Group Blog - Meet The Duo

Have you missed me? I’m back and excited to announce I have a group, well more like a partnership, for the music video. I am working with Janiah Charles this time around. 

Janiah and I met during our sophomore (10th grade) year in AICE Global Perspectives. At first we didn’t know each other but eventually became close friends as the year progressed. In fact we did our group  project for Global Perspectives together. After working with Janiah in AICE Global Perspectives as well as in AICE Marine Science I was able to gauge exactly how she works. She is able to delegate tasks, conform with deadlines, and makes immense effort. Knowing her work ethic I am able to confidently partner up in a group. Additionally we make a great duo as we are both creative-beings in our own ways giving us the ability to balance each other out. Actually, Janiah and I balance each other out in many ways. We both look at tasks in different ways but usually have a common link between our thinking. Because of this, we are able to effectively communicate any struggles, mistakes, or praise in projects without holding resentment. We shared many giggles and stressed-out-spurs during our time in previous classes which helped form a mutual commonality. The comfortable nature of our partnership mushed into a friendship by the end of the school year. I am very excited to get to do yet another project with Janiah this year and bring back our sophomore duo as juniors!

Janiah (left) and I (right) laughing together. 

Moving on, a music video project can’t exist without music to go off of! It is sure to say our developed communication skills along with plenty of laughter got it down to a good array of songs. The first step we took was brainstorming any song that we could use, this left us with the songs that follow: 

• Love Yourz by J. Cole

• Feels Like Summer by Childish Gambino

• we fell in love in october by girl in red

• Pursuit Of Happiness (Nightmare) by Kid Cudi, MGMT, Ratatat

• Happy by Pharrell Williams

• Nobody Gets Me by SZA

• Young Dumb & Broke by Khalid

• Ladders by Mac Miller

• Dear Arkansas Daughter by Lady Lamb

• the other girl (with Halsey) by Kelsea Ballerini, Halsey 

• Snooze (Acoustic) by SZA, Justin Bieber 

• Cardboard Box by FLO

We noticed that the videos either centered around heartbreak, finding love within the autumnal season, or about cherishing life and summer break. First, we went through the list and quickly crossed off all the songs talking about heartbreak cause they often weren’t appropriate. Then we were left with songs that could be deemed “summer vibes” or “fall vibes”. We ran through the ideas of what we could include in the video and made little notes but in the end we were faced with the difficult decision to choose one. We had been discussing what song to choose for all of the day at this point and had gotten nowhere so we FaceTimed each other to better discuss our options. Instead of picking a “vibe” we picked which songs were the best suited for this project, This ended up being “we fell in love in october” by girl in red and “Young Dumb & Broke” by Khalid which are contrasting ideas and genres. I personally wanted “Young Dumb & Broke” by Khalid. Given how I felt about the lack of fall-setting in the palm tree lined streets of Fort Lauderdale the idea of making a commercial centering around autumn felt wrong. Janiah was happy with either but she tried hard to make the girl in red song work. Eventually, she agreed with my point about the lack of fall foliage which would break our music video. Thus making our final decision Young Dumb & Broke by Khalid. 

I am so excited to develop this project more. The snippets of what I have envisioned in my mind make for an exciting production process. I’m hoping for a smoother approach which I am sure of given I have the companionship from Janiah throughout.