Ancillary Text: Website: Complete..(Almost)

Over the last week I have been working on designing our website for one of our ancillary texts. First off I looked back at the research we had done as a group on other bands/artists websites. I concluded that the best type of website for our ancillary text would be a minimalist website with a simple and effective layout. I took inspiration for this idea from Crystal Castles website, which is very minimalistic.

Home:

The homepage for our website is very a homage to the xx's current website with our version of their logo as the main focus point of the homepage.

We have tried to create continuity throughout our website by having "THE xx" written in the bottom left hand corner of each page. This is also interactive; when you click on the band name; the song "Islands" plays. This is the same throughout each page on our website and we hope it brings consistency to our website and makes it more realistic.

Gallery:

The gallery gives the public a chance to see images of the band that they would not have seen during the music video. We have used a slider to make accessing each picture easy and smoothly. We have also chosen to frame each picture with "grungy" ragged-looking edge. We believe that this will fit with the stereotype of other bands, especially in the indie genre.

Bio:

Short for biography, this page gives it's reader a chance to learn about the "history" of the band and how they came together as a group. This biography is fictional and written by Hannah and I. We tried to make the history of the band as realistic as possible, without copying THE xx's real history, by saying they dropped out of university. We did this because many other indie bands have also dropped out of university to form a band, such as "Foals".

Links:

We added a links section to increase the verisimilitude of our website as links to external sources such as "Myspace" and "Facebook" are very conventional things to find on a band website. These links are important as they give the audience a chance to find out more information about the band and support them in different ways (E.g: becoming a fan on Facebook.)

Shop:

Finally, we decided to create a "Shop". Bands usually incorporate this to increase sales in merchandise and give the band free advertising via shirts and posters. This should increase the realism to our website as I designed many "products" such a "Islands" t-shirt, a "xx" poster and a "Islands" Hoodie. We also have put our other ancillary text, our Digipak, in our shop. However, unfortunately I have not yet got a picture of the finished design but will do soon in the coming days.

To visit our website follow the link below:

http://www.wix.com/ruaraidh_j/islands

Music Video Analysis: The xx - Crystalised

Genre: Indie Rock

Lyrical Analysis: Some believe that the song is about drug addiction, specifically Methamphetamine or Crystal Meth. This shows the link to the title and it can also be seen in the lyrics: "I've done things in small doses" and references to "paradise" and being "paralyzed". However, one theory is it being about global warming and the impacts it has: "Glaciers have melted to the sea, I wish the tide would take me over". I believe this to be the more credible theory and it is backed up the images of the sea, the sky and the sun that are shown in the video.

Video Analysis: The music video is entirely performance-based and includes the 4 origonal members. (second guitarist and keyboardist Baria Qureshi left the group in late 2009). The whole video is shots of the band performing with a projector shining images of nature onto them and the wall behind them. The camera shots are nearly always moving and are mostly short pans from one band member to the next.
There are many close-ups of all the band members and there instruments but the singers are the main focus as with most music videos. When the rhythm of the music increases, it is noticable that the shots become shorter and are all straight cuts. However, when the music slows down, the shots linger a little longer and there are more fade outs/ fade in's. Here we can see directors Alex Flick and Masato Riesser trying to increase the continuity of the film and to try and make it flow together.
The band members in the video move away from the stereotypes of their genre, through there black simplistic clothing they try to make it about the music and not about the image, which is not usually an idea an indie band would incorperate. However, the mannerisms of the band do very much fit with there genre; moody faces, apathetic attitude etc.
Overall, I enjoyed the video. It gives the watcher a chance to see what the band look like and how they use different instruments than that normally be used ( drum machine/beat pad instead of a drum kit) Though I suspect that The xx did not have a huge budget for this video, I believe it has been executed very well and is a great example of a performance-based music video.