Construction

Final Construction:

Music Video:

To view our final music video, please click the embedded video below.



Alternitively, please click here: FINAL MUSIC VIDEO

Digipak:

Final Digipak as a 'JPEG' image:

Front cover of constructed Digipak:

 Back cover of constructed Digipak:

Inside panels of constructed Digipak:

Website:

To view our final website, please click on the link below:

http://aaronidreesblog.wix.com/shaunporter

Print screens of final website:

  

Construction of Music Video - First Draft:

Filming:

Group - This was our first day filming for our music video. Below, shows our first time using a DSLR camera. We were adjusting the settings, as well as getting a good feel for how to use the camera. After we configured the right settings we started to film. We decided to start off filming some of the performance parts of the video as we were at the location at the time. Although we didn't get as much footage as we wanted to due to it starting to rain, we got some good shots that will feature in our draft music video submission. Unfortunately, this was our only filming session before the draft submission and so we are dissapointed because we didn't get much footage. To give ourselves time for the final construction deadline, we need to ensure we start filming as soon as possible over the christmas period, giving ourselves time to edit.

Day 1 - 30/11/14:

- This picture shows me (Idrees) and Aaron changing the settings before we start to film.

- This picture shows our lead actor, Oscar, being filmed by me (Aaron).

- This picture shows Oscar rehearsing the lyrics.


Editing:

Aaron - This was our first day editing the draft footage of our music video. As we didn't have a lot of time before the draft deadline, we decided to edit using 'iMovie' as we both had previous experience using it. Due to the simplicity of the program, it didn't take long to put together our footage using simple editing techniques (straight cuts etc.). Also, because we only had roughly a minutes worth of footage for our draft, it was easy to place the footage in a chronological order of appearance. 

Day 1 - 3/12/14:

Idrees - The above screen shots shows us jump cutting the initial opening shot so that it matches the beat of the song. The shot was roughly a minute long and so each cut we made had to get rid of the same amount of footage. For example, each cut we made deleted around 2.4 seconds of the subject walking. This insured that every time a jump cut is made, the subject of the video moves the same distance each time.

Aaron - Next, we turned the 'saturation' of each clip down to 0% so that it produced a greyscale effect over our footage. We did this because it is conventional within alternative rock music videos, as well as our target audience suggesting we do so throughout our research. 

Idrees - Finally, we turned the volume of each clip down so that it would not effect the music audio. This ensured that no background noise during the filming of the scene overlapped/disrupted the song. 

Draft Music Video Submission:

To view our music video please click on the embedded video below:

Construction of Website - First Draft:

Introduction:

Group - We designed our draft website using 'Wix' as it allowed us to exploit features other professionally designed websites use (such as an interactive gallery etc.). As 'Wix' is a free website, this obviously proved to be very useful when constructing our draft (and eventually final product). It was also recommended by our Media teacher Steven. The following screenshots show the progression of our draft website over time.

Screenshot 1:

Idrees - Here you can see our first screen shot of our website. Before we designed the website we both looked at our hand drawn draft which allowed us to take our best ideas and combine them to create a website that was stereotypical of the genre to make it appealing to our primary audience. Firstly, I added a banner which contained the name of the artist with a border that looked like rough scratches (adding to the genre's 'harsh' nature). Before designing the website we looked at other alternative rock websites such as 'The1975.com' to see the most frequently used conventions.

Screenshot 2:

Aaron - In our second screen shot we added a image of the artist. From our research we found that it was a conventional feature of alternative rock websites to include an image of the artist/band on the home page. Adding images was important as it made our website visually interesting and according to our research, our audience prefer an a mixture of both image and text based content. A sense of brand identity has been created through the black/white images and text, keeping continuity across all three products (see music video and digipak drafts).

Screenshot 3:

Aaron - We then added the tabs for our website, using headings such as 'Tours', 'Gallery', 'Store' etc. to appeal to our audience. This is because having looked at existing, well-known artists websites we found these pages to feature prominantly. Again, the text on the tabs is white sitting on a black rectangular background, making them in direct contrast therefore the headings easily readable. 

Screenshot 4:

Idrees - For our fourth screenshot we decided that we needed to add a news section, providing our audience with some text based content. In this screenshot we added the heading 'Top News' in a black rectangular box where the news will be placed.

Screenshot 5:

Idrees - This screenshot shows the 'Top News' content being placed into the box. The text identifies past and upcoming events that the artist is involved in under each dated sub-heading. We felt that adding this would provide fans with a broader sense of interactivity as well as make the website less boring and empty.

Screenshot 6:

Aaron - In our next screenshot we added a video as interactivity was important for our website in order to make the site more enjoyable for the user. Videos are a common feature in most websites, not just alternative rock (or music in general) websites which played a part in why we decided to included a video in our site. At this stage we didn't have a music video to included on the site however in our final version we will include our own embedded music video via 'Youtube'.

Screenshot 7:

Group - Finally, we included social media sites as our primary audience were between the ages of 16-25 and are commonly reffered to as 'digital natives.' Including this feature was important as it allowed our audience to interactive with each other directly from our site. As you can see there is a live feed where fans of the genre can both view the artists' (Shaun Porter) tweets and also get in touch themselves. Users can also be directed to other social media sites directly from our site such as facebook, spotify, tumblr etc. In order to produce the best possible website for our final submission, we will gain audience feedback for this initial draft.

Draft Website Submission:  

To view our draft website please CLICK HERE.

Construction of Digipak - First Draft:

Introduction:

Group - We began constructing a first draft for our digipak in order to gain feedback from both our target audience and media teacher before submitting the final product. To show the progression of our digipak, we have taken screen shots during different stages to show how it has developed. 

Screenshot 1:

Idrees - Firstly, we downloaded a four panel digipak template from www.discmakers.com because we felt making our own would be time consuming. We downloaded the four panel template rather than the six panel template because having reviewed our target audience research, it suggests that people aged 16-25 prefer more simplistic designs. Also, popular bands such as Foo Fighters and Arctic Monkeys only use four panels.

Screenshot 2:

Aaron - We added the image that we chose to be our back cover image and adjusted it to fit within the template margins correctly. Due to our actor appearing in the right hand side of the frame, it left room for the track listing to fit to the left. This allows for both the artist and song names to stand out without any overlapping/obstructions. Then, we added the track listings beside the artist. We chose the typeface 'Tekton Pro' mainly due to it being a sans-serif font connoting the informality of the genre, but also because it appears quite modern and is easily readable. The track names are just the right size (font size 16), leaving plenty of room for copyright information etc.

Screenshot 3:

Idrees - To finish off the back cover for our digipak we added copyright information and a barcode. Although the two seem fairly basic and straight forward, it was important to include them as they are conventional of all digipak's. Both are located at the bottom of the back cover, ensuring that they do not interfere with the main image and track listing, but enabling people to clearly see them.

Screenshot 4:

Aaron - For the front panel of the digipak we added a picture of our actor/artist along with his name and the album name itself. From our audience feedback (see planning page) we used the font 'Libby' for the artist name and 'SkipLegDay' for the album name. To keep continuity throughout our three products we have used white text. This is due to our other ancilary product, the webpage, having a black background and so the white text will be in direct contrast, making it easy to read and conventional of the genre.

Screenshot 5:

Aaron - Next, we added a blank black rectangle onto the panel where the CD will appear. The black rectangle allows for the artist name and album title to stand out when placed onto the panel. Also, it sticks to our colour scheme across each of the ancilary products, creating a consistant and professional looking theme.

Screenshot 6:

Idrees - Using the 'rectangular marquee tool' on Photoshop, we removed the text that came with the template in order to make room for the artist's name etc. Once removed, we duplicated the layers of both the artist name and album title, flipping them upside down and placing them in the centre of our CD panel.

Screenshot 7:

Idrees - The final panel simply has a made up quote from our artist against a black background. We felt that due to the age demographic of our target audience being 16-25 year olds and from previous research, fans would want a mixture of both image and text based content. We will, however, be conducting further target audience research when we showcase this draft to members of our target audience in order to gain feedback.

Screenshot 8:

Group - Finally, we added a black and white filter to the images. This is because we did not feel satisfied with our initial finished draft. The light colours for the images did not match those of the black panels. Also, the black and white filter connotes a darker side to the genre. This means that target audience memebers will be more likely to identify with the digipak, as other notable artists within the genre (e.g. The 1975) use similar colour combinations. We are fairly happy with the overall draft, however our images and content will need to be developed in order for our final product to be as professional as possible. As previously mentioned, we will be gaining audience feedback for this initial draft.

Draft Digipak Submission:

To view our draft digipak please click the image below:

First Draft Teacher Feedback:

 

Group - Having completed the first drafts for our music video, digipak and website, we gained feedback from our Media teacher Steven. Steven's feedback was very helpful, as he pointed out different ways and techniques of improving our products. He provided us with seperate feedback for each of our draft ancillary products which we will thoroughly review in order to achieve the best possible grade. It is evident from the 'construction marksheet' that a lot of hard work and effort is needed from ourselves over the coming weeks.

Digipak:

Group - There were a number of changes that Steven suggested we make to our digipak in order to raise our current grade based on the draft.  One of the main problems was that the font was low quality therefore it did not look to a professional standard. In order to rectify this, we should download our chosen font and apply it on the product, rather than print screen it and then stretch the text to match our needs - the mistake we made here. Also, some of our text such as the technical info etc. needs to be changed. Particularly our quote on the inside cover, as it looked very much like 'comic sans' therefore it did not match the genre or the target audience. Another area for improvement is our pictures. This is because Steven said that they were not very conventional of the genre and some areas had lots of empty space. Finally, the artists' name on our front panel overlaps the artists' face which is a major issue and is very unconventional. This is because it connotes that our artist is of less importance and so will need to be changed in our final digipak.

Website:

Group - Likewise with our webiste, there were several issues that needed to be addressed. The title was blurry and we needed to use a wider variety of fonts (both issues within our digipak also). Our websites social network bar was too big and our artists tweets were not stereotypical - some were about football! Some positive feedback that we did recieve was regarding our main image and the fact it was strong, reflecting the genre well. However, in order to get a higher grade we should consider having more images of our artist throughout the site - possibly an interactive gallery. The final piece of feedback for our website was to make it more interactive. When constructing our final website we will definately try and make it as innovative and entertaining as possible by adding such things as interactive gallery's, videos etc. in order to make it as user friendly as possible.

Music Video:

Group - Unfortunately, our draft music video was incomplete and so we only recieved feedback for a portion of the video that Steven was able to view. Our opening shot that uses 'jump cuts' in sync with the beat was praised and is certainly a shot that will feature in our final video as it demonstrates effective editing. We were advised to use a wider variety of shots and also shorten them in order to make the video more visually entertaining. Some of our shots were blurry and also unsteady, therefore we will need to adjust the focus etc. as well as use a dolly in order to correct these errors. The final improvements needed to be made are undoubtably the most important aspects. We need to ensure that our actors lip syncing is spot on in order to make the video both believeable and professional, and we also need to have an even balance of performance and narrative within the video, as this is what our target audience prefer (as our research data suggests).

Final Group Comments:

As a group we feel that we can produce a much higher standard of work in order to achieve our products potential. Having reviewed our first draft teacher feedback, a stand out comment is that we need to have more originality. Due to other successful artists such as 'The 1975' and 'Arctic Monkeys' using two tone colour schemes of black and white, greyscale filters within their videos etc. to create brand identity, we feel that we need to break away from this and try to form our own. In order to do this, we may need to consider breaking some conventions of the alternative rock genre so that our products are unique. Using a different colour scheme, typeface and overall layout are just some things that we need to think about before producing our final products. 

 

First Draft Audience Feedback

Group - In this task we asked for feedback from are primary audience as we knew that in order to create a successful alternative rock product, we needed to appeal to our audience in order to get a high grade. We asked for feedback on our Draft music video, Digi-pak and website and asked for the pros and cons for each of them as we wanted to know how we could improve them for our final product. This task has helped us greatly as we now know what is required for each of the products to appeal to our audience. For example we need to include a range of shots and more cuts to keep the viewers attention. For our Digi-pack we will need to include more attention-grabbing shots inor order to make our Digi-pack more visually appealing. Lastly for our website we need to include more images of the artist and include more interactivity as our primary audience are 'digital natives' and will welcome this.

Music Video Construction After Feedback:

Filming The Narrative:

Aaron - After receiving feedback on our first drafts, it was evident that drastic changes needed to be made in order for us to obtain a high grade. An example of the feedback given which we took on board, was that the video had to include a better mixture of both narrative and performance. We filmed the narrative parts of the video in our friend Oscar's house, as we thought the setting would be familiar to our target audience. During this day of the narrative shoot, we managed to film all of the scenes in the house with both our male and female actors. We had to make sure these scenes were finished, as our female actress Heather had family commitements over the Christmas period and therefore could not make another filming session. The pictures below show our actor going off the rails and turning to drinking/smoking etc. This allowed us to conform to Andrew Goodwin's theory by matching the onscreen visuals to the lyrics.

Day 1 - 10/12/14:

- This picture depicts Idrees about to film a narrative scene in the bedroom.

- This picture show Idrees directing Oscar on what to do in this particular screen.

- In this picture Aaron is filming the narrative part of the music video.

- This photo depicts Aaron doing a close up shot of Oscar's hand as he injured it in the previous scene.

Filming The Narrative & Performance:

Idrees - Today we decided that we were going to hire out a tracking dolly in order to get multiple steady moving shots for our performance side of the video. This was one of the improvements our teacher gave us, as we handheld the camera in our first draft which was a bad idea as we couldn't keep the camera still. We decided to focus on both performance and narrative aspects of the video today as our location in New Haw was far away - we didn't want to keep travelling out here. Also, since we had the tracks, we wanted to use this opportunity to take advantage of them because they were hard to book out initially since other groups were using them. We don't plan to use tracking shots in the narrative part of the video as we wanted to instead use still shots. Another improvement we wanted to make from our draft was the quality of our video. So we did some research together in order to get the best quality possible. We  found that filming at 24FPS and having the ISO set at 100 would give us the best quality in outdoor lighting conditions.

Day 2 - 22/12/14:

- This Photo shows Aaron setting up the camera on the tracks before we start filming a tracking shot.

- In this picture Idrees is setting the camera up before filming the tracking shot to insure that we get the best quality possible.

- This photo shows Aaron filming a tracking shot using the dolly tracks.

Filming The Narrative & Performance (continued):

Aaron - Today we wanted to finish filming completely. We took quite a break from our last filming session to this one due to Christmas. Again, we filmed a mixture of both narrative and performance to ensure we had enough footage for the editing stage. We filmed the car scenes, woodland scenes and closing shots of the video today to wrap up filming. Both me and Idrees met with our actor Oscar at 9:00am to make sure that we got the most out of the day. This was important because there was a lot to get done and we wanted to complete filming before the sunlight dimmed down in the afternoon. We are happy with the shots we captured as they are high quality. Should we still need some shots during the editing stage, we have given ourselves plenty of time to capture these before the final construction deadline on the 14th.

Day 3 - 2/01/15:

- This picture shows Aaron capturing a shot of Oscar in the reflection of the rear view mirror.

- This picture shows me (Aaron) assessing what angles we could shoot from during the car scene.

- This picture depicts Aaron configuring the depth of field for the closing shots.

Editing The Video:

Aaron - This was our first time editing the new footage for our music video. Initially, we began trying to edit the footage using 'Final Cut Express Pro' using the college Apple Mac's. However, neither of us could really get to grips with the program and so I (Aaron) downloaded a 30 day trial of 'Sony Movie Studio Platinum 13.0'. The program was easy to use as it gave video tutorials on the basics. Downloading the program helped a lot because we edited a lot over the Christmas period where the Mac's were obviously unavailable (due to them being at college). Also, had we have been able to use them, valuable time would have potentially been lost when trying to figure out how to use Final Cut Express.

Editing Day 1:

Aaron - Similarly to the draft video, I began creating the jump cuts as these were praised by our teacher and members of our target audience alike during the feeback. To do this, I dragged our opening shot into the 'video' row and the song into the 'volume' row. Then, I played the video and paused the clip on each beat in order to have the cut matching with it. I then pressed the 'S' key which created a horizontal marker on the video clip row. Again, I found the next beat after and pressed the 'S' key, creating a rectangular box between the area previously marked and this one. I then simply pressed the delete button to remove that section of the clip, meaning that when it was played the subject of our video would 'jump' closer to the camera in time with the beat.

Aaron - I continued to edit the narrative part of our video by adding in flashbacks. I placed the flashback clips on the row below our main clips in order to avoid confusion when editing further down the line. To illustrate part of the narrative entering a flashback state, I used fade transitions both at the beginning and end of said sequence. This ensured that the audience would not get confused and be able to realise when the flashbacks had ended. To also aid this, I added black and white effects to the flashback sequences by clicking 'add effects' and selecting 'Sony black and white'. This allowed us to conform to the conventions of alternative rock, as modern artists within the genre use greyscale filters such as 'The 1975' etc.

Editing Day 2:

Idrees - Today I came round Aaron's house to help edit the music video. We edited both performance and narrative elements today to make sure the construction of our video is well under way. Our first performance scene within the video is our tracking shots and so we included them straight after the establishing shot. Also, we added a cross-fade in our video to ensure that we used a range of editing techniques. We did this by dragging a narrative clip (over the shoulder shot of actor looking at computer screen) over the second tracking shot. As well as it being visually interesting, it conforms to Andrew Goodwin's theory of onscreen visualls matching the lyrics due to what is being said at that moment - "nothing I know changes me at all" connoting his guilt. Along with this, we again used jump cuts to make our actor walking to the car more interesting as it cuts to the beat (a regular technique throughout our video).

Aaron - Continuing to piece together the narrative aspects of the video was a long process. I was initially worried that we would not have enough footage, as I had to use the 'trim' tool to crop clips to a reasonable size. Had I not done this, many of our clips would have been long and very tedious for the audience watching, therefore some only last for a couple of seconds to ensure that there is always something of interest taking place on screen. Examples of this are where 'matched' cuts are used during the car scenes. These shots allowed me to edit around them to the beat so that every couple of seconds the camera composition changes - creating a more visually entertaining video.

Idrees - During this part of the editing process, I again added further flashback clips to the second row to avoid confusion like Aaron did previously. I made sure to add in fade transitions as well as a black and white filter to match the earlier scenes. Thankfully, this didn't take long becuase we had already implemented these transitions and effects in the flashback scenes before. Considering this was our second day of editing, things were going very well as we had almost edited 2 minutes of our song. 

Editing Day 3:

Aaron - Idrees could not make the editing session round my house today due to family commitments, therefore I took it upon myself to complete the video as the final construction deadline was growing ever closer. This stage involved me adding in another performance part of the video which takes place in the woodland area. This involved a lot of cutting and trimming of clips in order to ensure that our actors lip syncing was in time with the lyrics. Simple 'straight' cuts have featured prominantly throughout this sequence to show off different shots such as 'close ups' and 'panning' as well as connoting the subjects quick thought process. I also decided to add the end scene, involving our artist moving further away from the camera, again, with the use of jump cuts. I felt this was an effective way of ending the music video because it almost mirrors our opening shot.

Aaron - This screenshot depicts another easy editing stage towards the latter stages of our music video. It shows me adding in a black and white filter to convey the flashback effect and also shows each cut I have made. I feel that this sequence is our best in terms of editing, as a cut is made every second to the beat and due to the onscreen events, this helps heighten the effect/tension within the narrative. The fast cuts also hold implicit connotations, suggesting how quick the character within the video went off the rails, turning to alcohol, cigarettes etc. Personally, I am very happy with this sequence because it shows off the different forms of cinematography that we considered during the filming stage of our music video.

Aaron - To wrap up the editing for our music video I added the final performance scenes (bed scene etc.) and remaining narrative footage. Once again, to conform to Andrew Goodwin's theory I used a 'cross-fade' showing the picture of 'Holly' when our artist is walking. This matched the lyrics of "I'm always wanting you" and was stressed earlier on during the bed scene. The final narrative scenes were very straight foward to edit as I simply dragged the footage onto the timeline and used the 'trim' and 'selection' tools to ensure each clip was the correct length and more imporantly, each cut was in time with the beat.

Aaron - Before rendering and exporting our music video, I selected all of the gold sound elements (see previous screenshot) that were background noise during the filming of the scenes. I then right clicked and pressed 'ungroup' so that when I deleted the sound, it would not delete the video clips along with it. Then, I simply moved the song up a row so that it was on the main audio bar to ensure it would play when we exported it. I then clicked 'Make Movie' on the above toolbar and created two copies of the video both using different formats. I saved one as 'MPEG-2' so that it was DVD ready for when we submit it to our teacher and the other as an 'MP4' file for when we upload it to YouTube and embed it onto our blog. This will allow for the video to be viewed in the best possible quality on either format. 

Digipak Construction After Feedback:

NOTE: The construction of the digipak was split equally. Aaron created the front and back cover panels, while Idrees created the inside panels. Throughout all stages we were with eachother to offer suggestions and support, as we edited the digipak on the college computers. This allowed the work load to be shared equally, enabling us both to input our ideas into the construction of the digipak as a group.

Creating The Front & Back Cover Panels:

Aaron - In order to create a unique brand identity, we decided to make our artists primary colour dark blue instead of perhaps black/grey. To begin with, we took a picture of a garage that had been painted dark blue, forming the starting point for our digipaks background. Initially, there was a line going across the middle of the picture and so I used the 'rectangular marquee' tool and selected it. Then, I clicked 'edit' followed by 'fill' which prompted a box to appear on the screen. From here, I selected 'content-aware' meaning that Photoshop would fill the area that I had selected as similarly as it could to its surrounding area.  

Aaron - We decided to continue using a four panel digipak in order to conform to the simplicity of the genre. Likewise with the draft digipak, I downloaded a template from 'www.discmakers.com' instead of making our own in order to save time. I then started to construct the front cover of our digipak by importing the dark blue image from the previous screenshot into this document.

Aaron - After importing the image, I selected it by pressing 'Ctrl' and 't' and resized it while holding 'shift' to ensure the image would not stretch or appear distorted in any way. As the background was quite plain, I decided to select the image and then click 'filter' and added 15% 'noise', meaning that the texture of the background appeared more rough (conforming to the ideologies of both the target audience and the genre).

Aaron - Having decided to use the typefaces' 'Wrestlemania' (for our artist name) and 'Libby' (for our album name), I downloaded them from 'www.dafont.com' and imported the fonts into Photoshop - meaning we didn't have to print screen text from the website. I then added the artist name 'Shaun Porter' to the top of the page and the album name 'Confess' near the bottom. The artist name is conventional because it is bigger than the album name, suggesting the artists' important/stature. I then added the 'drop shadow' effetcs onto both pieces of text to give it a more professional look. 

Aaron - Next, I scanned in our logo design that I drew during the planning stage of the project and opened it up in a blank Photoshop document. The reason for this, was because I needed to edit it before importing it into our digipak document. As a group, we decided that we were going to use the 50/50 colour split on the logo, as many connotations and assumptions could be made from this. In doing so, we knew that it would give our artist a unique factor, as well as providing the essential brand identity (eventually across all products).

Aaron - I used the 'magic wand' tool to remove the grey background from the image (as this was the colour the paper I drew it on was). Then, using the 'paint bucket' tool I filled in the right hand side of the image black and the other white as we had planned. I also used the 'rectangular marque' tool to highlight and then 'sharpen' the edges and feathers of the wings using the 'filter' tab to ensure that they looked more smooth and real.

Aaron - I then copied the logo image that I had been editing into our digipak Photoshop document. It became apparent that my previous use of the 'paint bucket' tool did not work for the left hand side wings because they were not filled in white. To fix this, I used the 'custom shape tool' which allowed me to draw a curved line connecting the outline of the shape together, meaning I could then fill it in white (see next screenshot).

Aaron - After fixing the left hand side wings, some of the feathers on the right side wings were too small, leaving the overall logo looking incomplete. Again, to counter this I used the 'rectangular marque' tool to highlight the feathers that were intact and make a duplicate of them. With the duplicate layer, I used the 'image resize' and 'image rotation' tools to add them to the top part of the wings. I also gave the image a drop shadow. It creates a nice 3D effect while also leaving a shadow leading to all sorts of connotations and concludes the construction of the front cover.

Aaron - Next, I began contructing the back panel by adding the same background image that we used on our front cover, onto our back cover along with the track listing. This was simple and not time consuming as I simply 'duplicated' the layer and moved it across to the back cover tile. The album listing in the middle of the panel was inspired by Foo Fighters 'Greatist Hits' album and allows for each song to be seen clearly, due to the white text colour contrasting with the dark blue background. I also created circles seperating each song name using the 'ellipse' tool which I then filled in white using the 'paint bucket' tool before duplicating it to cater for all 14 songs.

Aaron - Some of the remaining conventional features that I added next included another heading of the artist name, copyright information, Interscope Records logo and a barcode. Although seemingly simple, these conventions are still very important in creating the most professional promotional package. Both the barcode and Interscope Records images have been resized using the 'Ctrl' - 't' and 'shift' combinations explained earlier.

Aaron - I then simply added the artist name 'Shaun Porter' and album name 'Confess' to the side of the track listing as this was also a common feature within alternative rock digipaks. I created both pieces of text on Photoshop and simply rotated them to a 90 degree angle so that they would appear vertically on the back cover. To conclude the making of the front and back panels, I added the spine to the digipak also containing both the artist and album names in dark blue text. This meant that they were in direct contrast to the white strip background and so could be easily readable.

Creating The Inside Right & Left Panels:

Idrees - Below I will be going through the process of the editing tool we used to create the perfect image for our digipak. We used Photoshop as it allowed us to edit our image without any limits as it allowed us to create a image that is not only conventional to the genre but appealing to our primary audience.

.Idrees - The above video shows how I created the image for the inside cover of our digipak. I have done this by taking a screen recording and speeding up the video, eventually exporting it to 'YouTube'.

Idrees - After discussing with my partner (Aaron) we decided that to create an appealing digi-pak we needed to use a image that used conventional colours e.g. black, white etc. We both decided that we wanted to use a black and white filter in order to create an image that fits within the alternative rock genre.

Idrees - The first tool we used was the exposure tool, which enabled use to create richer white and blacks as it would create a greater effect when we eventually added the black and white filter.

Idrees - As for our next tool we used, we added the black and white filter. I adjusted the white to 15% and the black to 85% as it gave the colours more separation and gave the image more detail.

Idrees - After adding the black and white filter, we both wanted the audience to focus on particular areas of the photo which had great importance to the fans of the genre. We did this by using the masking tool which allowed us to lighten up specific areas of the photo, where we wanted our audience to focus on. in the above image we used the masking tool on the hand and lighter. 

Idrees - In the next image we used the masking tool again however we used it on the performers eye. This created intensity within the image as you could see fire in his eyes, which shows the performers emotions. 

Idrees - Above is the final outcome of the process. We were both happy with the final outcome of the image as we wanted to clearly represent the genre through mise-en-scene e.g. clothing, lighter and cigarette and also through the use of colours. 

Idrees -  After editing the image for the right panel, I imported the image to our Digi pak document so I could put the image on the right panel. However after discussing further improvements we could make to the panel, we both agreed that we needed to include a pull quote from his hit song 'All of this.'

Idrees - For the last panel, me and my partner wanted to subvert to conventions so that our product would stand out from other alternative rock digi paks however making it still look like a alternative rock digi pak.

Website Construction After Feedback:

  

Aaron - We decided to start our final website completely from scratch. This was because of the feedback that we recieved and so we wanted to create a completely different layout. We looked at multiple websites for influence when making our own. Notable examples include 'Foo Fighters' and 'Imagine Dragons'. The layouts of their websites were fairly simple, but also very effective. They implemented many user interactivity features within their websites - something we needed to include in our own.

Idrees  - I began by changing the colour of our 'header' (navigation bar) to dark blue in order to keep our 'house style' theme continuous across all products. Then I ticked a check box entitled 'fixed position' meaning that when the user scrolls down the page, our navigation bar would go with it (this was a prominant feature in websites we looked at). Next I added buttons and linked them to the different pages on our site using the 'add page' tool and 'link to' tools. Lastly, I changed the background mouseover to white and text mouseover dark blue, providing a sense of interactive/visually appealing content for the user.

 Aaron - I finished the navigation bar of our webpage by adding in our artist name. Unfortunately, 'Wix' did now allow me to use the 'Wrestlemania' font we downloaded, therefore I had to save our artist name as an image and import it using the 'upload image' feature. I then simply resized the image and placed it to the left of our buttons as to not get in the way of them.

Aaron - Having viewed 'Foo Fighters' website, I noticed that they had a slideshow gallery - a common feature within music websites. Due to the age demographic of our target audience being considered late teens/young adults, I knew that many people my age like to collect posters, memorabillia etc. I decided to create two image banners that would scroll across the screen promoting giveaways for the fans. To do this, I opened up 'Photoshop' and created a multi-coloured banner using conventional colours such as black and grey. I then copied our digipak cover into the document and made it look 3D by simply using the 'line tool' to connect the edges of the opened page. Then, I used the 'rectangular marque' tool to highlight an area on the digipaks surface and save it as a 'fill texture'. Then, I clicked the triangular opened page area using the 'magic wand' tool and filled it with the same dark blue background as the digipak. I did the same for the poster and then simply imported an unused digipak picture of our artist onto it, as it is an effective use of direct mode of address.

 Aaron - Creating the second banner was a similar process. This time, I made the whole banner black to make the artist logo stand out. The text was also white to ensure it was the same as it is on our other products. This also allowed for it to stand out as white and black are in direct contrast. I then simply imported the 'download on iTunes' image and also our artists record label 'Interscope Records' to make it look as professional as possible. 

Aaron - After making the banners, I added a 'strip slideshow gallery' to the top of the page. I then uploaded both of the images and linked them both to the 'Store' page as they are promoting the purchase of the album. I then changed the settings of the slideshow, making it slide horizontally across the page instead of vertically. Also, I changed the title colour of the 'read more' box to dark blue and the text to white - ensuring brand identity runs consistantly throughout.

Aaron - After I added the banners, I then added another 'strip slideshow' to our website as we had discussed using them throughout it like many of the existing artists within the genre. I added a single image of our artist and used the 'filter' and 'enhance' tools to both give the image a blue effect and also sharpen the overall quality. I then added transparent boxes that would later be filled with 'top news' information. The mixture of text and image based content was something we wanted to make paramount within our website, as audience feedback suggested they liked a mixture of both.

Idrees - After Aaron added the transparent boxes, I added text and images explaining the latest news about our artist. One of the news features was 'Reading Festival' which we felt was important to add due to the age demographic of our target audience having an out going life-style. This meant that they enjoy going out to parties and attending many gigs and concerts. I added 'read more' buttons to each square containing news and linked them to the 'news' page of our website to ensure interactivity within our website.

Aaron - For the inclusion of our music video onto our website, I imported an image of our artist 'Shaun Porter' singing during the performance part of the video. I felt this was an effective image to use, as it shows off brand identity through the mise-en-scene of what our artist is wearing (he is wearing similar clothes in the pictures above). I then included the text and linked the button to our music video on our 'YouTube' page.

Aaron - As social networking was an important feature on alternative rock websites, I decided to create another banner within 'Photoshop' that our social netweorking sites will be shown on. The only tools used were the 'add text' tool because the rest of the images were simply imported from our digipak.

Aaron - Finally, I used the 'create widget' tool to display a live 'Twitter' feed of our artists tweets. Members of the target audience would find this appealing, as it is a way of interacting with the artist. I simply logged onto our artists Twitter account and copied the 'HTML' code and pasted it into 'Wix'. This allowed us to embed the Twitter feed onto our website, allowing fans to see any live updates from our artist.