For unit 7, our task was to research media production companies and create our own.

The business that I created was called Gollop Productions. My company would produce music videos for young/unknown artists and bands. The logo that I created is relevant to the business plan as it is a pair of head phones with the name of the company underneath. Headphones are obviously related to music so I thought it was the perfect image to use and it looks modern and clean.

The reason I decided to produce music videos with my company is because I enjoy making them more than other things like short films etc. This is because I can be creative with it and add all sorts of special effects.

For our company, we had to create our own website.
I am really happy with the way my webtite turned out. I think it looks modern and the colour theme is exactly how I wanted it! Im really into black and white designs, and thats why I went with these colours. I also feel that the black and white colour theme makes it look more professional, because sometimes having too much colour can make a website look tacky.
My website is easy to navigate around and includes all the information that clients would want to know about the busiensss.

We also had to pretend we were writing an email to Illicit Web Design, who are a company that specialise in creating websites and other graphic related things for companies.
We had to email them, asking them to create a website for our business.

I think that the website that I asked them to create would be much better than mine because obviously I’ve never created a website before and Illict Web Design specialise in doing so. However, I like some aspects of my website which I like, that I didn’t include in my email to Illicit.

I made some mistakes on my website which I couldnt change because I had already published it. There was a spelling mistake, and also I put my prices of production far too low.
So next time, if I make a website again, I need to double check my work before publishing.

I think if my company was real, then my website would be pretty successful as, like I said, it is easy to navigate around, it has a proffesional look to it.

http://sophiegollop.wix.com/gollopproductions

 

Dear Illicit Website Design,

I am writing to you to ask for your help. I have recently set up a small music video production company and would like create a website to promote the company.

I would like my website to include the following; Information about the company, Examples of production, Prices and A way of contacting me.

I would like the colour theme to be black and white, as I’m into a modern aesthetic. So ideally, I would like the background to be white, and the font, black.

I would like the font to be easy to read and a reasonable size so that people who may have trouble seeing small writing, are able to understand all the information given on the website. It would be good if the links to different pages are situated along the top of the page.

For my home page, I am looking for something simple, wether it be a photo, a video or a slideshow of work I have done, and maybe a small paragraph outlining what the business is about underneath.

I would like my logo to be in the top, centre of the page, and when you click on it, it goes back to the home page.

On my contact page, I would like to include the following information; the company number, email address, and address. In the future if I branch out and create social media accounts for my company, then I would like the links to be on my contact page.

Thank you for taking your time in reading this email, and I really hope you can help with designing my website.

Sophie Gollop

Specific line of business – Music videos

Name – Gollop Productions

Logo –

Mission Statement – My aims for my company are to create high quality music videos for young/unknown pop artists and bands. My values for the company would be Professionalism, Commitment, Respect and reliability.

Business Plan – The work that my company will produce, will be music videos for young and unknown pop artists and bands. As my business has only just been set up, I would not charge much to start with, as I won’t have enough money to spend on props and things, so to start with, the music videos won’t be the best of quality. Because of this, I would maybe charge around £100 for a music video, or maybe £150.

 

About

Hallmark Broadcast Ltd is a television and corporate video production company, situated between Bournemouth and Poole in Dorset, offering a worldwide media solution. They’ve worked on everything from Olympic Games to small corporate videos. They are friendly and have all the experience that you will ever need.

The website for Hallmark Broadcast is very clean looking. The colour scheme is probably the best i have seen after analysing two other media production companies. The which background makes it very easy to read the text. This is a very important factor for a website, as the whole idea of having one, is to put out information about your company.

The logo works well as the design relates to the word “broadcast” as the “A” in Hallmark is made to look like there are signals coming out of it.

Whats available on the website?

The home page of the website includes pictures and links to recent projects.

Their “About Us” page includes information about their service and what they aim to achieve, and information about the employees.

Under the “Service” page, there is information about what services the company provide.

They have a portfolio page, with projects that they have worked on.

This is a good website as it includes all the information needed to learn about the service that Hallmark Broadcast provides. The layout and colour scheme make the website easy to read and navigate around.

About

Devon Films is a full service video production company making a wide range of high quality films for broadcasters, private companies, public service organisations, event organisers, campaign groups and media agencies throughout the Southwest Peninsula and beyond. They are based on the edge of Dartmoor National Park, just 20 miles from Exeter.

The picture above shows the website for Devon Films.

Compared to the last Media Production website that I analysed (Crediton Media) the colour scheme is much more appropriate for a website. Although maybe the black background isn’t the most ideal colour, all the writing is in white which works well with the black background.

The logo also shows up well and is a simple and rememberable design.

Whats available on the website?

Showreel (which is important so people can see the quality of work that the company produce)…

Services, which includes

• Concerts
• Corporate 
• Documentaries
• Editing
• Events
• Location Services 
• Music Videos
• And finally, Timelapse 

All of these pages on the website are nicely laid out and easy to read. They include all the information that customers would need to know.

There is also a page where you can contact the company with any enquiries you may have.

Illicit Web Design was established in 2010 in the city of Exeter, the historical capital of Devon. They started out with the key mission to provide a world-class web development service at affordable prices. Since then, Illicit Web Designs has expanded its reach and has cultivated a reputation as a provider of high quality, innovative design throughout the UK.

They have built a strong client base across the UK and have, they believe, created some of the best value web design Devon has to offer.

What They Do

Illicit Web Design are a company based in Exeter that has quickly become synonymous with excellence and innovation throughout Devon and the UK. They specialise in providing bespoke client-focused services, Including all aspects of website design, e-commerce and web hosting, as well as graphic design and branding, search engine optimisation and copywriting.

Who They Serve

Their client-base encompasses individuals, SMES and larger businesses, and has recently expanded their work beyond Exeter and Devon to projects all across the UK and the rest of the world. From budget-conscious brochure websites to powerful e-commerce and business solutions, they have a service to suit, whoever and wherever you are.

Aims

Their primary aim is to provide high-end yet affordable bespoke web design service in Exeter, and they pledge to craft websites that are conceived, designed and coded in accordance with a clients specific requirements, paying equal attention to aesthetic appeal, intuitive functionality and maximum cross-platform compatibility.

Keeping their clients happy and maintaining their reputation comes first overtime. Combining the best work with an open and straight-talking approach to their clients, they continue to build great websites and great relationships

Who have They Worked For

• Littles (E-commerce website)
• Board Basement (Graphic design for Ads and flyers)
• 4DBI (Website with forum)
• Caternet recruitment (Recruitment website)

 

 

Crediton Media is a video production company based in Devon.

Logo

One of the first things you notice about the Crediton Media website is the logo. The logo is a mixture of bold and non bold, blue text with a symbol. The problem with the logo is that, against the black background of the website, it doesn’t show up very well. A logo is something that you remember a company  by, so because it doesn’t stand out well, people are less likely to remember it.

Social Media Links

The social media links are used so that people who are interested in the company can follow any news from them. Like the logo, they really don’t show up very well unless you are close to the screen.

Slideshow/Images

The images on the website are not of high quality. The picture above shows a camera which has obviously been photoshopped. The white boarder makes the picture look tacky. This may have been done to make the picture stand out more as it is a black camera against a black background. However, instead of outlining the picture and making it look poor quality, they should have maybe spent more time on the colour theme of the website so they didn’t have to outline the picture. This would have prevented a poor quality image and make the website look more stylish and professional.

Crediton have included video clips of productions they have worked on. This is always a good idea because it allows people to see how they work and the quality of their work.

Although their videos may be good, they clearly haven’t taken time on their website as (from the picture above) you can see that the first sentence doesn’t make any sense “Being doing some test filming…”. This may give some people a negative view on the company.

Text

The text on the website is not good. Most of the main information (contact number, etc) is in a dark blue colour, which doesn’t show up well. The most crucial information should be in a bright colour and in big letters so that it is easy to read. At the bottom of the picture above, the information about the company is in a really small sized font. This makes it hard to read, especially for people who may have trouble seeing.

Whats available on the website?

The picture above shows all of the available information on the website.

• About us
• DVD-CD Duplication
• Video Production
• Blog
• Hire
• Contact us
• Search bar

I found that this unit was the hardest out of all of the units I have done. This is because I nearly ran out of time as there were a lot of tasks to get done. However I found that most of my work went well.

Order of challenges, based on how well they worked:

1- Short Film – Emotion

2 – TV Show Set Design

3 – Short Horror Film Script

4 – Foreign Language Film Review

I found the short film the easiest, the most fun and the most successful out of all four challenges. I really enjoyed making the film and trying to be creative with different shots. I wanted to mix different medias together (animation an video) to make it more interesting to watch. It took me a while to come up with an emotion for the film but then I had the idea of doing something to do with appreciation. I then realised this wasn’t really an emotion, so I changed it to guilt, but went along with the same idea that I had for appreciation. I mixed my own clips of things we use everyday (water, food) with clips from youtube of people from poorer countries like Africa to make the audience feel guilty that we take things for granted. If I did it again then I would choose and emotion where I film all of the clips myself, rather than get some from youtube because I enjoyed filming and my clips were good quality and the ones from youtube aren’t, so the mixture of the both doesn’t look great.

The TV show set design was fun too but I’m not 100% happy with how it turned out. I made the set on the sims so that you could see how I wanted it to look in 3D. I would change the floor plan if I did it again because I don’t like how the audience is positioned and the shape of the stage isn’t ideal.

I found the Horror script the hardest because I have never written one before but I am quite happy with the way it turned out. I knew that I wanted to do a horror about zombies because thats something that people may associate with horror. I am pleased with my overall script. I think for a amateur script writer it worked fairly well. However, I wouldn’t want a career in script writing as I was getting stressed just writing 1500 words let alone a whole film. If i were to do it again, I would focus more on creating powerful imagery.

The task that I found the least fun to do was the foreign film review. I think it is partly because I didn’t really enjoy the film that we watched, but also I find it difficult to write reviews for films. I would lay my review for the film like the reviews in the empire magazines if I did it again, and I would spend more time on researching the film.

Overall I am happy with how everything turned out, but I think I could have done better if I had more time.