Music Marketing Project: Alternative Genre

"Night Running", the song we selected for our music video is featured on Cage the Elephant's album, Social Cues.

When completing the research component of the project, we split the two charts into four sections. Shannon took the research of two case studies, the Shins and Modest Mouse, while Bri and I split researching one case study (Arctic Monkeys and the Gorillaz) , as well as finding historical information behind Warner Bros Records and SubPop. Specifically for this aspect of the project, we spent two days compiling the necessary information and completed the chart during the weekend so that we could give ourselves a headstart for brainstorming our music video.  Out of the four songs we were given to listen to, we decided that “Night Running” by Cage the Elephant would be the alternative song used in our video due to the lyrics of the song giving us the ability to tell a simple story through an artistically visual lens, further allowing us to illustrate the outlying effect that the alternative genre has compared to other genres of music.  

Before beginning the brainstorming process that would lead to the creation of our video, we wanted to each have a copy of the lyrics and listen to “Night Running” a few times to understand the message behind the song. As a group we agreed that the song was trying to convey the difficulty of running away from stressful problems, while at the same time illustrating the sense of liberty felt when you are free from that issue. In order to clearly present that idea, we decided to approach it literally, meaning that we would create an obstacle that the character of our video would have to face and “run away” from. With inspiration from the title, we decided we would not only film the music video at night, but we also wanted the character to go through an obstacle that is surrounded by horror, hence making the secondary character a monster of some sort that the protagonist has to “run” away from. The creepy and frightening aesthetic we choose for the video will be portrayed in post-production, as we will heavily rely on editing to bring this concept to life, such as through visual distortion and color correction. However, we have also considered using blood in our video, which is being done by hand. 

While the idea that we have created seems practical on paper, we know that filming at night will present lighting challenges. Therefore, we made sure to use not only the resources we already have, such as car lights and flashlights from home, but will also be using a lighting kit from class to further enhance the lighting. As for editing, our group has some experience with using Adobe Premiere, but with the effects that we want to achieve, it is important that each of us do additional research on how to properly use the program, as well as how we can create the necessary effects needed to craft our music video. Although, our most difficult obstacle seems to be time, as it has been a challenge for all three of us to be able to meet in person due to our differing schedules. As of now, we have decided to meet Saturday, January 23rd to storyboard our video, and potentially begin filming. If we are unable to film Saturday, we wanted to begin filming Sunday and finish by Tuesday, that way we can begin the editing process. Throughout the week, we will assign ourselves tasks to complete the marketing aspect of the project, that way we can balance both creating the physical video and complete the marketing component. 

This is what we outlined during class, however we discussed ideas, planning, and research during our Teams call. We also have a group chat where we further highlight our ideas and make a schedule for completing the project.