Music Marketing Project #2

Hello! This is part two of my music marketing project. In this phase, we got to apply everything we learned in part one to real-life situations. We created an imaginary artist and built her brand from the ground up. Our artist, Sylas, is a 23-year-old living in New York. The illustration below, made by Emi, shows what she looks like. Sylas is a passionate and eccentric artist who fled to New York to escape a toxic relationship. Our research from the previous project showed us that incorporating symbols and small details into a brand is helpful for marketing, so we decided that dragons, zigzags, swirls, and fire should represent her. The dragon below serves as her logo.

With her songs focusing on her struggles with a energetic and passionate twist, Sylas’ music is as emotionally complex as she is. We wanted her music video to reflect this, which led us our song choose: Time is Running Out by Muse. Her backstory is built around the lyrics. Back in her hometown of Flint Michigan, Sylas met a guy she really wanted to date, but her friends constantly warned her against him. She knew he was toxic and that dating him would only hurt her, but she did it anyway. Hence, we used the contrast between fire and water in the music video. Sylas represents fire, while the guy represents water. In the end, she chooses to drown and kill her flame.

Here is the link to the music video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/188Mwi06Qp70Loaf_3l7LreIiEE2878uo/view?usp=sharing

We all met at my house to film the video, which we shot in three parts: first, outside in the living room, then in a dark room for the promotional clips, and finally outside by the pool. The video below provides more behind-the-scenes details. After filming, Nico and I edited the video, while Emi, Andrew, and Robbie worked on the brand, marketing campaign, and presentation (linked below).

The presentation:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGY0ofj0wQ/zWryqARSuS4NmT5_pzfJLA/edit?utm_content=DAGY0ofj0wQ&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

After the relationship, Sylas felt she needed a change. This album cover represents the last photo Sylas took of Michigan before leaving her hometown for good, giving it sentimental value.

I learned a lot through this project, including how to manage stress and anger in socially acceptable ways. Seriously, having such a unique project close to midterm week was quite an experience. Next time, I really hope to work with Zach. I also had a weird shift in my mindset during this project. I realized that it’s genuinely better to use any free time available to finish tasks early, so that everything is done days ahead of deadlines. I’m also now more aware of others and how they feel. Who knew that socializing could actually make you better at socializing? 

Music Marketing #1

For this project, we picked our groups and were randomly assigned a music genre to do a case study on. From here, we picked two distribution companies and assigned two artists to each group member. Each member was to research the artist's background, history, branding, and marketing. 

Our case study was on rock subgenres, and I was researching The Strokes. I started on their website and followed that to their Instagram and YouTube, where I found nothing. Sure, they had music videos on their Youtube and posted merch drop announcements on their Instagram, but aside from that, there was nothing. After very little digging, I found a fan account that regularly posts content on The Strokes. This became my introduction to their past interviews, which were a fountain of information on The Strokes' experience with touring, writing songs, and the stress of fame. It gave me a lot more insight and surpassed summarizing a Wikipedia page. From here I kept digging and adding to my case study until everything was filled aside from the section on target audiences and marketing. With all the new information I gathered, I inferred that The Strokes acted like an unknown 2000s indie band despite being the complete opposite. This is because they are appealing to those with nostalgia for the early 2000s and to those who wish they remembered such an era. This unique way of branding is what attracts so much attention.

After this project was submitted, our group was assigned another one that was meant to be built onto this one. I'll admit our planning for this one wasn't ideal, but we quickly got back on track to what our group should be doing. Nico, a member of my group, and I were assigned the task of planning out our music video. We worked on the storyboard and built up a shot list. Andrew was tasked with marketing, Robbie with the presentation, and Emi with branding. Although they got distracted quickly, I always managed to refocus them on their work. That way we all finish quicker and get to go home and nap.

  
Genre Research Blog Activity

As someone who has watched all 12 seasons of Big Bang with my family, I'm surprised it never got old to me. The Simson's has been going on since 1987, I'm sure there's some one out there who is still watching that show. The entertaining quality of comedy films has made them my favorite genre by far.

A genre is basically something that makes movies easier to market. They set the expectation for a movie before it is watched by the viewer, with conventions being things that make up the genre. Romantic comedies, for example, tend to have two characters that can’t stand each other be forced into close proximity. In the comedy genre as a whole, however, there are many conventions. Things are shot in the same place, like the bar from How I Met Your Mother or the study room in Community. Characters are placed into intentionally uncomfortable situations for laughs and there is always conflict driving the plot forward.

Inside the incredible world of comedies, it’s easy to find sitcoms and romantic comedies and think that they are all the same. Sure, the jokes are unique to the storyline and characters but the camera framing isn’t. Stagnate shots, little to no use of cinematography, comedies don’t tend to expand on their appearance like other genres. Rarely are there gems that use all sorts of camera work for comedy. For example, the link below leads you to a compilation of films made by the director Mel Brooks, where she uses push ins as comedy. I find her creativity extremely admirable. 

 

https://vimeo.com/230990210 

 

Most comedies use the standard way of promoting films. Social media advertisements, celebrity collaboration, and trailers are all ways that companies promote their films. And comedy's are no expectation. However, comedies have been known to include their funniest bits in the advertisements and their trailers. Not to mention, some actors on the productions have begun posting content on social media, including jokes, dances, and vlogs on set. 

Sound Project

 Yay! New project, and this one was actually really fun :)

All we had to do this project is develop an original story and express it only using sound within 1-2 minutes. At least 4 sounds had to be foley and we could only use 7 words. Throughout this project I learned how useful perfect vegetables and raw food is foley. I was scouring my kitchen like a hungry racoon. Also, I learnt how to use Premiere Pro's sound equalizer which proved to be really useful throughout the project. Sadly, the brainstorm session we had before the project was dry. It was the end of the day and my creative juices where all gone. Luckily my partner came up with the great idea of a zombie apocalypse. We had to make an outline of our project, which I used as a checklist while editing. It was really helpful. I also got most of my sounds from Pixabay and Bulletproof Bear, the rest are foley. 

Once I finished the project and sat with the results, I realized that the story might not be understandable. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself but after I've listened to the story so many times I just have no idea if it's good or not. A lot pf time was spent on the sound scape, so I hope my video sounds good. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BJKtzPaR7BMVY2RFaeohTkAREDWgrqF1/view?usp=sharing

One Word Film

For this project, we were assigned one word. We then had to create, film, and edit a 1-minute story based on that word. My partner and I got the word "concerned." I won't lie, it was pretty difficult considering that we couldn't use any words or sounds in our video. We had several ideas while brainstorming but ultimately decided on a simple narrative; the brainstorming my teacher assigned us really helped us with that. My partner is great at drawing, and she was overly excited to do the storyboard. I helped guide her through the shots I thought would look cool, and she drew them down. To edit, we both used Premiere Pro. I'm way more familiar with the program than my partner, so I helped her the best I could. However, while editing, I realized I have a tendency to cut clips really short. The first line edit was about 30 seconds long, and I had to extend it as best I could. Looking back, I wish I'd recorded more. Not to mention, we were rushed for time while filming. So, I couldn't reshoot to get the perfect short. However, all in all, I think we did pretty well. Below is a link to our project. 

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wtPr3DEAdzAkwj6Jfz44Y489lSLWmNJT/view?usp=sharing

15 Shots Quiz

   The time was 11:58 pm. I had spent all day driving or reading my books in a crammed car full of suit cases, I was exhausted. Luck for me, I had finished all my school assignments but one. One project I finished but had no time to submit, since we left the house in a rush. As soon as we where at our AirBnB, I ran for the WIFI and summited the project right before the due date. The moment felt straight out of a James Bond movie. 

   The project is to tell a story with 15 camera shots (photos), and my partner and I chose a very... interesting story. This friend brings out a very silly side of me and our product ended up reflecting that. There are a few things I wish I had done better. For example, I forget that stories get to be as simple or as complicated as the creator wants, and for the sake of this project, a less complex story whould have been key. The other projects I've seen make sense because the story is easy to tell with such limited ways of communicating information, mine isn't. The car ride wasn't the first time I was stressing over the project. We had 20 minutes to take the shots for our project after my teacher finished her lesson. While we had the entire thing storyboarded, we still failed to get the shots done in a reasonable amount of time. That being said, you can witness the tragic story of Gilbert in the photos below

Hope you enjoyed it (and understood it, the text is very small.) Have a great rest of your day :)

Hello! I'm Renn. This is my first blog post (ever), mostly due to the fact that I'm part of generation Z and no one I know has a blog. I've heard of them though; I think MySpace had something similar. I'm creating this blog because it's a school assignment. If I weren't a slave to the public school system, believe me, I would have never done this. Please don't take offense to that Ms. Stoklosa, you are one of the good ones. Anyways, I hope who ever comes across this blog appreciates my school work, which is now available to the public.