THE HOME DEPOT RAP LYRIC VIDEO
The above lyric video was created for the annual Mangers meeting in Las Vegas. Working with Hartman studios prompt I created this video in 13 days using over 180 promenades. For this lyric video 6 distinct sections were required at a rappers pace and no repeating lyric or hook for the 6.5 minutes. It was an exciting and daunting task to animate and complete in this short period of time. Throughout the project the over arching brand standards and beliefs for the Home Depot family shone through.
SETTING THE STAGE
Home Depot host one of the premiere store managers meetings in the country. Previous years performers have included Cher, Sting and ZZ Top. This video above was created to accompany a live performance with only the scratch track to work from. When it was shown, it appeared on a 120 foot screen with three different vistas. This accounts for the odd aspect ratio in the video. The final video featured custom video ambiance that filled another 7 smaller fascia.
THE 8 SECTIONS
The following 6 sections are broken out to give some insight into the art direction process considered for each distinct look and it’s importance to the over-all live experience.
SECTION 1 / INTRO
One of the great rules of entertainment. Don’t show all your cards all at once. You need to pull the audience in and get them to try and anticipate what is going to come next. This intro starts extremely slow, and then enters with an attention grabbing style change. Only to quickly sub-due its visuals to mostly black and white to get ready for the fire works that are still up ahead.
SECTION 2 / NORTHERN
The northern section was one of the first that I created for this assignment. I wanted it to have some of its own characteristics like a focus on manufacturing and large city skylines here and there, but the audience is still being brought into this performance on the stage.
SECTION 3 / MERCHANDISE
This was one of the oddest regions throughout this performance to try and visualize , and it’s placement in the song as the second region was an interesting choice to work with. I wanted to take this in a techno / rave feeling with an emphasis on abstraction. Bright orange, green and yellow on a dark background was the color grouping.
SECTION 4 / SOUTHERN
This was the studios favorite section in terms of art direction. The art style changes dramatically with more of a textured feel, and the colors are in stark contrast to the previous super saturated choices. More earthy tones are introduced and musically the background track has a very different feel than any of the other sections.
SECTION 5 / MEXICO
This was probably one of my favorite parts to work on. I wanted to introduce some unique cultural elements. The classic blanket pattern, Milagros, Mayan calendars, and sacred hearts. The kaleidoscope pattern throughout this video plays pretty perfectly into the strong patterns and silhouetted shapes of the various elements.
SECTION 6 / CANADA
Within the production period this was the second that I kept forgetting was in this video. I wanted to not immediately start throwing maple leaves up on the screen and covering each screen in red and white. I wanted to focus on the Northern lights and star burst for this section and change the style drastically when the french section begins.
SECTION 7 / WEST COAST
The music track immediately marks this as an old school jam. Visual ques, fonts, colors, and layouts were ripped straight from the early 90’s surf influence. It’s pretty straight forward. This project ended up using over 100 pre-mades. It’s never easy opening up project someone else created and then trying to conform it on the fly to fit within a section.
CLOSING
Bringing it home at the end served as a bookend for this video. The discovery process with each section was no longer the focus. So the graphics were paired back to be more inline with the start of the video. Also the focus at this point needed to come back around to Home Depot and unifying the regions under one banner.