Music Marketing Project

By Sabrina Staab

                                 

Research

The research helped our group decide on who the primary audience was based on the research we had done related to the genre. It did take our group longer than expected to work on the research portion of the project, which put us behind on the entire process. 

Indie pop is a broad term used to classify pop artists who are either under a minor label or are unsigned. I learned in my research that the genre "indie pop" was started in the US in the 1980s, and is very common among college students. This is because several college radio stations tend to play this type of music. Indie pop was created with the idea that anybody could start a band- typically college students. After starting the band, the band members would learn to play together, and then eventually release album(s) and/or tour the country. 

Brainstorm/Planning

The video planned itself out in a way. Our group had  initially decided on doing another idea in which somebody was looking back at their past right before taking another big step into their future. As we were creating the storyboard for that, it occurred to me to do something related to your "life flashing before your eyes." It was definitely hard to get everybody to find a time to work on the project together since everybody had a complex schedule. 

Production

For the production of the music video, we met up at my neighborhood park and two of my friends helped film and participate in the video. The main issue with this project as mentioned above was that everybody had events going on, and it was hard to plan a time in which everybody could work on it together. The weekend our group agreed to meet film the music video, two of the group members were out of town, which put a lot of pressure on me and the one other group member who was in town that weekend.  I was the main character in the music video, and she was able to show up and participate in the video in some scenes. 

Editing

The editing process did take some time but overall it was a lot less than what it was last time. Instead of it being a total of 6 hours to edit, it ended up being about 4 and a half. Next time, the amount of time required for editing time will be even less! This shows you that little by little, my editing skills are improving. Since the entire video was about "life flashing before your eyes" (to represent the uncertainties in life), there were shots meant to represent the past and then others to represent the possible future which it is still unclear whether or not it will occur. 

To represent the past (the memories) I lowered down the saturation (by 40%) so that it would not be as far to look "black and white" but still not have as much color present. In addition, the video was faded to represent the past. For the future, I increased the saturation levels to represent the possible brightness in the future. The increased saturation and use of fading are both used to convey that it is still unknown whether or not this future will occur. 

Presentation

The overall presentation was good but could have been better. I do believe it could have been better had it been rehearsed as a group, but there was too much conflict in our group members' schedules to come up with a time to rehearse. I brought flashcards to better help me stay focused and give me "something to lean on" because I am not good with public speaking. I am getting better at it, but it is still a struggle and brings me anxiety every time. Some of my classmates commented that me bringing my flashcards made the music marketing pitch seem less professional which although it does makes sense, I do believe it is still a high school project done by a bunch of 16 year olds and therefore does not need to be as professional. 

Reflection

This project got me more familiarized with the editing tools involved in creating a film which will make it a little bit easier to edit my portfolio project because I have had more experience with editing.  The overall plot of the music video was confusing to several of my peers so for my portfolio project, I need to make sure that I am not confusing any people viewing my video. I also noticed that I enjoy working on my own because I not only have more creative freedom, but I do not need to depend on others. As a result, I will probably work alone on the portfolio project or work with ONE partner so that I still have the creative freedom I want but can still get somebody else's advice and opinions.