Sketches Of Covers

Photos From Studio

In the studio I ended up taking 81 pictures, and these are my 8 favourite and the ones I am most likely to use for my album covers. I am very pleased with how the pictures turned out, especially the top half of these ones. I think the red and white cane really adds to the character, and the second to last photo will be perfect for the back cover, as the song names will fit well in the side.

Back Cover

The back cover will feature a full body shot of Character One, with his back to the camera. This is an effective image to use as it shows his solitude and bad social skills, he'd rather be away from people than facing them.  He will be wearing all black clothing, and be surrounded by very dark lights. Next to him, in white writing, will be the song titles.

Inside Cover

The inside cover will feature a medium close up picture of the alter ego character, with his significant props: a walking cane painted red and white and a black top hat. Each object has its own meaning; the walking cane represents the canes mob gangsters and ring masters use to show their dominance and sophistication, and it's colours represent the 'fun' side to the alter ego, who has a cane painted as if it were a candy cane for Christmas; the top hat is also to represent the ring masters, as they all use top hats, again to show their dominance (as it makes them look taller) and sophistication.

These props will be heavily featured in the music video as they are mutually exclusive with the alter ego.
(insert image of the props)

Front Album Cover

The front of my album cover will be a close up of the artist as it is important for a new artist to be recognised by the audience/customers straight away, and this will help make him more recognisable. However, Scissor Sisters do use bright, vibrant colours, which I will use for the alter ego's side of the cover.

The front picture will be a close up of Casey Anderson as his two characters, such as the movie poster for Face/Off, and also like the character Two-Face from Batman.

An example of an artist using this same sort of image for their album cover is Peter Gabriel, who in one album cover has half of his face smudged, while the other side is clearer. Queen, Bee Gees and David Bowie also come under the neo-glam rock genre, and they have album covers that are similar to what Casey Anderson's will be.  In Casey Anderson's front picture, it will be the same face, but one half of him will be brighter, while the other will be surrounded by dark colours. His entire face is painted white, but on the right side he has red makeup above his eye, to keep in character with the alter ego, while on the left side he has blue makeup below his eye, pointing downwards to show his sadness. The right side will be wearing a white shirt with a red tie, while the left side will be edited so that his shirt is black and his tie will be a darker colour as well.

The typeface for these album covers feature basic lettering, but sometimes use bright colours to juxtapose against the plain backgrounds used. The main feature tends to always be the face, to promote the artist, and the backgrounds are kept simple to not distract from them.

Casey Anderson's Album Cover

The idea behind Casey Anderson's album cover and music video is similar to that of the Yin and Yang symbol. The symbol is used to describe how polar opposites or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world. For the music video, there will be two completely different characters, but they are interconnected because they are both the same person, just as Yin and Yang are two opposing things but are connected to each other in the same circle. The symbol shows how there is dark in light, and light in dark, just as Character One has a bit of Character Two in him, and vice versa.

Casey Anderson's album cover will not be similar to the covers of Scissor Sisters as they don't focus on the artist but rather their music and how different they are.

Trip To Photography Studio

On Wednesday 9th November, we visited a photography studio in Hoxton to take professional photographs of our music video artist(s). For Casey Anderson, we used two different constumes to portray his two different characters.

The venue had many different studios, which were all different sizes, and some more glamorous than others as some clients demand more room and privacy than others. A list of their client list can be found on their website.