Team Members.

Here is the link to Lauren Davies' blog, who was my team member throughout. :)

Laurendavies7028a2.blogspot.co.uk

Evaluation.

Here is the link to my finished evaluation:

http://prezi.com/o4aanmiu1-pv/untitled-prezi/

Evaluation Questions

We have been given the questions we need to answer for our evaluation of our music video they are:

- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

- What have you learned from your audience feedback?

- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Final CD Cover.

The Front:

This is my final CD cover I created. After much debate and through asking friends what would look best, I decided it looked best like this. I wanted to keep some colour to keep it exciting, but I liked the idea of using the blacks and grays which the band were wearing. I decided against colouring the boys in black and white as I thought they looked good in colour. I liked using my own image of their gig for the back and inside to create cohesion and it's a relevant image, but I didn't like the colour it was originally so decided to change this to the black and white so it went with the rest of the CD case.



 

I added a barcode and a 'Virgin' logo as that is their record label. I also wrote out a copyright line which from my research I found most CD's have in small print on the back of their covers:

The Inside:For the inside of my CD case I chose to use the black background, similar to the one that I had used with the front to make it clearly linked. I kept the photo of the boys and the 'thanks' page the same as my drafts but finally decided on a design for the CD.
I first cut out the circle shape and I created a visible outline so it was obvious where the CD is inside. I then wrote the title and the name of the band on the CD in the same fonts as I'd used previously around the digipak.

Before creating this design I first looked at making one where the boys were on the CD, but after looking at previous CD's You Me At Six aren't featured too much and it is instead more about design and artwork. I thought that by having them on the CD it would be a little too much so I went with the simpler one and the VI logo in the centre. I used my previous photo but embossed it so it was bolder and a little different to the back image.

I also added a line of copyright around the CD to make it look realistic and professional:

 

 

CD Cover Ideas.

To begin my Digipak I first came up with a few ideas and different styles I could do. I used an online template to help me get the sizes right and make it easier to know which bit goes where.

Idea 1:

This was my first idea for my Digipak. I used my favourite image of the boys for the front of the CD and quite plain and simple writing as it's similar to what they've used previously. It's also similar to most CD's as it makes it simple to spot. I liked the dark background with the white writing as it made it eye catching. I also added the bevel and emboss effect as a subtle touch, it's barley visible, but I felt it just gave it something extra. I also kept the text on the spine the same as the front (Minion Pro and Arial) so it worked well together.

For the back page I used one of my images taken from the field by my house in the evening. I adjusted the brightness and contrast levels on the photo so it was more visible. I had taken this photo a few months ago and when thinking about my Digipak I instantly remembered the photo and thought it would work well as a simple but effective photo of my own. Here's the original photo:

I was uncertain on what to do for the middle page of my Digipak. Most CD's I looked at had a blank page with some copyright on the bottom. I didn't want to do this as I didn't have my own lyric booklet so I thought it would be a waste of a page. I found some CD's online which had put their 'thanks' page on the inside so I decided I would do this too. I wrote personal thanks from the 'band'. I originally put only their first name but on further inspection of other pages I found that they usually put both their first name and surname so I changed this on my final design. I thought it would be good to have another photo of the band on the inside as well so I chose a less serious one for this and chose one where they are genuinely smiling as I liked this photo a lot. Here's what's written in the 'thanks':



Idea 2:

This is my second idea for my Digipak. I decided to keep the front and the inside page the same as I liked the deign and thought it looked effective. For the back I decided to try a different image. I used one from a You Me At Six gig I went to in December. I thought it worked well as it's a roman numeral for six. I had to use the stamp tool to get rid of the black bits on the lights. I also turned up the brightness and contrast to make it stand out more. Here is the new one next to the orignal:

I liked the use of the image, but I didn't really like the colour as it didn't match the greys of the boys clothing and the almost black background.





Idea 3:

I decided to try the whole thing in black and white. I didn't really like how the front cover came out, nor the inside page, but the back was improved. The warm colours were taken from the six image so this matched the whole feel of the cover a lot better. I also changed the threshold on the six photo so it stood out more. I don't think I'll do this though as it's hard to see the writing and read the song titles. Here's how I changed the threshold of the photo:




Creating My Website.

I first started my website using a blank template on the website Wix. I decided to use one of the background Wix had avaliavble until I could create my own background. I had already decided that I would have a dark background so I chose a dark template so I could organise the text colours and boxes.

NEWS PAGE

For my first post on my website I chose to write about our video. I made it like we'd only just realeased the video. I also created a link to download a digital copy of the new CD. I used You Me At Six's amazon page for this:

In my posts on my website I wanted to make them as real as I possibly could. To do this I decided to link the 'hashtag' in my post so it would take you to the tagged page on twitter, just as the real website might do:

I decided to add a photo grid to display some 'fan' photos of a You Me At Six gig. These photos are actually a mixed bag of photos I took from two gigs I attended. One was infact a You Me At Six gig at Wembley arena in December and the other was the Black Keys, also in Decemember, at the O2 arena. I figured these two gigs weren't too different as they were both arena gigs so similar in size. I also thought it would look more authentic as I was on different sides of the arena for both so they would like like different people had taken the photos. I was also far enough away during the Black Keys gig so you couldn't tell that the band wasn't You Me At Six. To encourage social networking and make the whole thing more believable, I added my own and friends Twitter accounts to the photos so it looked like a 'fan' had sent it in. In the description box I wrote a 'tweet' which is where the website would have found the photos:

Below is an example of what the photos look like when you click on them and how the tweets look:

The next post was about the upcoming gig selling out. I created a quick tour poster for the event:

Then I added a 'SOLD OUT' banner across it and added it to my website:

I also created my own background for the website using my photo of the VI sign from the You Me At Six gig I went to. I turned up the threshold on the photo and made it small enough to fit in the bottom corner of the page so it would be seen at all times and stand out more against the black background:

I also added a small copyright line at the end of the page to make it look more legitimate:

LIVE DATES

To create my live date page I used actual dates from the You Me At Six website. I liked their design, but I wanted to make mine a little simpler and match my news page more. Here's You Me At Six'x official live dates page: 

Here is my own page of dates with the date, the venue and the city listed. With also a link to find the tickets:

Here is how I created the link to find tickets. I firstly went to the link that You Me At Six's ticket button links to. I then highlighted the words I wanted to link and copied the web address in the appropriate box:

GALLERY

For the gallery page I added my own slideshow by choosing the animated grid. I then uploaded all the photos I took of the boys the day I got them to dress for a photoshoot:

MUSIC

For the music page of my website I decided to make it a store where you can buy the You Me At Six albums. I first added photos and put a name underneath each album which if you click take you to their amazon pages so you can buy the album:

STORE

After making my music page more of a store I decided to rename the store page on my website to a merchandise page. You Me At Six's official website takes you straight to another link when you click on the store button, but I wanted to make mine slightly different. Here is the You Me At Six store page:

I took the photos from this page and added them to my own store page. I then added a link underneath the picture which would take you to the official merchandise site for the selected items:

CONTACT PAGE

For my final page of the site I couldn't take inspiration from You Me At Six's on website as they didn't have one so I had to improvise. Instead of making it quite a formal page I decided to dedicate it more to fans and give them an email address where they can email the band:

I got all the contact information from the bands official facebook:

Here is the link to my finished website:

http://milliemcgovern.wix.com/you-me-at-six

Website Research.

Here is a picture of the real You Me At Six's website. It is quite easy to navigate and looks professional. I think that I will try to recreate the font they use and the dark colour scheme. Hopefully I will be able to give my own website a professional feel!