Country - Music Marketing Blog Post #1

 The first issue we faced was definitely the genre we were assigned, working with a genre that normally isn’t targeted to our age group is definitely difficult, but we worked through it. Our idea with country started with researching various popular country artists in the US, we found that acoustic guitars were a repeated topic, as well as fields and open spaces. Dark logos also were very present and pale colors as well, so we based our aesthetic around that. To build our artist we brainstormed not much on platform but on standing out through visuals and easy colors. To build a relationship between the song and the video we used opaque colors due to the song’s sad topic.

To build our music video we chose the promotional and storytelling techniques as they are popular and successful within the country world. We chose to closely follow the song’s story about heartbreak through a simple story of infidelity. We based our video on mostly long shots and medium shots, with a few close ups and even extreme close ups to add impact, but to maintain the organic feeling of country music we left the shots raw in terms of setting. Leaving space for creativity, we took long shots of whom would be Bryce Henderson to pick and choose clips and compile them within the video.

In terms of our marketing campaign, away from our music video, we chose to go all out on digital marketing and merchandise, as these would reach the common country audience and possibly a younger audience. With the assistance of the fusion of genres the song brings, a younger audience is a potential gain for this campaign, bringing the newer generation into the endless genre of country. Using the logo as the main part of the brand, Bryce’s guitar is the face, showing it is what will follow him through his music.

Semester One Reflection

 Through semester one of Media Studies, I learned the pure basics of media composition. I know mostly musical composition, production, and performance, but film, and many other details of the media sphere where a blur to me, so learning about things as small as types of shots to things as big as mise-en-scene was interesting and fulfilling to understand. I learned to identify these different techniques and details and even started to identify and use them to find the meaning in movies or shows I watch on my own. Looking deeper into media has always been part of my life as a consumer, but using the techniques to find meaning is fairly new.

I need to strengthen how I explain my perspectives on how different techniques affect meaning. With the many practice essays we did through the semester, I noticed my main issue was finding the right words to plainly put what I was thinking. I overthink my words and essays trigger that instantly. Sometimes I don’t correlate how some techniques develop meaning in one film to the way they’ve already been used in other pieces. Identifying the correct techniques could also be improved and developing my knowledgeability of the media sphere in its business side.

In our film pitch project, I feel like representing our ideas with fonts, words, and pictures was successful. How we were all on the same page and we succeeded in working as a team helped to complete a possibly well done assignment. What needed to be improved, or realized, is that crazy ideas are good but they should also be realistic and taking into account the viewer. Our idea for the film was very disturbing and uncomfortable, we basically thought of the craziest scary movie idea we could find and we did, but wasn’t the best decision. I learned that I should take into account my audience more, know what could possibly create a negative or positive reaction and make wiser decisions, choose what will balance what I would like and what the audience would enjoy, and use my ambition and creativity to create enjoyable and presentable pieces.