"Thinking"

Who knew that coming up with a film opening was hard to decide on. Although everyone in my group has a great imagination, bringing all our ideas together creates a giant mixture of undecided ideas. We all came preprepared with ideas of what we could film, set on our own openings and expecting an okay from the rest of the team. Unfortuanlty, in those situations we hear the harsh critiques of the rest of the group members and learn that not all our ideas are the best one. Which in my case, thinking my idea was stellar, ouch.


Then this happened:

One enlighting moment was when we all brought in the theme of drama and terror into the picture. Having a film opening that keeps the audience's eyes plastered onto the screen is our main goal. Our intentions are to create an addiction to the narrative, have audiences hooked on every word that comes out of the characters mouth.

The only problem we felt is that this type of piece was going to be popular in the AICE Media world. Without a doubt, we reassured ourselves that our opening was going to be the best one placed in the eyes of the viewers.  How are we going to do this you ask? Well, instead of trying to brainstorm separately we were are going to come together and bounce ideas of off each other until one stuck to the screen, literally. With our imaginations and creativity together, there's no doubt that the best film opening is about to be placed in your eyes.


We thought of other film openings that attracted the audience to see the rest of the film and made the viewers interested in what they watch. Our first thought was of "A Quiet Place." This technique for a film opening makes the audience glued to the screen waiting to see what's about to happen next. Another great film opening is Psycho (1960), it has a lot of symbolism and foreshadowing events that will happen throughout the film. 

Technological Portion

This is what we are trying to have our set look like, a creepy and mysterious feeling that will entice the audience to stay interested in the film opening.

When it comes to the setting of the scene, we want to make sure that it is as dark and gloomy as possible. A set that brings some to wonder and others to question about the deep plot they are to uncover. The reason for this is to bring out the deep emotions of the audience, have them terrified, concerned, and nervous all in one.

The dark lighting is what will create that sense of mystery and the high-key lighting on some specific images is what will bring the audience's attention to one specific item.

Our idea for the project consists of uncovering the harsh reality that others don't want to talk about, developing a plot that is not usually seen in the media world. Considering we want to bring in a rare plot we must make sure we bring all the key and important elements to light, disregarding the small facts that aren't as important.

Developing the character is just as important, that's why costume design is extremely crucial when wanting to create a specific image on a character.
For the plot, we are currently thinking of, having an abused girl, watch herself grow through adulthood. For this reason, we would like her clothes to stay the same throughout her aging, in order to not confuse the audience and have them understand that they are the same person.

To get the image of abused women, we want to have a big white t-shirt, representing her innocence. As the years go by have the t-shirt get darker, with blood and dirt. By doing this it will create a symbolism throughout the film opening, introducing the rest of the plot and making it clear to the audience what the film is going to be about.
The older the girl gets, the more traumatic physical abuse situations she has been in, shown by the costume design along with the different makeup being placed in each different age stages.

Starting the process!

To begin, we must decide on a genre to film, it's definitely not that easy when there's so many to choose from. We decided to go with the mysterious, seat clenching, genre, a choice that would keep all the viewer's eyes stuck to the screen. Drama is a no brainer when it comes to finding the most suspenseful piece.

The drama genre is about a realistic and relatable as possible, and with these two elements in mind, we want to make sure we can place these in our film opening as much as possible.

When it comes to characters, there must be some type of emotional connection between them and the viewers. Especially during the beginning shots, that way the viewer feels automatically connected and is watching the character precisely between all the shots.

A relatable character is also extremely important, that is what brings the emotional connection to life. If the audience member can imagine that they are the movie and find themselves in the position of the actor, they will most likely be attracted t their well-being and decision making.

For example, in the movie Kidnap, mothers could feel extremely relatable to the main character as they see her fight for her son's life and go through the harsh process of saving him. The emotional connection is what allowed there to be a dramatic and suspenseful feeling in the movie. It also gave the mother in the film a bigger role as the hero, impacting the visual and how others perceived her.

Without a doubt, the plot has to grab the audience's attention and have them clinging on to each word. The most important aspect is to bring the story to life, have the plot be relatable and give the audience and sense of emotion when watching the film. For our film opening, we want to bring a harsh topic to life, one that opens the eyes of the viewers and have them wanting more information about it. By placing real-life situations that are covered by the media, we can create a different plot that not many are used to seeing. 

Music Marketing Campaign

Music Marketing Campaign

a) For the music marketing campaign, we created our own artist named, Loveman Hudson. He is a soul artist that appeals to the late teens, early twenties, middle-class group. Our group wanted to expose him to as many people as we could through the use of social media and online platforms. We conducted research exploring similar artist in the same genre and how they succeeded in the music industry. We then created our own marketing campaign, developing logos, merchandise, social media platforms, music video, and a strategic idea to make sure he was exposed to any many people as possible.

b) Our research consisted of artist signed with Colombia Records. One artist we researched is well known by many, his name is John Legend. We saw through his history in the music industry, that his main exposure starting up as an artist was to play in small locations and give out his CD's. We believed we could also do the same with our artist until he was found by a record label, John Legends marketing strategies were also extremely smart as they all showed a different part of who he is and created an image that appealed to the mass audience. When his music was placed on the digital format it also started to receive a lot more interest, giving us the idea that placing all of Loveman Hudsons music on a digital streaming site would be the best option. We also researched a lesser known artist known as Leon Bridges. His main selling point was creating a large social media presence, which is what we wanted to incorporate into our artist. He also used the image of his brand to create a following, such as John Legend. 

LINK TO RESEARCH: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c94RbWPxNtGqOkqE2gQNorZHNDtBN4WbfkF_KYePFrk/edit?usp=sharing  

c) On this project, we tried to give our artist, Loveman Hudson, a great amount of online presence. This could be either from exposure on social media platforms or streaming platforms. With our artist, we decided that Instagram be a key part in developing the image for him and the brand itself. This was developed by the theme of black and white we placed on the artist feed. On the photo itself, the captions were lyrics to his upcoming music, giving a sneak peek to his fans and get them excited for what is to come. Instagram stories were also an extremely important part of developing him as a whole as they talked about upcoming music, merchandise releases, and Instagrams polls which would create interaction in between the artist and his fans. This personal experience would attract them more and create a different connection. Youtube was also an influential marketing tool which would help the artist be more known through the ads being played on videos similar to what the artist represents. We also created a website where fans can learn about upcoming dates of shows and buy merchandise, as well as talk to the artist himself and let him know about what they think. The merchandise is a great way to have fans promote the artist and support him at the same time. 

This is the presentation with all the photos and marketing strategies we had for our artist:  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1biQ9HXibYE1h-7FymNw_oENd9vH1ldFVYIhwLfTBEBA/edit?usp=sharing

Loveman Hudson Website: https://victoriacmilano9.wixsite.com/lovemanhudson

d) This music marketing project will help me create the right product for my specific audince and learn how to market my opening in an efficient way.  Through this project I also learned about teamwork and the way to properly work with others and share ideas throughtfuly. Listening to others as well as gaining feedback from others are the key lessons I learned while creating this project.