Music Marketing Project Reflection
By Santiago Rios
Research and Brainstorming
The specifications of this project had several intricate components that my group and I were not fond of which meant that proper execution would require a notable amount of research for all "angles" of the bigger picture that made up this project. The genre we were given, hip-hop, was a style of music that every member of the group happened to like. However, the largest initial challenge was that hip-hop has a whole world in the music industry that quite frankly none of us could talk about, better yet use in our favor for a sales pitch. So we obviously dedicated a lot of time in and out of school to not only research the necessary details for our case studies but also go beyond that and understand this market as a whole. We figured this was the most proactive approach, as it would be the best way to approach the brainstorming process for the music video.
For the first step of planning for the video, we agreed to pick the song from the list before going on to a storyboard and such. Little did we know, this would be the first roadblock of the project. After listening to each song close to three times, over half of the allotted time during one class period, we genuinely felt no appeal to any song. In retrospect, it's safe to say that one of the main reasons why we couldn't make a decision was that nobody in the group knew any of the songs, despite our collective interest in hip-hop music. However, regardless of this, we also had trouble because we didn't see any potential in any song for an engaging, creative music video production. They all seemed bland to us, and no ideas were flowing. This part of the project definitely took prime time from us, which was concerning because it seemed like most of the groups in the class were already ahead of us. After changing gears and turning to the lyrics of each song, we began making progress on this step. We figured that making the music video based on the lyrics was likely the best way to make a meaningful piece that resonates with the purpose of the song. This procedure was way easier and we were able to simmer it down to one song which not only had the best flow but also had lyrics that were easy to feed off of and build momentum for the storyboard. The song we chose was "Colors" by Black Pumas.
Our overall plan was to make the music video go along with the lyrics of the song. This song used colors as a main descriptive element in the lyrics. So, we decided to include shots that would use the colors mentioned in the lyrics and "align" both together so it makes sense. One example from our video was the shot of Dylan throwing brown leaves into the air during the line "I shake leaves back down to the brown, brown, brown, brown 'til I'm clean". Another principal motive of the song was a message of unity and acceptance for all kinds of people, hence the concept of colors, which indicate the many races and ethnicities that exist in our world. So with this in mind, we chose to add simple, yet powerful acts of inclusion, equality, and the overall uplifting of those around us who are treated poorly.
Production and Post-Production
From my perspective, this part of the project was the most challenging out of the entire production for both personal inconveniences and general obstacles as an entire group. My group and I were willing to film anywhere to achieve the best footage possible for our desired storyline, and we decided on the local library as our primary filming location for many reasons. The largest reason why we chose this spot over anywhere else is because of access to extra actors for our film. Though we never incorporated this idea in the final production, it was a safe decision to pick the library because we would have a number of students to pick from and invite for our scenes, if needed. In regards to me, I happened to catch strep throat during the main week of our production. This significantly limited my ability to help the group and incorporate my efforts, but more on that later.
The partners in my group that were able to go and film proceeded to find and film at a few other locations on campus that were best fit for our video. Another notable location that we filmed at was the school gym, which also had numerous props and people that we incorporated into our video.
After filming, the editing and syncing process were mostly carried out by Dylan. For the post-production, we already had a relatively good understanding of the effects and techniques that we wanted to implement to convey our story as well as possible. This was something we had initially brainstormed at the beginning of our project because we knew it would benefit us when we were ready to edit if we already had the majority of the editing ideas thought out.
Presentation
Because the presentation needed to be made in the style of a sales pitch, I decided to take a larger part in this because I needed to continue contributing to the project despite my sickness. Another major reason is that I have previous experience in this area from past shadowing programs and mentorships on proposing ideas and presentation skills.
Conclusion
This project taught me how to take an idea and properly produce it with techniques and strategies that best appeal to a given category.
