Saturday, 4 October 2014


Over the next couple of weeks I'll be updating my blog, and putting links on it to help me with the essay I am thinking of doing.

Thursday, 3 April 2014

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As I haven't updated my blog in a few lessons I thought I would do it now, to provide more information on what I've been doing in the past few lessons. This blog post may be quite long in advance!
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Since my last blog post I have changed the website programme I was using  I started off using 'Dreamweaver'. This worked well for quite a while, and it all was working perfectly except for in one lesson when one the links broke on the template; as I'm not a pro and using 'Dreamweaver' I had no idea how to fix it, or how to make a solution come from it. The pages all worked except one and every time I tried to fix it something else went wrong, further leading onto more inconveniences with my 'Dreamweaver' website.

During a lesson I heard 'Adobe Muse' was a programme of which you could make a website upon. This further allowed me to search up 'Adobe Muse' on Google when I got home later that night. After reading up on it, I downloaded it; mostly just to see what I could do with it at this point. I looked up different tutorials, and webpages which allowed me to explore 'Adobe Muse' further, it allowed me to see how I could set everything out on it, and how it worked.

I have began to make my website off 'Adobe Muse' now because it is a lot easier to get to grips with then 'Dreamweaver'. First of all my layout is now a lot better, without any tabled templates gathered around it; this firstly made it to look a lot more professional than the 'Dreamweaver' one ever did. I have tested all the '3' links at the top of my page 'Homepage', 'Information' and 'Tours and Events' and all of these alike work together whenever you press one of them to get onto the next page. I have clearly made my two coursework's consistent by using the same colour scheme of 'Black and White' clearly indicating that the 'image' of my artist Emmah' is pushed towards the more serious side of music, in this case the style of the 'Indie' music genre.

At home I have been working hard for the last few weeks tweaking different parts of my website everyday. This has allowed me to further empathises more in text about my artists, definitely more than what I had wrote on 'Dreamweaver', and it has also allowed me to apply different widgets to put onto the website, which I couldn't of done properly on my other site.

During lessons I have been thoroughly researching different techniques and webpages of which I have been using to read up on 'Adobe Muse' and how the production from it works. I have been applying these techniques with the time I have had at home to further advance my website further. I have also been looking at different homepages like 'The Vamps' and 'The 1975' and I have took inspiration for my work on a couple of these, especially with 'The 1975' as the colour-scheme, and the type of artist I based Emmah' upon is mostly based upon this band. By over-looking different singers and bands who mostly fall in the genre of 'Indie' it has allowed me to get more tricks and tips to set out the text, and how they speak to their audiences etc.

In my honest opinion I think 'Adobe Muse' works a lot better for me to use, not only has it allowed me to do more; but the whole production of using it has been a lot easier to do. All my links are working, I have a lot of texts on the different webpages, and I finally have it up and working correctly; I have already tested the link; of which is working, but tonight I am going to further edit the website to see if I can advance it anymore; then finally I am going to send the link in for it later tonight.

I have decided to set it out a little differently to others so it has more of an edgy style to it. The format looks somewhat like a 'Newspaper', and this follows through to all the different webpages on the site. It works well together, and it suits the different images and texts on the website. The colour scheme or somewhat can be known as the 'house style of the website is consistent all the way through the different pages, and it all suits the genre of which it is following this being a somewhat mostly indie, minor rock genre overall.

I have found 'Adobe Muse' a lot easier to use, and it has allowed me to express my coursework in a much easier way, yet it still looks more professional than my 'Dreamweaver' one ever did while working on it in lessons. As I have worked on both I can see a huge difference on how better this site looks to the last one. My pages mostly my 'homepage' are full to the brim of text explaining Emmah', whereas on 'Dreamweaver' it wouldn't even centre the text properly. I definitely enjoyed using 'Adobe Muse' for my coursework, as it has allowed me to successfully create a much better website for my Media A-Level Coursework for 'E-Media'.
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Tuesday, 18 March 2014

Over the last couple of weeks while working on the 2nd piece for the Media Course - NuTunes Reconds - I have started to create, and construct a website; all by myself. It isn't 100% finished yet, but below are some print-screens of the work I have done so far. I still need to check all the links (and maybe change one) - and right out the text across the pages; maybe adding something at the side which is blank if I have time.

But these print-screens basically just show what I have done so far with the project of  'making a website'. All the codes, and things below are all done just individually; with no help at all. 

I have still tried to go on the lines of using the 'blank and white' backgrounds/borders etc, as it suits the style of indie with inspiration of this from 'The 1975's official website. They are also categorised into the "Indie, so I have used some ideas from them, and several other artists on how to fix up the website appropriately.

Below I have just basically print-screened different parts of the 'website' to show how it is coming along, one page at a time. I am still working on it, during media lessons, and sometimes after-school in the library; as these are the only times I can access 'Dream Weaver' - as I don't have this specific installment at home.

(This is a print-screen of the 'Tour and Events' page!) - I have started to list the text to give the audience information on where the tours will be (all O2 academy) - with the dates; at the bottom of this page I will also add O2 information, along with FAQs, and then some event information.

This print-screen shows the coding, and the information page; in the mix of editing it all together. It is yet to still be completed, but I will be working on it as much as I can over the next few lessons.


The print-screen below shows the main 'index'/'homepage' which is in the mix of still being edited with the text. I have written something on it, but it still needs to have quite a bit more information placed on there. As it is the main 'home-page' it has to pull the audience in to getting to know about Emmah's journey with the music industry, how much she loves her fans etc.

Over the last few lessons I have also been looking at different 'main-pages' from other bands, and artists to see how they introduce the artist into the music industry world. I have took inspiration firstly from 'The Vamps' of whom liked to be placed into the 'Indie/Pop' era of the music genres. By researching alongside bands like them it then allows me to try and focus on specific points while talking about Emmah, and also as being the person showing her "music" off to the world; it has to be persuading enough to the audience to read about her life, her journey, her music etc.

In this print-scree you may also be able to see I have copy-righted the website to my name. After researching through different artists and bands it has come to terms that most website designers do this to copy-right the work they have done, so somebody else can't steal it; or say that they have done it. By providing the (C) and 2014 it shows when the website is made, and by whom it was made by. It is something you would see on professionally made websites.


The final print-screen I have added is this flash animation of which I have edited, and some-what made. I have embedded the code from it into the website, and the animation works at the bottom of the whole web-site; further and hopefully pulling people to find out that her new single is out, followed by her album etc. I think using this is quite a nice idea as it promotes her music more. It also stands out because the website is basically black-and-white and typical followed by the genre of being quite a 'indie' artist; by having something at the bottom stand it, it drags your attention to it. It also allows new fans, and old fans alike to see how her new music is 'OUT NOW' so they can get it if they wish.


I still haven't finished my whole website yet, and I still have to make slight changes with some of the texts; but the overall construction is almost done to it; it's just the case of adding a few more things into it to make it catch the audiences appeal more. I have done slightly more than what is print-screened onto my blog, but I am still working on it at the moment. I started with the bases of creating the tables, then the pages, then the links, then getting the images into it, then researching how to make it better etc. I have researched a lot into how different peoples website look, or how they differ depending on the genre of the person. I have followed a plan to focus on it looking more ordinary, and indie; as if it was POP the colours would stand out more, and the website would look more vibrant. As I am making the website 'Indie' the website needs to be quite straight-forward, and more dull in colour; if you look at bands, artists and websites to do with the Indie genre a lot of them will look some-what along the lines of what I have used for my work i.e. with the colours, the structure, the links, the image placement etc.

I will use my next few 'coursework' lessons, and some lessons in my own time 'after-school' to get it done as much as I possibly can, in the time I still have left; but this is basically what I have been doing during the lessons while working on this. It started from scratch, and I have built it into a website myself. All I need to do now is edit it further, check the links, and then finally process it into the right link to make it a running website.

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

During todays lesson:

-I researched different kinds of websites; looking out how things were set out; from editing the codes and htmls, to the colours used to make the website stand out. I also looked at how the wording was used to make the audience sink into reading more and more of it; as you need to get them interested about what they are reading on your website.  I have took some of this information on board, and this has then allowed me to try and expand my website (which is have minor problems at this moment of time). I have chosen the colour of the background, and the text; which is also suits the house-style as it matches the colour of the images used throughout, from the photo-shoot. I have focused on these two colours as they fit the theme of looking quite "POP/PUNK/INDIE' quite well. Over the next few lessons I am going to try and focus of getting my website running properly, and then after that I am going to focus on how to set everything out i.e. the text, the images, the hyperlinks etc.