Week 1 - The beginning of the end...
Okay... I know what you're thinking. Tad melodramatic Josh. Well when a unit is dedicated to your final project at SAE I think the title suffices.
Raihan, Leighanne, Arjun, Naya, Amos and myself got in contact with each other through email. Discussing more and more about the project many things went through each others mind on how each one of us could contribute to this project. My mind (as a film student) went to making a visual album. Something to my knowledge had not been done in SAE because its quite the giant to tackle. Then we came to a conclusion that 4 main songs would be the visual aspect and the rest we would involve in a trans-media campaign. The more we spoke to each other about the project the more I could feel the passion behind everyone's words and thoughts.
Going into class with some expectations from previous batch of students made me feel prepared... Until our lecturer basically tells us that whatever we know, leave it and throw it out. The unit has changed and now there will be more expected from you basically.
So most of us in class confused to what exactly must be done and how it should be done. The first thing we do is look at the unit guide which is basically what we do with every unit on week 1. Everything seems doable to some extent so it doesn't worry me to much. I gave some of my ideas and a few people were interested but it didn't hit me like I wished it would. Ideas were being bounced around and then I heard someone talking about an album. Not just any album but something that can make a difference if done correctly. The whole movement of the BLM really hit me. I knew from them I wanted to be part of this project. Not just me but other like minded people agreed that we got something here. Something important and needed in this day and age.
Leighanne brought up a good point in how we were going to integrate everyone into the aspect of a visual album. Then I thought of something that could really make us stand out. We have the intro track, lead another track but is captured in a motion picture style, then we would have it transition with the help of animations to the next track which will be completely animated and finally the final track which would be a mixture of both. Some examples of a visual album is "The PinkPrint" by Nicki Minaj (YMCMB & Beats By Dre Presents, 2015). In addition to the visual album example a mixed example of real life + animation can be seen in Dua Lipa's Music Video for "Physical" (Dua Lipa + CANADA, 2020). We also really want to make a difference so we plan on making a website which could connect to the videos in order for people to donate, sign petitions or spread the word!
Everything is just in the discussion stage and we are always welcome to more ideas and seeing whether its doable or not. But in all fairness we have a killer team and each person is ready to put their heart and soul into this project!
We had another meeting on Saturday to further discuss on what our ideas are and how concise we wanted our presentation to be. We focused on what we want to push during the album as well as the presentation to see what our lecturer.
References:
Dua Lipa + CANADA, 2020. Dua Lipa - Physical (Official Video). [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HDEHj2yzew> [Accessed 16 June 2020].
YMCMB & Beats By Dre Presents, 2015. Nicki Minaj - YMCMB & Beats By Dre Presents: The Pinkprint Movie. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk7DT43hwFw> [Accessed 16 June 2020].
