Jack Johnson is an Acoustic Folk Rock Artist and Musician who achieved success after his debut Album release in 2001, Brushfire Fairytales. Johnson's feel is supported by him playing various instruments such as guitar, ukulele, piano and drums, representing him as a 'one man band' and a talent all by himself.
Since Jack Johnson's debut Album, he has released five more, and a number of EP's.
Album Covers-
The Artist, from this Album is represented as quite artsy and minimalistic in the way that it is a silhouette of a male, probably representing Jack Johnson with his guitar, by a lonely tree on a cliff. As it is a silhouette I can only comment on the colours used as being bright and eye-catching to enhance the black areas that want to be shown. The title of the Album is In Between Dreams which is represented with the tree having a whole in between the branches. Lastly the guitar represents the music and genre of Jack Johnson himself, and tells the audience it is all about the music represented.
In contrast to the tree and area looking quite high, the Album To The Sea is lower down and darker than In Between Dreams. The camera is far away on this Album making it look nearly like a silhouette, but you make out that it is Artistic photography, which links to the Indie/Folk Genre and the clever use of lighting in the photography that has made it look that way. The props used is wood in the shape of a wave, which links to the title To The Sea; the blue colours used in the sky also looks hazy like waves also. This overall represents the artist as imaginative, creative and a big believer in simplicity and focusing on the music.
Music Video-
The Music video itself is a lot like Call On Me by Blondie. The set is a mixture of 'home videos', filming of his photo shoots and his concerts . The main video which we hear him singing live is the main clip, again focusing on the music of the artist, and there we see him with his guitar again.
The editing is strong throughout as firstly we see a group of clips in one shot, we then see less and then it goes to a clip with him by himself; we also see a mixture of effects and black & white throughout. Again emphasising on his folk, back to basic, but artistic feel that he represents.
The costume worn by the artist is very plain, plain shirts and trousers as his image to him is not as important as his music, which is supported by the fact he didn't feature himself on the covers of his Albums. The props are all 'natural' from the shots that his was filmed in, such as with his guitar etc...
Concert Set-
I could not get a shot of his set, which makes me think that his set was not filled with props, it was just him and his guitar which I got an image of.
I used the Article by Rolling Stones to gain a better insight into the band, Blondie.
Blondie is 'one of the most commercially successful and adventurous' bands/ survivors of the New York punk scene, who have released three platinum albums; Parallel Lines, Eat to the Beat and Auto American.
The band consisted of, the bleach-blonde and only female Deborah Harry who became an international icon and boyfriend Chris Stein, who developed the melodic side of the punk genre; Gary Valentine, Clem Burke, Chris Stein and Jimmy Destri were also members of the band.
A few months after their hit single, Blondie made their British Concert Debut, Gary Valentine then left the band and created his own which then broke up Spring 1980.
Album Covers-
The Band here are represented as being quite a united strong band, with Harry especially being the dominant one in the group due to her stance being strong with her hands on her hips and not smiling unlike the rest of the band. They seem to be putting on a front as being strong but up for having fun and unique which is appealing to the audience, this also comes across in some of their music videos.
In this Album cover the Camera angle is straight on, which does not make the band seem less dominant as the camera is far away to fit in the whole band making it seem like you are taking on all 6 of them, which in a way makes them seem daunting but powerful.
The set of the Album is an image of the band on a striped background, this is in contrast with their costumes which is smart but slightly edgy as all the males are in black and white suites with skinny black ties, and Harry is wearing an all white dress and shoes, I believe this is to show the dominance and strength of her in the band. The stripes switch as it passes them making it seem as if they changed it up and differed the design of it due to their rebelling and punk feel. Blondie's logo is bold and in red to stand out to the customers, but I believe the swirly writing is a juxtaposition to the type of music that is produced by them.
This Album Cover has a different feel to it completely as it only shows Deborah Harry singing. I believe this is because she became and icon and along with her boyfriend became the main face of the band, Blondie. This album will be easily identified as Blondie just for Harry's presence alone. The writing/logo is the same as used in the previous Album cover which shows that it is part of the bands identity, the font is now in pink, but the Album name is in capitals underneath just like previously in capitals on top. Harry's hair here is not as slicked and well done, she has 'punk' hair which shows the genre off more, the setting seems to be, or seem to be mid concert; this gives the band the identity of being about the music and mostly the singing as she is with a microphone. Harry has nothing but spotlights focusing on her, and she is wearing a yellow shirt of dress, again not focusing on that as this Album seems to be about the music alone.
Music Video-
The set of this video is a mixture of what seems like 'home videos' of Harry in the sea, her in the city and Blondie performing on stage.
The Camera used in this music video seems to be handheld, like it is a friend that is filming her and when it is the concert scene, a fan in the audience. In the urban city scene it seems like handheld also but from a distance that makes it seem like she is not meant to be being filmed.
Clips in the video also seem to consist of bloopers of them making the video showing a fun side to Blondie.
Te editing of the video seems to be mismatched and rebellious like Harry and Blondie come across, which helps the genre tie in better and represents the band to the audience as being a punk rock fun band.
The costume and props are not 'set up' they are all representing who the band is, by the set on the stage to the urban, edgy outfits the Deborah Harry is wearing.
Concert Set-
The concert set is linking with the Album Cover at the top of this post. The stripes again show that link but the mismatched striped revealing the word Blondie shows that they have changed it up again, like what was said about the Album Cover. Other than that no props are used, which seems to me that they are trying to represent to the audience and public that they are all about the music they create.
Newspaper Articles-
Article in Classic Rocks news, recently released in August 2013, proving that although they are from the 1970's Blondie and their music is still talked about and loved.
The Location of our filming for Bruno Mars song, When I Was Your Man, will be in our Main School Hall as it has mainly all the props needed to film the 15 Second Clip.
The Props it has is-
+ A stage
+ A grand Piano
+ A black backdrop
+ Spotlights
+ A Microphone
+ The Hall can also be blacked out to help intensify the spotlight effect
The other props needed will be easy to get, these are-
+ A suit
+ A wig
+ A glass with drink in
Our Choice of the music video clip we decided to imitate was Bruno Mars Song, When I was Your Man; this was decided due to the challenge of the editing as the fading and overlapping of the clips looked really interesting and exciting to recreate.
The setting of the video initially seems simple as it consists of the grand piano and the backdrop but the lighting and effect that the Director Cameron Duddy and Bruno Mars created will not be as straight forward as we first thought.
The section of the Music Video we will be remaking is from 0:20-0:35, which is long enough for us to create a strong clip, which also gives me the initiative and a good learning experience due to the effects for the video I will be creating for my A2 project.
The section we are recreating means that the 'Bruno Mars' in our clip will have to lip sync and play the piano in time to the music, this is initially an important and crucial part of the clip as if this is not in time with the song it will look out of place, and not right.
The genre R&B has quite a distinctive look that is very familiar in the music industry. This look is represented on the Album Covers. Here are an example of the R&B covers that I have found, from Artists such as Usher, Jay-Z and Shontelle.
The look of an R&B artist usually consists of an urban feel with the males dressed usually in a simple shirt and a leather jacket and blazer with a cap. The outfit is very simple but this is usually because the music video consists of dancing, which the audience will focus on more. This is then portrayed on the Album cover with a still of a dance move. A lot of the male artists also show wealth and their origins of the music by wearing a gold chain or some type of jewellery.
The females seem to be usually dressed slightly sexy, with less clothes worn without revealing too much as the R&B females seem to express a lot of dominance, independence and thrive on being strong, which I feel they express in their outfits, by attracting the males, but not letting them see more. This sexy feel is represented on their Album Covers also.
By researching into the Indie Acoustic theme our group created a mood board which we felt best represents the theme overall. Examples of the Artists we found who use the Indie theme are Lucy Rose, Kodaline, Haim and Angus & Julia Stone.
As you can see the images that feature on the Album cover are extremely artistic and photography seems to play a big role in the Indie Acoustic genre.
The majority of the Albums have a bright but soft colour palette which gives the Albums a feel of calm, light and vintage feel which seems to be a familiar convention of a Indie Acoustic cover or image. The sun seems to play an important role in a lot of these covers also, which gives the covers a natural and organic feel without boarding onto Folk and Country music.
Although two of the covers as shown are in Black and White giving the intention that it has a 'back to basics' feel and that the music is all that matters, but the Artists are still very dominant on the cover showing that it is their voice and their music. Lastly the middle image is has a completely different feel to it, as the background image of the Artist is in black and white, but his name is multi-coloured in paint running down the wall.
I feel I have touched upon some of the Conventions of an Indie Acoustic cover but here are some more -
+ Unique
+ Artistic
+ Western
+ Country
+ 1 or 2 People, unless it is the Artist
A Digi Pack is a style of packaging for Albums and CD's; they usually consist of a gate fold which is a book style, with a paper board or card stock outer and a plastic tray to hold the CD inside. The Digi Pack benefits the Artist of the CD as it will represent the Artist and the genre of the music; it will also embody a theme and a message about the Artists image. The Digi Pack predominately sells the Artist to the customers and encourages them to buy it, which they will then listen to their music.
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Jack Johnson is an Acoustic Folk Rock Artist and Musician who achieved success after his debut Album release in 2001, Brushfire Fairytales. Johnson's feel is supported by him playing various instruments such as guitar, ukulele, piano and drums, representing him as a 'one man band' and a talent all by himself.
The Artist, from this Album is represented as quite artsy and minimalistic in the way that it is a silhouette of a male, probably representing Jack Johnson with his guitar, by a lonely tree on a cliff. As it is a silhouette I can only comment on the colours used as being bright and eye-catching to enhance the black areas that want to be shown. The title of the Album is In Between Dreams which is represented with the tree having a whole in between the branches. Lastly the guitar represents the music and genre of Jack Johnson himself, and tells the audience it is all about the music represented..jpg)
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