Here are a few images from the Riva Audio advertising project I shot last October. These were all shot in my studio. We cast actors who were also real musicians who had to be able to play while we shot. There's no fooling Rikki Farr, the owner of Riva. Google him. You'll figure out why. It was a month long team effort that including going back and forth several times as to who was supplying props and talent, casting, propping, wardrobe, hair and makeup and great assistants and food. We did the entire shoot in one long day after pre-lighting the day before. Props go out to Lisa Anne Ivey, our wonderful singer, who mesmerized us with her voice and was one of the easiest people I've ever worked with. Can't say enough about her.
All images were shot with Canon 5DSR and a Canon 24-70 2.8 II lens. Lighting was with Balcar strobes including the two straight back in the lens to create flare, something that is hard to do with this lens. The raws were processed in Capture One and the prints I've made for everyone involved just pop off the paper.
The inset product shot already existed before I came on the scene, but there were two separate, pretty crappy keystoned images shot looking down and stopped way down but still not enough to hold focus. I took the two separate shots, straightened them out, added gradations, built a brushed stainless type of surface with horizon and background light in Ps and cropped into a nice little square for the ad.
Thanks so much Chuck. Hopefully we'll get to do that some day. This was the kind of shoot that I was made for, with some sort of musical background. It's funny that I actually got Gee's Tone King amp in the toy drum shot. That amp is an amazing guitar (and accordion) amp, which is the reason I bought it, but Rikki referred to it as "that toy cowboy" amp. I guess, for the guy that started the Isle of Wight music festival in 1970, it was a toy.
I had heard that he was good friends with Keith Emerson, and since I had photographed Keith for Keyboard Magazine, I printed up a large print and put it on the wall with all the others. What I found out is that Rikki discovered Emerson selling ice cream on the street in London in 1966, found out he played key and put him in his brother's blues band, Gary Farr and the T Bones. There is a youtube vid of that band with Keith playing with them from '66.
THAT IS HILARIOUS! Great marketing work! And I think it will really resonate with people like us (photographers using something other than a cell phone) as we obviously appreciate quality.
Much like my photography equipment, I never use my phone for music unless it's streaming to some other source (like my car via Bluetooth). The quality coming from a cell phone's speakers is just garbage and DOES sound like it's coming out of a can to me - so I really identify with the first ad!
I'm glad you appreciate it. I made the tin can telephone and it's the first one I ever made. Sorta works. I mean it does work, but it sounds pretty horrible, so it's a good choice for this illustration. But here's the weird thing - the agency sold the client on the idea with a cobbled together illustration with no string. When we were setting up that shot, which was the last one of the day, the art director said "but we didn't have a string in the comp" This was one time where I put my foot down hard and told them it wouldn't make any sense at all WITHOUT the string. It would look like someone singing into a can of dog food - exactly what I told him. Thankfully, I prevailed. The first place the singer ad ran was the inside back cover of the AMA Music Awards program back in November.
Ha. Maybe you WERE in the room, from what I remember. Mike - Thanks again for the help moving the drum kit. It only proves that part of the online community can be part of the real community. Mike was the only person who wasn't officially part of the crew who was there, but he's welcome any time.
The (taut) string is essential. There was a series of Progresso Soup commercials that ran on TV awhile back that relied on tin-can communication but the strings were slack. However, I remember the commercials so I guess they got it right either way.
Beyond your excellent work, I wonder why the AD downsized the amp in the drum shot where the amp is just a prop (along with the unplayed guitar) in the background, but chose to keep the Marshall stack in each of the guitar shots where the amp would have been part of the sound chain.
There would have been simple and concept-appropriate ways to keep a small amp in the right spot in the shot.
I see your point about the consistency. There were a few, say, discussions, on set regarding things like that, where the art director and the client butted heads, but in the case of the drummer, downsizing the kit so much for the toy kit just felt like it needed some additional propping and since I had our "little" Tone King amp there, Rikki wanted it in there. The bigger issue in that was whether to keep the same shirt on the drummer between shots. The original plan was to do that but the client changed and wanted a tie-dyed shirt, which we shot. I had to diplomatically suggest that we cover the shot at the end with the original shirt - "just for me" as I put it, as I had the AD whispering in my ear that I somehow had to get that shirt back on the drummer. And in the end, that's what we did. So, probably the amp was not nearly as big a deal as the shirt. But good call on point that out.
