Music marketing project #1

     For the media marketing project my group began by listening to the four songs we were given. After listening to each of the songs are reading the lyrics we decided on Send My Love by Adele. Pop is a genre I'm very familiar with, so picking this felt like a natural pick since we have to build a brand around the song. The first thing we did was create a word document with a plan. We set dates for each part of the project of when we wanted things done. This allowed us to have a discipline and quickly get things done. We are currently on pace with our chart. This document also included the lyrics of our song and plan for our PowerPoint. After that we needed to complete our music research chart to get a better understanding of marketing tactics that we need to use for the project. Looking specifically into Adele, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, and The Weeknd. Looking into the marketing of their most recent albums and demographics. 

    Once we were done with the research for the chart we focused on the music video since it's planning and creation would take the longest. Creating our storyboard was a crucial part of planning because it allowed us to put our ideas on paper. The topic covered by the song is a relationship that clearly came to a bad ending where one person was doing more than the other. We were toying between keeping true to the lyrics and almost following them word by word, but decided to stray away and create our own storyline. Coming up with a storyline that everyone agrees with is a little complex, but didn't take much time as we threw ideas around developing them and tossing the ones we didn't like. Eventually we settled on a girl in her twenties going through a hard break up that clearly is taking a toll on her. In the song the lyric "we both know we ain't kids no more" is repeated multiple times. We want to portray her as someone who is clearly trying their best to be an adult and mature while her now ex is stuck in childish high school like ways. The picture below is of our very well drawn story board depicting the story and the shots we wish to accomplish. It allows the whole group to get a similar picture of the video. 

    After we had finished the storyboard planning for the filming began. We need a girl who is the main character of the video. In the storyboard it can be seen that it follows her and her struggles and then later on she has flashbacks which would include a boy. We also needed a location where we could film most of our shots in. We chose our group members uncles house because we wanted something appealing for the first shot. Where his house is also a golf course which we plan to use for our flashbacks of dates. 

    Lastly, we started out marketing PowerPoint. We chose to do this last as we could do it separately and communicate through calls and texts. We chose a template and then outlined our slides on our original document. This allowed us to split up the workload and also decide how we are going to present it. We chose to have a slide a person and continue the rotation until we were done with the slides. This felt most engaging to us as we would have to be waiting for our turn to speak rather than reading three slides in a row and then waiting for the presentation to be over. We plan to have our PowerPoint done by Sunday 1/29 to give us wiggle room to review each others work and fix any mistakes. We are set to film the music video Saturday 1/28 and use the rest of the time to edit the video together.  

Rom-coms: iconic film genre

As everyone in the world searches for love through dating apps and friends the film genre of Romantic comedy was born. Awkward situations and love bring joy which has allowed the genre to maintain its popularity throughout the years. 

Rom-com or romantic comedy is when a film revolves around a romantic relationship which provides comedic moments. They have been a hit for teens and young adults for decades, being a comforting watch for many. Directors like Rob Reiner and Judd Apatow being two directors popular for the genre.The popularity of these movies are among girls 13-18 which is why they are commonly referred to as chickfliks. Netflix dominates making these as they all share a common storyline and are quickly produced.

Movies popular in the teen realm normally create a false reality, leading young girls to wonder when they are going to meet their prince charming. As much as this genre is well-loved it is overused. The story line to every movie is predictable and is down to a formula at this point.

They normally begin with a “meet cute” (the first encounter of the characters that later leads to a romantic relationship). The two main leads which mostly consist of a man who could win anyone over with a smile and a quirky girl. The meeting is normally impromptu and leaves them both with unsure feelings. Fate then seemining pulls them together and puts them in a situation they must solve together. This makes their feelings for eachother grow and they both realize that maybe this was right for them after all. This would mean a happy ending is any other movie but not when it comes to rom-coms. A conflict separates the two and during their time apart it only makes them realize how great everything once was. In the end of every movie they make up and they then do indeed have their happy ending everyone wanted.  

Productions based in the rom-com atmosphere rely on certain techniques to convey their message. The age range in rom-coms spans from late teen years (15-18) to early/mid twenties (20-26). Many do take place in high schools though meaning that the setting of a school plays a vital role. They of course venture outside to small diners where they always get a strawberry milkshake or a park they go to every friday. Mise-en-scene is very prominent when it comes to the characters' homes and more specifically their rooms. Messages are hidden in every corner symbolizing something you wouldn’t out right know about the character. When the older age range appear in this genre the setting normally revolves around malls or restaurants where someone needs a wedding date to impress their relatives. Wardrobe in both these instances is very important as the jock in high school normally wears his varsity football jacket and jeans while the girl prances around in skirts and high-tops. This emulates high school, while in the older age range the man will wear a suit while the girl is wearing yoga pants and a hoodie because she's a mess and doesn’t know where to go in life. 

Movies like these need to draw the attention of their audience which also seems to be formulated perfectly. Trailers draw people to go watch movies and they are important in every genre. In rom-coms they have to intrigue without giving the whole story away. They usually consist of montages and snips of important moments to draw the attention of the viewer. The end goal of this is to make people want to watch the movie and find out the whole story. People are nosy in real life and movies so watching it to find out both sides of the story and what was the cause for every clip they saw is often done.

To all the boys I’ve loved before is a perfect example of the rom-com formula. Lara Jean Covey is an awkward girl who feels intense love for multiple boys throughout her life, but instead of telling them she writes them letters and leaves them in a box in her room. Her younger sister Kitty thinks that sending them out would do her older sister a favor and does just that. Lara has no clue and is then confronted the next day by her former crush Peter Kavinksy; A jock (shocker i know). This causes her to faint and as she wakes up she sees another recipient which leaves her no choice but to kiss Peter. Then to “solve” problems that this would create they begin fake dating but convince everyone it’s real. When Peter finds out his ex is jealous he becomes unsure of what he is doing but confesses his feelings to Lara anyway. At the end of their school's ski trip Lara learns that Peter spent the night with his ex which infuriates her and causes her to break up with him. In the end, their issues are of course resolved and they admit their love for eachother with the closing scene of the movie being them walking away holding hands.

Holidate is another great example though this one embodies the older side of rom-coms. Sloane Benson is tired of her family bothering her about being single on the holidays and Jackson is tired of horrible dates. They meet during a chance encounter while returning gifts and they strike up a deal to be eachothers dates, but only on holidays. Through the holidays they grow closer and Jackson begins to fear he is not good enough for her and tries to set her up with someone better. This leaves them with bitter feelings. Later, on Halloween she gets sick after taking laxatives. He takes care of her all night and she shoves him out the next morning. Their conflict occurs at thanksgiving when he opens up about his feelings and they break off contact after that. In the days leading up to Christmas she wants to talk to him but hesitates. Then just like they met they bump into each other at the mall and confess their love for eachother. The end credits of the movie show them happily together going to Australia for the holidays. 

The well loved genre has no shortage as it’s an easy to replicate story line. Rom-coms seem to be timeless being loved decades on. Some of the most well known rom coms are My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Big Sick, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Notting Hill, and last but certainly not least 10 Things I Hate About You. They may be cringey and over done, but a classic is a classic. 

The Love we see  in movies gives humanity a little hope so give it a try.

 Hi! I'm Lauren. I've created this blog to document my project creation progress in the Aice Media Studies class. I'm really excited to be able to look back on my posts later in the year and see all the progress i've made.