Music Marketing Blog Post #2

    In our initial research, we consumed content from the following country-music artists: Vandoliers, Florida Georgia Line, Justin Moore, and Jason Hawk Harris. We specifically focused on the ways their labels distributed, produced, and marketed their content. By understanding their ‘image’ we were able to brainstorm exactly how we thought a country music video and group should look (clothing, guitar, animals). By understanding typical distribution/marketing practices, (Facebook accounts and Pandora/YouTube) we could establish a target audience. Then, we were able to think of ways to broaden this audience and expand our artist to fans outside the genre but maintain the initial fans as well. Thus, we decided to keep the beloved ‘Americana’ aesthetic within our video and branding but modernize it by creating social media presences on apps such as Instagram and Twitter. To modernize distribution, we made the artist’s music available on popular streaming apps such as Apple Music and Spotify. 

    Since our song selection fell into the category of Bluegrass. We decided we needed the music video to be quick and engaging similar to the music. That is how we decided we would mix the promo option with the storytelling. Mostly inspired by the lyric, “You and your boys got nothing on me” we decided that the story would be a conflict between two men over a girl. After storyboarding each shot to be diverse and rapid, we focused on mise-en-scene. We planned that the characters would have a wardrobe suited to the aesthetic we were going for thus, jeans, denim, acoustic guitars, and cowboy hats were a must. We also planned to have a farm style background and researched ranches in the area. We finally landed on a location in Davie and called ahead to select a date/ verify we had permission to film. With that being done all that was left was filming and editing.

    On the day of filming we arrived at the location and shot the story first using a tripod. We did multiple takes so that we would have a variety to choose from when editing. A challenge we faced while filming the story was that people kept on walking into the frame while we were filming. However, we were able to gather enough footage for the story and then moved on to film the promo portion. We filmed the artist singing in multiple ‘farmstyle’ locations i.e. in front of a tractor, in front of a horse, and in front of a crop field. We filmed the artist singing the entirety of the song so that we could use any portion of that footage at any point in the final product. We also moved the camera close up and around the artist to further hold the audience’s attention.

    When the filming was complete, we began the editing. We chose to draw in the audience initially with the introduction of the main character and then present the title and artist right as the beat hit. This was done with the purpose of setting a fun tone for the rest of the video that we hoped would promote viewer entertainment. From this point, all storytelling was done in quick shots in time with the beat of the song. However, as the lyrics stretched, for example the lyric “yoouuuuuuuuuuu” we let the clips run longer and used these moments for the promo portion of the video. Finally, so that watchers could easily differentiate between the story and promo portion we used a color filter over the story shots. This filter was called “western gold” and was selected to promote the ‘Americana’ vibe for which we were aiming.

    Lastly, we divided up our presentation by allowing the person who created their slide to present their own slide. This was done so that everyone could speak about a topic they researched which made them appear more competent and knowledgeable. The presentation itself came from a horse ranch presentation and we utilized much of the western influence as a template for our own information. Finally, we decided that the full viewing of the music video should be done right after the genre overview slide so that our audience could first understand what country entails, then see exactly who the artist being pitched is, and then view the pitch.

    This project was fun and gave wide parameters for creativity. It also left me with important knowledge for later projects. Firstly, I saw the value that a good camera will have in a video. I also learned the importance of being aware of continuity errors while filming as it will prove difficult to fix in post-production. Lastly, I learned the importance of having character movement within each shot. I feel that our own video had a quality of stiffness that was completely unintentional. These production lessons will prove helpful in developing the Cambridge Portfolio because they will aid in providing my work with a more mature/professional look that can increase the quality of my projects.