Philadelphia and Tokyo were once cities a world apart, with distinctive cultures separated by nearly 7,000 miles of ocean. And music videos were once expensive productions, with budgets well beyond the means of independent artists. But a recent collaboration between students at Temple University Japan Campus and Philly rapper Legrand show just how much things have changed.

The project was borne of assistant professor JJ Aucouturier’s desire to provide more practical experience for students in his computer science classes.

“I came to realize that it was difficult to lecture on anything meaningful about today’s music industry, because most of the skills my students need come from industry practice,” said Aucouturier. “So I had the idea to make a practical class where students could work on music promotion for a real artist, with a real audience and real music.”

Then Aucouturier met Legrand, an up-and-coming indie rapper from Philadelphia, at a music industry convention in Osaka, Japan. They immediately clicked, and left the first meeting with an agreement to work together on Legrand’s single “Virtual Love.”

Aucouturier recentered his “Introduction to Cybermedia” class around the project. From January to April, 20 students with majors ranging from fine arts and graphic design to marketing worked together to create a video that was fitting for the 21st century collaboration.

“An exciting element of the class was to recognize the skills of each of the students, and to let them use them in a group project,” said Aucouturier. “One student who did the graphic design is a professional pencil artist. Another, who worked on the music mastering, is a recognized music producer credited on the music of a new cartoon on Comedy Central.”

The concept that the students settled on was to create a one-shot video that highlights both Legrand’s music and the timeline and technology of the project itself. The students worked on the project through the spring semester and beyond, completed post production last month and debuted the video on YouTube on July 9.

The one-shot video focuses solely on a computer screen, as a mouse arrow navigates through dozens of web, multimedia and social media applications. The screen images often move in synch with the song’s hip-hop beat, focusing at many points on the virtual mixing board used to create the track. At one point, the song references Andre 3000 from the musical duo Outkast, just as a Skype call from the artist pops up on screen. When rapper Kanye West is mentioned in the lyrics, a Tweet from West can be seen on a browser window. Legrand occasionally appears in one of the computer’s windows as he raps from various locations, including Temple’s Main Campus.

The final portion of the video features a Second Life concert by a digital representation of Legrand, demonstrating the students’ varying talents. One student’s pencil sketch of Legrand was uploaded and digitally mapped to his virtual avatar by another, which was then set in motion in the concert, creating a layering of several elements of the team’s creativity.

The video demonstrates how technology enables cost-effective collaborations: the students receive real experience in producing a video for a working artist, who in turn gets a professional-quality video.

“I'm amazed at how much we achieved in the class,” said Aucouturier. “I think everybody was astonished when we reviewed it the last day. The students were extraordinary. There was a lot of passion in this project, and people really want it to succeed.”

— Kyle Bagenstose