blog #5

Six Feet Under – Digital Kitchen
The major signs in the piece are symbols. One being the crow, in which people tend to associate with being creepy, or scary, or even tend to associate the crow with death. The other symbol is a toe tag, which is placed on the big toe to identify the dead body. The paradigm of departing loved ones and dying was used in the conceptualization of the piece. This is creatively done by showing symbols of separation and death. I believe that the symbols were used to give the viewer and idea of what the show is about without flat out saying it. Not many people find a dead person or mortuary very interesting but with short clips and intriguing music the viewer easily becomes interested. The pieces denotative message is that the show is about death. The connotative message on the other hand may possibly imply or suggest that death is somewhat of a “peaceful” happening in a person’s life. There actually were no myths about this piece because the production team researched and found that crows do represent death and have for many centuries, and that lilies are commonly used at funerals. The piece used official language in a text form. The text itself was great use of typography and it went well with the music. Most people often correlate death and the mortuary as creepy but the Digital Kitchen has managed to dim down that correlation by “peacefully” creating a different image of death and the mortuary. The intended demographic is 18 and up because it is at the age of 18 that most people know about death and can understand what a toe tag is and the symbolic meaning of dying flowers. The Digital Kitchen has actually created their own brand. They have an aesthetic to their work, specifically with opening pieces, that has now created who they are as a design team. I think their work is simple, elegant and yet is still so interesting.

Sheryl Crow - “Good is Good” – PSYOP

A major sign I saw throughout the music video piece was a butterfly fluttering around. A butterfly usually signifies peace, love, hope, a change in life, and sometimes kids tend to see butterflies as magical because of their many colors and reflective wings. The paradigm used in the conceptualization of the piece is the thought of a magical world, which is constantly moving and changing with a magical butterfly flying around as a sign of happiness. As a viewer we know that the denotative message is that the magical “world” that Sheryl Crow is walking around in is not truly possible. The connotative message on the other hand is that the magical world is a place of happiness and calmness, which is also why the butterfly (I think) was a part of the piece. For the time that this music video was made, motion graphics were minimal. I believe that is why they chose this format and the purpose was to expose something that at the time wasn’t so popular. The music video definitely appeals to a wide demographic because younger kids can enjoy the motion graphics as well as adults and because of that I believe it accomplished it’s goal of attracting everyone.