Music Production & TikTok Presentation
Power point presentation by variation productions
Our Pitch
TikTok Production
Youtube Link:
https://youtu.be/S9-MJhq5rZM
Our Songs:
Production logs :
Production meeting:
Week 1:
I was introduced to my course mates that day and I formed a group with Sasha Paige Edwards, Rhyanne Renee Gasper and Jade Shambrooks. We discussed what each of us could bring to the table. Our first step was to come up with a group name. Sasha suggested the name Variations, for some reason it really stuck to all of us so we went with it. It’s a beautiful word and represented diversity. All the four, now three of the team mates. We are of different ages, races and cultural backgrounds. Shortly after that we had bursts of ideas and we cracked on with put projects. The first day our ex team mate Jade made an outlook address VariationProductions@outlook.com.
And we also took some selfies. Then Sasha opened an Instagram account @variationproductions and made some posts and stories on it which we shared as well. She also linked our Instagrams to it.
We were also discussing the genres we wanted to make our songs in. Initially it was pop/rock fusion for the ages 5 -12 and R&B/grime-rap fusion for ages 13-16. But obviously the final product was different. Then we were discussing the vibe of the song like hopeful/light at the end of the tunnel, or a sad and empathetic.
Then we were exchanging examples of the songs.
Week 2:
Unfortunately our team member Jade had to leave the group as she was a part of a different course that is the day we decided on the genres for preteens and teenagers and what sort of songs we wanted to create.
I did some research on the company young minds, especially on their YouTube channel, to get a better idea of what they stand for.
Week 3:
Next step was to come up with a logo. I have always been in to art, visuals and aesthetics so I took up that responsibility.
I sent my team a few digital logos that was generated by online logo generators. But I also sent them hand designed ones. The one everyone liked was one of my hand drawn ones, which consisted of the letters being in rainbow and having paisley print with in it. Paisley is significant to my Bengali culture so I wanted it to be included in my design. But we were having difficulties in having it digitally made because of the intricacy of the design. Also the colourfulness represents inclusivity and diversity. And colours are an effective way for children to express and communicate their emotions. Leading to our slogan being ‘feel in colours‘. We had a bit of confusion as well sometimes we called it variations and sometimes variation productions. Rhyanne also took it upon herself to get the design digitally made as her brother is a digital artist.
Week 4:
We started to put down the melodies and lyrics for the track that Rhyanne had already produced.
Week 5:
It was reading week and we couldn’t really meet up as I went home to Southampton.
But we put in our individual efforts.
Week 6:
Rhyanne and I put down lyrics to one of our tracks. We spent days and hours writing lyrics and then recording and producing our songs on the studio. There were many set backs. Like the mics not working in the editing suite etc.
Week 7:
We worked through the whole of that week and also the weekend.
We all did the vocals, backing vocals and harmonies. Rhyanne and Sasha did ad-libs too. Rhyanne created a mash up for the Tiktok video. Sasha got in touch with her relatives and as she was a school teacher she also tried to reach out to those schools. She reached out to them and sent them a tutorial of the gestures that was later imitated in the Tiktok video. She sent me footages of kids and also used footage of other young people dancing. I casually take random pictures and videos of nature. So I used some of my footages from nature like parks in Southampton, pebble beach in Brighton, cathedral in Winchester and the Thames river view from the kitchen of my University accommodation. The reason I used clips of nature was, connecting to nature is good for our well being but is also appropriate and soothing to the eyes. I also made a TikTok account for Variation Productions.
We were having some difficulties getting the logo digitally made. So I redesigned it with colour pencils and glitter pens over the weekend on Saturday we met up at the University and Sasha’s house on Sunday.
A lot had to be done that week as we had to make sure we had at least 80% of the work done so we could present it to class.
Week 8:
This week was about presenting our work to the class I feel like we did well and we got a lot of good and insightful feedback from our lecturer and our course mates, We did not have much time to practice but it still came together.
But after the presentation was done everything just needed a little bit of refinement. That week we drifted away from the project a bit. Rhyanne still kept working on the songs but we jumped back right into it before the end of the week.
Week 9:
This week was about finishing touches, At the last moment we received our digital logo which we pasted it into our Tiktok video. We also had our course mate Kevin rap on one of our tracks.
Most of our time was spent in the editing suite where Rhyanne was producing the song and Sasha and her were harmonising and layering the harmonies. Even I did a few of the harmonies. As our digital design came just a couple of days before the final presentation. So Sasha had to print out our merchandise in a very short time. And then we had to get colour coordinated joggers, we all made sure to wear black shoes as well. But most of the time was dedicated to making the tracks.
Week 10:
The day before the presentation was my birthday so we were celebrating and working at the same time; we all went home at 4:00 am but then we were back at school in the morning. For our presentation, I think it went well but all the critiques I got I had thought about previously even within that week but for some reason hadn’t implement it either due to carelessness or lack of time and that’s what was upsetting to me because I thought of all the things that we were critiqued for. But it was over all a great learning experience and it was a very rewarding feeling to work around the issue of mental health because I’ve been a long time sufferer myself.
Technical Process:
(As already mentioned above in details in the production log)
Week 1:
Discussion of genre
Week 4:
We had one track and we started to write lyrics and incorporate melodies into it.
Week 6:
Me and Rhyanne wrote lyrics to one song and also started writing for another one.
Week 7:
We had one track fully finished and another one was almost done the mash up for the tiktok was done as well. Harmonies and ad-libs were being added, alongside recording vocals and backing vocals.
Week 9:
We reached out to Molatov and Kaze to rap on our tracks, the collaboration with Kaze went through. Harmonies and Ad-libs were still being added to it.
Week 10:
Added children’s voice
Mixing and Mastering.
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Essay:
The day I was introduced to this project was the first day I met my peers It was a nerve racking experience I was extremely nervous yet trying to be my most confident self. It was a great first day. Being a sufferer of mental health issues for a long period of time. This project seemed to have caught my attention like no other. Our lecturer Fola did a great job at setting us up in a way where we were in small groups and we got to know a lot of people in depth. After introducing ourselves to one another I found myself gravitating towards one particular group . A fantastic group of two other ladies. One of the sadly had to leave us as she is from another course . My teammates were Rhyanne Renee Gasper and Sasha Paige Edwards and initially it was Jade Shambrook as well.
Overall it was an incredible experience and through this process I made some lifelong friends who not only helped me in this project but also help me in other modules as well as in different aspects of life.
We definitely had some obstacles but probably very different from what the other groups might have faced. We had no communication issues neither was the decision making that difficult. The creative process was a very interesting however I was dealing with two very big personalities and the third one being myself. There were definitely some compromises that had to be made. I do not know how the other two felt about working with me; I hope it was a pleasant experience because they were my friends. But the issues that I faced were some of my ideas were probably being heard but not implemented so I stopped talking about them, both my group mates wanted to create happy and uplifting songs. Whereas me being a long time sufferer of mental health issues, from personal experience; I usually felt less alone or felt understood when I would hear someone else went through a similar experience or was feeling similar emotions. I personally wanted more contrast in the two tracks so that the fusion could have a major and minor melody to it. I politely suggested this a few times but I felt like I was being dismissed so I did not bothering suggesting it again and went along with the group’s decision. They had good reasons as well for doing so as they wanted to put out a positive and uplifting message for the youth of today.
When it comes to my mental health, I personally prefer music that acknowledge the darker parts of life. It does not always have to be demotivating it can also be very motivating because when you hear a lot of other peoples experiences and how they turned there are negative experiences into positive ones, it can give people hope like it has given me countless times.
For instance, I would briefly like to talk about one of my idols RuPaul Andre Charles.
RuPaul is the most famous drag queen in the world he/she also does music. In my darkest time my biggest fear was to lose touch with my dreams especially coming from an South Asian background; music, performing arts, makeup artistry, drag, fashion etc the things I naturally inclined towards was never encouraged so if I never made the effort that I made I wouldn’t be here today but I am glad that I finally get to pursue my dreams. RuPaul had a similar story belonging to a poor family being black and gay; life was not the easiest. At 28 he was broke but never in his life did he given up on his dreams and or visions. And now he is a multimillionaire and a legend so stories like that would keep me going in my darkest moments.
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RuPaul
Our lecturer Fola had suggested us several time to watch the Netflix documentary Rapture on the self made artist Logic.
I learned a lot from that documentary as well.
The story of having abusive parents and a very difficult past to making music in the basement with his friends. About his unshakeable work ethic and how he funded everything from his own pocket. He deals with crippling anxiety so he is very passionate about mental health. His message of treating everyone equally and with respect was very touching. And I also really liked his song 1800 which turned into a suicide prevention anthem.
Logic
I did have some gaps in knowledge when it came to music and genre. Initially a lot of the references my other teammates were making I was not understanding, they were trying to cater towards British kids so it made a lot of sense to them as they all grew up in England. But I was born and brought up in Bangladesh so even though I speak fluent English and I am used to the popular tunes that reached my part of the world I obviously do not have much knowledge about all aspects of the western culture. In the past I was not fortunate enough to be musically trained, as hinted before my mother really wanted me to pursue other careers so I had to waste a lot of time doing those things and before this is I did not get much time to dedicate to music.
Other than that I thoroughly looked through young minds YouTube channel and the values they stand for, they really believe in acknowledging all sorts of emotions and dealing with it and reaching out for help. I believe all our tracks and all the work we have done so far reflect that very boldly.
On the branding and business side of things our lecture for Fola had shown us many videos which were very helpful and to the point.
Like how the vision has to be consistent she had given an example of Kanye West where his vision when it came to Yeezys and the sneaker culture fumbled a little bit. I’m just realising this as I write this essay most of the things that came together in the last day were envisioned by our team on the first day; so I am actually ecstatic that we executed almost everything that we wanted to execute.
Kanye
I feel like communication is one of the vital elements of any form of collaboration. It is very important to feel comfortable around your group mates and I was definitely far more than comfortable. I learned various different skills from my other group members vocally, digitally and work ethic wise as well. Together we learned a lot of new skills as well.
Another issue I faced was my group member Rhyanne was that she was getting overly passionate about the tracks so we spend a lot of time just sitting in the recording studios. I feel like that time could’ve been used the better, we could’ve worked on the other aspects of this project or our other modules in general. The disputes were far in between, they would either get resolved by itself or we would just agree to disagree.
Overall it was a great learning experience and it was extremely joyous. I felt very proud most of the time as I was working with two other very hard-working and passionate women. Every time I would walk in class with them I would not feel embarrassed because we would always have our work done and I think that was the biggest blessing and I could not have asked for anything better.
References and Bibliography:
Kanye the rise of Yeezy
Rapture Netflix Documentary
www.netflix.com
RuPaul 1995 ‘ Lettin’ it all hang out ‘
RuPaul 2010 ‘ Workin’ it ‘
RuPaul 2018 ‘ GuRu ‘
Figure 1:
https://www.vogue.com/article/rupaul-interview-may-2019-issue/amp
Figure 2:
Figure 3:
https://tenor.com/view/logic-rapture-rapture-netflix-gif-11566344
Figure 4:
