Berklee College of Music

Unplanned

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of
Master of Music in Music Production, Technology, and Innovation

Supervisor: Nacho Marco

By Parth Desai

Valencia Campus, Spain
July 2019

Table of Contents
Abstract

iii

1. Introduction

1

2. Review of the State of the Art

1

3. Description

4

4. Innovative Aspects

6

5. New Skills Acquired

6

6. Challenges

7

7. Future Ramifications

7

8. Conclusion

8

9. Bibliography

8

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Abstract
This project aims to produce four music tracks and videos through the production of a
Visual extended play (EP), Unplanned. The goal is to merge forms of Indian folk and fusion
music with electronic music and explore the dynamics of the relationship between music and
video. The current Indian Electronic music scene and sound design methods were studied
along with several film-making techniques. Tools like Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR)
cameras and softwares like Ableton Live, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro and
Adobe Photoshop were used to produce the videos. The challenge was to produce compelling
music videos with limited resources at hand and to create an interesting fusion sound. This
project aims to showcase the sound design and video production skills to the music and film
industry at large and hopefully, inspire future sound designers and video producers alike.
Keywords: EP, video, sound design, film music, Indian music, animation, film-making

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1. Introduction
Initially, the original idea for this culminating experience project was to produce a ten minute
animated, live-action narrative musical comedy. However, the time constraints along with the
amount of work required to be done single-handedly did not bring this idea to fruition. The
next step was to do something which would utilize the strengths of sound and moving
pictures together in a compelling way. Thus, the final idea for a four track visual extended
play (EP), Unplanned, was born.
The music is a combination of Indian folk and classical music, electronic dance
music, orchestral music and world music in general. As for the videos, the idea was to
include comedy and animation in some capacity. The goal of this project was to showcase the
seamless fusion of other genres with sound-design based electronic dance music and also to
entertain the viewer with the respective music videos.
At first, the topics of the music videos were unclear. But as the project progressed,
concepts and themes which were appealing were worked upon. The project lasted from
September 2018 to May 2019. The process was a learning experience as previously
unexplored concepts and techniques in animation, sound design and comedy were explored.
2. Review of the State of the Art
The sensibilities of film, animation, Indian film music and electronic music were the core
influences on this project. This project involves a fusion of Indian, electronic, orchestral and
world music in general. Indian film composer A.R.Rahman can be cited as one of the
prominent influences on this project when it comes to the approach of fusing a variety of
musical styles in an Indian context. Up until the late 1980s, traditional Indian film music was
predominantly based on Indian folk and classical music. However, since the early 1990s,
Rahman was instrumental in bringing in a new sound which gave fusion a new twist. His

1

approach to music can be defined as “not just drawing in on Indian classical music, but also
bringing R&B and hip hop coming in from America, house music coming in from Europe
and creating an incredible fusion.”1 Indian music was no longer only limited to it’s traditional
and local sound. Also, other Indian film composers such as the duo Vishal-Shekhar, the trio
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy were responsible for propelling the shift in the Indian film music sound
brought on by Rahman with their own unique styles. As for the core electronic dance music
inspirations for this project artists like Deadmau5, Juno Reactor, Skrillex and Nine Inch Nails
have pushed the limits of electronic music in their own ways with a variety of exclusive
sound design and composition techniques. Starting out in the early 1990s, Nine Inch Nails
gave a new meaning to “industrial rock ” as time progressed2. Juno Reactor was responsible
for fusing tribal sounds with dance music in the 1990s3. Deadmau5 brought on a new sound
when it came to electronic dance music around 20074. His four on the floor beats with heavy
basslines set the stage for other artists like Skrillex, who started out as an electronic dance
music producer but eventually pushed the limits by bringing in a variety of influences like
Reggae, Dub etc and new sound synthesis techniques to his music.5
One of the visual inspirations for this project are abstract works done by animators
between 1930 to 1950 which integrated music with visuals innovatively. Initially an

1

Ulara Nagakawa, “India’s Mozart Hits LA,” The Diplomat, February 01, 2010,
https://thediplomat.com/2010/02/indias-mozart-hits-la/.
2

Michael Azerrad, “New Faces:Nine Inch Nails,” Rolling Stone, February 22, 1990,
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/new-faces-nine-inch-nails-99546/.
3

Scott Thill, “The Future isn’t worth it:A short Q&A with Juno Reactor,” Wired, May 6, 2008,
https://www.wired.com/2008/05/the-future-isnt/.
4

John Dugan, “Deadmau5|Interview,” TimeOut, September 1, 2008,
https://www.timeout.com/chicago/clubs/deadmau5-interview.
5

Your EDM Staff, “Skrillex on Genres:’There is room for everything’ ,” YourEDM, April 23, 2014,
https://www.youredm.com/2014/04/23/skrillex-genres-theres-room-everything/.

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engineering diploma holder from Frankfurt, Oskar Fischinger would later move on to
produce short experimental animated films at Paramount Pictures in United States of
America which would later go on to be known as the flagship titles for the term “visual
music.”6 A few years later, Scottish-Canadian animator Norman McLaren who had studied
design would go on to produce short animated films which later would give him the title of a
pioneer in drawn-on-film animation, visual music and graphical sound to name a few.7
On the other hand, the sensibilities of Indian motion pictures are also visible in this
project. Choreography in Indian films has taken it’s own unique course. Initially based on
complicated traditional dance forms like Bharatnatyam, Kathak etc, modern Indian films
sometimes feature dance steps which are simple and often merge humor with dance.
Comedy in general can be termed as the other influence on this project. The feature
film This is Spinal Tap (1984)8 was one of the first films to fall under the genre called
mockumentary, a documentary about fictional characters. The idea of creating fictional
characters which spoofed stereotypes associated with a certain culture was further explored in
films like Borat (2007)9.

6

Wikipedia, s.v, “Oskar Fischinger,” last modified 24 June, 2019, 20:34,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Fischinger.
7

Wikipedia, s.v, “Norman McLaren,” last modified 26 June, 2019, 05:28,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_McLaren.
8

This is Spinal Tap, directed by Rob Reiner (1984; Embassy Pictures, MGM Home Video, 2009) DVD.

9

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, directed by Larry
Charles (2007; Dune Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Home Video, 2007) DVD.

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3. Description
This visual EP consists of four music videos with original music titled:
1. Valencia
2. Chaos Theory
3. “MEXPIREETNAL!?”
4. Insect Politics
All the videos were filmed with Canon Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras with
18-55 millimeter (mm) and 250 millimeter (mm) lenses, Velbon and Manfrotto tripods. The
post-production work was carried out in softwares like Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere
Pro and Adobe Photoshop as they provided the tools needed for fulfilling the vision of the
project. The music was composed, produced, mixed and mastered in Ableton Live. The
choice of this digital audio workstation was dictated by the software’s flexibility and easy
user interface as opposed to other workstations such as Avid Pro Tools, which is more suited
for studio recordings.
The first music video titled “Valencia” captures the city of Valencia, Spain in all it’s
colors. The idea for this track originated during the execution of one of the assignments for
the video class at Berklee College of Music, Valencia, Spain. On the other hand, an electronic
music assignment was also underway as the video project took shape. The bridge between the
two assignments was the notion of composing a piece of music for the small but vibrant city
of Spain. Popular landmarks such as Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia Cathedral, Turia
Park etc were shot extensively to represent the city and it’s people. The music was a
combination of minimal electronic dance music and orchestral music along with traces of
Indian folk music instruments such as Tabla. It was produced with Ableton Live’s extensive

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libraries of virtual instruments like soft synths, pads, bass, drum kits and orchestral
instruments with basic audio plugins such as delay, reverb, beat-repeat etc.
The second music video titled “Chaos Theory” was initially going to be a parody of the
stereotypical noisy modern day electronic dance music videos featuring an over-the-top
fictional character, a German disk jockey (DJ) called Fla-Tu-Lans (a wordplay on
“flatulence”) . However, time and workload constraints led to the development of another
idea about utilizing the methodologies of “visual music” and “graphical sound” with modern
day bass heavy electronic dance music. The filming involved capturing common spots in
Valencia such as buildings, staircases, graffiti etc. Hand-drawn animation and keyframe
animation were used to sync the digital elements with the music. The music utilized samples
from Indian folk and classical music pieces. The track also utilized previously unexplored
bassline synthesis techniques in Ableton Live’s Wavetable.
The idea for the third track titled ““MEXPIREETNAL!?”, a parody on experimental film,
originated while filming abstract nature shots around Valencia, Spain. A humorous dance
step by the author was filmed and was abruptly inserted between a relatively serious
sequence of experimental shots..The emphasis was placed on editing too as the video
required precise cuts at precise points. As for the music, a popular folk music form from the
state of Gujarat, India called Garba10 was fused with electronic music as the idea was to
reflect the theme in the music as well.
The fourth and the final video titled “Insect Politics” came into fruition after
contemplating with the idea of someone from composer’s Beethoven’s era making electronic
music. The music for this track needed to be as complicated as possible. So, a lot of sound

10

Wikipedia, s.v, “Garba,” last modified on 29 June, 2019, 17:19, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garba_(dance).

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design was accomplished in Xfer’s Serum plugin in order to create an all-together new sonic
palette. As for the video, a fictional nameless person from the classical music era was
portrayed by the author of this project himself. In the video, the character declares that he
wants to pursue electronic music instead of classical music as a career. Later, he struggles to
handle the variety of electronic dance music equipment. The mostly static video was partially
given a silent film era treatment for the initial portions of the classical era.
4. Innovative Aspects
The sound-design methods used in this project are relatively new and innovative to
the sound design experience the author of this project has had until now. The track “Insect
Politics” features close to 50 layers of different sounds combined to produce an all-together
new sound per each bar of the song. So, every 3 second sound was made with heavy
processing through sound synthesis, hocket technique implementation (a technique which
involves layering sounds to form a composite sound) and sound design in general. Also, the
two realistic sounding sounds of a machine gun and a swarm of bees were created from
scratch using just the Xfer Serum plugin.
5. New Skills Acquired
One of the most important technical takeaways from this project was learning new
sound-design and music production methodologies. These will help the author to adopt a
fresh approach towards sound design and music production for Indian fusion music as he
plans to release this style of music in the future. Also, the operations of the Digital Single
Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera were studied and understood in detail along with color
correction methods. All these skills will help the author tell stories more effectively in the
near future as he plans to work in the field of video production too.

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On the other hand, this project proved to be instrumental in making the author more
confident in expressing himself as an artist. The music videos “MEXPIREETNAL!?” and
“Insect Politics” challenged the author to step out of his comfort zone as expressing himself
in front of the camera through dance was an unexplored territory. Lastly, this process
channeled the attitude of being open to new ideas and the roads less taken. In general, this
project will help the author to be open-minded and be technically well-equipped while
producing music and videos in the future.
6. Challenges : Expected and Unexpected
One of the major expected challenges of this project was to produce compelling music videos
with limited resources at hand. The solution came across in the form of coming up with
simple concepts and execution methods. As for the unexpected challenges, bringing in humor
into the videos “MEXPREENTAL!?” and “Insect Politics” proved to be a lot tougher than it
seemed to be. However, both the videos got their much needed doses of humor through
multiple takes and trial and error methods.
Lastly, designing two realistic sounds of a machine gun and a bee swarm with the
help of just a soft synth was challenging. Again, the solution was to go by the trial and error
method, the only difference being that this time the end result was clear. Another aspect
which helped to solve this challenge was to understand the concepts of synthesis in detail.
7. Future Ramifications
The future plans for this project involve a substantial amount of work on the branding
of this visual extended play (EP). Deliverables include album artwork and brand identity
strategies. In addition to this, this EP will also be sent to electronic music record labels like
Enig’matik records, Gravitas Recordings etc. Lastly, portions of this project will be used to
secure work in the field of video production, music production and sound design.

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8. Conclusion
Unplanned, as the name suggests, is a visual extended play (EP) which was made
without any set blueprint. It is the collective expression of the author using sounds and
moving pictures to purely express his views on the concepts which appeal to him. Having a
variety of influences ranging from Indian film music to experimental electronic dance music
to abstract animated films, this project aims to present original music with a compelling
visual counterpart. The end result is an assorted collection of music videos which are
entertaining to watch.
Bibliography
Azerrad, Michael. “New Faces:Nine Inch Nails.” Rolling Stone, February 22, 1990.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/new-faces-nine-inch-nails-99546/.
Charles, Larry, director. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious
Nation of Kazakhstan. Dune Entertainment, 2007. DVD. 20th Century Fox Home Video,
2007.
Dugan, John. “Deadmau5|Interview.” TimeOut, September 1, 2008.
https://www.timeout.com/chicago/clubs/deadmau5-interview.

Nagakawa, Ulara. “India’s Mozart Hits LA.” The Diplomat, February 01, 2010.
https://thediplomat.com/2010/02/indias-mozart-hits-la/.

Reiner, Rob, director. This is Spinal Tap. Embassy Pictures, 1984. DVD. MGM Home Video,
2009.

Thill, Scott. “The Future isn’t worth it:A short Q&A with Juno Reactor.” Wired, May 6,
2008. https://www.wired.com/2008/05/the-future-isnt/.

Your EDM Staff. “Skrillex on Genres:’There is room for everything’.” YourEDM, April 23,
2014. https://www.youredm.com/2014/04/23/skrillex-genres-theres-room-everything/.

8