The goal of my personal project was to give people a better understanding on the mind and process of music making. The documentary was to show the difficulties and the overall lives of an underage artist. The goal of the documentary was to show unsigned artists and their daily lives or opinions on the lives they live. I plan on interviewing all artist under 18 to give the audience(my class) a better understanding because we are in the same age group. Also one more key to the documentary is that all artist are currently or have before recorded in a home studio.
Recoding in a home studio shows the artist independence. This independence is different to many other artist and different in this case is new and interesting. To achieve my goal I must work in a timely fashion. My Video must catch the audience attention quickly. I organized the plan for creating my project in four steps. Step one was the research of my project and to get all the information, I needed in order to be prepared to start. Step two is setting up the timeline/guidelines which is basically setting up the dos and don’ts, this gives me a structure to workaround.
Step three was to get the materials needed which would be the camera,the laptop, and that’s about it because those are the two things I need to record and edit the video. Step four was to start my process, I will need to start recording and getting everything in place which is making the video/documentary. I need to research the following things to achieve my goal:how to make a documentary, the process of making a musical documentary, inside the musical mind, and The musical process. These can also be questions I can answer in my documentary.
I could’ve done more research And Oddly enough I discovered during my research that there is never enough research. I settled for the research I had instead of going the extra mile. I didn’t set up my guideline in a timely fashion. I didn’t remember to complete my outline until the last minute In which by that time it was too late. I completed my outline but it was not to the best of my abilities. At first I was going to record on my iPhone but after doing a couple school projects with my iPhone I realized once I converted to YouTube the quality was not be as good as if I used a digital camera,so I went out and got a Camera.
I made the calls and text messages necessary to set up the meetings with the artist I needed to record in my documentary although some were busy some put me on their schedule And we were able to do business. Nothing in school inspired me it was more personal reasons. The biggest reason being that as an artist myself I can say music is my life. It gives me an outlet to express my feelings. I know this will be the perfect topic to do my project on. From the beginning it just felt as if the subject was right at home.
My cousin is my biggest influence because he made his own music documentary that altered my own. He endeavored to give me the most advice he possibly could and the biggest thing I took from the conversation is him telling me to make it from the heart and to not sugar code anything and also to make it how I want and do it for myself as well as the audience. I decided to record and edit the video on my own. Decided on the artist I wanted to interview. The Final product is not currently done so we will have to see if my actions will turn out to be good or bad.
This project made me interact with more artists. Also Contacting artist and asking them do they want to be a part of my documentary was huge because it grew my clientele and also progressed my friendships with mostly all of those artist that I interviewed. I previously told my mom that I would love to one day be behind the camera and be the director, so this project alternately gave me an opportunity to show her how serious I was. I have always understood artist because I have been around them my whole life so it didn’t change my perspective the project just gave me new memories and fun times.
I recorded the first video in which I am in for my documentary. I showed the viewers where I record which is my room told them the cost of the equipment and how everything worked. I will use it as an interview so therefore it will be played along side the rest of the interviews in the documentary. I will put it first just to give the viewers an understanding of how it goes and then the rest of the interviews will follow. I did not want to show too much of myself because I tried to keep all the interviews the same length so it can be balanced all around.
My first interview was with a local artist which so happened to be a friend of mine who goes by the name of DavidTheTragic. I only asked him two questions so the interview was fairly fast. We spoke after the interview and we just talked. He was a Very humble and outspoken. One thing that I can say about him is that he is not afraid to speak his mind. After The interview I stayed and recorded a song with him for his mixtape. My interview with Marko was the most shocking to me. I told him the questions once and he was ready to go, his answers were very heart felt.
If you listen to the interview you can easily tell he knows what he is talking about. The information he provided was very interesting. I gathered information regarding that he started rapping at nine years old,and then when him and his peers noticed his potential that’s when they started taking it serious. I love to see an artist grow, I have known Marko for years and this interview alone shows his growth. When you grow as a Person that’s also when your music starts to grow and Marko is the prefect example.
One question from the interview that caught my attention was when I asked does music effect his person life and his answer sounded word for word like something I would have said ” My personal life is my music,everything that goes on in my life I rap about”An artist should always take their music serious. Marko doesn’t live separate lives he doesn’t choose between his personal life and music, to him they come hand to hand they are the same thing. One Barrier that came up was that due to transportation troubles we had to conduct Ryan’s interview differently then the others.
Ryan recently moved about 30-40 minutes away, so that was a huge problem he told me that he would be in my area soon and we can conduct the interview when he swings by. Unfortunately another problem arrived Ryan would only be in my area in the afternoon and that wouldn’t work for me because I had drivers Ed from nine to five on Saturday and Sunday. I had drivers Ed for two weeks straight and the week after that Ryan would be out town for a musical festival. In order to get the interview done I had him record himself and just answer the questions and this turned out to be a good idea.
Ryan’s responses were very thorough. One key thing that I can take from the interview is that Ryan would rather be rich then famous. He said he knows famous people that are financially the same as him and he asks the question of what’s the point? Support to him is huge,he says his fans and his support made him to who he is today. My interview with Pryce was one I was looking forward to because I had a few questions of my own I have been meaning to ask,so this was the perfect time.
I asked him various questions the first one was how was it to go on tour at such a young age his response was that it was a awesome experience and the best part was all the girls calling his name. Also I asked how was life after he got singed to his record label, he said life has changed Dramatically now when he goes to malls people recognize him and that’s cool to him. Overall a very good and informational interview. I did my final interview and it was only fitting I did this one differently.
I interviewed Micah which altered the view of the documentary because this artist was the first singer and female to be interviewed. Micah recently began her music career last August but she’s been singing her whole life so music is not new to her. Support is a huge thing for me so I asked how did her friends respond to her making music and she said they responded Great they showed a lot of support and that’s what I like to hear, support is key in the businesses. Pyrce said people changed since he got singed, so I’m glad Micah’s friends stayed the same.
I tried to not separate her from the rest of the artist I interviewed because no matter the occupation your an artist at the end of the day so it was good seeing that she wasn’t different then the rest of them at all. Their all young and talented with great minds. All in this documentary gave it a different vibe,as the vibe goes a long you can feel the different personalities being displayed. Honestly I’m happy with how each interview went none of the artist disappointed me. One thing that I can say that is that Now every time I see a musical documentary that I will have to click on it.
I hope one day my musical career will take off and they will make a documentary about me one day. A documentary is not necessarily my goal for my career. I want to reach my fans on a greater level. A documentary can be such a great insight on an artist life,but an artist music can do the exact same it just depends on the artist,so if I’m speaking for myself whatever gets my fans the best understanding is fine with me. In this case it is not about how the message is delivered it is the message itself.
