How'dy I do?

 

This is special! The final posting for my music marketing project. I am thoroughly glad that I was able to learn more about the media world. As I stated in my last blog posting, I was unsure whether I would be capable of creating an established country artist. I set myself back because I doubted my ability to learn enough about country to create an engage presentation. However, I was able to learn more about the genre, and more about my capabilities. Through the various aspects of this project, I found myself questioning how I could take my research further, deeper.

The research process was tedious in a way that we got a lot of great insight on the evolution of country music. With very limited prior knowledge, I knew that I had to start somewhere. We started with researching the top country artists, Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, and other influential companies. I saw that companies like Sony Music Nashville had been established for many years and had earn great recognition in the music field. When we were researching, I broke my own idea, or the stereotype that I held over country music as a whole. This research process felt like discovering an entirely new world of expectation, music, and a supportive fan base. Country music has deep rooted origins and is a bustling industry with a lot of emerging artists.

My group all had similar plain fields of knowledge when it came to country music, so it was a team effort to research and plan strategically. Our brainstorming process started out with us listening to the song and developing a story to corelate with it. We all easily agreed on creating a story in which past lovers are reminiscing and thinking about the times they had together. We thought this fit best because we had the tools and the resources to properly make this production. We then moved to our story board, which really helped us develop our overall story in relation to the shots, angles, and composition of our music video. In retrospect, I am thankful for the storyboard because it helped us have a clear plan for our music video. Furthermore, our group worked very smoothly as we all gave input on our ideas, and any significant or minor changes we saw fit. I learned how to better work in a group of people with different ideas. While I always considered myself a great team member, there are always things that I learn when working with a new group. The three counterparts of my group were all unique as far as the artistic creativity and their opinions, and I came to respect each one of their opinions.

The most invigorating part was the production. I enjoyed having my friends over to my house to film our video. We were able to play with the LED lights to adjust the lighting and color to our liking. I felt like a real star, and I appreciated the professionalism of my team members. We understood that we were there to film a project, but to also have fun in the meantime. We drove to Town Center to finish filming, and it was a success. Sebastian was a great director as he was able to tell us where to move within the camera, how to position our bodies, he is very talented. As far as postproduction, Sebastian did an excellent job at editing, and we were readily there to assist him. I felt confident in our presentation as I felt well-prepared and excited to share our research and findings with the rest of the class. Presenting was an amazing experience, and I truly felt the engagement from the spectators.

In reflection, I have learned how to improve certain skills like delegating tasks, creative bravery, and criticism. I am thankful for the opportunity I had to create such project, and it was very different from any other learning experience I have ever had. This project will help me with my Cambridge portfolio because I now have the reassurance that I can film and produced and do it to the best of my skill set. I know that we all start somewhere, and this project was my somewhere. I have learned from my downfalls in this project, and I will expect some downfalls in this upcoming portfolio project. However, I have learned from my mistakes, and I will be able to avoid these mistakes a I move forward to this new, invigorating project.