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MTV VMAs: The Mill Gives The Sound of Music an Eye-catching Flair

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The 2012 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) hit screens worldwide with the best in pop music and a fresh new design centered around the beauty of being different. Working closely with Executive Producer Lee Lodge, The Mill L.A. design team stepped up to the challenge of delivering the complete show package: onstage screens, score board, stage walls, floor graphics, logo design, branding development, and a full set of nominee broadcast elements. The result -- a striking new look into the diverse beauty of America's top entertainers.

"Working on the MTV VMAs is a dream for any designer," shares The Mill L.A. Creative Director Tom O'Neill. "We discussed a diverse range of ideas and finally honed in on our final concept of 'Contrast.' We wanted to shine the spotlight on some of the unusual beauty of America drawing a parallel to the unique and diverse musical talent on the VMA stage."

To deliver on their ambition, The Mill design team set off to seek out and capture some of the most remote and captivating places in the U.S. The direction was "America Anywhere" the extensive shooting schedule obtained amazing footage from areas such as the Saltan sea and the abandoned George airforce base, Alaska, Hawaii, Joshua Tree, Idyllwild, Savannah, and Minnesota. The goal was to capture the strange beauty in the imperfect, producing striking photography of unusual and desolate locales.

"This was a fantastic project and a perfect fit for The Mill L.A. design team," adds The Mill L.A. Executive Producer Stephen Venning. "The show's open brief gave incredible creative freedom to the artists, allowing them to bring in some true vision and inspiration into the process."

The Mill 2012 MTV VMA design team explored the concepts of space, time, and place whilst the footage was distressed with a visual "grenade", contrasting the isolation and disquiet of the photography with a highly stylized digital imperfection.

In addition to the seamless delivery, three of the nominee music videos also benefited from the The Mill L.A.'s VFX and color touch: Maroon 5's "Payphone" - up for Best Pop Video; Katy Perry's "Part of Me" - up for Best Female Video; Jack White's "16 Saltines" - nominated for Best Rock Video.

A good excuse to take another look......