Hello, this is the link for my music video as well as all of the other requirements needed for the music promotion aspect of the project.
FULL PROJECT: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tC96DWDwQdFlouvLHjkoaxaK_1XsrkoU?usp=sharing
Everything will be up by the end of this week (soon to be edited)
Hello, this blog post will examine the branding methods different bands use to promote their music on social media platforms, namely Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. The bands I will be researching today are: Hong Kong Fuck You, Dead Butterflies, and Away With Words. Although all three of these bands fit into the vast hardcore genre of music, they have their own little niches and details that set each of them apart, reflected in their branding techniques on social media.
If you take a look at Hong Kong Fuck You's Instagram, their branding becomes very clear. They know who they want in their target audience, and how to attract them.
 |
| A first look at Hong Kong Fuck You's Instagram page. |
 | ||
| A logo I designed for Soshe, adopting the stylistic elements of HKFY's font choice |
 |
| A first look at the DB Instagram Page |
 |
| The Away With Words Instagram page |
 |
| A post made by local photographer @noizyvisuals showcasing an AWW performance |
I had dived slightly into sasscore and what it is in my previous post, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. According to WKNC, sasscore has "a kaleidoscope of influences — hardcore, post-hardcore, metal, new wave, disco, etc. — consistently infused with cheeky irreverence and borderline-effeminate vocality, sasscore is a truly magnificent musical monstrosity that spits in the face of hypermasculinity..." Sasscore is kind of like twee, but make it punk, pink, and unapologetic. The thing that sets Sasscore apart from its hardcore brothers and sisters, though, is that it seems to find its roots in its opposition to the hegemonic masculinity of the hardcore scene. The hardcore scene has always been very hypermasculine and aggressive, when it should be a genre for all gender identities to enjoy. Sasscore rejects this idea of hypermasculinity and invites those who have been victimized by the patriarchal attitudes of hypermasculinity in punk spaces. I could go on about the sociological implications of sasscore, but if I did that, I would completely stray away from the topic. Sasscore is the antithesis of the hypermasculine, and although many sasscore bands are led by men, they aren't scared to express their femininity whatsoever, dressing up in dresses and skirts, and being very public about their sexuality.
 |
| Art for Black Eye's self-titled album |
 |
| Picture of sasscore band SeeYouSpaceCowboy performing |
Going into this project, I wasn't sure what kind of music video I wanted to shoot, or what genre to choose, but I definitely wanted to choose something I liked. If you've been reading my blog posts, then you know I frequent local hardcore shows, and am in touch with several local and non-local bands! I asked around and then remembered Jade was in a band... and well. The rest is history.
Even though I know in depth what hardcore is and what its different aspects are, my beautiful blog readers don't! Let me educate you guys then. Hardcore, or more specifically, hardcore punk music (also abbreviated HxC) is a broad genre of music made up of multiple sub-genres, all consisting of faster-paced, more aggressive music. HxC isn't about the music as much as it is the mindset and views a person has. Hardcore lyrics often express ideas regarding anti-establishment, anti-authoritarian, anti-militaristic, and pro-environmentalist sentiments. Opinions and views in hardcore communities all tie into generally left-wing views, several bands taking stances on ideologies such as anarchism and other varieties of socialism.
More onto Soshe, it's hard to say, but judging by their drums, vocals, and guitar-playing styles, I would say they fit more into the metalcore, sasscore, and mathcore subgenres of HxC. What exactly is sasscore, metalcore, and mathcore, though? Allow me to explain: metalcore is the broad fusion of hardcore punk and heavy metal, with one of its subgenres including mathcore, which is exactly like metalcore, but includes complex and varied rhythms in songs with irregular time signatures, etc. Some of my favorite mathcore bands are Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Skycamefalling. Then... there's their weird cousin: sasscore. Sasscore is it's own thing, honestly. It's so niche that it doesn't even have it's own wikipedia page and you have to go under the "sass" subgenre under the Screamo wiki to do research on it. Basically, sasscore is a fusion between hardcore punk and the sound of the San Diego screamo scene in the early 2000's, with bands such as Tower of Rome, Daughters, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, and The Jonbenet being some of my favorite sasscore bands. I forgot to mention this, but some good metalcore bands are On Broken Wings, A Long Winter, 7 Angels 7 Plagues, and Sleeping With Sirens.
Below are live performances from a few of the bands I had mentioned.
Scheduling, O, scheduling, where do I even begin?
Putting together a schedule for this project is probably the closest I will ever get to living in hell. It's been rough, but somewhat manageable. This is the ideal schedule... not everything may go according to plan but I'll definitely try.
Week One (2/18-2/22) – plan out the portfolio project; what I want to do, who I want to work with, etc.
Week Two (2/23-3/1) – find out a date where we can film the music video with the band, put together the social media, start on storyboards for the MV and draft a digipak design for the band's EP coming out soon.
Week Three (3/2-3/8) – Dedicate this week to doing research on other bands, artists, etc. to get inspiration and just to get a general feel for what I want to do.
Week Four (3/9-3/15) – Put together a filming schedule, put together a final draft for digipak.
Week Five (3/16-3/22) – Dedicate spring break to filming the music video and editing it.
Week Six (3/23-3/29) – Reflect on everything, start thinking about what I'd like to do for my CCR.
Week Seven (3/30-4/5) – Same as week six.
Week Eight (4/6-4/10) – Finalize everything. Double-check everything. Hell, even triple-check it.
Now that we're finally beginning the portfolio project in my A Level Media Studies class, we've been given a few options on what we could do for our film. We were given four options: music promotion package, documentary package, film promotion package, and a short film package. I chose to do the music promotion package for a multitude of reasons -– mostly due to experience and skills, as well as connections.
I'll go more into detail – in my life outside of school, I'm very involved with the local hardcore music scene. I often go to shows with friends, and being at these shows, I make even more friends and connections. One of my friends, Jade, is a friend I made last year in my junior year, and they have their own band up in Orlando, however, they often come down to South Florida to see friends and to go to shows here, since our scene is infinitely better than the Central Florida scene (totally not biased). I reached out to Jade about my project, knowing they'd be understanding since they were also a student of Ms. Stoklosa last year, and they agreed to help me out!
That was just the introduction of what option I chose for this project. I also chose the music promotion package for various other reasons, a big one being the fact that I am just built for this. In my free time, I design digipaks and often manufacture CDs for local bands to sell at their shows, so to me, this is just a walk in the park. The only real struggle I may face throughout this project is putting together a schedule, since Jade and their band are based in Orlando, and have to make time to take the Brightline down to South Florida to film the music video. We are working it out though! Everyone's on board for this music video and once filming is complete, it's going to be a piece of cake.
I'm very excited for this project, especially since I'm doing what I love for it. I look forward to making more blog posts!
 |
| A very goofy and silly picture I took of Jade and I at a local music festival few weeks ago |
Hello. It's good to be back. From this point onward in my blog posts, I will be documenting and blogging the process of this year's portfolio project. This post is meant to be used as a reference point.
We recently started learning about documentaries in A-level. We watched a documentary called "American Promise" initially, which followed two young boys and their lives at an elite school called The Dalton School. In addition, after watching "American Promise," we watched another documentary called "Exit Through The Gift Shop" that follows an eccentric French shopkeeper throughout his journey discovering and filming different kinds of street art throughout the world.
Throughout both viewings of the documentaries, our class often took pauses to discuss and analyze each element of the documentaries. We spoke of the effects, composition, shots, etc. However, we got into a deep discussion regarding the symbolism of several things and their meaning. Each discussion was extremely insightful and gave me many perspectives and lenses to view the documentaries from.
Portfolio Project: https://youtu.be/5m2ZPjdkcU0
CCR #1 + #2: https://youtu.be/toDlW891Hvc
CCR #3 + #4: https://youtu.be/q1eaVJUPIp8
After eight long weeks, it's a little hard to say goodbye to this blog until my next project for A Level. But, all things that come must go at some point. I worked on this project through laughs, tears, sweat and exhaustion. It's all worth it though. The production process was as fun as it was engaging, working with different people for eight long weeks. However, I think if I worked a little bit more on hands-on production, I could get pretty good at it. I'll stick to post-production though... maybe. This project in terms of post-production was a living nightmare, especially with the CCRs. They were just not cooperating, but, I eventually figured it all out.
After finally finishing the filming for my CCRs, I finally came to the blissful realization that I had to edit; which is my favorite part of the entire production process. The editing for both of my CCRs was pretty straightforward, however, my news broadcast CCR did require more editing as there was a green screen involved, and the keying in After Effects frustrated me quite a bit, but that's the only major setback I experienced while editing, aside from the rendering taking an expeditious amount of time.
 |
| Post-production process |
In addition, the editing for my video essay CCR was pretty smooth. It was just a video of me explaining my production from a "director's point of view." Although I still have to finish editing it, I know it's gonna be pretty simple, at least in comparison to my news broadcast CCR.
The idea for my CCR's were there, now was just time to actually make those ideas and scripts come to life. I ordered quite a few props, and had printed out my script for a video essay style CCR. Later on, I did the same for a news broadcast style CCR. Though, I had bought a green screen for the news broadcast, as I would later have to key out the green screen to make room for a "news station."
It was a little bit hard though, considering the green screen was just one huge sheet of green paper, and I ended having to pin it to my ceiling with several thumbtacks and just pray that they don't fall on me during filming. Also, for convenience, I bought a ringlight to help me with the lighting for both of my CCR videos.
 |
| Excerpt of my script for CCR #1 |
 |
| Left to Right Grace, Me, Sebastian, Justin, Oriana |
Everyday I'd traverse throughout the Canvas course for AICE Media Studies AS, and when I looking at the blog postings we should be writing about, and I always scrolled down to the bottom, near where "WEEK SIX" was at, see "research for your CCR" and I'd think to myself, "that's in such a long time! I'll focus on it when I actually have to get to it!" Oh... was I wrong and sooooo naïve. Apparently there's more filming. I am so, very tired, and the light at the end of the tunnel here is the fact that this is due in a little over two weeks. But that's also the reason I'm panicking. TWO WEEKS!!! That's NO time at all. But. I will prevail, as per usual.
After looking over my CCR notes, I've been thinking... brainstorming, even. The first question is asking me "how does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?" To that, I had no idea (initially), but I got in the zone and came up with something: sketch comedy. However, let me reiterate... I did not invent sketch comedy, but I will be making and writing a skit for my CCR, cause I just love sketch comedy. I will be mostly taking inspiration from sketch comedy channels such as Smosh, Tomska, and especially SNL, since I watched those channels the most when I was a wee lad.
| The type of microphone stand I'm envisioning |
 |
| Lighting I want – dim, emotional, playful, even |
Finally, for once. My Premiere Pro is finally up and working and it feels like angels came down from heaven and personally blessed me (thank you Grace). Seeing Premiere Pro load up without crashing is like the modern-day equivalent of seeing Jesus rise on the third day. So... you KNOW exactly what I got to doing: editing.
 |
| Editing the intro |
This is a screenshot of me finally editing my project after being blessed by Creative Cloud. So far, I want to make sure that the first 15 seconds of my project are flawless, because those 15 seconds will set the precedent and overall tone for the film opening, which is absolutely vital considering that this mood will fester throughout the opening through the mise-en-scène, so things like: lighting, filters, environment, costume design, etc.
So... now that my team and I actually have salvageable film... it's time to do something with said film! And by "do something" I mean... edit. Personally, I enjoy editing, maybe because I've just been so used to it after doing it on-and-off for the past 5 years, just not on Adobe Premiere... but! I will prevail, as per usual. The overall editing process was pretty simple compared to what I'm used to; it only consists of putting the film clips into the workspace and cutting them down to your preferred length –– at least that's the very basic. I, in addition, added a dramatic, yellowish tint to the scene.
Now... there were some technical difficulties with Premiere Pro. My school account would quite literally not let me open Premiere Pro, so I had to improvise and use good old After Effects to get my point across in terms of editing –– at least until my Premiere Pro can finally get fixed.
Currently, After Effects is glitching and not letting me take a screenshot of my work, meaning I will have to edit this blog and the next one about editing until I can get it fixed.
Today was a great filming day; however, our schedule was tight. We were filming in Joaquin's old house and had to finish before the buyers bought it. The actual scene we were filming didn't happen until about 30-45 seconds into our film opening, but this was urgent, as the house's sale was about to become finalized, so we prioritized it before anything else. We got the hardest parts of production done today, and I'm proud of our group.
Throughout the day, we focused mostly on the mise-en-scène: props, set-up, costume design, all that jazz. It was actually really fun! We traversed the beautiful and diverse streets of our suburban city looking at different stores for props. We explored 7/11, Dollar Tree, and Goodwill. Usually, whenever I go to Goodwill, I don't really strike gold, but lady luck was on my side today and we did, in fact, strike gold. We found exactly what we were looking for: a clock radio from the late 1990's – early 2000's, a gorgeous and intricate picture frame, and a pretty analog clock.
Picture of the clock radio and cute clock I bought!
Couldn't picture the picture frame, since Alejandro has it
So... as our project has progressed, my group and I have decided that the classtime we get to work on our project is simply not enough... so, to fix that, we're starting to dedicate morning meetings to our project, whether it be at a cafè or at someone's house. We had all initially agreed to go to a local Panera Bread and finish what we had to do there. We dedicated most of our time there to polishing the overall plan and vision we had for our film opening.
Here is a link to the Google Docs we used to plan everything out to the minute details. It's basically the text version of our storyboard, which you can imagine just by reading the Doc. It consists of different shots, angles, and compositions, as well as the reasonings for those specific angles, and a lot more, such as the characters, props, etc.
As the deadline for our portfolio project creeps forward, we're in a pickle. My group and I have yet to start filming due to timing constraints within my group. We've all been busy, weekends and weekdays. Well, now it's time to pick up our slack and get filming, but before anything, we need planning.
My group and I had a very heated debate (sarcasm) a while ago about what font to use for our film opening, especially considering that fonts make up a good chunk of the film's tone set. I argued that we ought to use a simplistic font, because we're not trying to have our viewers use their eyes for the first 15 seconds of the opening, but rather, their ears since most things will be auditory. Alejandro agreed with me and suggested that we should use a typewriter font, to give a sense of the unknown, because the viewers will be walking into something they don't know about. However, Joaquin was on a whole different page. He suggested we use a graffiti style font, but using a graffiti style font would throw off the tone of the film, giving it a messy, rebellious vibe, when, in reality, our film is supposed to fill the viewer with a sense of dread and hopelessness (this is me exaggerating, but you get the point).
Overall, we all agreed to use the typewriter font called "Miriam Fixed" which was what Alejandro had initially suggested.
The different fonts we all had in mind for the title: "MEEK"
Audio is vital to any film opening because it sets the narrative for the rest of the film. For my team and I's opening, we plan to start the opening with a black screen, with audio overlaying the screen one by one. The black screen rids the viewer of their sense of sight, leaving all other senses sensitive and heightened. We're using this to our advantage. With different audio of a door banging, dog barking, and alarm ringing, all entering the black screen one by one, being overlayed. This creates a type of sensory overload, setting the narrative as one that is aggressive, sharp, and without order.
 |
| Black screen that will take up the screen while the audio overlaying does its thing |
