Introducing
Debut music video for newly
signed Def Jam Music Artist
2023
Creative Brief
Challenge
Make an engaging positive first impression with a music video for new Def Jam artist Genia Simone’s debut single “Introducing”.
Audience
The target audience are those who appreciate the genre of hip hop/R&B, more specifically, resilient women who have a strong pride in where they’re from and embrace the beauty of struggle.
Mission & Goal
Make a compelling music video that enhances the music while giving the audience a clear sense of Genia’s upbringing, and sets the tone what art is to come in the future.
While being released at the same time as the song, the video should assist in increasing music streams and grow her social media following by at least 5k.
Vision
The core visual motifs of this music video should be a point of reference for the videos that we plan to shoot for the upcoming album release. The series of content that we put out for this album will be distinct and set itself apart as our introductory phase where the audience gets to know more about Genia as an artist and a person.
A Brief Idea of the Process
After countless voice notes, storyboards, and meetings, the creative team and I settled on the idea of staging the music video in Genia’s home town of Victorville, using A$ap Rocky’s “Peso” music video as our main source of reference. The video incorporates locals from the town and gives the viewer a glimpse into life in Victorville by traversing multiple locations that are significant to both Genia and the town of Victorville itself.
The point of the song and project were to give Genia’s audience a clear understanding of her previous life experiences leading up to the release. To clearly communicate this idea through visuals, we decided to go for a black and white look with the photography and videography and include vintage style film grain.
I worked with the artist manager to choose a video director that I felt could pull off our narrative and use his expertise in order to bring our ideas to life. On set, I overlooked the set design, shot BTS and social media photography, cleaned up the styling of the cast, and made sure that all of the visuals connected to our mission and vision.
Result
“Introducing” Album Cover
“Introducing” Single Cover
The video went on to accumulate over 779,000 views and sits as the #1 most liked video and #2 most viewed video on her Youtube channel over a year later.
Her Instagram alone had gained over 10,000 new followers within a month of the music video release.
The music video set a visual basis for the following music videos leading up to the album release. All of the project videos went on to utilize the same visual style.
Two photos I had taken on set were chosen by Def Jam to be covers for the artist’s debut single and album.