Sweet Nothing Magazine Article

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Magazine Research

Before creating our magazine article, it is essential we research into which which magazine is suitable for our target audience

We were considering  choosing the magazine 'Company' for our interview as we found out that it appeals to a younger audience than Cosmopolitan but still shares the same features however after researching into it we found they stopped producing it last year.

We then thought that Cosmopolitan would be good to choose as Frankie reads it said they often show interest into the latest fashion and music which is what our band portrays. 

Instead of an article we are going to make an interview in order for our fans to get to know us better which is important for any new artist. 

After doing further research we found that Cosmopolitan magazine is not suitable for our target audience as it is aimed at adult women. So we had to focus our research on teenage UK pop magazines. We found BLISS which is UK based and suitable for our target audience but the last issue was produced in July 2014.

Seventeen is a magazine perfect for a new upcoming teenage pop band but it is produced in America which is unsuitable for a new band as they have to become well known in their home country before going international.

Frankie then found 'Shout' Magazine which is suitable for our target audience, UK based and still being produced so we went with this one.

Website Finished (our latest updates)

The is the link to our website:

http://frains09.wix.com/sweetnothing

We updated Frankie's silly photograph to one which is a better quality and is framed better.

We created a new page, called become a Sweetie because 'sweeties' are what we are going to call our fans. This sign up allows our fans to feel connected with us and we feel that keeping them up to date is an important thing.

We updated the tour dates page by changing the font and enlarging the lips. This makes this page look individual to our band. We also added a silly photo of each member which makes us look fun and on a similar level to our target audience. These photos are used on the previous page of 'The Girls' which means this is synergy.

Our brand identity/image:

On every page of our website we have used this image of a cartoon, vibrant, pink lips. This is suitable for our target audience because it is very 'pop' and also quite childlike as our audience is aged 9-16. We wanted to include this image within our digipak to create synergy but our colour theme on that is purple so we changed the colour of the lips and put it on the actual CD, covering the whole thing. This means our CD is identifiable as our fans will associate the image of the lips with our band.

We updated Frankie's silly photograph to one which is a better quality and is framed better.

Digipak finished

As you can see, our digipak has developed a lot since our first draft.

Promotion through Social Media

Artists need a way of getting their new songs out there and from the rise of social media it is a great way of free advertising. A couple of months ago Justin Bieber got other celebrities to help him promote, this going all over social media. So we attempted this with the help of our friends!

Final Photoshoot

After a group discussion we decided that we needed some different photos to use for our website and digipak.

We took inspiration form Little Mix becasue they are a youthful, girly, pop band similar to ours. We liked this photo becasue they are positioned close to each other so look united but they are all posing differently which portrays their individual idendities within the band which is what we want to portray. We also liked how they are sitting on a sofa as this looks relaxed an friendly. 

This is one of our photos from this photoshoot which we edited and used as one of the panels for our digipak. 

Record Label

Record labels are an essential part of a CD as they state who has the theoretical rights to the music. They will make our digipak look professional and realistic. We looked into other bands similar to our and their record labels. Frankie discovered that Neon Jungle and Little Mix were both listed under Sony Entertainment and as these bands are similar to ours, we thought it made sense that we used this record label too.

Neon Jungle are also with RCA who release a rand of different music from country to pop. We looked through some of their other artists and decided that this label would be suitable for our band.

The Final Week

Today we sat down in our group and discussed when we are free to help finish the website, digipak and video. We are going to do another photoshoot after school on Tuesday in order to improve our digipak and website. The website and digipak is due by the end of school on Wednesday so these will be our focus over the next two days and the music video is due on Friday so the end of the week will be dedicated to finishing and perfecting this. The smiley faces mean that we are all free so we can discuss things together if needed. 

Merchandise

Merchandise is important in order to promote a band and for fans to feel a part of something. This is included in the 'STORE' page in our website. It also makes our webaite feel more interactive and realistic becasue viewers are able to select a product and proceed to checkout. 

We decided to include love hearts in our merchansise which have our band name and logo on it. In our MTV interview we were mentioned that eating love hearts was how we came up with the name  for our band. They are a girly sweet and we are a girly band with 'sweet' in our name. 

Our hoodies come in a range of colours with a photo of the band on the front. We also created sweaters which come in black or white and has one of our logo's on the front in the opposite colour to the jumper which makes it stand out. 

We also created a phone case with a photo of the band on it. 

Website first draft feedback

Below is a range of feedback we received on our website.

Love their website, lots of work has been put into it which shows, like the extra girls tab with band info.

This is very effective because it lets the target users more involved and more personal.

need to finish 'Our music' page.

merchandise doesn't fit the target user, too boring, needs more colour.

 

Like the homepage, makes the band look really good, moving background takes the focus away from actual website, maybe change the opacity of the colour to take the attraction away, like the merchandise, good variety, like the animations used throughout the website, colour needs to match digipak more. 

Really good website though.

8/10

8 marks- Very good layout and the photo on the front is good. I like the way the name of there band appears. Very good movement on the other pages. Good in depth information about each individual artist. The store can be improved I think in the sense of the cart and maybe a discount? Other than that i like the gallery and it suits the genre very well.

The front page for the Sweet Nothing website is very clear and easy to use with a good quality photograph that gives a clear band image. The countdown to when the music video is released is a good touch and looks professional. The page where there is information about the band members is excellent with profiles on each member gives the viewer extra information about the band and this gives everyone a better idea about the band. The gallery has a number of high quality photographs which are good because they show how the music was made. The tour dates page is very good because it links you to Ticketmaster and this is a good touch because it looks professional. I think that the Sweet Nothing website is the best one so far as it looks the most professional.  

The sassy photo is cheeky and fun, the countdown on the front page should be larger and draw more attention but overall an overwhelming website page.

 The girls page is clever and inventive apart from Frankie photo which is a different quality and needs improvement. The page links to the other and is charming and joyful. Would it kill for some background on these saucy ladies. C'mon ladies.

The moving background on the tour page is witty and clever. It brings sparkle to an otherwise mediocre tour page.

The gallery is short but efficient. The photos should vary in location and perhaps add some details girls.

I am pleasantly surprised by the store page which was solid in all areas.

Social media aspects are good but the insta could use more pictures. FB is blocked so no comment.

My rating is 7/10

Gallery needs improving but store makes up for it.

This is a very professional looking website and has good use of the countdown towards the music video release which i think looks effective. 'The Girls' page is very good with the use of changing pictures when you hover over and also information on the girls when you click the pictures. The picture on the front page looks very real and easy to believe they are a girl group rather than just 3 randoms doing a media project. I would critise the 'our music' page as they say the music video is on the page but it is a default video.

 

What went well: Like Loud Summit, as soon as you open the page you are immediately drawn to the background as the photo of the girls stands out through the use of the flash effects on it. I enjoy the moving background on each of the pages and i also thing its very clever how the images change on 'The Girls' page when you scroll over them. This helps show the bands image very well, portraying the quirky characters they are. 

 Even better if: There needs to be information on each member of the band other than just pictures of them, other than that there's nothing wrong with it! Level 4, 9 marks

Things I Like:

• The home page is very effective, especially the picture of the group which is very high quality.
• Also like the countdown clock on the home page
• The girls page using the rollover images is a very nice effect
• The gallery has very well taken images

Things to be improved:

• Our music page needs to be completed
• Tour Dates page is very basic
• Store needs more work with more detailed items

8/10 marks- I Like the home page because it's really simple but eye catching and girly which already conveys the type of girl group they are.

The countdown is a nice extra.

The page for the girls' bios is really effective. Bio's all make sense. 

'Our Music' page is incomplete.

The background looks good.

Links to all their social media pages along the top is good. 

Their store is good and works well. 

Music Video First Draft Feedback

-Slow down first shots. Will look really cool and will make suitable start. Start is too fast. Club stuff good. 30/40

Digipak First Draft

This is our digipak first draft. It is unfinished and is lacking inportant

Music Video First Draft

Storyboard

To get a clear idea of what we wanted our music video to look like, we drew out a storyboard. were we drew what shots would look like with a short description underneath. This helped when filming as we had an idea of what we wanted our shots to look like and also during editing as we could see the order we wanted them to go in. As we progressed through the making of the music video we realised that out video would not be the same as the storyboard stated, this is simply due to us not seeing the shots before we drew it so some didn't quite fit next to each other, others didn't fit as they were too long or too short, and others just weren't very good quality. Additionally, we were always coming up with new and improved ideas so as expected, our final outcome would never be the same as our original plan.
Below is a video we filmed of our storyboard it contains a voice over of us talking more descriptively about the individual shots.

Digipak Plan

Today I drew a plan for what our digipak could look like. I labelled the different aspects to make sure I included everything expected of a digipak.





In our group we then started editing a panel of the digipak each. We got one finished which is of us individually in front of our coloured light walls in the night club. We struggled with making this panel as the images didn't quite scale to the same size meaning the images didn't flow into each other so we had to crop and zoom into them which meant they became a little stretched and distorted. The colours in the middle and bottom images are similar as the camera seems to have picked up a lot of blue pigmentation in the pink making it appear more purple than pink, and because of this i believe that it would look better if the orange image of Frankie was in the middle to break up the similar looking colours.

Website First Draft (including our extra changes)

The is the link to our website:
http://frains09.wix.com/sweetnothing



We have changed the front cover of the website. It now looks more dynamic because of the higher level of contrast. We have used a different photo which we believe looks more professional because we are not smiling and our poses make us look more like a girl band. The new image has been edited more and so there is no green tinge and our faces no longer look shiny.We have added a light flare onto it which makes it look more interesting/professional and also ties in with our theme of lights.

Since then we decided to change it again. We have chosen this photo because we become framed within the white box and so it looks more focused on us (star image). We moved our band name to a space not over our bodies and we also added a countdown button to make our fans excited about the release of our new video.

We have also changed the theme which runs behind the other web pages. It it still purple with light flares but we have made it darker in order to fit in with our front page and our digipak. (We believe continuity is very important).

Digipak ideas

Track List

Frankie took charge of creating the digipak so had to take inspiration from other similar artists about their tracks e.g. Little Mix, The Saturdays and Neon Jungle. They all had a different number of songs on their first album, we decided to go with 12 as it is still a lot of songs which allows our audience to really get to know our sound and decide if they like it or not. We tried to not make the names of the songs to complex so they still appeal to our audience. 

Christmas Newsletter

Sophie has created an impressive newsletter for our band. It was what will be sent to our fans when they sign up to our emails in order to keep them engaged and updated. It contains information about our new album 'Light Me Up', merchandise and a competition which gives them an oppurtunity to win a meet and greet with the band.

Screenchots from our website so far

Costumes: Liv

Night club- Light Wall


Being the diva, I was more 'dressed up' than the others in this scene. I had slightly heavier make up and sparkly high heels.



Night club- UV make up and Silhouette scenes

I wore black tight clothing to create a feminine sillouhette in front of the light wall but also black in the UV scenes was good to draw the attention away from the clothes and focus on the make up.





Outside scene

Outside I wore white to be the same as the others, showing unity.



White backdrop scene

I wore a play-suit (in my royal blue colour) which connotes dominance. I also was the only band member wearing heels which adds to my 'diva' persona.

Costumes: Sophie

Night club costume 1

Sophie wore a white lace dress and white and pink heels. Lace is quite a feminine material and white represents purity/innocence which relates well to her being the girly one of the group

Night club costume 2 (UV make up)

 Sophie wore black clothes to ensure we stood out in front of the light wall and also to not distract the eye away from our impressive neon make up.

Silhouette scenes

Sophie wore black to contrast well but it was still a girly outfit as it had lace and the skirt was A-line.
Outside scene
  Sophie wore white to portray unity as we all were. However her outfit was more 'girly', being a lace white dress.

White backdrop scene
Sophie wore a pink lace top which is very girly and feminine. She also wore a skirt again in this scene which also shows continuity.

Costumes: Frankie

Night club costume 1

Frankie wore a sporty baseball dress which portrays her as the edgy one. She also wore simple black heels and classy make up so show she is in a club.

Night club costume 2 (UV make up)

We decided black clothes were a good idea in order to stand out in front of the coloured light walls. Frankie wore baggy ripped blue jeans which was different from Sophie and I, which made her stand out and showed off her edgy personality more. Her UV make up was quite impressive and included lots of green and orange flecks which looked professional. green and orange are  her colours because they are different and did not strike us as girly or diva type colours.


Sillohette scenes

For this scene we wore black to stand out in front of the stage lights behind us. (Colours would be too distracting and may look grainy from the low lighting). She woke a chunky silver necklace which is glamorous but in an edgy kind of way.


Outside scene

 

This was our more casual scene as we were dancing and having fun with friends. We wore white in order to stand out and appear like the main stars (star image). Frankie wore ripped jeans and a baggy top to appear edgy and casual.

White backdrop scene

Frankie wore a baseball shirt (similar to the night club scene) which shows continuity. It shows she is like the 'sporty spice' of the band.