Final Website

After making several drafts for my website homepage, I have finally created it on the free online website builder wix.com
The URL for my website is http://gibsonrobyn1.wix.com/lunaofficial
By naming the website lunaofficial, my target audience can easily access it and as it is a short URL they are more likely to remember it, greatly appealing to their needs.

Website Viewed On Mobile Phone Or iPad

After researching my chosen genre I realised that the target audience typically have iPhones and iPads meaning very few actually go on their laptops or computers to search music and or artists. For this reason I have made my website view able for those on these devices so that my website appeal to my target audience. I have also made sure that the 'Download On iTunes' logo is also displayed on the mobile view of my website so that those who want to purchase my artists music can do so through iTunes.

Editing The Website

 

 

 

 

 

 

For my music video, I had the option of using the editing suites or the iMacs, in the end I have decided to use the editing suites as they are more readily accessible and seem a lot easier to use then the Macs. 

UPDATE:

After discussing with another student at my college what programmes we are editing on, I found that it was possible to get a 30 day trial of Adobe Premiere Pro so instead will be editing at home making it possible for me to edit my music video outside of college hours. 

My digipak featured within real life media

 

After creating my digipak I took the front cover and placed it onto already exisiting media products such as ITunes where my digipak would typically be featured. I found that placing it onto Itunes it made my digipak look more realistic.

Final Digipak

After editing the image finally, I was able to put together the completed digipak and showed it to my friends but also my target audience so that I could get a good understanding of whether it fitted the indie folk genre and whether they liked the digipak overall.

Feedback on ancillary text

Whilst creating my ancillary texts I have been able to ask people what they thought of the front cover of my digipak. When asking, I asked for their initial opinions on my digipak front cover and also what they thought of whether to have the tree or not featured in the digipak. At this particular time I asked three of my target audience over texts and asked one of my target audience over Facebook. 

I asked 'Lucy Brown' what she thought of the front cover of my digipak during draft stages as I knew she would speak honestly about what she thought of my digipak front cover but also what her opinions where of the digipak. After gaining positive feedback, I realised I was editing my images in the right direction and that preferred the front cover to have the image of the three in the background rather then without.

After asking Lucy, I asked Emily who falls into the indie folk genre, what her opinions where of my digipak front cover, I also gained positive feedback from her and found that she liked the look of the image with the tree inserted within the image as I edited the tree in and out of the image and asked my target audience of their opinions  After gaining Emily feedback I also found out that I should keep the image of the tree in the shot even though personally I didn't participially like it.

I also gained feedback from my sister  (aged 25 who also enjoys this genre of music ) who has very strong opinions on what she likes and dislikes. She said that she didn't particularly like the image without the background of the tree and also believed i should edit the image so that the tree was more in the shot. However after further looking at the image she eventually concluded that she liked the image and that she liked the way it looked.

Digipak Images

After editing some of my images, I looked at changing the positioning of the tree behind my artists head and firstly edited the tree from the image so that the overall image looked more prominant with a moon rather then with the trees in the background. After asking several of my friends what they prefered they concluded that they actually prefered the image with the tree in the background so I decided to keep it in.

Different versions of final digipak

I like the blues within this digipak as they have connotations of coldness but I do not feel this is appropriate for a indie folk genre for this reason I haven't decided to use it. 

This digipak is quite similar to my final digipak design, however it has more yellows hues and has a vintage feel to it which is quite conventional of the indie folk genre. 

Fonts and Positioning Of Text

Editing my music video

UPDATE AS OF 11th April
after having my teacher look at my music video! the conclusion drawn was to re film my music video due to the lack of footage and because my music video did not look complete. However, as my talent was unreliable in the refilling process, I have had to change the idea of my music video and instead have cast myself to feature in the music video, for this reason my music video does not entirely relate to my ancillary texts (as the original talent chosen is featured on them).

After researching music videos though I have found that quite a lot of artists don't actually feature in their music videos but instead have actors/actresses as stand ins which would allow my music video to still relate with my ancillary texts 

About me section on website

 

On my website I have created a about me section so that it looks like existing media products which also have about me sections so that the target audience can relate and learn more about their favourite artist. Below is the about me that I am thinking of putting on my website as it is quite a positive introduction about my artist Luna.

 

 

Hull based artist Luna is shaping her own future, taking the world by storm. With a mixture of unbelievable talent, sheer determination and melancholy haunting music, she is not like any artist you have seen before. Just two singles in that have already reached number one in the Top 10 Indie Folk Uk Charts, Hull songstress Luna is shaping her future to be the latest indie sensation to grace the planet. 

Luna's incredible journey began when she woke up one morning leaving her Hull based home and hopped on a train to London leaving behind the lifestyle she had always known and aimed for the big city. With unstoppable dedication armed with her voice and an acoustic guitar, Luna played her first open-mic night in late 2012  and later decided that she wanted this as a career long term.

FIlming Day 4

Here are a few still shots from day four of filming as it was raining outside we was quite limited on what we was able to film and where we was going to film it as my house was in the process of being decorated and as my talent arrived quite late in the day I was unable to get a wide variety of shots because she had other commitments to attend after filming. After deciding what we was able to film, we used my iPad to record some of the shots. We also went on my computer and viewed some images which I am hoping to use in the shots.

Filming Day 3

On this particular day the weather was very nice and warm so it was a lot easier to film. We started filming at 4 when the sun started to set as my actress was late on arriving (four hours late) resulting in me not getting much filming done , the main problem with this is that some of the shots are a lot darker then I hope for meaning I will have to edit them brighter so it looks like a nicer day. On this day, due to my actress being late, I mainly filmed birds and trees.

Hair and makeup, clothing filming day 2

Before Kirsty arrived I completed my hair and makeup so that I was aware how we would both have our makeup and hairs done. On arrival I decided that I preferred Kirsty to have a fresher wavier hair look so I curled her hair with an hair wand.

Edited images I'm considering using for ancillary texts

After taking my ancillary text images, I edited the image three different times and changed the colours and brightness/contrast.

I decided to edit this image and experiment with it to see if I wanted it on my digipak possibly as a image for placement under the CDs.  

This image I dislike the most as the colours are quite harsh and contrasting however it makes the image stand out the most. I also dislike this image because the artist very red and doesnt really convey the indie folk genre.

 

In comparison to the other too images this looks the least eye catching and looks quite old fashioned with its grainy effect.  I also dislike it as the image no longer has connotations of freedom nor does it look sunner or a very nice day in the image.

I prefer this image the most as it looks the most warm and has connotations of summer and freedom. I managed to edited this image by increasing the brightness of the image and used the same technique of the image above.

 

 

 

 

To create this image I changed the opacity on three images and them overlayed them other one another creating this ghostly effect. I took inspiration from various images that i had previously seen on Google and initally liked the effect I had created. However, after much consideration I decided not to use this image on my digipak as I felt that it is quite controversial and some of my target audience didnt like it or understand it. However I may still consider using it for my website.  

 

Ancillary Text Photoshoot 2

As I was not fully content with all the images I had for my first photo shoot, I set up another photoshoot with my artist and took more images. For the website, I also wanted to get more images so that it looked more professional as typically on music websites there is lots of photos featuring the artist in various locations. I also decided for the Photoshoot that i should put my artist in a white lace dress and a parka coat to create innocence but also to make her look more casual for the Photoshoot

Editing Images

For my ancillary texts I have edited several images so that they would be suitable to use on both my digipak and for my website. When researching into various indie folk artists I have noticed that the images focus mainly on the artists expressions and faces for this reason I have chosen from my photoshoot images that focus mainly on the face rather then full body shots.
For my website images, I wanted a simplistic looking which is a typical convention of indie folk artists. Because I was creating my ancillary texts at home I didnt infact have access to Photoshop so I used the free editing software 'GIMP' to edit my images whilst at home.


Having chosen what images I wanted to edited I opened up on the GIMP programme, similarly to Photoshop, the programme used similar tools and icons that mainly compelted the same tasks. For example I was still able to delete sections of my image I did not like but also edit using the magic wand tool and used the different layers effectively.

I decided that I wanted my artists hair colour to contrast with the background she was placed against. I did this by choosing a subtle red colour from the paint tool. After this i chose what size brush I wanted and where I would 'colour' her hair.

After using the paint brush I realised I would have to change the opacity from 100% to ensure that my artists hair wasnt directly the bright red colour. After changing the opacity to 15.5% I used the paint brush to change the colour of my artists hair. I thought this was quite effective as her hair contrasted with the brown dark background. I felt that by doing this it gave a 'edge' to my artist and made my artist look less conventional.

After erasing blemishes and marks on my artists face with the 'smudge' tool I when to the levels tool and started to change the brightness and saturation of my image. Although I didnt exactly know what I wanted the images to look like I wanted them to look older then what they actually where.

After changing different levels of the image, I decided I was quite happy with the way the image looked as it made my artist look deep in thought. I also think the image has a sort of haunting feel to the image and that the artist appears quite alone.

After changing the levels of the image I realised that as I was changing my artist hair colour I accidentally used the paint brush on her face aswell. So to erase this from the image I used the 'clone' tool to copy parts of my artists face and cover over where I accidentally painted her face.