Chapter 3: The Music Experiment, Part 2

As we've just finished our music project, I wanted to reflect over all the steps of our project.

Research

When we initially began researching, we researched Fueled by Ramen. We researched the marketing behind Panic! At The Disco's newest album Pray For The Wicked and twenty øne pilot's newest album Trench. We found some interesting information that helped us in our research, such as the mail marketing campaign and cryptic posts that we used in our marketing campaign.

Research chart for Fueled by Ramen 

We later researched Elektra Records. We researched the marketing behind Kaleo's newest album Fight or Flight # and Ed Sheeran's album Divide. We found strategies to use in our marketing campaign, such as the high social media presence used by Ed Sheeran and using performances to boost album sounds. 

Research chart for Elektra Records

Planning 

We decided to make a storytelling video so that we wouldn't have to sync audio to mouth movements during editing. After a bit of brainstorming, the idea of a "revenge fantasy" video came to us. Our group decided to create a shot list to streamline filming, and to create a plot for our video. Overall, it was easier to create an identity for the music video, as we could add notes on techniques we wanted to implement. 

The shot list

Production

Once the shot list was completed, we were able to meet up and complete the project. We filmed for two hours, following our shot list nearly verbatim. We did have to cut some scenes due to location issues, but were still able to fit the idea of the "revenge fantasy" into the video. Nicole was our lead, and most shots involved her in some capacity. Emi, our villain, was in the beginning and end of the video, which were fairly easy to shoot. Maria, our love interest, was only in the beginning of the video, so she helped me shoot most of the music video.

Post-Production

Most of post production was done by Maria. She edited the video, and gave the "western" style shots the filter to make them look similar to movies like Django Unchained. Once she had finished the rough cut, she sent me the video to do the sound. I added in the song and the sound effects, which I feel were timed accurately. Once that was completed, we uploaded the video to our band's YouTube page to show to our classmates.

The completed music video

Aside from editing the video, we created our presentation. I was mainly in charge of the marketing materials, and created both a website and an Instagram. I created a website for the band, and tried to model it similar to the website created for Panic! At The Disco. I also created the Instagram for the band, which was modeled more after twenty øne pilots.

Website for Zero Effect

Instagram for Zero Effect

Presentation

We presented on Friday, and most of our presentation went off without a hitch. The screen sharing worked perfectly, everyone sounded energetic, and we had no tech issues with the extra components. I think our presentation was very well done, even though we had to present virtually. 

As the critiques on all of the presentations were made public, we found that a lot of our classmates really enjoyed our presentation. We got a lot of good feedback on both our presentation and our components. Most of our classmates enjoyed our website and Instagram, which was exciting for me since those were the major components that I contributed to the powerpoint.

Presentation for Zero Effect

Reflection

Overall I feel that our project was a success. We created a marketing campaign based on ideas that worked, and added our own take to make them feel authentic to the brand we were trying to sell. It also taught me a lot about myself and filmmaking in general. I learned to work as part of a team and how to bounce ideas around to create the best project that we could. I was also able to learn how to properly shoot a video, as we used multiple takes and a detailed shot list to coordinate how the video should be filmed and edited. The most helpful part of this project, however, was being able to take my vision and make it real. I got to block and film most of the project, and I enjoyed being able to have a lot of creative control. I believe this will help with my Cambridge portfolio project by having the experience of being in control of a project, and being able to be both a leader and a team player.