Cambridge Portfolio Project Research

We're getting somewhere... maybe

Now that we've decided on a genre, we're starting the tedious process of coming up with an idea for our opening. Coming of age movies, according to Wikipedia, "focus on the psychological and moral growth or transition of a protagonist from youth to adulthood". Simply put, we will have to focus on a teenager transitioning from youth to adulthood. This is important to our process of developing the story because our story will have to revolve around this fact; we will have to stay on theme throughout the entire opening. Now, my partner and I are brainstorming... a lot. But, we are running into some problems with the plot process,  like:

1. Developing our character and their personality in a 2 minute time frame
2. Creating a story that differentiates from the typical coming-of-age movie, but still stays relevant to the genre
3. Finding music (since we want to base our opening around the use of music)

For the first problem, my partner and I are worried about being able to detail our character's personality in such a short amount of time-- especially when we also have to include credits (meaning limited dialogue). We feel compelled to develop the character because it is something commonly seen in coming-of-age movies. For instance, in The Edge of Seventeen (2016), Nadine's character is introduced and developed as being emotional and snarky through dialogue with her teacher. So, we wanted to do something similar to this; working around the short time frame, we will likely focus on mise-en-scene (i.e. the character's wardrobe, hair/makeup, and bedroom decor) and the character's actions as a way to achieve this development in 2 minutes. 

This is an example of an opening that we are inspired by (as mentioned before). We want to do something similar to how Nadine's character was developed. Her personality was essentially shown to the audience in a few minutes, which gives us hope for our time-frame. Even though we don't want to rely on dialogue as much as this scene does, it is a great example for us to use when we start planning our story in more detail. 

As for the second point, my partner and I have come up with an idea (though we are not 100% positive we will go down this route). We thought about doing a coming-of-age movie based around a deaf character. This will definitely add a unique factor compared to other movies of this genre, and will allow us to stay relevant because we can keep the same outline of the genre: developing the character, introducing their struggles, and ending with them persevering or finding their "happy ending". This idea came to us because my partner and I are both in ASL 3 at school-- meaning we are very involved with sign language and learning about deaf people. Since it is something we know so well, we feel we can pay homage to the Deaf community with this idea. However, one problem we may face is casting. Deaf students are unfortunately limited at our school, so we would have to use a hearing actor. We worry that this lack of representation will undermine the awareness we want to bring on the struggles of deaf people. In order to combat this-- because it is an idea we really want to do-- we will ask our superiors whether or not this will be a problem, and ask around if we have deaf students we can use in the film. We can also meet with the ASL teacher, who is deaf, and get her opinion on this matter.

With the third problem we have faced, we are not as concerned about music at the moment. Yes, we wanted to base the shots and timing in our opening around music, and yes, this would mean we would have to find music soon. But, we are more focused on our actual idea first, as we should. Both of us are avid music listeners (we ARE teenagers), so throughout the week we have been casually noting songs we think could possibly work. Then, later on, we will revisit this list and start the process of emailing production companies for permission to use their songs (if we choose to). But overall, we are just excited that we are getting somewhere (finally!).

Cambridge Portfolio Brainstorming

Finalizing our genre

So we've done it! We've finally decided on our genre. My partner and I will be doing a coming-of-age film. We are more comfortable with this genre and from most of the ideas we pitched, we saw a trend: they all revolved around the coming-of-age genre. So, in class today, we began to watch coming of age movie openings to understand more of their conventions. We knew we wanted to do something with sound and music, and so focused on that aspect while watching examples.

Now last post, I talked about the conventions of audio/sound in drama movies, such as Shawshank Redemption. Because we have nixed the idea of doing a drama opening, we had to analysis a new example. So, I watched the film opening of 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)-- linked below. In this opening, the director focuses on developing the character, Kat Statford, and her environment. Her actions in response to the girls helps develop her unique personality, and differentiates herself from usual coming-of-age main characters-- something we want to do in our opening. The film's opening also uses a popular rock song, "Bad Reputation", which helps to develop the young, rebellious tone. My partner and I want do something similar to this: we want to use a song that will add to the mood of the scene and be a representation of our character's personality. 

We also really like the stylization of the credits. The drawn-on credits adds to the youthful, rebellious tone and relates directly to the coming-of-age genre. We can do something similar to this if we choose too. I have animation experience in After Effects, and have done draw-on animations before, so this is something we can incorporate as an option in our planning. The only problem with this approach is that the process is extremely tedious because you have to go frame-by-frame and write out the entire name each time. This will definitely be time consuming, so if we choose to do this, we need to decide early-on. 

Because of our chosen genre (coming-of-age), we now have a better idea of our target audience for our opening. Coming-of-age movies typically have a target audience of teenagers, usually from ages 12 to 18. This is because these people are in the stage of their life when they are going into adulthood, coming of age so to say. With our young target audience, we will have to cater the aspects of our opening to their interests. For interest, we can choose a well-known, popular song to include in the opening. We can also write our story to include terminology or everyday items that are known to teenagers; this will further appeal to them and gain their interest in watching our production.

Cambridge Portfolio Project Research

Brainstorming ideas on sound

So, my partner and I have narrowed down our genres further to only coming of age and drama/thriller. We eliminated fantasy because we didn't have any ideas coming to mind, and after looking at examples of fantasy movies, realized that they require a lot of effects and creative storytelling-- things we can't really do within our budget. But now, we have to come up with our stories for the coming of age and drama/thriller genres. Our plan is to brainstorm different stories for each one, and choose the best one (easier said than done). Now, we don't have concrete ideas as of right now, but we both have an idea of specific aspect we want to include in our opening. For example, we want to make use of the audio of the opening and use some unique sound effects. For the coming of age movie, this is how we picture incorporating audio:

'The main character is walking down the street wearing headphones, and we are able to hear their music. Then after an abrupt event (like them almost getting hit by a car), the music cuts out completely-- like their music pausing on their phone.'

This is just one example of how we want to maximize audio effects. Some other ways we can do so is by adding plugins on After Effects to make the audio muffled, or to boost the bass. We can also add reverb or distortion, though we most likely will stick to matching the audio with our plot. If we plan on doing a coming of age movie, we want to use these audio techniques because music is something that is universal, especially in the lives of teenagers. So, we figured we would stay on target by using audio effects-- in terms of using accurate conventions of a coming of age movie. With a thriller/drama, however, the audio would be a bit different. 

Opening scene of Shawshank Redemption (1994)

I watched the opening scene of Shawshank Redemption (1994) as a way to see the conventions of openings of drama movies, and how they use sound and audio techniques. In this, the director relies on non-diegetic sound. The narration is emphasized in the beginning, and this is followed by swelling music as we get to see the setting from a bird's-eye-perspective. Similarly, my partner and I plan to use background music in our opening, regardless of the genre. We want to find music that is already created, so we will either look for royalty free music online, or we will find another artist's music. But, we will have to email the artist's production company to get access to use the music, which is a bit of a challenge considering the possibility of them just not answering us. These are our two options, since neither of us can produce our own music. So, we are starting to look at music while we finalize our genre; that way we can plan accordingly if the company does not answer us, or if we cannot find any royalty free music we like.

Cambridge Portfolio Project

So many genres...

Recently, my partner and I have been brainstorming ideas for our movie introduction all week. We figured the first thing we should decide is the genre we want to do, so we have been researching different movie genre intros all weekend. To be honest, we are already conflicted (not a great start, we know) because there are so many different types of genres to choose from. There is adventure, comedy, drama, horror, musical, science fiction, fantasy, thriller, etc. But, each genre has different conventions for their movie introductions, so we had to take that into account as well. Therefore, we decided to take the weekend to narrow down the list to only a couple genres, just to make our decision a little easier. 

We ultimately narrowed the list down to horror, thriller, coming of age, and fantasy, because these are the movies we have the most knowledge with. These are also our favorite types of movies, so we figured we could really become creative with writing a story since we know it will be something that interests us. We know we have to include a title sequence, credits, and our production company's logo. I watched some movie openings over the weekend (of the movies listed below) and tried to determine what I liked and what I didn't like, and also what we can do similar-- taking into account our budget. I decided that we should keep the production logo at the beginning; for the credits, we can either scatter them throughout the opening or place them all at the end. Our title will most likely be at the end as well. So, once we decide our genre, we can narrow down these choices and begin the creating the story. Tomorrow, my partner and I will find conventions of openings for the genres we have chosen to research, and we will hopefully narrow down our list further so we can begin in-depth research into our chosen genre. Here are some movies I explored over the weekend, just to see more examples of successful openings in different genres:

Midsommar (2019)

The Princess Bride (1987)

The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

Cambridge Portfolio Project

Beginning the Process

So, last class we were given the instructions for the long awaited portfolio project, and to be honest, I am a little overwhelmed. Don't get me wrong I am very excited to get started, but it is pretty daunting to hear everything I need to include in one sitting. Nevertheless, my partner and I are already discussing our ideas for the project. We planned to work together because we both have different talents and skills when it comes to production, and we figured the best thing is to maximize our skills and work together. As for the project, we plan to pick a genre by next week, and then we will start brainstorming specific ideas for our film introduction. We will be researching title sequences for different types of genres, that way we can base our choice off of the one that we can complete to our best potential. Because this project will be completed over such a long period of time, my partner and I plan to create a schedule for ourselves (i.e. when we should have picked our intro idea, when we should start filming, etc.), that way we will not feel rushed and ruin our intro's quality.

Film introductions, as we learned in class, have to grab the audience's attention to truly be entertaining and effective in introducing the film. You can establish tone or background, develop characters, establish conflict, or create mystery. But, you should aim to establish an overarching theme for the entire movie. We watched many samples in class to see these openings, but I also went home and watched the openings to several other movies, including some of my favorites. I watched examples of establishing conflict and developing characters with the title sequences of Ladybird and Parasite. With these scenes in my head, my partner and I will aim to create a more artistic sequence that can grab the audience's attention like these. Over the course of this week, we plan to get inspiration for our intro by watching even more examples, and just brainstorming ideas ourselves. But above all, my partner and I plan to approach this project with the intent of making this a fun experience, and I cannot wait to document all that we do here!

Music Marketing Project Overview

Aloof Marketing Campaign

As I wrote about previously, a couple classmates and I were tasked with creating a marketing campaign for a new band (created by us as well). We were simply given a song, and told to expand our research and creative abilities to create a unique band, and a plan to show our band to the world.

Researching

We first began by researching on the genre of our chosen song, "Blind" by Korn. From, this we discovered that our band should stay within the realm of nu metal/alternative rock music genre. We wanted our band to contain major aspects of these genres, since that is what we were tasked to do, but we also wanted to add our own touch to the band to make it unique. So, we aimed for an alternative rock/metal band that relied on freedom of expression and experimenting with sound. In order to figure out how to create and market such a band, we researched other bands and artists who thrived on freedom of expression, such as Marilyn Manson, Iggy Pop, and Turnstile. We compiled all of our research in a music genre research chart, showing their distinct marketing plans and strategies, and how they all achieved some level of success. We especially focused on Turnstile's marketing campaign, because they are the more recently formed band and, therefore, have marketing techniques that are catered towards our target audience: teenagers and young adults. Turnstile focused heavily on their digital distribution and online marketing, so we wanted to incorporate those aspects in our own marketing campaign. We especially liked Turnstile's personal website. We thought the graphics were fitting to their vibe and target audience, and the idea of people been able to easily manage the website really resonated with us; we wanted to make our band easily accessible to the public. Seeing Turnstile's marketing plan, and the techniques used by the other rock artists, we realized that cultivating an interesting and appealing self-image was one of the most important techniques. Similar to Iggy Pop and Marilyn Manson, we wanted a rough image in our music and performances; however, like Turnstile, we wanted to have a calmer public and social appearance, one that is more lax compared to on-stage. So, we got to brainstorming how we could make this happen. 

Research for two bands in alternative rock genre.

Brainstorming/Planning

After the research process, we learned exactly what is successful in the nu metal/alternative rock realm, in terms of marketing. Along with the importance of self-image, we learned that having a solid distribution plan, digital and tangible, is just as important; this is what we started with. The alternative rock genre is more traditional in terms of distribution compared to more modern genres like pop. Because of this, we decided to incorporate tangible objects, like vinyls, into our distribution plan. We also planned to "release" both the single and album to various online streaming services, like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, Soundcloud, and YouTube Music. With this, we will reach our targeted audience, who will primarily listen online, and also reach those who favor vinyls; vinyls are making a comeback in the music industry because of their aesthetic appeal, and it is common for many younger people to collect them, so we figured incorporating them into our campaign was essential. In addition, we began creating a background for the band. We wanted them to come from a small, unknown town because that is usually seen with these types of bands. We decided that they would be from Blairsburg, Iowa, and have formed previously for a high school talent show, where they got a taste of fame after having their performance go viral on TikTok. We wanted one guy to be the face of the band, Ben Stone, while the others were touring members who joined along in the background. Moreover, we also started brainstorming name ideas and album ideas. We wanted a name that was both short and symbolic of what our band meant, so we decided on Aloof. Aloof means cold, distant, detached, which we thought was perfect considering we were going for a darker theme in the album. As for the album, we wanted to create an artsy album that also took meaning to our "theme". We ultimately chose "The Regression from Myself" because it was symbolic of the general idea we had for the music video: a young, harmless boy loses himself to drugs. "The Regression from Myself" is literal when you understand our intent with the music video, but it also has an artsy, poetic appeal that can allow to be understood without having to watch the music video. For the tracklist, we wanted to keep the same chaotic, artsy vibe, as with the album cover (pictured below). 

Aloof's album cover.

Besides our ideas for the album and band image, we also wanted to keep a cohesive theme with marketing our band. We ensured that our band would have a large social media presence as part of its campaign. So, we designed Instagrams and Twitters for the band, even posting fake "posts" announcing their album, and detailing information about themselves in general. We wanted to make our social media presence more subdued in comparison to our bold stage presence, so our lead singer would take to posting intimate videos of him playing the guitar, or posts of him showing his appreciation to fans. With this, we would differ from the cold, stoic attitude usually seen in rock bands, and appeal more to our fans. After solidifying our social medias, we began working on our merchandise and tour information. We designed our logo from the album cover because we felt it perfectly portrayed the distant, detached meaning behind our name. So, we placed this logo on clothing, and put our name on phone cases as well. We also created a tour flyer detailing our future tour dates and locations, which we would post on our social medias. Furthermore, we designed a marketing plan for after the release of our single. We designed to release our debut album after the single, on February 22, 2022. As for marketing the band, we thought to contact various radio stations, specifically rock stations, and have them play our single so we can reach a wider audience, rather than just teenagers. We wanted the band to do live interviews, podcasts, and talkshows to show the fans their personalities in a public setting. Lastly, we designed for them to do extensive live performances at rock festivals, and have them play unreleased material at their own mini concerts.

Flyer for Aloof's upcoming tour.

Merchandise examples.

Production

Before the actual production of our music video, we needed to come up with an idea that represented the true meaning of our song. So, we all listened to the song repeatedly and shared our ideas for certain parts of the song. We all agreed on depicting a young, pristine boy who falls suspect to drugs, so we based our ideas around that theme. Therefore, we began storyboarding the music video. The beginning of the song was very instrumental-heavy, and there are bits of loud, metallic-like noise. So, we decided to use this noise as indication for the tension rising, and the story progressing. We wanted to start with him being normal, or just starting out on the drugs. Then, we wanted the story to quickly progress. For the ending, we all agreed we wanted it to be messy, chaotic, and symbolic of him going through withdrawal. So, ultimately, we wanted our video to be strictly storytelling, not promotional. As for production, we were fortunate enough to have a member who is part of television program at our school; therefore, we were able to have a high-quality video camera, as well as box lights to use for lighting. We went to one of our group members' house, and filmed in his bedroom. We specifically chose his bedroom because it was the most empty and clean-looking; we wanted it be as realistic as possible, so it would look like the lead singer was actually living there. We closed the curtains and windows so the entire room was dark because the natural lighting from outside would not have looked great. Then, we used the two box lights and maneuvered them around the room depending on the scene, and we changed their intensity depending on the scene as well. We also started out filming with a cooler-toned lighting and deviated to more yellow-toned towards the end to symbolize his manic state. The color settings on the box lights allowed for this change. During filming, we drastically lowered the shutter speed for certain speeds to make it look chaotic and messy like we intended. We also switched from tripod to handheld to get this effect; however, we used a tripod for most of the shots to get a more professional look. We used minimal props and set design because the room was already decorated perfectly; all we brought was a pill bottle and trophies. We filmed our shots in order of their appearance on the storyboard. However, we filmed all of our inside shots first, then moved outside for the few shots that we had. 

Post-production

Since most of the techniques in the music video (linked below) were done during the production (i.e. low shutter speed, handheld camera, dark lighting), we put most of our attention on other aspects of editing. While editing the clips together, we focused heavily on timing. We wanted the clips to start off slow, then progressively get faster as his mood gets more chaotic and messy. In the beginning, there is quite a bit of instrumental, but the instrumental has certain parts every couple of seconds that sound noisier/metallic. We wanted to use these parts as indications of when to cut the clips. During filming, we filmed "filler" scenes (like him flipping pages of a book). So, when showing the progression of the story, we decided to cut back to the scene of the book pages, just to add more depth and further the effect. By doing this, we were able to make more cuts, which went in-hand with the messy, chaotic theme. We made sure every cut matched with the instrumental and music. We also incorporated a slow zoom into certain shots that were static at the beginning of the music video. This added movement, and made the shots appear less boring in a sense. Lastly, we desaturated slightly the shots in the beginning, but oversaturated the shots towards the end, when he was in his "manic" state. Doing so highlighted his mania and made the environment look less sterile than in the beginning, and this difference in environment represents how his life was negatively affected by the drugs.

Presentation

Creating a visual presentation that showed our marketing campaign was one of the main components of the project, along with the music video. So, we created a Google Slides document at the beginning, and as we completed this project, we added our items to the slides. We created 15 slides that detailed our campaign. We started with background of the band and our desired image, then went in-depth into our marketing plan itself, then ended with the presentation of the music video and final points. We were essentially tasked with pitching our band to the class, and because of that, we had to rely on the oratory aspect more. Our slides were not the most visually appealing, but we kept them simple and concise. We went with a dark grey and white theme that portrayed the dark image of the band. We also designed a graphic art on Photoshop to represent the lead singer and the band name. We heavily relied on the hand-written look for both this cover art and the album cover because we felt this best exemplified the chaotic youthfulness to the band. Moreover, for the presentation itself, we focused on our band image and using it to appeal to our audience (classmates). Although we were missing a person, which did throw us off, we were successfully able to present our campaign. Because we wrote little on the slides, we were able to expand upon our plans while presenting, and easily show to people what we were planning for Aloof. 

Cover art for presentation.

What can I take away?

As a whole, this project has been extremely beneficial in teaching me the meticulous nature that comes with creating and marketing a band. Before this project, I had not realized how vital distribution and marketing is to an artist. Now, I know that this is the most important aspect; without effective marketing and distribution techniques, your band will not be known by the public, no matter how great they are. I have learned more about the creative process, and how to narrow down my multiple ideas into one single idea. I have also learned how many aspects there are to marketing. For instance, social medias, websites, merchandise, tour flyers, YouTube channels, crossovers and collaborations, and more are all examples of marketing catered towards artists. These are all evident with today's artists, I just never realized the intricacy that goes into developing them to appeal to specific audiences, which I have now learned. Furthermore, the creative process of developing a band from simply a song and music genre will definitely help with my Cambridge portfolio project. We developed a story for Aloof, having them come from a small town in Iowa and rise to minimal fame through TikTok at a high school talent show. With the portfolio project, I will also have to come up with a unique story and expand upon it. In addition, the production process for this project is similar to what I will do for the portfolio project. I will have to storyboard my ideas for the movie opening, film, and edit, to put it simply. But, I will also have to pay attention to lighting and coloring so I can develop a certain mood that symbolizes an aspect of my story, which is what we did with this project. 

Nu Metal Marketing Project Planning

The Creation of Aloof

Recently, my class has been assigned a Music Marketing Project in which we research, create, and market a band within the genre we were given. My group of four received the genre nu metal/alternative rock, and although we were slightly overwhelmed by the amount of research and planning that had to go into this project, we were excited to begin our process, and began by researching about our genre.

What is Nu Metal/Alternative Rock?

The song we were designated fell more under the nu metal genre than alternative, but we spent our time researching both the former and latter. Nu metal and alternative rock are under the same umbrella when it comes to genre; however, nu metal is a subgenre of alternative rock in which elements of heavy metal are combined with other genres (hip hop, grunge). Influence for the nu metal genre is usually drawn from other heavy metal genres, as well as varied music styles. It is relatively new compared to its parent genres, but we found that it has acquired many notable groups already, such as Deftones, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Korn, Crazy Town, and Limp Bizkit. These genres typically appeal to anyone within the age range of 16-25, usually promoting ideals like teen rebellion that cater towards their audience. Furthermore, we also researched other bands within the genres to learn more about the variations of music that fall under the genre, and how these bands typically market themselves to the public eye. We created a Music Marketing Research Chart (portion pictured below) of artists such as Marilyn Manson, Turnstile, and Iggy Pop, who all embody the nu metal/alternative rock genre. After studying the distinct marketing strategies of each, we found that each artist placed utmost importance on their own self-image, how they looked and appealed to the public. Marilyn Manson, for example, exhibited a dark image with his in-person and social media persona, giving into an "edgy" and "rebellious" demeanor that attracted more fans of the genre. Iggy Pop, another notable nu metal/alternative rock figure, relied on visual self-expression by performing shirtless, embodying punk to the fullest, and being known as the man who performs without a shirt. These bands also released released their songs and albums to various streaming services, and promoted heavily on social media, which prompted us to start brainstorming our own marketing techniques in order to successfully advertise our band.

Music Genre Research Chart (portion pictured).

Marketing Within the Genre

Without a doubt, social media is one of the most popular forms of advertisement in the current day and age. Nowadays, marketing companies rely heavily on social medias like Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, and the ability for their artist to have a large presence on these apps strongly determines how well their album/song will do. This is because, like we found, around 82 percent of people in the U.S. use social media, making it a prime area for advertisement. So, we wanted to center our campaign around social media, and establish a large fanbase on our Instagram and Twitter. We created both an Instagram and Twitter, but focused primarily on our Instagram since we believed the visual aspect of the app would appeal more to our target audience (teens and young adults). With a visual component, we would be able to express to a greater extent our desired "vibe". We want to come off as nonchalant, even disorganized, and the freedom of Instagram would definitely help us achieve this. Also, in deciding our band name, we took into account the marketing of our band, and of others in the same genre. Similar bands have either short, simple, meaningless names or longer, more symbolic names. So, we decided to merge the two options into one: a short, symbolic name, Aloof. Aloof, meaning not friendly, cool or distant, truly embodies the "vibe" we were going for, which was a disinterested, non-meaningful persona. The length of the name was chosen particularly because of its easy ability to market; the shorter the name, the easier it is for the eye to read, and the more likely people will look into your band. In addition, much of the nu metal/alternative rock advertisement centers around wanting to be "different:, so we took common aspects of band advertisement (merchandise) and added our own twist. We planned to sell less-common merchandise, like socks, pins, vinyls, stickers. These may seem "normal" for artsy bands, even metal bands, but it is not common for more mainstream artists, who simply sell clothing or accessories. With this, we hope the uniqueness of our band will stand out even more.

Aloof's Instagram.

Developing Our Band/Band Image

We started the development process of our band by deciding what image we were wanting to achieve. We had to keep the aspects of the alternative/nu metal genre, but we also wanted to add uniqueness to our band, something to separate it from the rest and make it different. So, we began brainstorming the amount of members, the band name, and backstory. We ultimately, decided for one of our group members to be the face of the group, with two other band members that were lesser known/hidden. We wanted to base our entire campaign around him primarily, especially having him as the prime focus of our music video. The song itself is greatly symbolic of mental illness or substance abuse, and we wanted to keep this representation and make it an integral part of our campaign. We planned to make our social media pages random and disorganized to embody this; we would post irregularly and without meaning, and we ultimately wanted it to appear as if we were not putting much effort into the promotion, though we truly are. During this time we also began the creative process, including coming up with a band name, storyboarding our music video, and designing sketches for our album cover (pictured below). For our band name, we wanted to have a meaningful name, but not something too symbolic where it would be too complicated for our target audience (teens and young adults) to understand. When it came to our album cover, we wanted to keep the same unbothered, disinterested persona and created something messy and imperfect. We roughly sketched out different ideas for the album, that way we would be set on our idea before moving to Adobe Photoshop, our app of preference for the creation of the album cover. After doing so, we put the rest of our time into storyboarding the music video, again keeping the messy, rock theme, and creating a presentation to market our band and advertising strategies.

Rough sketches of ideas for Aloof's album cover.

Challenges and Next Steps

The planning aspect of the project was extremely detailed and time-consuming, but the tedious nature was worth it, because we were able to learn significantly more on how artists are marketed, and how every decision in their campaigns is strategically planned out beforehand. Although we had fun brainstorming new ideas and using our creativity to the fullest, we were definitely challenged in terms of time, which is similar to what the actual marketing companies experience. We felt that we had so many ideas, even too many for the time we were given; however, we managed to plan accordingly and go with what we thought would appeal to the public, and us, the best. In addition, we faced challenges in terms of giving our group a "wow factor", or something that would simply set them aside from others. The music industry is extremely competitive, and we realized with this project how difficult it is to come up with something completely unique. Therefore, we definitely struggled in making our band unique and different from the other artists within its genre, yet appealing to the public eye. Furthermore, we now plan to continue filming and editing our music video, and perfecting shots to our liking. After doing so, we will solidify our campaign with its final touches before adding everything to our visual presentation where we will market Aloof and our advertising strategies to the class.