I asked my artist to take several pictures of him from different angles and distances. It was important that I used a white background to take the pictures because while using Photoshop it easier to move different selections and transferring them to new background as the clothing can contrast with the background. When taking the photos I used a Sony Xperia S camera, after different takes I realised that it would work more effectively using natural light as to be able to see more of the details in the clothes and the colours. My decision of selecting the black suit and white shirt is that fact that it links perfectly with the genre an emphasis of class and style which the male audience can aspire to. However there was several imperfection on the suit such as the left pocket, It wasn't too much of an issue because my skills and knowledge that I gained on using Photoshop CC would allow me to remove them, using content aware fill.
The angles I used that I thought would work well with either the digipak or the magazine advert would be close ups or mid shots which is used a lot in albums and magazines, such as the rolling stones and the time magazine. That idea of brand image that the record company might want to create for the artist and they attempt to bring him forward in the competitive music industry, this can also entice the female audience.
Other shots are took were close up and side profiles of the artist, this was used for the insert of the digipak in order to introduce the people involved with the music, music video and directors. They are a major part of the industry as a part of the album there should be recognised. With being the artist first album it is important to introduce these people world and amplify their talents.
For my digipak, I decided to take inspiration from classic
films such as the Godfather and Scarface. Although the movies are based on
American Italian Mobsters the advertisements and promotion of the films show a
level of class and sophistication. Godfather released in 1972 undoubtable one
of the greatest films of all time and Scarface released in 1983 another classic
film featuring Al Pacino. What attracted me to the idea is the blend of natural
colours from the pictures that have been take and fused into the background of
the. This produced a memorable brand image which I would wish to replicate in
order for the audience to recognised it instantly and be interested in the
product.
The Godfather poster shows Vito Corleone mid shot, wearing
black tuxedo, white shirt, black bow tie and a read rose. I believe the
contrast of the black tuxedo is brought down to make it pure black so that it
blends into the back ground. However the contrasting colour of the white shirt
is bright up to contrast the black, this effect would show that he is wearing a
tuxedo. With black of the bow tie also blending with the background colour you
are able to see the separation between the shirt and collar of the shirt which
mounts in with the head of Vito Corleone. The darker areas where the shadow is
created with the light that’s is being shone on the character Vito Corleone is emphasised
into darker shade and the natural skin tone and where the light is hitting the
most on his face is made lighter to a shade of cartoon-like image, the darker
shade of his hair is also made to merge in with the background. The flower is the only part of the image that
is outstanding from the rest of the wallpaper.
What I am to do is get the simplicity of the digipak that is
recognised in the R&B and Soul genre. The aim is to sell the artist as a
brand, give the audience something to attract them to him. And the influence of
the godfather could be a key element of that part. I aim to replicate this
poster and use it for my digipak taking away the black of the suit that my
artist would be taken in and allowing it to blend with the background. Rather
than using tuxedo, I worked with a similar style as Chris Brown’s Album Fortune
of a slim fit suit although getting the reference of classic and set in the
1940s, I want to bring a modern feature to the product, with slim fit suit, rather
than using a bow tie, as skinny tie is more preferable for the current trend. The
artist has a darker complexion than the reference poster of Vito Corleone, leaving
the complexion as it in order to see the artist and recognised him as a new
artist in the market. The title of the album would be running down the sleeve
of the model, not follow the exact final product of the Godfather poster.
For the Magazine advert it took my inspiration from the Scarface
poster. As Al Pacino is wearing a white suite and with a gun in his hand. This
also has similar effect to the godfather. The background colour is a separation
of black and white. Then it shows a picture of long shot Al Pacino standing in white
suit which blends with white and contrast with the black, the outer layer of
the white suit is formed onto the black background. The darker areas of the original
photo are emphasised also in the white area of the poster: The black shirt, the
pocket square, the sleeve of the shirt underneath the suite. With the face of
Al Pacino the saturation was brought down in order to get the dark black and
white shade. The text on the left of the poster is written in white using a
font style of Century, the text discusses character of ‘’Tony Montana’’ and the
right of the poster the text is written in black using the same font, and it
shows the people who were a major contribution of the film. The main headline
shows the title of the film and the main actor’s name Al Pacino. With is done
in Charlemagne standard font with red fill and yellow outer line.
Usher Raymond, is an American singer, songwriter, dancer,
philanthropist, businessman, and actor. He rose to fame in the late 1990s with
the release of his second album My Way, which spawned his first Billboard Hot
100 number-one hit, "Nice & Slow". The album has been certified
6-times platinum. His follow-up album, 8701, produced the Billboard Hot 100
number one hits "U Remind Me" and "U Got It Bad". The album
has been certified 4-times platinum.
Usher's 2004 album, Confessions, sold over 10 million copies
in the United States and has been certified diamond by the RIAA. Confessions
has the highest first week sales for an R&B artist in history. It spawned
four consecutive Billboard number one hits
"Yeah!", "Burn", "Confessions Part II",
and "My Boo". Usher's 2008 album, Here I Stand, sold over 5 million copies
worldwide, and its lead single "Love in This Club" spent three weeks
at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
On March 30, 2010, Usher released his sixth studio album
Raymond v. Raymond, which became his third consecutive album to debut at number
one on the US Billboard 200 chart. It has been certified platinum yet again and
spawned another Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit "OMG". The song
became his ninth number one in the United States, making him the first 2010s
artist to collect number one singles in three consecutive decades. He later
released an extended play and deluxe edition of Raymond v. Raymond, entitled
Versus, which debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart. Its lead
single "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" reached number four on the
Billboard Hot 100.
The RIAA ranks Usher as one of the best-selling artists in
American music history, having sold over 23 million copies in the United States
alone. To date, he has sold over 65 million records worldwide, making him one
of the bestselling music artists of all time. Usher has won numerous awards
including eight Grammy Awards. At the end of 2009, Usher was named the number
one Hot 100 artist of the 2000s decade. Billboard named him the second most
successful artist of the 2000s decade, with his 2004 album Confessions being
ranked as the top solo album of the 2000s decade. Billboard also placed Usher
at number six on their list of Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25
Years. Usher has attained nine Hot 100 number-one hits (all as a lead artist)
and has attained eighteen Hot 100 top-ten hits.
His second album, ''My Way,'' we see an birds eye close
up shot of usher looking up at the
camera while standing on top of an escalator, with the closer up you are able to see seductive
look that he gives to the camera which is targeted at the female audience. Instantly
that symbolises the idea of brand identity, recognizing whom the albums is and
the artist selling point. With a purple subtle tint which is an appealing
colour for the female audience. Wearing dark clothing to match the dark purple
colour that is of the house colours. As following the clothing trend that was
during that time, on the back cover he wears a white jacket, with a black hat,
his body is out of focus while the chain is in focus which has the letter ‘’U’’
standing for usher. With elements like this you could tell that this was the
old usher that was young.
His album confessions, with a similar outlook of making sure
that the artist is the main centre of attention, it takes a side profile of
usher looking away from the camera while wearing a Bennie hat. Stage light that
produced a brown contrast through the picture which is taken from his skin town
to match the rest of the album art. With the tittle of the album reading sideways
on the left hand side of the album ‘’Confessions’’ and usher’s name also written.
For his next album ‘’Confessions Part II’’ album it shows usher as a sex appeal,
a similar ideas of attract the audience with a certain level star image, as a Goodwin’s
theory star image that would be emphasis to make the album more of a commercial
product which would be advisable to the different selling points such as iTunes,
MHV and Zune Music. For the female
target audience the concept of usher leaning on a wall and he has his shirt
off, show his muscles flexing, is an idea that would gain a large amount of
sales.
His 2010 album ''Raymond V. Raymond'' showed more of his evolution from a young teen artist to a mature R&B legend. On the Front cover it shows large writing of the album name, and on the right hand side is a half picture of usher and similar on the left hand side . This takes the concepts of the album name, of two different Usher competing against each other and the title of the album is based on his last name ''Usher Raymond.'' and the title itself has smoke effect which implies that there is a fuse and fire and sign of conflict. The CD of the album is as backward ''R'' and forward ''R'' and a large shinny which produces visible light colours ''V'' which goes over the stacking, similar to that the logos for ''la Face'' ''Jive'' and ''Sony music'' are of similar concept which aims to catch the eye of the consumer. On the back of the CD it takes of an alternative format of listing songs that feature on the album, as it reads left to right rather than in a order going down, this may be difficult to read as you may be looking a specific track, for my digipak I would list them going down the left hand side of the back. Futhermore, a long shot shows Usher looking directly at the camera and haing is arms across a bench whcih may look like to be a church with out removing the seriousness of the comeptative nature and and yet again brings the emphasis of the star image which is started by andrew goodwin.
The following research will constant of different types
digipaks that are it a similar genre as my artist. I will be doing an in depth
analysis on the insert of the hard copy CD and the promotion packs. I able to analyse
what makes a good and attractive product which relates to the intended audience.
I will use this information to take inspiration for the artist taking similar
ideas that would make the product itself attractive. The CD and Promotion is
one of the most important stages for an upcoming artist to be noticed as they
are advertising what they are all about what and the main idea is to identify
the audience that they are aiming towards. However in the modern hard copy CD
have been on the decline due to the rise of buying music online, Such as
iTunes, this is considers now to be one of the most simplest form of obtaining
music there is a wider library of music which is open to different genres which
may be difficult to gain on hard copy. Although the popularity of iTunes
increase, there is also high increase of illegal download of music, this has
become more and more popular, this is caused by the high prices of the Full
albums and singles. Although the high prices are caused by increase illegal
downloads, as the artist are wanting to meet their target in sales. There are
more people who have a specific album than there are of that albums sold.
In the this section I will be
analysing 2 artist within the soul and R&B Genre, assessing their forms of promotion,
how it appealed to the target audience and the effects used though out
promotion package that I will be able to use. John Legend's album ''Once
Again" who has been a high inspiration through the production, with his simplicity
and elegance, and a gentle voice, which exactly what Otty represent, and
replicating such ideas and attracting the same audience. The second artist I
will be analysing would be Ne-yo, as he shows sophistication and class among
black R&B/ soul artist, which is also replicated with the album art and the
waulity of the album art really emphasises the genre and the target audience
intend.
John legend is one of the most well know R&B artist in
the music industry he has made several products such as ‘’Once Again, Love in
the Future, Get Lifted and Evolver” all excellent promotion packages and
have sold well. His album Once again was released in October 2006. And yes this
alum went platinum having 1.6million sales and hit Number 1 in the US billboard
R&B/Hip Hop charts. The song "Heaven" won the Grammy Award for
Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. Also, "Save Room" was nominated
for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. The album art really takes in
consideration of the artist and his musical form. He is the product for the
GOOD Music and having Him as the main cover allows the audience to immediately
identify the artist and mainly attracting the female audience with his
relatively good looks. The house colours, allows the other alternative
background colours to stand out, the colours of the New York street. Showing an
unorthodox perceptive of having a grand piano in the middle of street.
Get Lifted was also released via Kanye West's GOOD Music label on December 28, 2004 in the United States. Featuring production by West, John Legend, Dave Tozer and will.i.am, the album sold over three million units worldwide, with a total of 2.1 million copies in the U.S., where it was certified platinum. The album won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, and earned Legend another two awards, for Best New Artist and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his single "Ordinary People". With a brown vintage sketchy house colour and the simplicity of the side profile of John Ledged also attempts to create brand identity of the upcoming artist, mainly trying to sell the artist to the audience. The let on the front of the album immediately identifies the artist, and the name of the album as he is new to the market. That’s what would be the main focus on creating the album art for the product. Critically assessing the advertising product, I have seen that there is not much attention that draws the audience to album, it doesn't stand out there is lack of creativity and unique art. Although it aims to sell the artist, it doesn't shout out to the audience to gets its attention. the dull brown, doesn't reflect the soul embedded in the songs of the album. It requires vibrant colours, similar to visualizers where it attempts to create as specific ambience for the audience.
With his current album, which Love in the future, which was realised on august 30th 2013, which i particularly think is one of my favourite albums of all time with classical singles such as ''All of me'' and ''Open your eyes'' The most popular track. Through out the album the is a sense of hear and soul expressed. The album reached 4th in the US Billboard 200 chart, and 5th in the UK album charts to its peak. After his self inspired album art, he took an alternative approach for his album art, now being an established artist in the industry, although taking a simplistic approach yet again, using roses as theme, reflecting on the title of the album, of Love in the Future. The Digipak overall takes a artistic approach, with a house theme of red which represent, listening to the tracks there is a difffienly evideince that it is based on his Wife. Using the songs that feature in the album I can easily start to build up picture of what the Digipak my look like taking inspiration from the lyrics of the song, some however my be taking inspiration from the promotion music video, using some of the shots in the song to relate it to the album art.
As as R&B and soul artist, Chris Brown shows a great
example of successful Digipak. Looking at the professional product, I able to
take Inspiration from the album. There are certain feature which stand out that
I would like to use as a part of my product.
With his first album was a self-titled Chris Brown, which is
impotent as a young and upcoming artist, being able start brand identity with
the intended target audience. The aim for the a new product to identify that
product to the market and taking advantage of the album by putting mid shot of
Chris brown, so that the audience know the artist behind the music, and as a
young man he would easily appeal to the female audience, and it is important to
get his feature as part of the product.
The album cover shows the emphasis of music with the micro phone and the
speakers in the background this shows his passion of music and express that
everyone. Although simple style black and white fashion style, it implies the
simplicity of it and attempting to reach a wide range audience.
Exclusive is the second studio album by Chris Brown. The
album was originally scheduled to be released August 28, 2007, but was pushed
back to October 30, 2007, then pushed back even further to its final release
date of November 6, 2007.The album was both critically and commercially
successful, reaching number four on the US Billboard 200 chart on its debut. The
album debuted at number four on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, with first-week
sales of 294,000. As of March 2011, it has sold 1,973,000 copies in the United
States alone, and has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry
Association of America.
Similar to his previous album cover he maintains that desire
to keep the brand identity by placing himself on the front cover. He upgrades
his style to more sophisticated style with a black suit and red shirt and the
colour red is also a main feature throughout the album, with the title also
including red, at the top hand right corner of the cover. The colour is sued to great effect as it is
the house style throughout, with black and white filter in the background, the,
the red saturation is made to pop and be the main centre of attention on the
album cover. On the back of the CD, the songs are listed on the right hand side
in a standard Calibri font, however some of the fonts are highlighted in red
these songs are the additional songs for the deluxe edition. I could use the
same concept and indicate to the viewer the most popular songs or the songs
with a music video featuring. However, in my opinion the dark background drains
the colour of the product away, it is vital the aesthetics of the product would
be attractive the intended audience, and for my artist it would be female
audience, so I would aim to use lighter more subtle colours to make it more appealing
and a point of sale.
His third realising album was ‘’Graffiti’’ which sold
295,000 units within a week of release. Using his Album ''Graffiti','' the
front cover instantly has feature that make it attractive to the intended
audience, which are females or aspiration teen boys, looking showcasing his
style and fashion sense. Although it challenges the conventional idea of a
R&B album cover, it takes more of the artistic perspective, where he has
shown that through his career his desire for graffiti. The title and the small
cartoon animation at the bottom right of the CD cover are done in a graffiti
style, which is a constant feature throughout the album. With the establishing shot
of the moon and the sun hiding behind the moon, suggestion more creative and
exploration album, where in some of his music he has shown that in attacking
different styles of music. Moreover, the context may also have meaning of a
mixture between something and complex as space and something as simple and
creative as graffiti. Furthermore with the light of the sun creeping round,
Chris Brown is in dark clothing making him stand out from the rest of the
album. It would be interesting to try something such as an juxtaposition of
different context, for example taking the lyrics of the music video ‘’Light Up
the Dark’’ and having to elements that contradict or complement each other in order
to get the cross link with the lyrics and music with the album art.
Inside the CD, the insert which is also the album cover,
each song has the name and credits of the people who have been involved in the
song and videos. Sharing that, there is also the feature of Chris Brown, photo
shoots, close up and long shots. This is a bonus feature for the female
audience, this would attract more of the female audience allow a personal
contact with them and him. The star image perspective is amplified as there are
close ups of him and his body.
In addition, the CD itself produces an awesome effect in order
to match with the rest of the package. As there is a silhouette replica photo
of the album cover, and the same graffiti style writing as the album cover. A
potential idea is to replicate the same idea, however rather than using the
Otty Freeman as the CD art, I would use the dance for the music video with an elegancy
stroked pose, which her leg would curve around the stacking ring, main her the centre
of attention once opened. This would add variety to the artist’s image, illustrating
the idea of art in different form, music, dance and photography.
In his latest album, it seems that there is a several combinations of his previous albums. Released in 2012 the album fortune, in the United States, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 135,000 copies in its first week. The album also debuted at number one in the Netherlands, New Zealand and United Kingdom, and reached the top ten in Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan and Switzerland. On the album cover, a light shines down on Brown, who poses against a blue backdrop, dressed in a blue sleek, slim-fitting suit with a skinny tie and thick black framed glasses. While the word "Fortune" appears behind him in different languages. Courtney Walter came up with the idea of using hieroglyphics for the album's title, which would probably be a cool feature to include in my own artwork. The Blue matched the suit and it gives a kind of futuristic vibe. You'll see blue throughout the packaging.
This is the final cut for the music video Light Up the Dark By Otty Freeman.
A major thanks to the Otty as he allowed me to use his song and create it into music video. I hope my efforts has done the song justice for the concept for the music video. #enjoy.
Gabby Tempest - Dancer Brilliant performer and a massive help to the music video. Wonderful performance with elegance and freedom. Open to improvisation, creativity and extremely responsive to instruction.
Brandon Reeves - Cinematography. Fantastic use of camera work and angles, responsive to the directors instruction. With the advantage of having experience of the cameras. He was definitely helpful in passing on suggestions that would work best for the music video.
Ricky Loscalzo - Cinematography On different occasion was a help to with filming of the music video. He also was a feature of the rough cut, however with changes of plans and ideas the scene had to be cut. Mandla Ndlovu - Pianist He was the main feature of media product, I chose him for his qualities as he has the look of the artist and which I wanted to replicate for my artist. He was willing to take time out of his schedule and help me with the final product.
