We're a musical group here at Demo Duck. Well, not a musical group per se—even though we've been known to rock a five-person Robyn performance at karaoke before.
We're all huge music fans, and even have some vocalists, musical theatre performers, guitarists, bassists, former audio engineers and even an accomplished bassoon instructor to boot. While typical explainer video productions still make our hearts flutter, nothing makes them sing like when we get to produce a video based around a specific music track. It helps us unlock new ideas, determine color palettes to fit the sonic mood, and even animate or edit to a specific beat.
Here's a playlist of our favorite "music videos" that we've gotten to produce over the years, with a little background on production considerations from the Ducks that worked on the projects. Let's rock!
"Roll Call (We Are D.I.N.O.)"
"Roll Call (We Are D.I.N.O.)" is a musical introduction to the cast of D.I.N.O., a musical series for young learners. We were approached by the creators of this series with a super fun ask. They had already written a crop of songs (all catchy bops) and designed the full cast of characters of Fossil Ridge Elementary—they just needed help bringing them to life through animation, and given our knack for educational video productions and passion for music, we were a fit. But we knew, that since this was a music-based project, we thought there was a smart opportunity to switch up our process a bit.
"Instead of starting with storyboards, we went straight to an animatic," said Aimé DeLattre, Art Director. "It really helped us visualize how everything would come together with the funky tunes synced up right from the start. Storyboards shown without the context of music might create a disconnect. Using an animatic helped the client visualize how everything would come together, and helped us lay the groundwork for full animation earlier."
With a music track, the pacing is often different than a traditional product animation. There's naturally a rhythm, but also a general feeling or mood that you need to align with. By starting with an animatic, we were able to ensure we had the right pace to align with the cheerful personality of the song—and accurate amount of shots featuring the right characters. Plus, who didn't want to see T-Reggie, Tina and the rest of the D.I.N.O. crew shaking their tails as soon as possible?
"I Got A Name"
Hitting the stage isn't just for musicians. Google Fiber asked us to help create a video to kick off their annual summit. Hey, no sweat—we do industry event videos all the time, it's one of the many types of corporate video productions we've had some fun with. But this one had an interesting twist. They wanted the video to bet set to the song "I Got a Name" by American folk singer-songwriter Jim Croce. It's not often that we get to visualize an iconic song by an iconic artist. But within that opportunity comes a certain responsibility. How do we tell the GFiber story through their brand guidelines, while ensuring the feel of the piece is authentic to the cozy sense of Americana wanderlust conjured by the song?
"The lyrics of the song naturally lent themselves to the visuals," said Brett Pere, Producer. "GFiber is proud of where they come from—the Google/Alphabet umbrella—but they're also forging their own path as their own offering. The idea was to have the Google logo change to GFiber before then heading out on the open road to deliver top-notch WiFi across America."
"We wanted to focus heavily on nostalgic themes associated with the concept of a road trip," said Ossian Mendoza, Senior Art Director. "Our primary goal became to create familiar visuals that evoke the classic American Road Trip and tap into viewers' memories."
We found that Google Fiber's branding has a simple elegance that fits the tech space, but also works well when adapted to a chunky, colorful retro style. The result was a video that almost feels like a vintage concert poster or album cover come to life, but fresh enough to not feel like you're getting dust in the needle of your record player—metaphorically speaking.
"Entry Level" Podcast Title Sequence
Podcast intro music is crucial in setting the mood for the pod you're about to listen to. Mystery! Humor! History! For a Demo Duck passion project, we animated three intros for some of our favorite podcasts. We thought it was a unique twist on developing a TV title sequence, which of course is now a revered art form in itself. Severance, The Last of Us, you name—we're fans! Our ACD Jake Allen even worked on the title sequence for FX's Ramy during a previous career stop.
Brooks Wheelan is a stand-up comedian who hosts Entry Level, a podcast where Brooks talks to other comedians about their winding path towards success and all the past jobs they've had along the way. Brooks has had a unique career path himself—cave tour guide, biomedical engineer, Saturday Night Live cast member—and of course, the distinction of being one of my (Jarrett) best pals since we first met at the University of Iowa. Even with the friend factor at play, our team agreed that Entry Level's intro song would be a perfect pick for the project. Brooks worked with musician and fellow comedian Drennon Davis to write a funky, catchy jam filled with bounce and personality, and we just had to bring it to life through animation.
Entry Level episodes contain tons of hilarious stories about the mortifying, slightly soul-crushing jobs that comedians work as their try to support their dreams of making it in the entertainment industry. So for our video, we decided to weave together the stories of three friends working their day jobs before finally meeting for a couple cold ones—of course, served by Brooks as a bartender at an open mic night. It was important that the characters, environments and other elements all had the same bounce and spirit of the music track, and also accentuate Drennon's vocal delivery in certain moments. We even peppered a few references to Brooks's lore, including his time preparing pizzas and working at a movie theatre that he helped bankrupt (see him live for the full story).
To quote Brooks' review of the final deliverable with accurate pronunciation, "This rules!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so rad thanks!!!!" Let's be sure to add that one to the client testimonial page.
"Hugs"
Everyone needs a hug sometimes. Even colorful monsters! Blue Cross Blue Shield asked us for help producing an eCard video about the health benefits of hugs. After all, they reduce, improve cardiovascular health and even boost the immune system. It's such a cheerful message, and we thought we could make it extra memorable by setting it to a song. We partnered with the band Diamond Youth to write a charming little song, and then designed a colorful and calm world of friendly monsters to add some additional whimsy.
"At the time, Justin—the singer of Diamond Youth—was renting a desk from us in our shared co-working space, which made the project even more fun and interactive to work on in the office" said Laura Irons, Director of Partnerships. "We would all riff on lyrics, and come up with silly scenarios to showcase our little monsters. It's definitely a Demo Duck classic. I love sharing this video with clients who are looking for something a little outside the box, especially when they're interested in a non-branded approach to content. It's a way to make your message extra memorable, and even enhance the replay value of a video."
In the explainer video space, it's pretty common to use a straightforward voiceover. And there's nothing wrong with that! But this piece is an enduring (and endearing) reminder of how using a song can break through viewer expectations and delight an audience. Maybe they'll even hum your message throughout their day too.
Mt. Mutombo Documentary Title Sequence
Ok, so we’ve covered that we’re big music fans. But we’re also big sports fans too—especially basketball. So we were so excited to be tasked with a project that combined the two—designing and animating a title sequence for Mount Mutombo, a documentary about the life of NBA Hall of Famer and humanitarian Dikembe Mutombo.
The documentary producer had already picked out a sweeping, cinematic track for the title sequence, and asked us to design and animate visuals that would capture his life’s journey from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the heights of basketball stardom. Capturing the right tone for the title sequence was key, as Dikembe’s life was both epic in scale and also extremely personable.
“I remember when I heard the track, I was both amazed and nervous,” said Cody Benefiel, Producer. “It had this grandeur to it, but I really wanted to make sure we struck the right balance between feeling epic but not overwhelmed with seriousness. Dikembe Mutombo was a very funny man who made everyone feel special, and the lightness to his personality is a big part of his story. It was our goal to make sure the feel of the video captured the different sides of his personality and phases of his life, while still matching the tone of the selected music track.”
To help accomplish this, we were very intentional with our design of the piece. The use of bold shapes, lines, shadows, and angles helped conjure a sense of visual gravitas that aligned with the epic feel of the music track. Then as a creative counterbalance, we utilized a variety of bright colors and textures to still make it feel vibrant and very human.
"Video for Any Mission"
We can’t have our clients have all the fun when it comes to musical videos. As a piece of Demo Duck branded content, we developed a video that shows all the amazing things that video can do. It can educate, it can entertain—it can make people feel things. The fun thing about crafting a music video from scratch is that we got to write the lyrics too. We plotted out a variety of capabilities that Demo Duck offers to hit on, but then explored them in a joyful, slightly silly way that helped our potential clients imagine all the potential that video production could offer.
“I had written a lot of parody songs from my days studying at the Second City, and even going back to some video content I had made in college,” said Colin Hogan, Managing Director. “This was the first song I really got to write under the umbrella of branded video content and it was a great exercise. Sure, it was easy to find words that rhymed, but trying to make sure the lyrics touched on all the different types of videos we make—and in different visual styles—was a challenge. Once I got some momentum it came together and it was a joy to put together.”
Fortunately for Colin’s songwriting exercise, we’re never at a shortage for video subjects or production styles we explore everyday. I think we could write a full album worth of songs about what Demo Duck does at this point—which of course, would make for some awesome music videos too. If you’re ever interested in breaking out of the ordinary and bringing your brand to life through song, just give us a jingle.
