Music Marketing!

    To start this project, we felt we needed to have a clear idea of what we wanted our music video to look like and then just base everything around that. Our song “Time is Running Out” tells a story of a suffocating relationship and we wanted to display that in our video. We were between a storytelling video and an artistic video to best illustrate this. In the end, we decided on a bit of both. We wanted to capture the essence of being in a suffocating relationship so we brainstormed different situations that would make you suffocate, literal and metaphorical. Our best option was to tie Connor, our lead singer/actor, to a chair as if he was being held against his will and have him attempt to break out. This captures the feeling of being trapped though not in the literal sense of a relationship like the song.

          We then had to pick shots and a setting and costume for Connor. We all decided we wanted him to have a grungy and relaxed look since he is meant to look like he was comfortable, in pajamas, but was put in an uncomfortable situation. We also put messy makeup on him to show that he is tired and has been struggling. We all thought of the location as an isolated area to create the needed environment and we found a field that fit perfectly. The shots were then brainstormed on a document and our ideas were planned out on a storyboard, this made it easier for us to see our vision come to life.

          Creating the music video was the most time-consuming part but we were able to get it done and though some of our ideas did not turn out the way we imagined, they still successfully transmitted the idea. For example, we saw some tires at the field where we were and decided at that moment that we wanted some shots there. To make sure that the audio was synced with Connor’s acting, we all snapped and sang along to the song.

          Our marketing strategy was then based on our performer’s persona. We created the fake name “Alice Jennings” and thought of different ways the character would have advertised this song and any past or future songs. This made our process so much easier and we were able to come up with a concrete idea of how we would advertise this. This was definitely the most challenging part.