From the moment we figured out our groups and logged into our breakout room we started working, first, it was the choosing of the song and brainstorming of ideas(more in-depth in the first blog post) a quick rundown of that goes as follows. After a quick switch of songs in our pop genre, our brainstorming had a snowball effect. We had a lot of ideas that we wanted to implement but towards the end, we agreed to focus on one aspect, which was jealousy. We wanted to have two perspectives of the same person, the first would be a real perspective of a young adult who is struggling with some drinking problems due to the way it makes her feel. The way it makes her feel is the second perspective of "Royalty". We knew we wanted some subtle drops of symbolism in our music video, which later on we agreed on using colors in order to make that happen.
After the quick brainstorm of the topic, we had to develop our ideas with a few case studies, these case studies were extremely helpful and allowed us to understand the business side, more specifically the marketing and distribution strategies which are used by big labels in order to promote a new song or album. I was in charge of researching the background on Columbia and Harry Styles, but I still made sure to go over my partners' studies. Through my research done on google, I was able to find the background of the successful record company and how it became dominant in the music industry. I was also able to find a really helpful PDF that broke down Harry Styles and Columbia's marketing strategy. This included the "housekeeping" (updating social media profile), the email marketing (using "Mailchimp" in order to send bulk messages to email lists made previously), Website (providing a landing page for potential consumers), "audience engagement" (Radio interviews and podcasts) and the sales plan (where the song will be distributed and found). The case studies allowed me to explain and develop my ideas for our Record label. With that being said during my explanation of the potential strategies for our band my group discussed several important factors such as what our target audience should be, what we could sell, our major selling point, and where and when we could produce our video idea. The answer to the target audience came quickly because we figured out we wanted to focus on our followers and English speakers ages 15-21 and mostly female, with that being said we are confident that our song can stretch out of this specific audience due to the adaptations in our production. As to what we could sell and our major selling points we knew we could count on our audience and the hype we can create to prove how big this song release will be. We can also trust that the merchandise created will help others express the interest in our projects and help grow hype even more. Then came the production.
After the making of the storyboard, we had a clear idea of where we wanted to start of our shots. We agreed on meeting up at a Walgreens in order to take the first couple of shots. Since we were at a Wallgrens we bought a brown bag and water in order to make it look like it was an alcoholic beverage. We took several shots including a low close up shot of the feet coming out of the Walgreens store and a long shot showing the girl walking to her car in order to demonstrate the environment. We took close up shots of the drinking and a tracking shot of the transition hallucination. Now it was time to take them back and forth shots of the hallucinations and what is actually happening. As explained before we wanted to show symbolism so we went to one of our group mate's houses that had LED lights. These lights let us take different versions of the same shots to show the transition between the main character's dream lifestyle and her actual lifestyle all while developing symbolism. We made sure that when she was in her dream lifestyle the lights were purple to symbolize royalty and when she wasn't in her ideal state it was a brownish yellow to symbolize dullness and poor. The character also kept a nice outfit on when she was in her royalty state and when she wasn't she wore a more worn-down outfit. Finally, all the shots were taken, and it was time to edit. The editing went smoothly due to Geraldo offering a big help and making clean transitions and choosing the right clips, as well as the input from all the other members giving feedback and ideas for the video to look at its best. When everything was done we made sure to focus on the PowerPoint and presentations.
When it came to the PowerPoint everything went smoothly due to great teamwork and the case studies. We also discussed and sealed our ideas to make sure that they were clear and could be understood well. We made sure to show nice graphics and cite the sources that helped us develop our project. After that, it was time to present in class, when it was our turn our group was a little nervous and I found it weird because I usually feel confident in these situations. I came to the conclusion later on that it was because it was online and I couldn't see the judgment or expressions on what I was saying from others so it just felt like I was talking to myself. Besides that our group started building on each other's ideas from things like the synergy we used to promote our label to the merchandise drops. When it came to the end of our presentation I felt like we did well and it seemed like all the hard work paid off.
I took away many things from this project. I felt like the teamwork aspect gave me confidence because it showed all the networking skills I had and how ideas came to me which I felt was very valuable. The research aspect of the project really developed m range in the understanding of not only the music industry but also the strategies that are used to develop, promote and sell a song or album. I learned a lot of small details like what plugins were for website creation or how hashtags boost the Instagram profiles created. Overall I feel like in developing my Cambridge portfolio it comes down to the details so I am very proud that I was able to get the most out of this experience. This project taught me many things that I can continue to use moving forward and overall I am happy with how it turned out.
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