Designs for Janet Jackson

Hey Folks,

It's been pretty nuts coming back to Toronto, it's REALLY cold here - but loving every minute. Been crazy busy with work and wish I can share what I'm working on but all confidential sure you understand. ;)

Anywho, One of the first music videos I've Art Directed in the past was with Janet Jackson and Director Joseph Kahn. It was probably the best experience I've had with music video production. Why? You have no idea how little time you have to do it and the amount of work that needs to be rendered.

I wanted to share this with those who are interested in getting in the US market for design with Music Videos. You have to be fast, creative and you have to be willing to work around the clock 20 hours a day until it's complete. Some of my buds in LA just don't get any sleep doing this stuff BUT -- and there is always a but, its all worth it at the end. Usually you have about a week to get all designs completed for pre-production and all of them have to get the green lit. You just don't have time to spend 5 hours on one piece. So yes - being fast is crucial in this business.

Out of about 40 pieces of illustration - about 50% if not more gets turned down. As a designer, you have to be willing to except that not all of your designs will be approved - with the Janet video and with blessing from Joseph, we were able to get most of the designs completed within a 48 time frame. Yup - that's about 40 drawings, colored, conceptualized and drawn. It was nuts. We had a small team but we pulled it through. Here are just a few of the images that we executed:

Here is a top view of the stage. The stage tilts and was fully rendered in 3D animation.

Here is another shot of the stage which we didn't use. However - we decided to keep the background cyber screens which you will see in the music video below.

This is the scene where Janet us driving in her car with her friends and it's a neo-tokyo type style. Love drawing tech backgrounds.

This was a stage that we never used - but was hella fun to draw.

Here is an outside building you might catch it in the beginning of the video. My old friend James Raiz hooked this one up, he's super fast with architecture and has mad skillz.

Joseph Kahn is a really fun Director to work with - he's a comic book fan @ heart and really digs artwork from a personal level. Joseph's work can be seen with George Micheal, Britney Spears and he also did the "Thong Song", which I thought was cool.

Anyways, here is the final music video if you haven't seen it already. Enjoy -- and keep that pencil moving!!

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyLQ1muosqQ

Peace

Pat Lee