Evaluation Question Four

Evaluation Question Three

Evidence of feedback:

Pre-production:

During production:

Post Production:

Evaluation Question Two

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question One

Final Music Video

This is my final music video to 'Someday' by The Strokes.

Final website

This is a link to my final webiste.

http://mattlong178.wix.com/band-website

Website update 5

I have finished my website, but here is where I got my inspiration from.

My background inspiration came from my research and the backgrounds of The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys and Mallory Knox's websites. They all used the colour of the latest albums or of their logos, as their backgrounds, in which I have also done; in my case I have used the red from the logo as my background.

For my news page I have been inspired by The Strokes' website, where each new bulletin has an image to accompany it with.

My merchandise store is based on that of Mallory Knox. They used a range of items in their store, and I used this as my inspiration.

I also included a link to twitter and facebook on each item, so people could post their purchase on their own social media, just like Mallory Knox did. I marketed my website much like The Strokes do. They use banners on their website to promote new merchandise and I have done this as well.

 I have also taken inspiration from all the websites I have researched and have: made social media accounts, promoted the new album frequently, used language such as "MERCH" (Mallory Knox's website) and "TEE" (The Strokes' website) and posted images and videos of the band on my website. I have also created a lyrics section on my 'Music' page. This was something I found on one of my research website, Catfish and the Bottlemen. They uploaded an image of the original lyrics sheet they worked on, when they were producing their album. I have tried to incorporate this in my website, by including a hand written lyrics sheet for 'Someday' on my website.

Final Digipak

This is my final Digipak:

 Front Cover:

My front cover is based on the conventions of rock band album covers, where the image is either representative of the band or of the content on the album. I took inspiration form Mallory Knox's 'Asymmetry', where the image on the front is asymmetrical and has a direct link to the album. In my case the wheel represents youth, in the sense it is like a fairground wheel. Yet, it also is related to the content of the Someday music video.

Mallory Knox 'Asymmetry' Front Cover:

Back Cover:

My back cover took inspiration from The Strokes' back cover to 'Is This It'. It is conventional to have an image of the band in a rock Digipak, and typically this either occurs inside or on the back of the album. I saw that if someone was to pick up my album in a store, the first two things they look at are the front and back covers. Thus, having an image of the band is necessary when the front is album art, as the fans get an image of their role models. I liked The Strokes' back cover as it summed up the band's image - cool and stylish, and this is what I thought this image did for us.

The Strokes 'Is This It' Back Cover:

Lyrics page:

I based my lyrics page on the Arctic Monkeys' lyrics page in their album 'Humbug'. They used an image of the band accompanied by the lyrics, and I saw this as effective as I could relate my image to the song. I used the image of us throwing stones into the sea as a symbol of youth, thus having a direct link to lyrics for Someday and the themes of the past and growing up.

The Arctic Monkeys 'Humbug' lyrics page:

Inside cover:
For this I just followed the colour scheme of my previous covers and used an image of the band, as to make it more personal for our fans.

CD:
For my CD disc I took inspiration from the Arctic Monkeys' 'Whatever People Say I am, That's What I am Not'. The disc from this album is related to the front cover of the album. I did the same with mine. My disc is related to my album cover, in the sense that it is related to the content of the Someday music video and again is a symbol of youth. The colours remain the same as all my other covers, and the logo, album and the record label are conventions for a CD disk.

The image of the man smoking on the front, is referenced again on the CD as conveyed by the image of cigerettes.

 



Digipak update 4

I have made a lyrics page for my Digipak. I have used the same sepia and red tint look that features throughout my Digipak. A lyrics page is a necessity for albums, and is a common feature in rock albums, such as The Arctic Monkeys 'Humbug' lyric page.

I took inspiration from this and used an image of the band to accompany the lyrics page:

I also finished the last page of my Digipak that follows all the conventions of my other pages, including the sepia layer and red tint.

Digipak update 3

I have completed my back cover, and it looks like this:

I have chosen colour that match both my website and our music video. Their is a sepia look that features in our super-8 look in our music video. Also, there is a red layer over the top of the image, which matches my website. I have used the same font colour and style as the front cover, as for continuity. The barcode, record label and Copyright details are all conventions for all album back covers. My inspiration for the image came from the Strokes' album 'Is This It' where the back cover is a picture of the band walking towards the camera.

 Their back cover is in black and white, which helps reference the genre. However, I see that my choice of colour references the: genre, music video and band's logo.

Website update 4

I have added my album cover to my website and have finished my Media and Music pages. I have added studio photos to the Media page and have described the album on the Music page. I have also added a lyrics section to my Music page. This is something I saw on Catfish and the Bottlemen's website, where the original lyrics sheet was photoed and placed on their website. I have taken this idea and implemented it into my website.

Digipak update 2

This is my front cover thus far:

The band's logo is a convention for all rock album covers, so it sits in the top right-hand corner as not to block the view of the image. I have put a red layer over the top, but have just lowered the opacity. The red layer was the red I used for the background of the logo and on my website. I have used the white text and same font as the logo, as so the font can become easily recognisable and for continuation. The 'Parental Advisory' logo is common on most albums, where there is explicit references in songs. 

Digipak update 1

I have chosen my front cover image. Normally, rock bands tend to either have an album cover where their logo is simply enough to sell the album, such as The Arctic Monkeys' album 'Suck it and See'.

This won't work for us, as they were an established band when this album came out, so their recognisable logo and style was enough to market the album. However, some rock bands use images related to the band or images related to one of their songs on the album, as their album cover. Some prime examples of this are: Mallory Knox's 'Asymmetry' album has the band's logo lined up asymmetrically on the front cover, thus linking to the album title.

This is the approach I am going for. So I have chosen this image for my front cover:

 

The wheel represents youth and is referenced in our music video as past memory. This means that my front cover is interlinked with the music video, but also stays true to the conventions of rock band album covers by having an image either linked to the band or the album; in my case it references the album.

Super-8 look

We have decided to go for a vintage look for our music video. We previously had a colour matte over the visuals that gave a sepia tint. This was considered too heavy by our audience research and we were criticised for not bringing out colour. By creating a super-8, we will enhance colour and also create a vintage look. This also fits in with the genre and has been used in Beatles videos and in the original music video to 'Someday'.

Mid-production Audience feedback 2

Our audience feedback on our last rough cut was a lot better than our last amount of feedback. This was partly due to us having a complete sequence on our timeline. Our audience felt we had improved the quality of the music video and made it more interesting. This was due to us having a narrative, as last time, we only had our band shot available to watch. They also liked the performance and thought that it was in-sync. However, they did question the re-wind section of our film, suggesting that it didn't work and wasn't cut to the beat of the music. This we have now fixed. They also saw that our colourisation was wrong and we are now in the process of creating a super-8 look for our film. They also felt there should be more shots of the band, and not just Sam singing. This is something we have changed. We have also cut some of the length of some shots, as we felt they were too long, and didn't fit the pace of the genre or the song.

Website update 3

I have added a dark red background to my music video, to match the band logo. So now the red in the band logo, now matches the website background.

I have also started to create my merchandise for my store, and have created a gallery on my homepage that promotes the new merchandise, as this is something that was conventional on most rock band homepages I researched. 

Final band logo

We final decided on our last band logo, which looks like this:

We decided that we needed a contrast in bright and dark colours, as to represent our genre. Normally,  metal bands have dark logos with white text in a gothic font on a black background. Indie bands tend to have light logos, and as we are garage rock which is in between, we have incorporated a light background and text, with a dark ring around the outside.

Font

The final font I chose was:

I chose this font because I saw it as a mixture of different rock band fonts. I saw that it had the ink-like look that Royal Blood have. The text is also a bit rough round that helps convey the genre, this is also supported by the use of capital letters that also indicate the rock genre.

The font also represents the Arctic Monkeys logo, as again it is all in capital letters, but this time the font is more playful. This is represented in my font as the letters are bold and have almost a youthful, handwritten look. The Arctic Monkeys logo has waves running through the font to make it stand out, representing the band's image. My font stands out on its boldness and roughness. Thus, my font is based on both these two fonts: the ink-like approach and caps by Royal Blood, and the playfulness and boldness of the Arctic Monkeys.

Band name

Yesterday we came up with our band name for our Digipak and website. We came up with 'The Fiction'. The name came about as we felt 'fiction', which means a true account, conveys the persona of the band; they are not fake - they are what they are. This is a typical persona adopted by rock bands, who don't want to be seen as conformists, who they may determine as being false.

So far we have started our preliminary logo, which looks like this.

Record label

Yesterday we designed our record label for our Digipak and website. We took inspiration fro the EMI record label who have represented previous rock bands such as: The Beatles, The Smiths and T.Rex.

We also took inspiration from the Warner Brothers logo, as we liked the text underneath the logo, making our record label more recognisable.

Taking inspiration from both, we came up with this final logo.