Music Marketing Project PT. 2
When we first started working on this music marketing project, I was honestly pretty nervous. My group and I spent two class periods brainstorming how we were going to market our band and how we were going to make our music video engaging. The music genre we got was Rock. I personally don't know much about Rock music, so this project was definitely a challenge for me. However, I was ready to tackle this project with my group. The song we ended up choosing was "Mountain At My Gates".
I would say that the brainstorming and the planning part was the hardest. Although we eventually came to a conclusion with what we wanted to do, it took us a whole class period to decide what type of shots we wanted to utilize in the music video. Likewise, we decided that the message we wanted to communicate through our music video is coping with death. We created a shot list (shown in my previous blog) that depicted every single shot that we would have to film in order for our message to be conveyed clearly. Along with the shot list, we also created an 11-page storyboard that includes visual, drawn-up shots of different angles that we needed to shoot. As part of our planning process, we also had to recruit people to be our actors for the music video. I asked some of my closest friends and my dad (we all got tested & came back negative) to help us out with the video and they were more than happy to! We all met up together on January 30th (Saturday) to film at Vista Park View at 9 a.m. The reason we chose to film at this location is because it is one of the closest places near Weston that has a "hill" and we needed this "hill" to pass as a mountain to use the level and to show Character #1 running up the mountain.
For the music video, we wanted to make sure every shot, prop, character, and situation served a purpose that would eventually help build the overall message of coping with death. For example, the "mountain" symbolizes an obstacle (the death of a close friend) that Character #1 faces through the entirety of the music video. Nonetheless, it is evident that by the end of the music video, Character #1 reaches the top of the mountain, which symbolizes that they've learned to heal. Subsequently, the memorial at the top of the mountain is there to show that no matter how much someone has healed, they will never forget the person they lost. The flowers that Character #1 holds onto represents her fear of letting go of her friend, but she later learns that she doesn't need to let go of her friend in order to heal, she just needs to accept the death of her friend. The production process of the music video took about 14 hours in total (filming and editing). It was a very tiring process, but it was definitely worth it at the end. Looking back at the music, I feel satisfied with how it turned out, however, I know that it is far from perfect. Some of the shots could have been clear. An example of a shot that was very unclear was the shot of the rearview mirror that showed the dead friend sitting outside. I had a couple of friends watch it and they said they had trouble seeing the girl in the back. If I had the chance to re-do that shot, I would have the girl sit in the back seat of the car instead of sitting outside since the mirror makes the shot blurry.
After talking about every detail of the music video, we focused on developing our band and the marketing strategies that they would need in order to grow as a band. We first discussed what the name of the band should be and we decided on "Kings & Queens" since the band members enjoyed playing card games in their New York apartment. Kings & Queens grew more as artists since they began playing at local venues. One of their most famous songs, "Mountain At My Gates", became extremely popular and they soon plan on releasing their album, "Four of a Kind". The band mainly markets themselves through social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and Facebook. They implement interactive activities in their social media platforms such as hosting giveaways and contests in order to connect with their fanbase. Additionally, they also have a website in which they sell band merchandise. With the money they make from performing at local venues and the merchandise that they sell, they will go on a performance tour of the East Coast of the United States.
The presentation part of the project was definitely the part that I was most scared for. Public speaking is something that makes me nervous (I know, I need to break out of this), so pitching our band to the entire class was quite frightening. As the presentation progressed, I became more comfortable and I was able to convey the information I had to say without stuttering too much (I did most certainly stutter every now and then though). In short, I thought my group and I did a great job while presenting. After reading some of the group critiques, I realized that the marketing plan for the band should've been more detailed and specific. I'm glad that we are able to do activities such as the group critiquing activities because it has allowed me to work on the areas that I lack in.
Overall, I gained a lot of knowledge from this project. It was the first project I did in which I got to direct and that made the project extra exciting for me. I honestly wish that some of my group members would have helped more with creating the shot list, storyboard, filming the video, and editing it. Nevertheless, I think the four of us all ended up working well with each other and we agreed on many things. By the same token, on the things that we did not agree on, we would talk about other possible ideas that we could use and then we would end up collectively deciding what to do. I had a lot of fun with this project and I'm grateful that it gave me the opportunity of expanding my directing and editing shots.
Here's the final music video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cvZvMhMr995hjI3Qpy1eS9K6Yjm8QiHw/view
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