Final Products

 Website

http://elliewilliams245.wix.com/thewired

Digipak

Video

Creepin' Up The Back Stairs - The Wired from Anouska on Vimeo.

Construction of digipak

When finishing off the digipak, we decided to insert a CD cover first, the original is shown above where it blends into the background of the ripped paper with the black text on the cover. After gaining some teacher feedback, saying that it would look better in black and white for the CD, we decided to change it and the results looked a lot better. This is because it doesn't blend into the cover and instead stands out against the white. This also suits the colour scheme of the rest of the digipak as it runs in black, white and red.

This crumpled paper effect was also created in photoshop using the x tutorial and the ripped paper added to this effect with y tutorial. We decided to do this as it subtly links to the music video because in one of the cutaways, the lead singer crumples a lyrics page and throws it away, we thought this would add to a recurring theme. Originally, we were going to have lyrics carrying out onto the CD, but we decided it wouldn't fit the conventions of a digipak, so instead we'll have them running on the bottom left panel of the digipak.

On the top right of the digipak, originally we had this image, although it looked slightly out of place and we were recommended by the teacher feedback to desaturate the image as the green and orange of the leaves outside were quite overpowering in the image and it made the models look out of place.

Creating our website

Throughout the website there is a continuous colour scheme which connotes our indie rock genre. Each page fits with the others and follows a theme. Our main colour scheme was grey, red and white. We felt that this was the best colour scheme to use because on our digipak the logo for the band is black and white and the track list on the back cover is the dark red / burgundy colour. Therefore both our digipak and website fit together and are clearly identifiable as the bands.

For all the images on our website we tried to keep them fairly casual to connote the genre. They were taken in basic locations with plain and basic mise-en-scene. 

The home page contains a smaller version of our gallery as well as the headlines from our news page. We decided to do this because it helped to fill the website with content that may attract the audience. Each of the news headlines is linked to the news page so thatthe viewers can go directly to the page that they are looking for.

The masthead is the logo for the band and the socail networking links, that when clicked on all take you to The Wired's networking page. The menu has a roll over effect and the Bio includes a drop down box for each individual band member.

We included interactive features such as the music player and the bands music video to try and make it as professional as possible. 

Facebook, Twitter & Instagram

In order to make the website more professional and authentic we decided to make real social networking pages that we could link the website to:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Wired/642651849177622

https://twitter.com/TheWiredMusic

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDmAxAwn2sDFY5yYTWXNnDQ

Digipak survey and feedback

In order to gain audience feedback we created a survey, which i then posted out to our target audience in order to gain constructive criticism:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KPSL2BX


Here are some of our responses:

1. What genre do you think the album is?

The general response was correct in that it was indie rock. However some did think it was indie, pop or rock. Therefore we could maybe consider trying to incorporate some more of the typical indie rock conventions such as visual effects used on the cover, some more professional looking pictures of the band - however making sure they do not look like a boy band, and maybe editing the font of the titles.

2. We asked whether they agreed / disagreed with statements about the digipak.

From this we found that we need to work on the continuity and theme of the digipak making sure it all fits together and looks complete. We also found out that we need to make it more eye-catching and subsequently make the audience want to buy it.

3. Is there any obvious improvements you would make to the digipak?

The main feedback was that we need to make sure all the photos match by having the same effect and making sure they all look equally professional.  Most people also mentioned that we should changed the font of the band name and album title as it was difficult to see so therefore we should make it brighter and stand out more to make the whole thing more eye-catching.

4. What would be your overall rating of the digipak? 1being terrible and 5 being fantastic.

Over half of the collective that gave us feedback gave a rating of 4 out of 5. This suggests that we are on the right lines to creating a high quality digipak. However three people rated it 3 and three people rated it 2. Therefore it is clear that we need to keep making improvements.


5. Is there anything you strongly dislike about the digipak?

Overall the least liked things about the digipak were the pictures without effects and the title of the font. Therefore we should focus on editing the pictures that haven't yet been edited and we should change the font and colour of the title in order to make it clearer and stand out more.

6. What is your favourite thing about the digipak?

The most liked thing was the photos and the type of shots. Others liked the colour scheme, the effects on the photos, the layout and the font of the title.

Overall it is clear that we need to focus on making the photos more professional and making sure they follow the same theme, having the same effects placed on them and making sure they fit together. We should also change the font of the title, making it so much clearer. If the font is more clear it will be more eye catching and attract our target audience. We should also think about what type of shot we are using and whether they fit into the indie rock genre.

Video - rough cut & comparison

Rough Cut from Ellie Williams on Vimeo.

Digipack - rough cut & comparison

Here is our rough cut for our digipak. We decided to have the band members as a key part of the digipak however after looking back at professional digipak we realised that indie band do not always have such a direct mode of address so therefore when we develop our digipack further we may add less pictures of the band. We decided that the back cover will be of the band, however to add a bit of a twist to it we made the lead singer face the back. However we wanted to have the pictures on the outside link into the pictures on the inside, so we used the same picture but reversed who was facing the camera.

Both the kooks and coldplay have used more casual photos for their digipak which we have also used. However their photos are edited and have effects added to them which we should take into consideration when we improve our digipak, as at the moment we have just place the raw photos straight into it. Furthermore they have all used some sort of graphic effect which we make them look a little more impressive and eye catching. Therefore we should also try to incorporate some sort of graphic effect, possibly on the very front cover of the amp. We could maybe have the logo made out of wired placed on the front of the amp and have electricity sparks coming off it. Another idea we had was to make "The Wired" logo as realistic and lifelike to the fender logo usually found on an amp. We would have to create this on photo shop. We could also just use a simple effect like the fish eye effect when taking our pictures to try and make them stand out more. 

After looking back at our rough cut we also decided that we would change the picture of Tom holding the lyrics as it didn't fit well with the genre and the rest of the digipak. Instead we could replace it with a picture of the band playing their instrument in a casual environment such as the ones on the kooks and coldplay digipaks. We might also replace it with just a picture of their instruments alone, instead of them with the band. 

Another reflection we had was our colour scheme. At the moment its quite random with no real sense of continuity. Therefore we could change it so that it is all in black and white, therefore all fitting together. Furthermore this may help the digipak and website link in together as the website's colour scheme is quite dark and simple. 

Website - rough cut comparison and audience feedback

http://elliewilliams245.wix.com/thewired

Coldplay:

In comparison to Coldplay's website, our website is similar in terms of the box layout of the homepage, the social media links are at the right hand top of the page, music and news appear on the page. A difference would be the size of the masthead/band logo, which on the Coldplay website is fairly small in comparison. Coldplay also advertise merch on their page, which we may have to do on ours (Though not allowing it to be taken to a real online store).

The Kooks:

The Kooks website homepage is a scroll down and each of the pages are divided by images and then a blue background with the name of the page. This is an interesting technique as it keeps the audience entertained with images of the band, allowing them to gain a sense of who the band are.

Their music page is fairly similar, although it links to places to buy the albums and their covers instead of linking to youtube videos like ours.

The news page has a very similar layout to that of our own, apart from that it's a little more interactive in that you have to click to go to the next news item rather than the scrolling down that you'd have to do on our own website.

The Killers:

In comparison to The Killers' website, ours is fairly similar in terms of the image on the top of the homepage, the colour scheme, and also the general layout of the pages such as the news page. Differences again are that the masthead/logo of the Killers is small in comparison with our own website.

In light of these comparisons, our website could be improved by resizing the masthead/logo and placing it further up the page. Another improvement is to advertise merch on the page as well as adding more profiles for the band- by giving them more coverage.

Primary audience survey:

In light of this feedback and the comparisons to professional products, we can improve the website by:

• Changing the colour scheme slightly to suit that of the digipak as it uses more red than blue colours.
• Giving the band individual profiles as that was a suggestion and people didn't seem to get an understanding of who the band were.
• The logo will also need changing to make it more noticeable as it blends in with the background, so it may be better by changing it to white for it to draw the audience's attention.
• Some images may also have to be reconsidered- some are blurred and haven't been edited using Photoshop.
• Some more news articles may also be a good idea to have also, as well as a higher use of social networking as one respondent suggested.