I was going through the blog and decided to give you all, who ever reads this now, an update as to what's been going on with the site.
With regards to the project and the overall grade, I got a distinction! So that's just amazing right there. Thanks to my friend and the band for their help. As for the site itself? Well, it's still up and "running". We haven't gotten a chance to do much on the site mostly because the band members themselves have been quite busy. My friend and I are wondering if to run the site as if it were a fan site until the band settles down and can start contributing to it officially.
Unfortunately due to certain circumstances that I don't think I'm at liberty to speak about I have to go and get new pictures and video content of the band. So, until that happens the site has pretty much been untouched since January.
Also, as stated before the layout may undergo a drastic change. Some of the members want to tweak the layout a bit and not have it look so much like a newspaper. We'll see how that goes. I will keep you posted as time goes on.
That's about it for now,
Take care,
Saeed.
P.S. pardon the typos or grammatical errors. I can be so oblivious to them at times when I'm checking over my posts. I sometimes notice them long after posting while I'm randomly reading over old posts.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The End... or is it?
Well it’s all over, well the school presentation of it. The worries and bumps along the way paid off. With just two nights one of which was far too long, the site was a success. However, there’s still a lot more work to do because after all it’s not just a mere school project, this is going to be the band’s actual site.
Let me start with the problems I’ve been plagued with. Honestly, I thought I was going to fail, because I was having a BAD case of creative block. I had the theme in mind but just didn’t know how to go about putting it to ‘paper’. Eventually I just started playing around in Fireworks looking for backgrounds and what not.
The theme I had for the site was to make it look like a newspaper. The band loved it and so did my lecturer. Unfortunately I was having trouble with some of the code and I had to ask a friend for a bit of help not to mention I was also stressed for time to encode the video needed to include on the site as well as audio. So with two nights left I tried desperately to encode video from a DVD into a web friendly format that even a Mac user can have access to it.
My friend, helped with the CSS showing me the best ways to layout the site using the popular coding style. We were trying our best to adhere today’s web standard and I’d like to think we were successful. For purposes of presentation and to get it done fast, we opted to make regular HTML pages, though the finished site will incorporate PHP code and make full use of web databases and admin sections for the members to update news items and the like for themselves.
Using a handy feature in Dreamweaver we made a template that allowed me to easily make the other pages and ensure that they all have a level of consistency. Also, what ever changes we made to the main template file would be made through out the site, this was great for navigation editing. The same can be done with CSS, using one external file that all the pages read from we can easily make changes to this one file and have it affect all the other pages. This saves me from having to edit each page one by one so you can imagine how much that was a time saver.
Thinking about it, while the page making did take practically a whole night, the video encoding took the longest because it was a bit of a nightmare to get a decent sized video in an enjoyable quality. It actually took me a few days to find the right format, which is MPEG – 1. For some reason MPEG – II was not viewable in the Quicktime player so I had to downgrade it to MPEG-1. However, when we finish the site the videos will be hosted on Youtube, to take up less server space and download time for viewers.
As for the audio I just took some video that I was not going to use on the site and took out the audio and converted them to 128kbps Stereo MP3 files. The songs were taking from their band practice sessions, which in my opinion give it a nice intimate vibe making you feel like you’re there while they’re working on the songs.
When time came to show the site to my class and lecturer I was very nervous because I knew the site was indeed far from finished. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much of a hit the site was with everyone in class. I did mention that we still has a lot to do and that the layout could change drastically over time, but this was a good start. We – me and the band as well as my friend – want to make the site as close as possible to a classic newspaper layout. So far I really think we are getting close to it.
As for the content like the pictures audio and video, they were all done by me except a few pictures in the gallery. I shot the video and took the audio from it using my consumer end Cannon Powershot, which took some amazing quality video and audio for a consumer camera.
Overall the site at its current state can be used but it’s really not how I intend. The audience feedback was very positive and showed that the idea and the site is very much user friendly and will attract the visitor ensuring they keep coming back to the site. It definitely is a unique site, as said by both my lecturer and a class mate and I believe it’s definitely something that can stand out among other musicians’ sites.
Anyway, with out further adieu here is the URL: http://www.the-generals.net
You can keep checking it out, we might take it down temporarily...
Take care for now,
Saeed
Let me start with the problems I’ve been plagued with. Honestly, I thought I was going to fail, because I was having a BAD case of creative block. I had the theme in mind but just didn’t know how to go about putting it to ‘paper’. Eventually I just started playing around in Fireworks looking for backgrounds and what not.
The theme I had for the site was to make it look like a newspaper. The band loved it and so did my lecturer. Unfortunately I was having trouble with some of the code and I had to ask a friend for a bit of help not to mention I was also stressed for time to encode the video needed to include on the site as well as audio. So with two nights left I tried desperately to encode video from a DVD into a web friendly format that even a Mac user can have access to it.
My friend, helped with the CSS showing me the best ways to layout the site using the popular coding style. We were trying our best to adhere today’s web standard and I’d like to think we were successful. For purposes of presentation and to get it done fast, we opted to make regular HTML pages, though the finished site will incorporate PHP code and make full use of web databases and admin sections for the members to update news items and the like for themselves.
Using a handy feature in Dreamweaver we made a template that allowed me to easily make the other pages and ensure that they all have a level of consistency. Also, what ever changes we made to the main template file would be made through out the site, this was great for navigation editing. The same can be done with CSS, using one external file that all the pages read from we can easily make changes to this one file and have it affect all the other pages. This saves me from having to edit each page one by one so you can imagine how much that was a time saver.
Thinking about it, while the page making did take practically a whole night, the video encoding took the longest because it was a bit of a nightmare to get a decent sized video in an enjoyable quality. It actually took me a few days to find the right format, which is MPEG – 1. For some reason MPEG – II was not viewable in the Quicktime player so I had to downgrade it to MPEG-1. However, when we finish the site the videos will be hosted on Youtube, to take up less server space and download time for viewers.
As for the audio I just took some video that I was not going to use on the site and took out the audio and converted them to 128kbps Stereo MP3 files. The songs were taking from their band practice sessions, which in my opinion give it a nice intimate vibe making you feel like you’re there while they’re working on the songs.
When time came to show the site to my class and lecturer I was very nervous because I knew the site was indeed far from finished. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much of a hit the site was with everyone in class. I did mention that we still has a lot to do and that the layout could change drastically over time, but this was a good start. We – me and the band as well as my friend – want to make the site as close as possible to a classic newspaper layout. So far I really think we are getting close to it.
As for the content like the pictures audio and video, they were all done by me except a few pictures in the gallery. I shot the video and took the audio from it using my consumer end Cannon Powershot, which took some amazing quality video and audio for a consumer camera.
Overall the site at its current state can be used but it’s really not how I intend. The audience feedback was very positive and showed that the idea and the site is very much user friendly and will attract the visitor ensuring they keep coming back to the site. It definitely is a unique site, as said by both my lecturer and a class mate and I believe it’s definitely something that can stand out among other musicians’ sites.
Anyway, with out further adieu here is the URL: http://www.the-generals.net
You can keep checking it out, we might take it down temporarily...
Take care for now,
Saeed
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
We have some success.
I am so sorry for taking this long to give you and update. It's been a crazy month. Well I have gotten some where with the layout, the band seems to like it a lot. I've adopted a newspaper-esque look. I should have about 3 page previews ready for my lecturer to view this weekend when I meet with her. Also, I have set up a youtube channel for the band which you can check out here:
http://youtube.com/thegeneralschannel
I have one more video to put up so there will be 3 in all soon.
With regards to the server issue, well I kind of got it sorted out, however when submitting the site I'll submit it on CD as simple HTML files. Later on I will expand the site some more. I guess that's all for now, Hopefully I will have one more post for you next week before this project is due.
Oh in the previous post I made mention of a jam I recorded... for reasons I can't say the video won't go up on youtube, however, I will try to make an audio rip of it.
Take care and all the best for 2008,
Saeed
http://youtube.com/thegeneralschannel
I have one more video to put up so there will be 3 in all soon.
With regards to the server issue, well I kind of got it sorted out, however when submitting the site I'll submit it on CD as simple HTML files. Later on I will expand the site some more. I guess that's all for now, Hopefully I will have one more post for you next week before this project is due.
Oh in the previous post I made mention of a jam I recorded... for reasons I can't say the video won't go up on youtube, however, I will try to make an audio rip of it.
Take care and all the best for 2008,
Saeed
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Photographer for a night (and maybe more)
I am here at Shyamal's studio – the bassist for The Generals. We were at The Generals' practice session earlier and it was pretty cool. Heard them work on a new song, which of course I forgot to record because I didn't realise it was an actual song, I thought it was just a random jam. Although I should have recorded even if it was a random jam!
Anyway, I actually went there not to just hang around, I went there to take some photos, and I must say I took some really cool photos. Most of them pretty abstract that I hope to use in the website layout some how. The site might have a magazine layout from the looks of things, still not too sure. I also managed to get a video clip of one of their other songs called "Annie's Got A Problem." I got about 95% of the song.
I still have to work on the layout now that I have some pictures I'll get down to it this week. So I'll keep you posted on that for sure.
OH! I also had a "meeting" of sorts with my lecturer, Desiree, yesterday and well so far she thinks I'm doing well with regards to how I’m handling my Media Project. Thank Goodness this project is due in January! In my mind, I think what I need to do now is the layout... well a draft. The band may want me to take more photos so we'll have to get that organised.
Server space hasn't been totally organised yet, well I'm still waiting on the password information but Desiree did say I can hand up the site on a CD so that’s great! Oh, don't you worry the site WILL be up on a server, we didn't register that name for nothing! The band really does need the site so it WILL be up.
Ok I have to go now I "borrowed" Keshav's (The Keyboardist) laptop to type this up.
Hmm for future reference here's a list of the band members:
Darren Pierre - Lead Vocals and Guitarist.
Shyamal Chandradath Singh - Bassist, Vocals
Keshav Chandradath Singh - Keyboardist, Percussionist, Vocals
Puss - Lead Vocals, "Chants"
Jon "Otto" Otway - Drummer
Ok that's all for now,
Saeed
Anyway, I actually went there not to just hang around, I went there to take some photos, and I must say I took some really cool photos. Most of them pretty abstract that I hope to use in the website layout some how. The site might have a magazine layout from the looks of things, still not too sure. I also managed to get a video clip of one of their other songs called "Annie's Got A Problem." I got about 95% of the song.
I still have to work on the layout now that I have some pictures I'll get down to it this week. So I'll keep you posted on that for sure.
OH! I also had a "meeting" of sorts with my lecturer, Desiree, yesterday and well so far she thinks I'm doing well with regards to how I’m handling my Media Project. Thank Goodness this project is due in January! In my mind, I think what I need to do now is the layout... well a draft. The band may want me to take more photos so we'll have to get that organised.
Server space hasn't been totally organised yet, well I'm still waiting on the password information but Desiree did say I can hand up the site on a CD so that’s great! Oh, don't you worry the site WILL be up on a server, we didn't register that name for nothing! The band really does need the site so it WILL be up.
Ok I have to go now I "borrowed" Keshav's (The Keyboardist) laptop to type this up.
Hmm for future reference here's a list of the band members:
Darren Pierre - Lead Vocals and Guitarist.
Shyamal Chandradath Singh - Bassist, Vocals
Keshav Chandradath Singh - Keyboardist, Percussionist, Vocals
Puss - Lead Vocals, "Chants"
Jon "Otto" Otway - Drummer
Ok that's all for now,
Saeed
Monday, November 12, 2007
They've bought a home!
Yes! That's right! The Generals officially have an address now. Obviously there's nothing there yet except for a place holder page saying that the domain is registered. Anyways without further adieu the URL is: http://www.the-generals.net
Fancy isn't it? As for any other site updates, I'm sorry to report that there are none. I've been rather swamped with work on both sides of the field, i.e. school and job more so school. Also, the band members themselves are quite the busy bunch. They too have their own jobs to see about. However, I believe they have gone in to the studio to start tracking some drums. I didn't get a chance to go down to the studio. Hopefully next week I will though. I want to start recording some video footage or at least take some pictures of the band in action be it in the band room or studio room.
The design for the layout hasn't begun yet either, but, again maybe this weekend coming I can get some ideas down.
That's about all for now,
Take Care,
-Saeed
Fancy isn't it? As for any other site updates, I'm sorry to report that there are none. I've been rather swamped with work on both sides of the field, i.e. school and job more so school. Also, the band members themselves are quite the busy bunch. They too have their own jobs to see about. However, I believe they have gone in to the studio to start tracking some drums. I didn't get a chance to go down to the studio. Hopefully next week I will though. I want to start recording some video footage or at least take some pictures of the band in action be it in the band room or studio room.
The design for the layout hasn't begun yet either, but, again maybe this weekend coming I can get some ideas down.
That's about all for now,
Take Care,
-Saeed
Sunday, October 21, 2007
The Generals are coming.
Yesterday was the first official day for our Media Project class. This Class asks us to create a product be it a newspaper, radio show, TV show, movie, music video... what ever as long as it's media related. This product has to be as professional as possible, meaning it has to be done under normal circumstances - barring the fact we're media students. Seeing that I work in the web development field I thought it best to just do a website.
So now that I'm doing a website the next question is who do I make one for? Seeing that I have a few musician friends I decided to do one for one of the bands that I know. The band I decided on is a ska/punk/alternative rock/dub band called The Generals.
Yesterday I had a talk with the bassist and drummer about some possible ideas. We've come up with a basic concept for the site that will eventually change once their album comes out. As easy as this is sounding, it's not. The tough part for me has always been making a layout. I think that's my problem right there... I shouldn't view it as a problem now should I? We'll see I have a faint idea in mind so I'm trying to see how best to execute it.
Oh I forgot to mention, while making this product for Media Project we have to keep a log. Hence, this site. I decided to go all 'web' with it. So from now until January this blog will solely be used for writing up my ramblings and thoughts about this fun process... fun as the case may be.
For now I'm off
Take Care.
So now that I'm doing a website the next question is who do I make one for? Seeing that I have a few musician friends I decided to do one for one of the bands that I know. The band I decided on is a ska/punk/alternative rock/dub band called The Generals.
Yesterday I had a talk with the bassist and drummer about some possible ideas. We've come up with a basic concept for the site that will eventually change once their album comes out. As easy as this is sounding, it's not. The tough part for me has always been making a layout. I think that's my problem right there... I shouldn't view it as a problem now should I? We'll see I have a faint idea in mind so I'm trying to see how best to execute it.
Oh I forgot to mention, while making this product for Media Project we have to keep a log. Hence, this site. I decided to go all 'web' with it. So from now until January this blog will solely be used for writing up my ramblings and thoughts about this fun process... fun as the case may be.
For now I'm off
Take Care.
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