Website Research - The process of their Construction

Websites have many functions and can be used in various fashions; a website can be a personal website, a commercial website, a government website or a nonprofit organization website. Websites can be the work of an individual, a business or other organization, and are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose. Any website can contain a hyperlink to any other website, so the distinction between individual sites, as perceived by the user, can be blurred.

Websites are written in, or dynamically converted to, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and are accessed using a software interface classified as a user agent. Web pages can be viewed or otherwise accessed from a range of computer-based and Internet-enabled devices of various sizes, including desktop computers, laptops, PDAs and cell phones.

A website is hosted on a computer system known as a web server, also called an HTTP server. These terms can also refer to the software that runs on these systems which retrieves and delivers the web pages in response to requests from the website's users.

Construction of a website

1)  Template Stage - An accepted template is the blueprint for building the website. The look and feel of the website is designed from this template. This is the first stage of the construction of a website.

2)   Build Stage - This part of the process may last a week or two, or a month or more depending on the complexity of the website. This is the stage where they start putting together features of the website after the template is made. This is the second stage of the construction of a website.

3)   Move-in-stage - The website programming is finished after the “Build” stage. So now the owners of the website can add more features to finish of the website, eg photos. This is the final stage of the construction of a website.

Digi-Pack Research - The process of their Construction

The CD DigiPak is a modern, stylish alternative to the standard CD duel Case. CD Digipaks are a custom printed card packaging that can hold one or more CDs which are held in place with plastic trays (CD flexi trays) which are glued into the digipak.

CD DigiPaks are especially popular in the music industry for CD albums as well as multiple CD disc sets. CD Digipaks give a product an expensive professional look and feel, especially when well-designed CD artwork is combined with clever use of specialist print.

Digipaks were originally only seen as limited edition or specialist CD products however improvements in CD production and CD packaging printing techniques has meant that this sleek CD packaging solution is now available at much lower quantities and at much lower prices.

Also CD Digipaks are made out of card stock (with recycled card options available). The most common CD Digipaks is the 4 panel Digipak which opens like a book. However 6 panel CD Dipipaks are also very popular, providing a larger canvas for CD artwork and text information about the CD, our production digi-pak is a 6 panelled one. 8 panel and even 10 panel CD Digipaks are also available.

Unlike CD duel Cases Digipak-style packaging is made from cardboard and as such can be considered less resistant to wear than CD duel cases. Disc Factory minimise this issue by applying a protective gloss or matt varnish to all CD Digipak packaging as standard, the matt lamination finish (a process in which we add a thin transparent plastic film to the surface of card packaging) as this extra plastic coating gives the CD Digipak even more rigidity, providing not only increased longevity, but also making the treated surfaces water resistant too. Matt Lamination also has the added benefit of giving the finished surface of the digipak a soft finish that is really smooth to the touch.

Disc Factory’s also offer DVD DigiPaks. These are constructed in exactly the same was as a CD DigiPak but whereas the CD DigiPak has the dimensions of a standard CD case the DVD DigiPak is a similar size to a normal amaray style DVD case.

Analysing Music Videos - Lightning Bolt

This is a music video by Jake Bugg he has a style of music we all enjoy and is similar to our chosen genre as it is acoustic. He is 18 years old so is the same age as our target audience. The music video consists of fast shots to keep with the music, it has old effects on it making it seem like a traditional film made a while ago giving it a very antique image. He narrates through the song as it refers back to him singing but also him walking through the streets as the story is being told. This is what we plan on doing as Adam tells the story of Dom's relationship situation. The shots are very random and switch constantly in time with the beat around different places, although it does keep a reoccurring theme of this, vintage feel with keeps the video interesting a fun to watch. Especially as it is not just focused on the singer which can be boring for the audience, we will use this technique when filming.

Analysing Music Video - Bastille

This is a Bastille song called Flaws; it is of an alternative genre, something similar to our choice. I have chosen to analyse this music video as it is very different to many others I have previously done. It doesn't follow a specific story line and is a very quirky piece. Although what it does do is follow the pace of the music with its actions, as the music is slow, so is everything happening in the video. We see the main character sing along many times throughout the video but not the whole way, this has become a usual feature in music videos and something we would like to incorporate. The song its self is revolving relationship as is ours, we see him in arcades and enjoying times with girls who have masks on this relates to his lyrics, "flaws". We are going to use the idea of seeing the relationship in happy times and reverting back to our lyrics and title "drunk" as we see a constant occurrence of alcohol throughout the music video. Throughout the rest of the video there are many random parts of action which is enjoyable to watch, the main character and singer taking centre stage, which we also will try to replicate in our own piece.

Conventions of a Music Video - Pop

Pop – The Wanted – Glad you came
§  Party atmosphere
§  Sun, beach, holidays, boat -fun
§  Flirting
§  Shades, bikinis
§  Quick paced shots from clip to clip
§  Typical summer pop song
§  Jeans and t shirts, not smart clothing
§  Abroad

This song and video are an example of a typical summer/holiday pop anthem, which is instantly shown by the shooting being in a foreign country on a beach and around a pool. The video shows the band and others having fun, mucking around and is not too serious which is a stereotype of pop as it is meant to be fun and upbeat. The party atmosphere throughout the video also represents this. The clothes worn support the stereotype with bikinis which obviously would be worn on holidays and also jeans and t shirts rather than suits that may be worn in RnB videos to again represent the relaxed, fun atmosphere. The quick paced shots show there is a lot going on and a lot of action which is stereotypical of a pop video.

Party atmosphere








A shot of the whole band








Having fun on boat/ expensive








Sea and sun scene



Analysing Digi-Pak

This is an example of a digipak from a Rhianna album. It has reoccurring theme to it as the front and back and inside are all in black and white and have similar taken images. This makes the digi-pak flow and look overall more professional. After doing plenty of research we have realised that keep a constant theme is important as the audience can then relate you everything together without thinking about it. It lets them establish and recognize you through imagery. This is something important which we think will be vital and important for us to include in to ours.

Conventions of a music video - RnB

Though music video's can be incredibly varied, there are conventions that are evident across the genre. The conventions of a music video consist of; mise en scene, this is everything that is visable on screen in the video, also editing, this is the editing of the music video so what cuts are used, also camera work, this is camera shots such as close ups and also camera movement such as crain shots, also lighting, this is what lighting is used to add empathy on something in the video, also sound, this is mainly the song and finally props and costumes.

The conventions often depend on the genre of the music/music video. So for example if the music video is RnB then this Genre has typical conventions.


RnB – Jason Derulo – It Girl
§  Flash car
§  Suit – dapper
§  Chain
§  Dancing – typical
§  Glamorous woman, man, lifestyle
§  Beach scene in back
§  Big, expensive house
§  Sunny
§  Black and white clothing, vests, leather jacket
§  Sunglasses
§  Well kept hair, make up
§  Love story

These are all typical features of an RnB music video, with glamorous people, scenes and expensive items such as the house and car. Pools and beaches are often used in RnB musice videos and although they aren't used a lot in this video there is the beach balcony view and beach in the background of shots, this shows that they are in an expensive location. The cross chain Jason Derulo wears is a typical example of the knid of 'bling' used in RnB videos. His clothing is also typical of an RnB video.

Provocative


 

 

Leather Jacket, Bling

Balcony Scene

Organisation of Actors, locations, costumes and props

Actors
In our music video we have 4 actors, these are; Dom clarke, Adam Lomas, Roberto Pinto and Morgan Hunter.
Dom is the main character, the song narrates part of his life, as he has just come out of a break up, and is shown suffering and consequently uses alcohol as his pain relief to some extent. For example in this picture, it show's him drinking after recieving a text asking if he wants to go pub. there are many drinking shots in our video just to emphasise not only the song but how relationships can cause struggles for people.

Roberto is Dom best friend in the video and is there to offer him support. He provides him with company and ask's him to go pub. in this picture we can see that Roberto and Dom are in the pub having a drink and Roberto is trying to cheer Dom up. This again narrates Dom's life and Roberto is there for support.

Morgan is the ex-girlfriend of Dom's in the video, and we see clips of them together when the relationship was good and we see clips of the break-up. The clips of the good times we have edited so they are in black and white, this is to show that they were the past and therefore makes it easier for the viewer to recognise.

Adam is the shadow of Dom in some respects, he is there to play guitar, this therefore show's that he is playing a long to the song. It's as if this has happened in his life and he is a ghost to Dom and
is witnessing it happening to him.








Locations

In our music video we have various locations where clips are shot. We have Dom's house, this is iconic because evidently we see him waking up here and at the end of the clip we see him on his sofa very down and drunk. This show's that no matter how much he is struggling and upset he always has a place to come home to and to feel sorry for himself. Also we have the Harrier pub as a location, this is in the video because it's about using alcohol to mask pain, and therefore a pub is a great place for this, we see in this location him and his friend drinking and chatting, which takes Dom's mind of the break-up. Also we have a corner shop as a location, this is because we can show Dom buying alcohol which again emphasises him needing it to make him feel less pain and heart-ache. We also have locatons of outdoors shots near greenary and streams, this is to show the good times of the relationship, it show's them walking, having fun and being loved up. This is a great location to portray the relationship.

Costumes

The costumes which all the characters wear are quite casual and fashionable. This is so it fits in with our target audience, and also because it represents youth's going through relationship problem's so they will wear casual clothes. Jeans, Chinos, t-shirts, jumpers, hoody's, coats, these are the clothing the chracters wear in the video, it portrays a 'cool' look, not smart and not scruffy but very casual.

Props

The props which we used in our video were; guitar this was a main prop as it was a key instrument to the song, and also was Adams prop, so this allowed him to be in the background playing the song, to illustrate Dom's life situation. Also alcohol was a prop, this was very important in the music video because it was the main feature in it, as we are portraying a relationship break-up and how Dom turns towards alcohol to help him through it. Also mobile phone was a prop, this allowed the friend to contact Dom in order for them to go pub together.

Easter Break

Over the easter break we knew that filming was going to be hard, as we were unable to get together to organise some filming or to do our digi-pack and website. This was because we all had work over the holidays and other things, so therefore we could not get together as a group. However although we were unable to do filming, we have still done sufficient work since we have got back. We are on track to have everything finished shortly.    

Analysing Music Videos - Scouting For Girls - Love How It Hurts

This song and video "Love How It Hurts" is a single by the English indie pop band Scouting for Girls. I have decided to analyze this music video because it follows a narrative (like our music production) of a love triangle. The music video shows a young geeky boy falling in love with a young girl as they soon started to become friends a cool bad boy comes over and takes the girl away. The geeky boy tried to give her a tape holding 'Love How It Hurts' on it. Yet again the cool boy interrupts and breaks it apart. Next they have all grown up and he is still in love with her. The geeky boy runs to meet her, intercut with scenes of the girl and geeky boy. He tries to marry her and (yet again) the cool boy interrupts, throws the ring off a nearby cliff and tries to walk off with the girl again. The music video ends when the girl stops walking and looks back at him.This music video has fast and slow clips, depending on the speed of the song; it also includes slow motion clips. The video incorporates a lot of bright colours to emphasize the upbeat song. This is similar to our music production because it follows a narrative and has happy and sad time for the relationship.  

Analysing Music Videos - Ed Sheeran - The A Team

This is a music video by Ed Sheeran; this was one of his first major song releases. This is the artist which we are using for our music video, so I thought analysing one of his other songs and music videos would be beneficial to enable us to identify him as an artist and his genre of music. This song is similar to the song we are using because it is a Folk ballad. The song also is a narrative like our production, this song follows the struggles of a women’s life, and how she is a drug addict and will do anything for money. The woman is suffering in life and this video represents that, like our production it represents suffering. This song is similar to hits like Suzanne Vega's "Luka" (about child abuse), 10,000 Maniacs' "Like the Weather" (depression) and Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" (alcoholism)", these are all songs that shade their heavy topics under a melodic canopy. The lightening in this video is a contrast of black and white; this is similar to our production again because we will incorporate black and white to emphasize the past. Ed Sheeran’s songs often follow a narrative; this is good for us because it means we can portray this in our production. The video also shows slow clips to elongate the story; this is very affective because it enables the audience to understand the narrative. It also incorporates fast editing to show that people are going past her fast, but she is just sat as if her life is coming to a stop. Overall this video is great, because it portrays a understandable narrative, which consequently will allow the audience to keep watching and connect with the song and video.     

First Draft Review

At the start of the music video it shows the main character Dom, waking up to an alarm clock with alchohol in his hand, and around his room, this shows that he has had a rough night due to the break-up. When he opens his curtains to look outside, he picks up a beer can and then throws it on his bed, then it comes back into his hand (we edited this) this shows that he is trying to get rid of the alcohol but it keeps coming back to him and this is due to his heartache. We then incorporated footage in black and white to show the relationship, this is because it shows that the relationship is now in the past because they have broken up, so it shows flashbacks of what they used to be like (happy). The draft ends with him on his own with acohol and he recieves a text from a friends asking him to go pub.

We feel that the first draft is good and will defiantly enable us to build on it in order for us to improve it. However clearly the video is not finished, but we have many shots to put into the video. Things what could be improved on is shorter clips so it flows a bit more as a music video.

First Draft

Rough Cut- Feedback

When we showed our rough-cut to our teacher and some of the class, we got postitive feedback, they all believed the story line was good, and the contrast of black and white to show the past and coloured footage to enphasis the present was a good use of editing. We asked for some feedback on how to improve the music video and one point that was mentioned was to make some of the clips alot shorter and snappier. However the rough cut feedback was very good for our group.

Website

The website is almost complete, we have worked together to create our website. We have included various pictures and information like a website should have. And also we have included different headings which can be clicked on and will result in leading you to another page. We have considered drop down menu's also to improve our website. The website should be fully completed very soon.

Digi-Pack

The Digi-Pack is coming together nicely and will soon be complete. We have incorporated a similar theme to all panals on the Digi-Pack. The design is good and we are working well as a group to finish it.

Actress Issue

Unfortunately we are having some difficulties with our actress who rarely has time to help us with the filming. However as a group we are dealing with it and are filming with her as much as we can to get the shots we need for our music video. As its now too late to change the actress we are going to have to do are best to counteract the uncooperative attitude she has, and try to film with her as and when we can to enable us to get the shots required.