Our final website page

Here is our final website for Bela Walter we have created as a team on WIX.

http://aliciahatfield.wix.com/officialbelawalter

I am very happy with our final product; I feel it is clean and sleek and shows Bela's star image in an accurate, intriguing way. Sticking to our colour scheme of black, white and dark red has given the whole website a cohesive look which also fits with the colour scheme of our digipak. We also linked the fonts together using the same titles as her logo for her name which looks effective as it creates a fluid brand for her that her audience can easily recognise.

We focused mainly on images for her website, keeping the text minimal as we discovered by looking at similar artists this was the most effective layout. We also felt her audience would be interested and relate to her website more with an incite to her life style showing many images of her, including behind the scenes photos. This allows the audience to get to know her better and become more connected with her as an artist, increasing the promotion of her music.

I am very happy with the final result and think it goes well with the other products, including her star image and personality as an artist.

THE DIGIPAK

Here is our final digipak for Bela Walter, I am very happy with how it has turned out after many adjustments and concentration on detail. Im very happy I managed to get the 'Bela Walter' title I used on the website with no black background, I did this by googling how to get rid of a background and used the magic pen tool to highlight just the font, which I then transferred and scaled onto the front cover. I also created a black spine for the digipak which I copied the fonts onto and scaled them down. I also changed the lay out of the back cover, scaling Bela more into the front, cutting out the other two boys as they were detracting away attention from her. I think the images go very nicely together and it looks like a cohesive, final professional digipak which goes very nicely with our other products!

Our music video

Here is our final music video that we have uploaded to YouTube. It is so nice to see our final product complete and up for our audience to see after all this hard work!
I also linked this video onto her official website so her audience can watch it from there as well, which gives us more opportunity to promote her video and expand our audience.
I am very happy with the way we edited the video, first working as a team making decisions together on each clip and then having Jane take charge of the editing while Simon and I worked on the other products. All having an input into how the video was edited allowed us to all get our ideas and visions across which Jane then took into account when editing by herself. We paid great detail into making sure the video developed as the song went on, not giving away everything at the beginning, but instead developing our shots and the complexity of scenes further into the video. We focused on the bath scene as our main scene as we had a wide variety of shots to choose from, allowing us to start with this scene, having her around the bath and showing close ups at first, concealing the whole scene, which then developed into wide shots relieving the bath, which then developed to shots of her in the bath. We then chose to introduce the mirror scene as this broke the bath scene up nicely, adding a different red colour scheme to the video and making it look more diverse, this was then developed by adding the same scene but with our organza material blowing around her, adding a much more dramatic style to the scene. It was only at 1:35 that we introduced our third scene with a wide shot of her dancing against the black dark lit backdrop. And then to step up the pace of the video we started scattering close up shots of the chaise lounge scene which was a lot more diverse as we had our two boy extras in the scene as well. I feel this scene really broke up the video nicely as it gave a different more mature vibe to her but still fits in well with the same colour schemes. Our final scene we introduced at 1:52 was the balloon scene, we saved this one till last as it looked dynamic and visually aesthetic, this was very effective and tied all the other scenes nicely together. I think the way we have staggered our scenes shows a good understanding for how music videos should grow and progress to keep the audience interested and entice them into watching it again and sharing it.
I have loved working on this music video and am very pleased with our final product!

Working more on the website

We are constantly working on our products, improving little bits we feel should be changed in order to create the best appropriate products that we can. 

I looked back at our photos and decided to play around with them on Photoshop to make them look more edgy and exciting for our website backgrounds. 

Here I have zoomed in on this close up of Bela's face, I then copied the image three times, rotating the image by 90° every time, creating a square image made up of them all. However the way the image cut her body off looked a bit unflattering and odd. 

Therefore I looked for a new image which I kept long but multiplied it, creating a mirrored effect which I thought was striking and effective. 

I then turned the image to black and white and made it the background image for Bela's 'News' page on her website which looked a lot more exciting and interesting than just one plain image. 

We then also added to our merchandise on our store, creating this t-shirt with a mix of her image and her name font. 

Developing the Digi-pak

I then went back to our digipak which I felt needed further development

We then decided to make the images black and white to make them fit better together and make the digipak flow. We then thought it was a bit plain so went back to the original image of the shoes and cut out the shoes which were a burgundy colour, we then layered these over the black and white image to make the colour pop against the otherwise black image. We also re added the Sony Music logo which had turned grey, making it red again. We then also added the songs we were putting on the album with a few lines of detail about each song for the inside cover, like we had seen in similar artist's digipaks. 

I then from the bottom right image cut the background out of the original colour photo and placed this behind the black and white image of Bela as the colours went with the theme. I then swapped around some of the images and added more text, the back cover having the songs in big font and the 1991 title on the front cover. 

However I then asked some members of my class to give me feedback on the digipak and they thought this particular image did not fit as well with the other images as it's background appeared a lot lighter than the others. Therefore on Photoshop I edited the image to make it darker, however it also made her too dark which did not look good. I then undid this and used the magnetic lasso tool to highlight the background only which I then made darker, leaving Bela's body the original lightness. The image then fitted in a lot better with the rest of the images and looked very effective and flattering as the album cover. 

I then also received feedback from piers that they felt it might be more effective to just have four really good images instead of having six ones which could swamp the digipak with so much going on. Therefore I cut the two images on the left off, leaving these four which I agree looks much more effective, showing quality not quantity! I then also got rid of the BELA WALTER and 1991 titles as the black background took away from the image. I tried to choose a similar font to the one we have used on her website however I could not find a similar one so selected this bold title.  

Audience feedback

On Thursday Simon and I asked four students to view our products we have created so far in order to receive feedback and take constructive criticism to make our products better. I recorded their responses on my phone and then later combined the three sections and uploaded the feedback to my YouTube.

It was a very useful task as we showed them the digipak, then the website and then the music video to see if they could compare them and link the products together as we are trying to create a cohesive group of products portraying Bela's star image as an artist.

Our audience thought the digipak did not suit the rest of our work as we had used very different images and fonts making them look like two different brands. We have taken this advise on board and created a digipak that includes similar images and fonts to the website and has a flowing colour theme throughout.

They were more positive about the website as the felt Bela appeared the same here as she does in the video, showing who she is as an artist. However they thought the merchandise t-shirt with an image of Bela's face looked a bit young and wouldn't suit her actual target audience. I therefore have created a new T-shirt design with her name in the same font as on the website to make them look like the fit together.

This was a really useful process and we learned a lot from it, taking away some good advise so we can now improve our products. 

Futher development of the website

After receiving audience feedback from a few friends I went back to our merchandise as they said having an image of Bela on her t-shirt made it seem like she was appealing to a younger audience of around 13. I also wanted her other audiences to want her merchandise, appealing to an older, more mature audience of 18-30. Therefore I took a screenshot of the BELA WALTER title from her website which I then applied onto her black t-shirt.  

  

I then cut the two words apart so they would fit nicely on the top and scaled them to fit on well. I then used the eraser tool to rub the opaque black background away, leaving just the font in front of the t-shirt.

I think this t-shirt fits a lot better to her older audience and I could see her fans buying and wearing this t-shirt at her concert as a band tee, representing her. I like the simplicity of just her name as it is not as obvious, but a more subtle style of advertising her brand and music. 

Making our digipak

Simon first created a digi-pak with the images taken from the extra photo shoot to see what it would look like to have an 'all attitude' image digi-pak, which did look professional and all the images fitted nicely together. However we felt we should also incorporate images from our original shoot in order for our products to look good together, this was also influenced by audience feedback we received, where they told us the products did not fit very well together as they were producing mixed messages of who Bela was.

Therefore we created a new digi-pak together mixing our photos from our original shoot from the music video day with photos from our most current shoot, in order to portray a mixture of elegance and class, with attitude and edge.  

 I found this template of a six image digipak which I uploaded onto Photoshop to work with so we had the correct scale and size for our photos. 

 We then started selecting images that we thought would be appropriate for each panel. I also edited some of the images to look better on the frame, for example for this image I used a black colour to fill in the floor to give a more glossy black look, removing the original matte black floor which did not look as nice. I then selected the part of the image I wanted to have, making sure it was a square so it would fit inside the template. 

I then pressed 'Ctrl T' to scale the image to the appropriate size and fitted the images into each box. 

We had a shuffle around of the images and changed quite a few as we went on. We then also added a bar code to the top right image as this was to be our back cover, we then also used the title that we took a screenshot from her website 'BELA WALTER' as we wanted to keep a consistent theme throughout her products. However we did not like having the black background of the font, but we were unsure how to remove it so scaled the title down and but it at the bottom, next to a Parent advisory label.  

 We finally came up with this selection of images for her digipak, but were still prepared to go back to it and work on it more as we felt it looked a little unfinished, and we also still needed to add in her songs and a few extra touched. However I do feel this was a good starting point as the images fitted a lot better together and portrayed a wider style and image of who Bela is as an artist. 

Another photoshoot

 

After having a go at designing our website and digi-pak we reflected on our products and decided we needed to do another photo shoot of Bela against a black backdrop. We felt she needed to show more edge and attitude in her expression as all the images we already had from the filming day were quite soft and vulnerable. We therefore wanted to have a mix of our original pictures and add in a few new ones to show more attitude to Bela to fit with the music video.

Here are a selection of the pictures taken that we thought were good and could use with the other images and create a cohesive product. 

 

 

Working on the website

This week I have been continuing to work on our website for Bela, trying out different fonts, colours and images. As we took so many pictures it has been difficult to cut it down to just a few that look good together and make everything coherent. However after trying out a few different images on the home page, along with a slide show, we decided we wanted to record some moving images of Bela and cut them together to play in a loop as our main page as this is a bit more exciting and shows her personality more, enticing the audience to look into more of the website. We will record these images on Monday and take some more pictures to pay around with for the album cover and digi-pak.

I have also been creating some merchandise on Photoshop, I found images of a black t-shirt which I used as a base for the garment. I then selected some pictures of Bela to use and using the magnetic cutting tool cut her body out of the image which I paced onto the top, I then scaled the image and edited it to look like it was printed onto the top. I have tried out a few different styles and will get some audience feedback to see which people like most.

Original T-shirt

Using the magnetic cutting tool to cut out her upper body

Copying the image onto the T-shirt and scaling it to an appropriate size for the T-shirt

I then lowered the opacity to make the image more subtle and fade into the T-shirt to give a more stylistic, glamorous look. However I then decided it looked a bit odd as I cut her body off drastically at the torso so her body was awkwardly floating in the middle of the t-shirt.

Therefore I then went back and cut out her whole body, however the photo we took cut out the very bottom of her feet so I had to place the image right to the edge so it didn't look weird. I really like her strong stance in this image as it is empowering yet feminine and sexy which goes with the theme and style we are going for.

Here are the two black t-shirts that I will choose between, I am going to show an audience similar to her target audience and ask for their opinions and then choose which is better from their comments.

I then added a Merchandise page to the website and created a collection for her items, including a shopping bag and links to paypal with prices. I uploaded both t-shirts but will choose one to keep and create a few different items for her. 

 I priced the cost of her t-shirt at £18 because her audience will be willing to pay this amount online or at a concert as they want to feel connected with her and will see it as being linked to her.
However I will only create a few items for her merchandise page as she is an upcoming new artist who is not as established as say for example Beyoncé who has many items, but is more like Iggy Azealia who only has two items on her merchandise page. 
 

Researching Our Target Audience

Here I have created a Prezi, researching similar artists to Bela like Rita Ora, Iggy Azelia, Azealia Banks and Rihanna. I have looked at their target audiences by going through their websites, fan pages and forums, reading comments of fans and finding out who they are.

Creating our website

I uploaded the photos I took from the shoot day, however realised I had taken all the pictures on the setting RAW instead of JPEG so I had to convert each picture which was very time consuming and annoying. After converting them all I saved them into folders of videos, stills, best. I then used Photoshop to edit the best ones to upload to our website.

I then started making the website on WIX.com, I created a new template and changed the colour scheme to black, grey, red and white. I then trailed out using a slide show as the front cover which I liked.

Evaluation of our shoot day

Jane and I have recorded this video to evaluate our shoot day, answering 15 key questions about the day. This was a useful task as it made us reflect about the shoot and realise what went well and what we could have done better.

Syncing the base track

Today we uploaded all our footage to the computer and checked out our project on Final Cut Server which allowed us to work on our clips on Final Cut Pro. We then uploaded the music track we used on the shoot day which had an introduction before the song of a series of beeps and then on each clip we filmed a laptop which counted the seconds of the beeps. Having this helped us so much when syncing each shot to the base track as we knew exactly where to cut. I played each clip and pressed 'I' when the number got to 00:01:52 and dragged that clip onto the edit bar next to the music so they both started at the same time. We then deleted all the clips audio so we only had the original track playing. We also went through all the clips and red labelled the ones that were cut short or randomly recording and were useless to remind us we dont need them. Next time we edit I plan to go back and watch the clips we didnt put on the edit bar and label the stylistic shots one colour and non lip syncing shots another colour so we can create a key to organise different types of shots. We should also separate our shots into folders of the best shots, okay shots and ones we wont need but we wont delete any just in case we end up needing a short frame from one.

Day of the shoot

On Monday 4th November Jane, Simon and I filmed our music video after weeks and weeks of planning and organising! I was a bit apprehensive to how the day would go as there was so much to think about and do all at once. However we worked really well as a team and used our individual skills to pull everything together and succeed with filming a great video. We all had a go at filming some of the shots in each set however we designated Jane as our main camera woman so she filmed most of the scenes. We did a variety of shots for each scene, some with Bela lip synching and some without, filming wide shots, mid shots and close ups of her face and body. I also borrowed a friends camera which I used to document the day, taking photos and recording videos which I plan to use for her artwork and website and make a behind the scenes video. After filming each scene I took a few pictures of her posing in the set and costume so her artwork and website will link to her video and will fit well together. I also helped Bela with her make up and hair, changing her look after every scene as we needed her to look very different in them all, and touching them up during filming. For example when she was in the bath her hair kept loosing its hold and falling over her face so I had to hair spray it and comb it back during shooting. Simon focused on set design and costume design making sure everything looked good and was in order. We all did jobs like holding lighting while filming in awkward positions which was difficult as we had to keep very still so the lighting wouldn't change. We all also changed each set, carrying all the props and walls out of the studio and bringing in the next scene. We all had a go at every job and helped each other with their tasks which made us a very efficient team as we were willing to switch roles and give everything a go. Bela our actress was amazing and had learned every single word and kept up with the fast pace rap, she gave 100% in every scene with loads of energy and attitude which really showed on camera! I loved our shoot day and enjoyed the whole experience so much as everything went very smoothly and I felt we achieved more than we wanted!

Setting up the shoot

As our shoot was on Monday we had to set up on the Friday before so we could save time on the actual shoot day.

We brought in all our props to put in the studio so we didnt forget anything on the day. 

Fans

Helium

Face Lace stickers

Organza

Jane and I then got the bath out of the storage and painted it black and cleaned it out with creme cleaner which took a long time as we had to wait for the paint to dry and do another coat.

 Cleaning the bath was quite strenuous as we had to carry hot water in buckets from the kitchens up to the bath and scrub it and rinse it out. 

We then also painted two brick wall plastic casts black for the black and red scene. Painting these took a lot longer than the bath surprisingly, I think it was due to the slippery bumpy surface of the plastic so we had to go back and do thicker coats. 

Artist Research

We decided to conduct some artist research on similar artists to the one Bela will be, we chose Iggy Azalia, Azealia Banks and Rita Ora as we can relate their work to the work we will create for Bela. I researched into each artist's website, focusing on their home page and looking at their side pages comparing them and seeing what we should do. Jane researched into digipaks and album covers, and Simon looked at their music videos, they both emailed me their research. I then made a Prezi using all of our photos and research into three artist sections of the three sections we looked at. This was very time consuming and quite complex but I got the hang of it and by the end I thought the whole presentation looked really effective. We learned a lot from this research and found it was a very beneficial task as we compared similar artists and their work and related them to Bela.

Digipak research

Looking at other artists similar to the one we will create Bela to be, we looked at their digipaks for their CDs.
Here are some we liked and thought were relevant:

Katy Perry


Rihanna

















Beyonce


Christina Aguilera


These have helped us realise what we need in our digipak, we will choose a colour scheme of around three colours to link it all together. We will have images of her and a stylistic image or symbol of her as an artist.

Buying props

Our balloons arrived and I practised blowing one up just to see how they look and really like the glossy shininess of them. There are 75 but we think we will only use around 25 of them but have got plenty just in case we need more or something goes wrong.











We also went to investigate the helium canister we had heard the media department had, however when we found it we discovered it was empty. We wrote down its details and then researched where we could buy one. The cheapest one we found was on Tesco for £19.45 and filled 30 balloons so we will purchase this one and then split the cost between the three of us. We decided to buy one instead of getting balloons blown up at a shop to save money and time; if we got them filled up at a shop we would have to go collect them the day before as we dont have time on the day and then they might have deflated by the morning which would be a disaster. Buying the balloons and canister and doing it ourselves means we can then fill them up at any time we want, eg just before the balloon scene and we know nothing will go wrong..hopefully!

I also ordered the Face Lace to school coming to £18.55