Hello again! I'm back to offer a review on my experiences making a music video and marketing plan. This post will discuss the overall experience, my personal reflection on what I could've done differently, and what I've learned as a result of this project.
Research
Before starting work on my own production, I first had set out to research the music genre I was making a music video for in order to understand and compare different marketing strategies as utilized by industry giants and influential labels.
Through my research on the Domino Recording Company, I had picked up effective audience interaction tools from the marketing techniques of Dirty Projectors and Arctic Monkeys. While Dirty Projectors provides fans with a one-stop-shop for their band, serving as a hub that links to new merchandise, new music videos, new songs, and concert dates, Arctic Monkeys opts for a more personalized fan experience by inviting dedicated fans to meet the band through VIP areas in their concerts. Both of these techniques illustrate a strong, healthy connection between artists and fans, and moving forward with our own marketing plan, we ensured that our artist's website could also serve as a hub for media related to them, along with adapting the VIP meet-and-greet idea from Arctic Monkeys into Instagram Live sessions where the artist and fans could interact in a real-time setting, while simultaneously making it more accessible to fans and cheaper to maintain.
My research on Interscope Records only added to our potential ideas for marketing our artist. Through extensively researching artists under their label like Tame Impala and Lana Del Rey, our team had gleaned a few more ideas for our marketing plan. The most important of these ideas had come from Lana Del Rey, who had made a stage name for herself in order to get her name out and popularize herself. It was clear to the team, specifically in a genre like indie rock, that our artist have a name that is attractive and stands out from other artists, leading to our decision to brand our artist as "Flameheart". It is our belief that having such an unconventional artist name will allow them to differentiate themselves from other artists in the genre, hopefully allowing them to foster their own fanbase.
Brainstorming/Planning
After the research was done, we had to write and produce our own music video to serve as our artist's debut. After being assigned the song Fire by Beth Ditto, I had set out to make a story representing the rebellious, fiery (pun not intended) sentiment of the song, one that seemingly captured a bit of the teenage spirit, so our target audience of 16-24 year olds could relate to the video. I wanted to capture the rebellion of adolescence and translate it into a story of someone overcoming their oppressive authority figures, and maturing as a result of this. Since I didn't have the budget nor the actors available for this story, I instead opted to tell this story of maturing through symbols, which ended up being the bicycle that the protagonist uses throughout the video and the car that she eventually drives away in, illustrating the transition from the childish bike to the mature, adult car as a result of her escaping the authority in her life. Once the idea was agreed upon, I set out planning out several storyboards [One is pictured below] in order to visualize how the story would look like in video form.
Production
On the day of filming, we had all gathered together at 7:00 in the morning, freezing wind cutting through the ill-prepared team's jackets. Though it was early, once we had all arrived at the location, we went straight to work. Prior to this day, I had driven over all parts of town looking for a suitable place to film. We had two conditions to be met: a long stretch of road, and that it must be empty at nearly all times. After a few days of scouring our suburban home for a fitting area, we settled on an abandoned road, chosen specifically so we didn't disturb others during our shooting, while simultaneously ensuring that we would not be disturbed either. On filming day, we went through all of our shots in chronological order, a process that was facilitated by the extensive planning we put into the storyboard and shot list we compiled before. While at first I worried about how much time we had to shoot everything, we were soon finished collecting footage in a matter of hours, proving the power and efficiency of planning everything before going out to do it. While unfortunately we had to cut out a few shots due to technical and practical reasons (among the cut shots was the idea of strapping a camera to a wheel, capturing the perspective of the bike), I was very pleased with the tracking shots of the bike and car chase, as it was a concept that we weren't sure would loom good in practice, but ended up being the cleanest-looking shot in the production. Overall, I am satisfied with the majority of the end product of the video, despite having a few shots that I wince at the sight of, knowing that I could recreate them in a more professional fashion if given the opportunity.
Post-Production
Due to the majority of my involvement in the video being the writing as well as directing of the video, the job of actually editing it together was delegated to another group member, who did a good job. My contribution to this phase of the music video's creation was mostly working with the editor closely so that they understood my vision for the project. This was done through several conversations with him, offering advice, specific instructions, and criticism when needed. Though some errors remain in the final product, it is a testament of both of our efforts that the video itself was able to be completed in a matter of days, thanks to our frequent interactions and planning.
Presentation
When presenting the marketing plan and video, I discussed the marketing through social media aspect of our marketing campaign, specifically how our decisions to network through certain social medias facilitated the marketing to different age ranges of our target demographic. Additionally, I also compared similar strategies for audience interactions between our artist versus other popular artists in the genre. Finally, I was also tasked in explaining how our music video related to the artist's persona and why it is a fitting debut video, along with getting to break down why we made certain choices in the video to better fit the story we told. After the presentation, though feeling like there was room for improvement in many aspects of the presentation (most notably to me was the aesthetic design of the slideshow, it did not seem visually interesting and paled in comparison to the presentation of other groups), I am still satisfied with the overall product of our time and effort spent working together.
Reflection
This project was very interesting to me as a concept, since I have long toyed with the idea of producing, writing, and directing my very own music video. My mind was filled to the brim with burning passion and ideas that could barely fit in one video. However, this fiery passion for the video was somewhat dampened by the constraints put upon me, whether they were intentional or not. While I enjoyed the brainstorming and writing process a lot, it took a lot of time from our planning phase, as I was savoring the creative liberties I had to make something of my own. Or at least, that's how I perceived it at first. The time limit we had on producing the video was frustrating, but I knew it was not only necessary, but also realistic for the expectations I would find if I pursue a job in the film industry, which is dominated by deadlines and due dates. However, I was able to work through this because I enjoyed putting time into working on this video. The same could not be said for my interactions with group members, who were consistently apathetic and indifferent to the fate of our video. I had initially expected to have some creative input from others I worked with, or at least some pushback from more questionable decisions in the story, but I was met with no resistance. While it was nice having an unchanged vision, it felt lonely, as there was no other creative minds that I could work with. These issues would leak into the shooting of the video, where I found that their lack of energy for the project was mirrored in the lack of energy for acting. I do however appreciate them for being patient as I adjusted the script and what to keep in the video accordingly, and overall being supportive and positive to be around. I think my biggest lesson learned from working on this project was, for my next project, to surround myself with like-minded individuals who have a passion for the project we work on. The group I worked with on this project was efficient and productive, but it lacked heart, at least in my perspective. I am eagerly anticipating the next assignment for the class so I can prove to myself that I can produce something better than this, and that I can learn from my mistakes in this video to ensure the improvement of my craft.
I anticipate the next time I post on this, so see you then!
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