Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The Website

Research and Planning: Website– To create the website for the band, we used a site called “Wix.” It is a cloud-

based web development platform that allows users to create HTML5 web sites and mobile sites through the use of their online drag and drop tools.

– We used Wix as it is very easy to use, and meant that the quality of the website was much better.

– To understand the purpose of a website for a music artist, we first researched why websites are so important in the online age:

Research and Planning: WebsiteWhatsApp

– To communicate throughout the process of creating the website, we used apps on our phones like WhatsApp.

– WhatsApp enabled us to send photos, videos, links and voice notes to each other so that we would know about upcoming meetings and deadlines.

Without WhatsApp, we would have been a lot less organised. Using this software meant that we rarely missed a beat, and this ultimately meant that we were highly satisfied with the work we put in at the end of the process.

Research and Planning: WebsitePintrest

– Pintrest is a social media site that allows users to share photos and create mood boards around different topics.

– For our website, we used Pintrest to create a mood board based on costumes for the band in the music video shoot, as well as for the photo shoot. We also used it to find ideas for hair and makeup ideas, too.

– Because everyone could access Pintrest easily, we were always able to see what everyone else was planning or thinking.

– I found that Pintrest also gave me links to different websites that gave me inspiration when creating the website for the band, so it was very helpful.

Research and Planning: WebsiteYouTube

– Because YouTube is so easily accessed, we used it to look at tutorials for Wix about how to use it.

– Obviously YouTube is the home of music videos. This meant that we were able to research other videos in the indie-rock genre to compare general conventions that we needed to include in our own video.

– Not only did we look at other band’s videos, but we also looked at our song’s original video so that we knew exactly what not to do. If we did the same thing in our video, we wouldn't be able to obtain top marks. Watching to original video greatly excited us because we realised out concept was a lot more exciting than the original. This only spurred us on to greater heights in terms of what we wanted to achieve, and we wouldn't have been able to realise our potential without YouTube.

Research and Planning:Why do artists/bands use websites?

– To use online media to promote themselves

– To advertise new and upcoming stuff,

– To sell tickets and music

– To update us with new information

– To sell merchandise

– To promote their star image

– To advertise their tour and

– To immerse their fan base

– To find out more about the artist (About Me)

– To use online media to connect you through other media platforms

– To connect directly with their fans/target audience

– To create an image for themselves

– To be known internationally, addressing an international audience

– To be easily accessible

– To reach an already established fan base

– To receive feedback from their fans

– To promote their already existing social media

– To make them look more official

Research and Planning:Themes– After understanding the reasons for an artist to have their own website, we

started to look at different themes and colour schemes for the website that not not only suit the artist and the genre of their music, but that also entices the artist’s target audience. These were the themes we originally looked at:

Research and Planning:Comparing– To help us create a website that it true to the indie-rock genre of our band, we

researched and compared factors of famous bands and their websites.

– By doing this we were able to achieve a realistic website for our band that was true to the conventions of an indie-rock music website.

– The websites we looked at used different colour schemes, so we couldn't copy, we had to come up with our own. However, the home pages all had photos of either the band, or their album so we had to replicate that in our website. Similarly, all of the websites we looked at used a typeface that was easy to read, so obviously we used a font that was kind on the eyes.

Production:Our Website

This is the website I made for our band “Nothing to Kings”. I used the photos from the photo shoot as they were really good I think they worked really well with the style of the website I had chosen.

I used different buttons like "Download on YouTube" and other things like "Location", "Info" on the top of the page as navigation for the audience to get around the website easily.

I used a grey font for the titles on the homepage because white didn't show up, and black was too harsh in comparison to the photo. I also lowered the opacity on the photo as the faded effect fit the genre and style of our band really well, in my opinion.

Production: Editing

– We used a DSLR camera in our photo shoot for the website as it takes pictures quickly and worked well with the flash we were using. The quality of the photos were outstanding, and meant that very little editing was needed before using them in the website.

The Band

Jonty: Drummer Charlie: Bassist Ashen: SingerAlec: Guitarist

Production:Editing

Production:Editing

Post Production:Creating the Website

When creating the website for our band, we used a varying software to help us create a really aesthetically pleasing website. The piece of software we used the most was Photoshop. We used Photoshop as it is quite easy to use, and there are lots of tutorials to follow if you need help. Also, the results from using Photoshop are very slick and professional, which helped our website look professional, which is an added bonus.

There are lots of different tools that you can use to edit your photos on Photoshop. We used:Eyedropper: selects a colour from an area of the image that is clicked, and samples it for future useMagic Wand: The magic wand tool selects areas based on pixels of similar values. One click will select all neighbouring pixels of similar value within a tolerance level set by the user.Slice: The slice tool can be used to divide an image into different sections, and these separate parts can be used as pieces of a web page design once HTML and CSS are applied.