I've just been attempting to download the professional version of these stills that you see here, but apparently I need to have a codec, or a driver, or something before I can open the file, so now I'm trying to re-download it again, and lets' see how.
It's been quite a journey getting to this point.
Because there're so many parts of the pipeline to look at and to take care of, and each part is as important as the other at different points in time.
It's one of those situations whereby if you don't have one thing settled, you can't get to the other, and if you don't have that other thing settled, you can't head to the next thing, or the next, or the next either.
It gets a little hard to explain sometimes, but what with us being the producers of both product/merchandise and entertainment content, it takes a little while for others to understand that- even as complicated as the production already is- our work doesn't start with the content, but with the product, and the distribution plans for it.
If you don't have a product, you don't produce the content.
If you don't have a distribution, you wait till you get the ball rolling before you begin to produce the content.
Such a perspective will not so hard to explain if you're coming from a Sales and Marketing POV but then now comes the other part, we're not focused (primarily) on B2C sales aka retail, and neither are we focused on churning out brand campaign after brand campaign after brand campaign.
Instead we're focused on B2B, where the product gets purchased in bulk by other entities who then include our product as a sort of bundle in their own sales- and then this changes the game.
Because now whatever distribution method we have is a companion and/or a point of collection for customers who have purchased products and services from the other entities to whom we have previously made B2B sales to.
And whatever marketing content we produce for our product has to be specifically tied in to the entities that have purchased our products (in bulk) previously too.
If, as in this case, the entity that has purchased the product is a company that organizes festivals and live events, then the marketing content produced for the product has to be performable at said festival and/or live event.
I'm not sure if creating a generic brand story or a generic brand campaign will be sufficient for a two hour live show under a tent in an outdoor venue.
I'm also not sure if any random song bought and chosen without franchisable, expandable qualities will qualify as theme material for any live event or festival beyond what is usually plonked (as ads, mind) on media outlets and social media platforms.
So the campaigns, and the material for the campaigns all have to be carefully calibrated, and the journey begins from the product, and the entities' audiences to whom the product is intended for and marketed to.
There're quite a number of challenges when it comes to such a business and marketing technique, no least because it's not oft used beyond the entertainment sector and so people out of the industry will be skeptical, or take a longer time to understand.
However the benefits outweigh the challenges.
Like how you can be very hands on from start to finish, you can establish whatever boundaries you might need to establish, and if you begin your content from an IP perspective, you'll have control and a much greater flexibility should you need to add in, or adjust your characters, scenes, plots, or poses.
There wasn't much we needed to adjust for this particular shoot, which I shall refer to as Part 2.
What we did need was space, green screen, a place to put the Bluetooth speaker, a rest area, and a make up corner.
I wish I could show you the (corporate color) lilac cargo pants that we specially ordered for the purpose of this shoot, but then the only pictures of the pants I have are of the dancers wearing them on site, and they're still under NDA.
But we have these.
And although they don't look much right now, I'm glad for them.
It was an excellent, professional crew that we had on site that day- people who knew what it was they were doing, people who were good at what they did, and people who were enthusiastic in everything they did.
There weren't many outtakes.
And we got all the footage we needed, as a group, and as solo.
We're now in a phase where we're slotting out where all this footage will go, and I'm pretty sure they'll go places.
After all, they're part of a much wider franchise, a meandering journey, and in and of themselves, actually hold a deeper meaning too.