As most, I take pleasure in hearing people play covers especially if they do a good job. Also, I love when an established artist covers another. Last year there were quite a few made, even those that went viral.

For instance when Birdy made the cover of Bon Iver’s Skinny Love. Both versions are beautiful in their own way, Birdy applies the piano to her softer version, where as the original is mostly acoustic guitar with some kick drum.

Another song that came out shortly after was the Goyte song, Somebody That I Use to Know. Then at the beginning of this year on January 5th, a band from Burlington Ontario released their rendition of this song, and blew everyone away with their creativity in this YouTube video. Some even prefer this cover over the original. It quickly gained a million views overnight and as they say, went viral!

How about those solo homemade piano covers? Well, even more recently there was a cover of the Skrillex song featuring Ellie Goulding, Summit, performed by a UCLA student named J. Wang. Skrillex just tweeted the link this morning to Ellie Goulding. It seems as though they both approve of this cover. It’s incredible how she captures the melody through the keys on her piano so flawlessly. Listen for yourself…

compared to the highly digitized sound of the original below…

Now these are all amazing covers, and I know there are some covers out there that we’d rather skip, but it takes a lot of courage for someone to pick up an instrument and give it a try. This creates inspiration to many people, including myself, to challenge ourselves. In very few cases the response could be life-changing (*cough* Bieber). Therefore when I hear some people degrade covers, saying how they are never as good as the original, I would like to point out how covers are not really meant to be exactly like the original song, they should be seen as another persons rendition of the song. It’s important to have an open mind and just enjoy the fun in making music.

I’m looking forward to see what other clever covers are created this year!

because I just could not help but look at more, here’s one that made me die of laughter…

He really did send her flowers! It’s one thing to do little skits but to actually carry through the act, it’s a whole other level of interactivity! With technology now a days it’s not difficult to connect with others and create conversations with people you probably could never meet any other way but through the interweb. It could also be about connecting people by creating stories with the help of users.

Remember when Arcade Fire had their song “We Used To Wait” used in an interactive film? This was to display the new HTML5 coding and all it’s coolness with Google Chrome. I thought this idea worked amazingly, as it created a great buzz. If you haven’t already go check it out here http://thewildernessdowntown.com/ (Little fun trick: run your mouse around the home screen and watch the birds chase away). The great thing about this was how it was able to involve the fans to create little messages that would then be displayed when you go see the band on tour. Power of interactivity!

For my latest Digital Media project, I had to create a 5 second trailer, as I mentioned 2 blog posts ago, for a show, movie or book. Obviously I did use the show Pretty Little Liars as the inspiration. This was all put together in After Effects.

It’s not as simple as one may think to come up and then create a 5 second clip, since you have to get the message across in a small amount of time. With mine, I wanted to capture the mysterious theme surrounding the series. I first thought of stop motion, but then felt it wouldn’t display the mood I was going for, so I chose to film (on my lousy digital camera). For this quick scene I have a girl, (who is played by my sister, Sonia) which is suppose to represent one of the four friends in the show, painting her nails. This action is like an exaggeration of the “pretty” factor in the title Pretty Little Liars, also inspired from the opening credits of the show (see other blog post). I started with the first frame zoomed in to her hands with the iPhone in sight, by marking a keyframe, then advanced a few frames forward and added another keyframe that was full zoomed out. This gave the zoom out effect. When she receives the text to her cell phone, I wanted to make the tension rise, as it would in the TV show whenever the girls received a text message. Since in the show most times they get messages from an unknown source labeled “A” and they are mostly threats or warnings not to do certain actions. The music I chose was actually labeled as a children’s theme song, but I thought it sounded a bit too happy that it could turn creepy in this setting. All that’s missing is a creepy clown to pop up, haha.

After the phone vibrates, as visible on Sonia’s face, there is tension. Then all goes cold and silent as the candle blows out, leaving only the iPhone visible. Now this is where the real animation takes place, when the title slowly fades like smoke across the screen. I came across text tutorials for ideas, but it’s essentially a text blur. I first found the proper font for the title, which is Edwardian. Then on the text layer, selected the animate operator and added the opacity and blur tool. Then for the start of the keyframe (positioned right before the text appears) scaled the text up 300%, opacity 0% and blur 100%. Changed the anchor point grouping to “line” so the letters would be spaced out straight. Next was to change the offset, started with the first keyframe at 100% then moved up ahead and had set another keyframe to -100%. This lets the letters to animate out then back in, but then changed the shape of this to ramp down, in the advance area. Creating that nice flow in as you see in the clip. And of course, music always impacts the mood, so when the letter flew in I queued some frantic piano keys. Also, in the background, though it’s hard to tell, there is a piano on the left of her. Perhaps there is someone else in the room that played it….A?

*Note: when uploaded the 1280×720 HD version to YouTube the music was shifted slightly off, therefore I used a smaller version for the purpose of displaying it on the blog. The original and one submitted does not have this problem.*

Have you attended a concert lately? How about watching a concert live on YouTube. It’s awesome how we are now able to do this. Watch a LIVE concert from the comfort of our computer screen! I find it’s the new way to grab an audience, with special concerts and festivals now streaming live footage for those not physically there to enjoy. Maybe you even tweeted about it or posted a status update on Facebook about this show, stimulating a conversation. This is all a form of transmedia.

This weekend was the Deadmau5 concert in Toronto at the Rogers Centre (or how some still call it… “SkyDome”). Tons of excitement surrounded this tour finale, and he is the first Canadian to headline this huge venue in it’s 22 years.  To add to this hype he allowed LIVE broadcasting on YouTube for the first 25 minutes of the show. This was to mark the launch of his new Live streaming website live.deadmau5.com.

During the show I noticed my twitter feed blow up with people tweeting from the concert. Yes I was still very jealous of them being there, but I was glad to have the option to view the concert on YouTube. It just adds to the whole experience of this one show. This crossed over to many different social networks connecting with a vast audience beyond his crowd in the Rogers Centre. For the people at home, it seemed like they could be as involved with the show as the people actually there, minus the pushing up against rave-dancing people, stepping in who knows what as people go insane to the beats. Different experience but same show. Also, the radio station Z103.5 in Toronto held an hour special of spinning Deadmau5 beats from 8-9pm the night of the show, while also having the radio station Street Team at the Rogers Centre entertaining the arriving fans. This all adds the the experience of this one Deadmau5 concert. An awesome one for sure.

Here’s the newest Deadmau5 single that he used to kick off the special 25 minute live stream.

For our next project in my Digital Media class we need to create a 5 second motion graphic for a movie or TV show. I have a few ideas, just not entirely sure how to create them yet. I’m thinking of possibly creating it for the television series Pretty Little Liars. It’s a show about a group of girls that are long time friends who just lost their friend. However they have a few secrets. The girls Hanna, Spencer, Aria and Emily keep getting mysterious messages from an unknown source labeled just “A” and most times they are threats. The whole mood of the show is basically tense and mysterious. Below is the opening theme, which will help me think of ideas for my own project clip.

Here’s an example of typography used in a lyrical music video…

Jumpstart – These Kids Wear Crowns

Everything about this video is so fun, colourful and energetic! The type is very playful and bounces along with the beat of the song. There are two types of font used, the one in the very beginning would be the actual logo font for the band. The other font is a type of rounded bold, not sure exactly what it is called, but it’s fun looking and matches the theme. It’s definitely appropriate for the youthful audience it mostly targets. My favourite part is watching the words bounce around and even sometimes drag across the screen to stress a certain part of the song.

Spiderman 3 opening credits

Opening credits like this are my favourite, where the words are placed in a cool way that it matches the theme of the story. In this case, the words seem to match the silvery web and then scatter away like a broken glass. The font would be original, so I guess you could call it the “spiderman” font. This typography is effective because it creates the feeling of scattering through a web, while we are being shown a bunch of scattered events that occurred throughout the previous Spiderman movies.

Harry Potter is one of the most iconic series of this generation, and when you think of it, you probably would imagine this sort of typography and a lightening bolt perhaps? This poster specifically, shows that very bent and jagged font. Harry Potter was known for his famous lightning bolt scar, therefore the designers most definitely incorporated that into the design of the font, by adding a lightning bolt on the end of the “P”. This proves very effective by being consistent with the imagery of the Harry Potter theme.  Also alignment of the words were most certainly considered since the words are on an angle to complement the angle in which Harry Potter is leaning.

Sounds pretty straight forward right? Try creating a story with over 2,000 photos, then you’ll understand the intricate process of creating a stop motion film. How about creating a stop motion music video using toast?

The band OK Go usually have the coolest buzzworthy music video concepts. In the past using treadmills, dogs, marching bands, and giant obstacle contraptions in their awesome videos. They decided for their song Last Leaf to create a stop motion video using burnt toast. Not randomly burnt however, each were laser-etched to create an image. The toast display a forest, some animals pushing a shoe off the edge, all while the slow ballad sings of the patience of love. There were 2,430 toast used, and 15 still shots for every second. I can’t imagine working with all that toast!

My Digital Media class assigned a photoshop project where we had to create a poster or CD design. I decided to create a poster for an upcoming concert event.  A friend of mine is the lead singer in a band called Another Intention and they will be opening for the Montreal band The New Cities.*  This is a really exciting event for her so when she told me about it, I thought of this assignment.

To begin I started looking through my old concert photos of The New Cities at a show last year. I found a decent shot of them, and then found a picture of a city scene. With these two pictures I wanted to merge them somehow. My first layer is a bluish gradient background, then I changed the opacity on both pictures to make the background colour fade through. I noticed where the pictures met in the middle of the poster it a bit of an awkward transition, just an evident line of where the pictures met. I didn’t like it, so I used the lasso tool and roughly made an outline across, then filled it in with the paintbucket tool to give it a rough paper-like tear. The words probably took me the longest to figure out. I tried out many different fonts and colours. Thinking of the CRAP principles (read previous CRAP blog post below) I created repetition with the blue gradient colour in the words “The New Cities” and the date. I created contrast with the yellow font and blue font, and the big to small fonts. Blending Options were used to create the effects on the fonts.

*This event has been postponed due to The New Cities now opening for Avril Lavigne on her tour. I’ll change the date once it is confirmed and post it.

This form of digital media has been featured in many music video concepts. With all the music videos out there, you are bound to find a handful with a similar video concept. What I’ve noticed is the return of video games in most music videos lately. Some feature my favourite gaming system, Nintendo NES! One example would be in These Kids Wears Crowns music video for I Wanna Dance With Somebody.

Right off the top, the guys appear in the video exploding through pixels like a video game character. Then around the 1 minute mark they are on the couch playing Nintendo! Funny enough I’m also in this video, and was super excited when I saw this game system on set. Trust me if it was actually plugged in and working on the set, I definitely would of tried playing during the breaks. Haha. I thought the part with the band members flying on top of the bus was really cool, all filmed on green screen. It really looks like they were in an old-school video game dodging oncoming meteors!

Another music video concept featuring Nintendo NES would be the latest Down With Webster video for Big Wheels.

The video begins with the typical blowing the bottom of the game card before putting it into the game counsel. I love how in this video they mix all the old games like Mario-Kart and Duck Hunt into the real world. How awesome would it be to Go Kart and have the floating question blocks?!

Video games usually have a story to them, and so do music videos. In digital media, we are always reminded about the target audience when designing. Obviously these videos capture the gamers interest, but also making it entertaining to others. In Hollerado’s music video for Americanarama, they use the video game idea in a really fun and creative way. Taken in one shot!

Going back a few years to 2000 when the Red Hot Chili Peppers released Californication. This whole music video is a video game, with each band member running around a fictitious world as their own avatars. At this time the graphic designs in this video were rather impressive.

Video games could be used with any genre of music really. For instance, some rock song like Beck’s E-Pro displays a sort of 80′s video game concept. In rap there’s the music video for Everyone Nose with N.E.R.D. and Kanye West, including clips from the old arcade game Galaga. Even the lyrics to the song matches some of the game clips. Check them out below.

Now excuse me as I’m off to play some video games while blasting my favourite songs.

Contrast is when there are two aspects visibly different, like mixing complementary colours or big font with small font. Repetition is when some aspect is repeated throughout the design, for instance a typeface or shape continuously used. This creates a kind of cohesion look, making it visually appealing. Alignment is all about where and how you place things, such as words. If done properly, this creates a great visual connection. Proximity is the grouping of related features, how you organize ideas in the picture or website.

Below are some designs that include these principles…

Album Cover

There are a few examples of contrast shown on this album artwork. First, notice the contrast of the yellow over the dark purple background. On the colour wheel these are complementary colours. Then there’s the vertical large font for “LIGHTS” and the horizontal small font for “the Listening”, also creating contrast. The alignment of the words here are drawing attention to the bottom left, by placing the words “LIGHTS” vertically and “the Listening” horizontally.

Repetition - Painting

I found this painting in a Toronto restaurant, the Rivoli. Just like its name, this painting displays Repetition. There is a Police poster painted on three times, in different colours. Contrast is created with the colours chosen, the black, orange and white on a blue backdrop.

Elle Magazine Cover

All the girls are wearing dresses and red bottom heels, creating repetition. The alignment on this cover is clear, with the girls lined up diagonally along with the flowers, and this leads the attention towards the word “ELLE”. Also proximity is created with the girls grouped together against the group of flowers on the runway.

Red Riding Hood Poster

This movie poster displays contrast with the fonts and sizing of the words. At the top it starts with small font, and then the main title has a larger, different font. Repetition is kept with the same font used for the tagline and the release date.  The colour red used for the title and the girl’s red cloak also displays repetition. The alignment is mainly center for the words, and the girl in the middle follows suit. This creates a clear focus to the girl and the title.

The principles of CRAP could prove to be beneficial when used properly in designing. These principles will create an organized and cohesive look to the project. Using these principles will bring the attention needed to the design.