successful when placed on the site. Finally as a group we agreed that I should conceive the first rough draft of the website with the ideas and images that we have gathered throughout our meetings.

Website - Why use a website & conventions of a website

Websites are used by artists and institutions to allow their fans to find more information about them and cross promote other products such as tours, videos, merchandise and more. Additionally websites allow fans to stay updated on what the artist is doing and whether there are any new work that have come out or will come out soon. Before meeting with my group and deciding upon our rough design for  a website I conducted research on House websites and analyses the conventions of this sites.

On House websites homepages the artist is commonly shown at the center. I feel that this immediately informs the audience about who the site is about and that it is a strong convention of house websites.  Another thing that I have noticed during my study is that at the top of the homepage hyperlink are provided to other areas of the site. These most commonly include tour dates, about pages, music pages and homepages. At times above, but also commonly found on other sides of the house homepages are links to social sites such as facebook, twitter, soundcloud and more. Continuing I'd say another convention of this sites is that they are full of visually appealing images and almost at all times can be scrolled through to reveal more content. Based on the research and information that I've gathered here I plan to share my own ideas for a website with my group that I think by combining conventions of House and developing upon them will allow us to create an amazing website for our artist.

Music Video - Final Design

Music Video - Audience Feedback 2

Based on the Qualitative data that our group has gathered is is clear to us know what are some of the issues present within our campaign as well as some of the ways in which we can tackle them. For instance based on some of the answered we have received we will attempt to cut on motion within the dance element in our music video in order to make it more appealing. Furthermore we will remove some of the cuts and and extend certain areas of the  music video as they have appeared confusing to our focus group. Additionally we have established through our focus group the necessary colour correction which we will incorporate within our music video. As for our digipak, it appears that will attempt at using a singular colour for the entirety of the background of the digipak as it now also appears to us will be more pleasing to the idea. At the same time although we were glad to hear that our paint elements and dancing elements were at point were composed and attention grabbing. The quantitative data we have gathered has also helped us make some firm as decision on our music video. Below I have attached some of the results that we have received through our quantitative research and based on which we have made further accommodations to our music video.

Music Video - Audience Feedback 1

Below are the two Questionnaires that our group has created for the quantitative and qualitative data we are planning on collecting for an insight on our music campaign.

Music Video - Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

Quantitative and Qualitative research methods are two distinct ways of gathering data. Qualitative research is primarily investigative research that provides an insight into the opinions and thoughts of individuals on a given matter. This type of research is typically used to uncover problems and acquire ideas that have not been marked or thought about. This data is collected through the use of focus groups, individual interviews and participation/observation. The amount of people used to gather qualitative research is usually small and individuals are at times selected to fulfill given quotas.

On the other hand quantitative research is used gather statistical opinions, notions, behaviors and other defined variables on given matters. This data is typically gathered through questionnaires with preset answers from which one or more are to be selected. The gathered quantitative data is than transformed into statistical information and used as a generalization for a larger sample of the population. Due to its simplicity quantitative research is usually gathered from larger samples of individuals. Unlike qualitative data quantitative data is more commonly gathered through various types of surveys instead of focus groups. Although at times the two types of data are gathered in identical ways. The combination of the two research methods allows either an individual or an organization to grasp a better understanding of a given matter and depending on eh matter also make improvements. Media products are commonly improved through the use of quantitative and qualitative data. Due to this our group will gather quantitative and qualitative are use the information we gather to better our campaign.

Music Video - Rough Draft

The following video represents the rough cut of our group’s music video.

Shoot - Evaluation And Behind The Scenes Footage

My group shot our music video during this past Tuesday and Friday. Due to the amount and diversity of the material we were hoping to capture our group was decided that it would be appropriate for us to shoot over the course of two separate days. Throughout this evaluation of my groups shoot I will mostly discuss the shoot which took place at our educational facility but will also at times reference to our second shoot as it will have an enormous impact on the final cut of our music video.

The day before our Tuesday shoot we met with our producer and the rest of our team to prepare the studio and agree on other important aspects of the shoot. During this time we prepared the lighting for the morning element of our shoot, made certain that we have prepared a way of travel for our lead vocalist to arrive on time, and that we designated the right amount of time to every aspect of the music video we were hoping to capture. This process has allowed our team to begin shooting without any noticeable issues, which in turn provided us with more time to capture the performance elements. Perhaps the only elements that took longer than we anticipated were the application of make up on our performers and adequately setting up the camera.

The first studio setup we prepared consisted of a black background and different types of lightning set ups. Due to this we were able to prepare the different setups in quick succession and with little effort. Although now when view the footage I feel that the lighting setup provided to much contrast and is therefore at this point hardly usable as it can’t be tweaked without noise being created. On the other hand the TV setup, which we filmed in the afternoon, turned out to be more interesting and a bigger success than we anticipated. By placing the TV’s in interesting compositions and lighting them in different ways we created numerous visually appealing shots. Although our group was not able to take some shots of the TV’s that I hoped to capture, the overall turn out still satisfies and I know I can make proper usage of this footage while editing.

All the members of my group were interested in completing different tasks while on set. Therefore we decided to share roles and in the end we came to a compromise by which I acted as director of photography while shooting the dancers and as director when shooting the lead vocalist. I feel that this was the appropriate decision to make as I knew the vocalist prior to the shoot and was therefore able to direct her in the right direction when on set. We easily transitioned between jobs and by doing so were to keep on cooperating efficiently as a team.

When acting as the director and the DOP on set I did my best for the shoot to work out. For instance one thing I think I did particularly well was guiding the lead vocalist. I let our vocalist know what it is that we are expecting from her by using key words, which correlate to certain ideas. For instance when shooting one shot for the TV sequence I wanted our lead vocalist to look into the camera with a look of desire on her face. In order to achieve this effect I did not ask her for that in particular but instead asked her to look at the camera as if it was one million dollars. In other words I used key words and phrases that would indirectly allow me to pull out certain actions and emotions out of her. I think this was very successful, as I do not think I would have achieved the same effects by simply requesting desiring looks and amazing dance moves. Another thing I think I’ve done very well was positioning the camera while acting as the DOP.

In general the first and second shoots went really well. As a team we were able to work together to a high standard and have captured all the necessary shots that we required for post-production.