#XL25
Brief 06_ D&AD 2014 Entry: XL Recordings / Collab w/ Sam Lane
Abbas Mushtaq:
Extended Practice Submission 22/05/14
Context
XL Recordings are reaching their 25th Year Anniversary this year and are looking for a way to celebrate their long established history and success. They have given us a number of events which they class as significant and are looking for creatives to bring them to life and ‘Illustrate Label History’.
Brief
Illustrate a significant event, or series of events, from the history of XL Recordings. Celebrate the artist and highlight their seminal moment(s) in a way that engages and communicates to your audience.
Target Audience / Tone of Voice
The brief states the target audience, is unsurprisingly music lovers, of all ages. It also states the brief should not be determined by an audience. If it successfuly illustrates label events, the correct audience will naurally be interested and drawn towards the work.
Deliverables
Full Scale Viral Campaign including;
We are aiming to create a tone of voice that is bold, unique, humorous in order to achieve what we need to.
- A Viral Video (1 Minute Long) - A Print Campaign - Advertisements across Web Platforms - A Supporting ‘Interactive Campaign’ Video (1 Minute Long)
#01
Reference
Interaction
We wanted from the off, to produce a video. From looking at the list of events illustrated - what was most interesting was how they span decades and years. We wanted to create a video where the viewer watches a video in first-person. The viewer feels like they journey through various points in time and interacts with objects. The above ‘Honda Hands’ by Wieden & Kennedy is a great example of this.
Brief 06_ D&AD 2014 Entry: XL Recordings / Collab w/ Sam Lane
Abbas Mushtaq:
Extended Practice Submission 22/05/14
Cultural Objects
One-Take Videos
To further communicate the feeling of journeying through time and interacting with various objects we referenced one-take videos, which have uniqye and highly creative transitions between scenes.
The tone of voice aims to be a celebration, and quirky. We looked into existing examples of video campaigns that combine colour in an effective way, In particular the “Microsoft: Child of The 90s” ad above which focuses on fashion, objects and culture we associate with a certain time in our life and it brings back nostalgia.
‘The Sunday Times: Icons’ video above does this brilliantly.
#02
Research
Music Video Analaysis
In terms of primary research, a logical route was to study and investigate each musical event we wanted to illustrate. In particular we looked at that eras fashion, colour, and very importantly - props. We wanted to reference these props in our final video,f from a small subtle reference, to a big clear one. For example the “Dirt Chamber” CD in Prodigy’s ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ Video.
Brief 06_ D&AD 2014 Entry: XL Recordings / Collab w/ Sam Lane
Abbas Mushtaq:
Extended Practice Submission 22/05/14
Era-specific culture & Objects
Kinetic Typography & Idents
To further push a viral campaign, we looked into idents associated with music. In particular idents that are strong typographically, with real energy to them.
We wanted to capture each XL events context in terms of culture and the era of that time, to communicate just how much the world has changed in 25 years, and the effect XL Records has had on it. For example Dizzee Rascal’s Fix Up Look Sharp was released in 2003, the classic Nokia 3310 takes you back to that time.
Classic 80’s and 90’s MTV idents capture this, along with Kanye West’s ‘All of The Lights’ video. Which was inspired by the movie, Enter The Void, which in turn was inspired by Prodigy’s Smack My Bitch Up. Bringing everything full circle.
#03
Film 01 – Storyboarding
Art Direction & Pkanning
Brief 06_ D&AD 2014 Entry: XL Recordings / Collab w/ Sam Lane
Abbas Mushtaq:
Extended Practice Submission 22/05/14
One of the main reasons me and Sam worked on this project was that it was out of our comfort zone. It had very little to do with layouts, print and branding and more to do with art direction, filming and meticulous planning. We found the most success with storyboarding and talking through each scene deeply, along with cutting up the sounds we wanted and rehearsing each segment with our hands. So we knew just how much time we had to work in for each scene. Storyboarding was invaluable, when it came to rehearsing and filming.
#04
Campaign Film 01
Concept
The concept for the first movie, was to illustrate label history in an engaging, fast-moving and interactive manner. The top-down view makes the viewer feel as if they themselves are in the video. From researching into the props used through the XL music videos we constructed props and scenes full of subtle, and obvious references. For the Nokia 3310’s ringtone, to the stickers on the radio saying “Danger! High Voltage” in reference to the Electic 6 song.
Brief 06_ D&AD 2014 Entry: XL Recordings / Collab w/ Sam Lane
Abbas Mushtaq:
Extended Practice Submission 22/05/14
The client said they want a product which warrants repeated viewing, and we feel we’ve achived this through the fast-moving references through the film.
Events Illustrated (In Order)
1. Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Boy In Da Corner’ wins Mercury Music Prize 2003
The viewer journeys through time, from The Prodigy and the mid-90’s, to Adele winning an Oscar recently and in the present - celebrating XL’s 25th Birthday.
2. Banned ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ video by The Prodigy, discussed during PM’s Question Time 3. Drake samples Gil-Scott Heron and Jamie XX’s song ‘Take Care’ 4. Richard Russel and Joey Talbot produced avant garde orchestral Aluminium album pays tribute to the White Stripes, and is turned into Chroma, a ballet premiered at the Royal Opera House in London 5. Gil-Scott Heron passes away 6. Adele wins an Oscar for ‘Skyfall’ song 7. XL Recordings’ 25th birthday celebrations #05
FIlm 02 – Storyboarding
#XL25
The first film actuallyshowed the actual viral itself, which is enough on its own but we felt that now we were better versed in editing and filming it would be interesting to show the scope of the video.
Brief 06_ D&AD 2014 Entry: XL Recordings / Collab w/ Sam Lane
Abbas Mushtaq:
Extended Practice Submission 22/05/14
Posters
Social Explosion
The #XL25 campaign blows up, igniting nostalgia. Songs from yesteryear experience huge sales increases, and people talking about and discussing the viral advert and its key references.
The second video contextualises the viral video into a full campaign incorporating print, web, augmented reality and social media. We want to showcase people interacting with the campaign. Again we storyboarded the campaign (as above)
Digital
We proposed to create a series of posters and printed advertisements that will be dotted around cities within the UK. Each poster will be a still representation of the individual scenes that we have created for the video. Augmented reality will be applied to the posters, scanning it will bring up the viral video and external links.
The idea of us not subliminally describing each event in the video, allows us to create conversation and debate in the campaign, as you would need to figure out the event yourself.
We have various different marketing techniques and ways of advertising that we plan to create. These will be both digitally and printed and its important that the two are integrated to help raise awareness of XL’s 25 Anniversary. Different ways of Advertising include: Moving adverts, Spotify pop-up advert, Youtube Intro’s
#06
Campaign Film 02
#XL25 Soundtrack : Jungle - ‘Busy Earnin’
The first film actuallyshowed the actual viral itself, which is enough on its own but we felt that now we were better versed in editing and filming it would be interesting to show the scope of the video.
Brief 06_ D&AD 2014 Entry: XL Recordings / Collab w/ Sam Lane
Abbas Mushtaq:
Extended Practice Submission 22/05/14
Posters
Social Explosion
The #XL25 campaign blows up, igniting nostalgia. Songs from yesteryear experience huge sales increases, and people talking about and discussing the viral advert and its key references.
Posters around the UK target the correct target audience through geographical targeting, augmented reality allows user to scan poster and watch viral video instantly, with external links such as XL25.com
The idea of us not subliminally describing each event in the video, allows us to create conversation and debate in the campaign, as you would need to figure out the event yourself.
The second video contextualises the viral video into a full campaign incorporating print, web, augmented reality and social media. We want to showcase people interacting with the campaign. Again we storyboarded the campaign (as above)
Digital
A web presence is established through XL25.com, spotify pop-ups of the viral video, Youtube channels, hashtag campaign of #XL25, and idents to be placed before all XL related music videos.
#07
Post-Process Editing
Editing Process
Brief 06_ D&AD 2014 Entry: XL Recordings / Collab w/ Sam Lane
The editing process was a huge learning curve for us, we had never done it before. In the end we were pleased with the results, and the ability to tighten up scenes and add subtle sound effects such as camera flashes etc.
Typography
Abbas Mushtaq:
Extended Practice Submission 22/05/14
Following on from making idents, I worked on typographic animations to be added to the video. Each artists animation was made into a short 3-4 second medley of all XL related artists within the brief. Each artists visual style was inspired by their ownput and visual style. For example MIA glitch animation above.
#08
Idents & Viral Presence
Brief 06_ D&AD 2014 Entry: XL Recordings / Collab w/ Sam Lane
Abbas Mushtaq:
Extended Practice Submission 22/05/14
Moving Image
II was assigned to work on typographic idents. Short 5-10 second movine image pieces that further extend the brand and campaign, to be played in between music videos, or before music on XL’s various channels on digital platforms.
#09
D&AD Submission Boards – Supporting Images
Brief 06_ D&AD 2014 Entry: XL Recordings / Collab w/ Sam Lane
Abbas Mushtaq:
Extended Practice Submission 22/05/14
Supporting Images
Along with the two videos, we also sent in supporting images. Initially, we wanted to make standard design board style images, but in the end we focused on making each image an advert in itself. Each board focuses on communicating an area of interest within the project and campaign, with bold colours and gritty, worn imagery.
#010