Research & Planning: Inspiration for album artwork (ancillary)

For the ancillary task I have been looking at different photoshoots from other artists and general photoshoots to give me some ideas to what I can do for my own. There are many ideas I have in mind to what I can do but have not completely thought exactly what I want to do. Here are some of the photos that I feel inspired by for my own:

I like the idea of the natural looking mise-en-scene like in the left photo with Rihanna acting casual, however the idea of a plane background with stylish clothing is also effective with the colour schemes as it shows off her style as well as her facial expression. 

I also feel the same with these photos, Cassie giving a more natural/casual look but showing off the fashionable clothing and hairstyle.

Facial close-up of Shanell and a black and white wide shot, casual mise-en-scene with clothing that represents her style, which also reflects her genre of music. Keeping it simple.

Simple white mise-en-scene with a blue lighting, styled hairstyle with a unique costume as Janet Jackson is known for wearing these style of clothing and big high heeled shoes.

The black and white is edited around the outline of the body, which is easily edited on photoshop simple but effective and on the right, a casual mise-en-scene with a sunset in a field with a bright pink dress, giving it a calm tone in comparison to the black and white photo on the left as it makes Shakira look more fierce as it is black and white and her make-up, clothing and the editing around her.

Facial close-up of Jasmine V showing the make-up and then a long shot of the body to show the costume and the subject's figure.

Casual mise-en-scene with clothing that matches the background, a brown colour scheme. Graffiti background on the right photo, again matching the colours of her costume but also giving off Ciara's Urban style. 

Sabi standing in front of a flower bush outside wearing clothes that reflect her personality and music style - close up/mid shot.

Additionally, I like this style of photography, which can be edited on Photoshop (photographer http://johnnylacephotography.tumblr.com/)

I think this style of photography is very creative and different and would look good as an album artwork cover. I think that to make the photos look more interesting and unique, edit them on photoshop and give them some different effects to make them stand out from others.

Research & planning: ancillary task - album artwork

Here are some album artworks that I thought were good in terms of photography and styles that the artists are portraying plus with promotional pictures:

Rihanna - Loud (2010)

Front cover

Back cover

Disc cover

Inside booklet

promo #1

promo #2

Loud promotional pictures

By looking at the promotional pictures from this Loud album, all the photos are similar in terms of colour schemes, mise-en-scene and costumes. All the pictures have quite a redish tint to it, which matches her hair colour representing the roses that are shown in some of the promotional pictures and the disc cover. The colour scheme and the mise-en-scene contrasts with the album title Loud as roses connote peace and love.

Rihanna - Talk That Talk (2011)

Front cover

Alternative front cover

Back cover

Disc cover

Talk That Talk promotional pictures

Promo

This album Talk That Talk has more of a roughness to it in comparison to the previous Loud album, this shows Rihanna's different styles and personas. By looking at the promotional pictures, this style is more 'trouble-making' look shown through her facial expression, body language and actions as well the mise-en-scenes as some of the photos are taken in rough looking areas. Some of the photos are in black and white, which emphasises the attitude from her expression especially the alternative album cover as it is in black and white with smoke coming out of her mouth emphasises her style.

After looking at these Rihanna albums, I noticed that her music videos show similarities to the album artwork and promotional pictures for example from the Loud album, the songs Only Girl (In The World), What's My Name, California King Bed and Man Down are share similarities, which are that they all have a light colour scheme to them all such as reds, greens, pinks and beige.

Only Girl (In The World)

California King Bed

Man Down

Whereas in the Talk That Talk album the music videos also share similar styles and colour schemes, which link back to the style of the album artwork and promotional pictures with dark colours or black and white. As well as costumes, in the We Found Love music video, Rihanna is wearing similar style clothing to what she wore in the Talk That Talk promotional pictures therefore highlighting the style of the album.

We Found Love

You Da One

This will be something I keep in mind when I work on my ancillary task. 

Shontelle - No Gravity (2010)

Front cover

Back cover

No Gravity promotional pictures

This album artwork doesn't really have any reference to the album title but there is a colour scheme going on with the dark shades such as the dark blues and greens and silvers. The front and back cover show Shontelle in a cage, the cage connoting animals almost as if Shontelle is the animal.

Cassie (2006)

Front cover

Back cover

Disc

Promo

This Cassie album is very simple with just a headshot of her and a simple colour scheme.

Cassie - King Of Hearts (2012)
(not yet released)

Front cover

Promotional Pictures

This album is different to her previous album as the colour schemes are different and the style is different as in this album the promotional pictures show more of a unique style with a mise-en-scene showing a lot of gold, which connotes richness and power, this shows her genre of music which is usually R&B.

Cassie is also similar to Rihanna as these album artworks are similar to the music videos from the album such as costumes, colour schemes and mise-en-scenes.

King of Hearts

Ciara - Basic Instinct (2010)

Front cover

Back cover

Inside booklet

Promotional pictures

This album by Ciara reflects her personality and her style of music as well as her as a person. By looking at the mise-en-scenes in the pictures, costumes and body language that Ciara is giving, we can automatically assume that this is quite a urban style and has R&B Urban music in this album. The music videos also highlight this style. Ciara is well known for her dancing skills, therefore in these promotional pictures we can see some relevance to that, especially the photo of her in sneakers, baggy trousers, high top and a fitted hat portraying her style. Usually she wears the hat with the A on it representing the state of Atlanta where she is from. 

In one of the music videos from this album Ride, the whole video is her in black tight clothing with a hat on dancing showing off her dancing abilities, similarly in Gimmie Dat - a video concept of Ciara dancing, therefore both having relevance to the album artwork and the promotional pictures reflecting the urban personality.

Ride

Gimmie Dat