Case Study

Incubus: The Morning View Sessions DVD, for Epic Records
Created 2001-2002
DVD Creative Direction, Titles and Menu Animations, DVD-Extras Camera and Editing, by Xochi Media

The Morning View Sessions is a companion DVD to the rock band Incubus's multiplatinum album Morning View, recorded in Spring of 2001 while living together in a home above the beaches of Malibu, California. It consists of an MTV-broadcast performance at Sony Studios in New York City, and behind the scenes of producing both the album and first music video. Xochi Media was involved in all aspects of creating the DVD project, including designing the menus, the extra content, and contributing to the look of the main Concert Performance.

The menu system was created as one large animated image map. Every section of the disc could be found within this picture matrix.

Behind the scenes footage was gathered by living with the band during parts of the creation of the album. Additional footage by Ted Whitacre and the band supplemented the experience. 20 two-minute videos entitled Casa De Incubii were originally produced for the band's website as teasers before the album release. Part of the footage was used as the basis of the alternate music video for Wish You Were Here (jointly created by directors Phil Harder, Brett Spivey, and the band), and contributed to a wider dissemination in public knowledge of the humorous side of the band.

Xochi Media's involvement also included staging for the MTV concert, such as placing the band in the round facing each other as during the making of the album, advising the art, production, and lighting departments, building mirrorball mobiles and other props, and creating special videoclips and animations for projection and televising on-set, and as Easter Eggs in the final DVD.

Because DVD post production was performed in-house by Sony Music in New York, a road map was created to explain the various elements being transferred from Los Angeles. Not all road map elements occurred in the final product.