Music Marketing Project: The Process

Of all the projects I have participated in, this one is among the ones I am the most passionate about. Though I lack faith in a finished product I am satisfied with, especially concerning the music video, I refuse to let such premonitions get in the way of my art and expression.  I may not be fulfilled, but I am happy. 

Our project had run into some major roadblocks at the mere beginning. You see, we were paired with a girl who had a record of only showing up for class at most once every fortnight, and as expected, she continued on with the habit. After our first day of work, she did not show up, leaving me and our other two group members with a more intense workload and a bad taste reeking of annoyance permeating our mouths. Alas, we could not let it get in our way. We had work to do. 

We spent our first day researching and brainstorming concepts for our band. We found inspiration from all over the web; my two present group-mates focusing on indie bands of the 2010s and myself focusing on the genre of Korean pop, something I was already incredibly familiar with. 

We communed later on, discussing what aspects we should take. We eventually decided on a more artsy concept for our band, gathering additional inspiration from internet culture. We eventually decided the settle on a creepy-yet-cute aesthetic for our make-believe band, promptly naming it Liminal Valentines; the name nodding towards the art of liminal spaces that seem to have taken over the internet as of late. We expanded on our decided artsy aesthetic, this time drawing directly from dreamcore; an internet fine arts venture relating to the liminal and strange feeling that accompanies so many people when they dream.

Now we had our idea was practically set in stone. We had a band name, aesthetic, and vague story for our music video. We decided to focus more on the direct marketing aspect, blending both internet and Korean pop cultures respectively. Being a near internet exclusive, we decided that accompanying our band with a small ARG (Alternate Reality Game) as means of promotion would set apart our band from the rest of the influx of indie bands. This has been a surprisingly sparsely used tool in the marketing world, but has been successful in most, if not all, of its ventures. Some notable examples include "The Blair Witch Project," "A.I.," "The Cloverfield Paradox," and "Lost". 

From Korean pop, we took the idea of teasers. By creating teasers on YouTube for the music video and teasers on TikTok for the band's debut, we generate hype. Curiosity surrounds our band, people becoming intrigued with something safely unknown.   Our final major idea is one not specifically drawn from anywhere, rather something we just happened to come up with. We decided that having an annual performance online on Valentine's Day would not only garner hype around our band's performing abilities, but keep our audience interested in coming back.

Complete list of ideas and concepts relating to "Liminal Valentines"

Of course, there is our music video. To put it simply, the story follows a girl who summons a monster and kills it to inherit all of its power. The idea came from juxtaposing an upbeat and lighthearted song with something so inherently gruesome, such as killing a demon. We decided to follow through with this concept because not only does it fit with the "cutesy-creepy" vibe of the band, but having a music video that's so uniquely odd works as a perfect marketing strategy. It is simply a fact that odd sticks with people; you remember the child that still breastfeeds at five, but not the woman you passed on the street the other day wearing the usual office wear and talking on the phone. Our odd music video sticks with people, it keeps them wondering. Not only that, but if they so desire, they can continue to get invested in the story by participating in the aforementioned ARG that surrounds the characters of the music video. 

Besides, coming up with such a weird and out-there concept was fun. It was even more enjoyable to film. We even got to see some rabbits inhabiting the area we were filming in!

Rabbit is hard to see, but the circle hopefully outlines it

Genre Study

1. Genre -  Crime and Gangster

2. Genre Conventions: Content 

• Strong use of violence  and drugs,
• Commonly uses the mafia as a plot device
• Protagonist is almost always a man protective of the women in his life
• Takes place in a big city
• Commonly ends with the main character being killed
• Contains the entire rise and fall of the criminal empire, as opposed to a small, contained snippet of the story
• Murders typically only take place in the dark of night with a minimal number  of potential witnesses around
• Obligatory trunk shot

3. Genre Conventions: Production 

• Extensive stunt work is done in order to create engaging fight scenes.
• Heavy use of prosthetics and props in older productions, but since the creation of CGI, most special effects are computer generated.
• Colour pallets are usually quite muted, usually consisting of washed-out colours or simple blacks and greys.  To add to costume design, men in the film are often shown in formal wear, specifically suits.
• Sets usually consist of tight, old houses, bland offices,  or expansive outdoor spaces with no one except the characters exchanging dialogue around.

4. Institutional Conventions: Marketing - Crime or Gangster films are usually marketed towards a broad audience. They specifically target 30 to 50 year old men in the middle class, due to their gritty and overwhelmingly male-lead nature. Trailers for crime films are usually flashy and fast, sometimes taking a small snippet of a scene and cutting it three times to the beat of the high-paced trailer music to generate excitement and tension.  There are also snippets of dialogue nearly haphazardly thrown in between scenes, where a character will joke about one thing and then cut to a shot of them actually performing that action. 

5. The Irishman (2019) directed by Martin Scorsese is  the textbook definition of a crime film. The main cast consists nearly entirely of men that not only have been in the movie industry for decades, but are all notorious for being in crime films.  Not only that, but the film is directed by a man who's known for his crime movies, such as The Departed (2006) and Goodfellas (1990). The film centres around a trucker named Frank Sheeran who's been hired as a hitman in organised crime, and eventually climbs through the ranks with a trail of blood leaking behind him. 

Jimmy Hoffa and others looking up at the American flag

6. Scarface (1983) directed by Brian de Palma is a unique character study within the crime genre. It centres around a Cuban immigrant, Tony Montana, who comes to Miami and immediately joins the organised crime and drug business, painstakingly climbing to the top while trying to keep his life together. The entire film is stapled with all the tell-tale signs of a gangster film, right down to the rampant drug use and violent deaths littered throughout. 

Tony Montana sat around mounds of cocaine

7. Other films:

• The Godfather (1972) dir. Francis Ford Coppola

• Pulp Fiction (1994) dir. Quentin Tarantino

• The Gentlemen (2019) dir. Guy Ritchie

• No Country For Old Men (2007) dir. Ethan Coen

• Reservoir Dogs (1992) dir. Quentin Tarantino

• Gangs of New York (2002) dir. Martin Scorsese 

 Welcome to my Blog!

My name is Gail, or my online alias Rara.  I am working on a blog for my AICE Media Studies AS class. On my blog, I will be creating posts for this course and the overall exam. I can't wait to get started!