MPD

During my time in Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution, there were many takeaways from what I learned about the development of business models within my industry and those related. At the beginning of the course, I had the opportunity to delve into the history of publishing books, music, and films and how the arrangements were made in order for these products to be seen and bought by consumers through marketing tactics. I have been given an idea of how things worked back then, how they work now, and how they might change in the future according to economics and strategies. Aside from this, I got to spend time develop my content even further. With that said, I discovered useful tools for self-publishing and distribution along with how to obtain such arrangement should I go that route. Through my peers I learned about new software for uploading your own content to be seen or heard by others. In addition, even ways to create revenue streams to be an independent entrepreneur. Through our collaboration google document assignment, I was able to learn about trends in the music industry (such as apple music and tidal) and even find out what my fellow classmates have interests in. The course assignments themselves were focused on developing our creation and how to make it receivable to audiences and the “gatekeepers” of the entertainment business. I feel I have a new perspective on what I can, and cannot, do with as far as marketing, creating documents (like pitch letters and one sheets), and being able to publish my content for release to my consumer. Based off research done for this class, I can begin to start creating my entity and introduce it to the people who would be willing to hear the story behind it and be part of it.

Timucua

The Timucua even I attended was a live show by three Jazz musicians: Jeff Rupert, Richard Drexler, and Marty Morell. The second part was art by  Carl Knickerbocker. The Jazz musicians were very talented, I personally enjoyed the musicianship and instrumentation of the compositions. The art by Carl Knickerbocker includes stills and short films. At first I found it a bit abstract but I started appreciating that it was something that caught my attention. Both events were very creative within their medium. The event was free but I feel that there could have been more of an insight to Carl Knickerbockers work.

Innovation

Simon Sinek made excellent points pertaining to how the businesses work and how they fit in, or don’t. I’ve heard this philosophy before of how people will be more inclined to buy a product based on why the company is selling it. A brand I believe that embodies this is the video company bungie. After their venture on Microsoft’s Xbox video game console with the Halo franchise, they went on to create Destiny, a massive-multiplayer online game for multiple platforms. The game itself has received mixed reviews but still gains attention and a loyal fan base. In my opinion, Bungie counted on the demographic that grew up with the Halo franchise and partnered with Activision of the Modern Warfare series to create a balanced first-person shooter with an online community. Those familiar with these games would see Destiny as an homage to the sci-fi first person shooter Bungie is most associated with and I believe they were able to make me an early adopter. Since I found out that Bungie was making Destiny, I bought the game as soon as it came out along with the bonus content made available several months after the game was released. As Mr. Sinek stated, for certain brands there are loyal customers who want to be able to say “I was the first” despite the possibility of newer versions of the product coming out. I can admit I was one of those people who wanted to be the first because of how I personally feel about Bungie and the universe they created with Destiny.

1 million cups

            The video I decided to review was the pitch of a TV show called ‘Yoga Dog’ in which the premise was about a dog using yoga techniques to teach children how to keep a healthy mind. Although they pitched it as a TV show because of it’s twenty two minute runtime and ad spots, it is intended to be digitally distributed by other companies and be made available on different platforms and devices. The project took about three years to create it’s concept along with some extra time to get the project polished up. The presentation itself was lead by a woman who began confessing her nervousness for giving speeches, and it showed but it allowed her to ease the pressure off herself and to get through the entire presentation without making too many mistakes, although it should be noted mistakes are inevitable and should be handled accordingly, which I feel she did. Along with her speech she had a slide show presentation playing which entailed more detailed about the concept of ‘Yoga Dog’. The woman’s speech was well put together and aside from her nervous stutters she corrected herself and kept going, but the slides were poorly put together. The mission statement of the project was among the first of the slides and it was not very aesthetically attention grabbing and the statement itself was about two paragraphs. The slides in general had detailed which the woman easily fit into her speech, which rendered the slides redundant. She explained how the project came about and how her and a team wanted to create something to help kids exercise and possibly meditate to help exercise the mind as well. Overall, the energy was there and the belief in the project was present in her pitch. I feel the presentation was lacking a bit but only because of the slideshow, but everything else was well put together.

Yoga Dog 1 million cups:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peokMKz0Gp8

"Don't Worry, Be Happy"

 The Ted Talk I decided to watch was with Bobby Mcferrin, the man who wrote the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, and it gave me some interesting insight about music. During the talk, Bobby stood up from his seat, as he was among a group of scientist, and involved the audience in a performance. As he hopped to either left or right he had the audience a sing a single note. He did this and improvised a song with the audience and then revealed after that every he has been, every audience has been able to comprehend the pentatonic scale.  At the end one of the scientist offered him a job in neuroscience jokingly. I use the pentatonic scale in my music frequently and a lot of people agree it’s vital to learning music. When Bobby explained how wherever he goes every audience knows how to do that, it confirmed my affinity for music and why I’m at Full Sail. I’ve been working hard at school, on my projects, and finding a place to work and I just have to keep doing it. This video made me remember why I’m doing all this and it’s good to see that while I’m putting in the time and work it takes. My biggest resource for success is Full Sail. Through the MBBS program I learned about how my industry works, and through the EBMS program I’m continuing to learn more. Not only that, but I’ve met some friendly people that want to put in the same amount of time and work on this project as I do; it’s good to have a team. Together we’re going to accomplish this. We’ve only just started to take the necessary steps but hopefully when this is over we’ll have produced something we can be happy with.

TED talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/bobby_mcferrin_hacks_your_brain_with_music

Concept Albums

            Lately I’ve had an obsession with concept albums. I’ve been listening to The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, and EP by the band Between the Buried and Me. The EP is part one of two, the other being a full length album title The Parallax II: Future Sequence. Although perceived as a metal band producing metal albums, there is more to these works. With influences ranging from Queen, Soundgarden, Pink Floyd, and Metallica, their music compiles many genres. Lyrically though, both albums tell stories. The Parallax tells extrapolates on the central theme of humanity. Guitarist Paul Waggoner says in an interview “…we’re introduced to two characters that live in two totally different planes of existence. Separated by billions of light-years and planets, they’re both faced with personal dilemmas to confront and reckon with. On this first one, they become aware of the other’s presence in the universe in a weird way. That’s really what the EP is about; these two guys confronting their problems, and at the same time, through some sort of weird cosmic energy, they’re able to subconsciously become aware of the other person. So one could assume that in part two, they are actually going to meet each other, and that’s where the action picks up.”

            The Parallax II does indeed pick up there after the EP, but other than Between the Buried and Me I’ve been listening to Protest the Hero, The Mars Volta, Devin Townsend, and Brendon Small and many others fascinated by the idea. I had always been a fan of heavy music but seeing how it can be creative and still aggressive. Concept albums have been around for a while, The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band is an early example one. I have been working on my own concept album for about a year now and I look forward to the day when it’s ready.

My Dream

Brendon Small is a TV writer, comedian, voice actor, animator, and musician. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1997 while taking comedy courses at Emerson. Brendon at some point decided to focus on comedy when music wasn’t working out in the beginning. While at a comedy club performing he met a man named Loren Bouchard who was working on a show which later became Home Movies. Home Movies lasted four seasons then in 2006 Brendon began creating a new show for the late night block on Cartoon Network, Adult Swim. The show, Metalocalypse, featured death metal band “Dethklok” and there misadventures as an international phenomenon. The show went on to release music, all written by Brendon, and then later four whole albums. Brendon even tours with a live act version of the band as front man and lead guitarist. Brendon had a brief web series on youtube where he gave lessons on technical guitar techniques because of the popularity of the guitar parts in the music for Metalocalpyse. I have been a follower of Brendon since the premiere of Metalocalypse. His skill at playing guitar has influenced my way of playing, and his script writing for the show itself has influenced my style of comedy in many ways. In music I’d like to accomplish something similar to Brendon, although my interests do not equate in terms of animation and television, I do wish to pursue comedy, stand up comedy. His dry humor is something I find funny and would like to utilize in my act. In the music aspect, the differences start to break down because I play the same style of music. Brendon has also released a concept album, Galaktikon, which is something I wish to accomplish someday as a side project and eventually perform it live.