February 27, 2010
Mantra Design transformed some of the 2009 Country Music Awards background performance screens into scenes including a wintery landscape and a graphic novel.
As one of the go-to design studios in New York for creating content for event screens, Mantra was asked to deliver the content that appeared on the screens for 13 of country music's biggest stars as they performed during the national broadcast.
Taylor Swift "Forever & Always" at 2009 CMAs
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At the CMA Awards, Mantra's creative team worked with executive producer Robert Deaton and creative producer Lee Lodge, who commissioned and art directed the sequences, to design and produce the artwork for the screens that accompanied each of the artist's performances. Though the content for each package was designed to reflect the individual artist or song's unique personality, one of the challenges Mantra faced was to create an overall modern look to enhance the night's proceedings.
"One of the taglines that is associated with the CMAs is 'It's Country's Night to Rock.' We work really hard in our design to showcase the music and the talent and to stay away from the stereotypes of what people think country music is about," says Anna Toonk, senior producer for Mantra.
Adds Fred Salkind, creative director at Mantra, "The visual backgrounds we focused on designing for this year's show were very contemporary and fresh, creating a cohesive look that was compelling for the duration of each three- to four-minute performance."
Lady Antebellum "Need You Now" at 2009 CMAs
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One particular example was Taylor Swift's show opener of "Forever & Always." Mantra knew the content for the screens for this performance had to be particularly attention-getting, drawing in the audience right from the beginning and setting the bar for the other performances of the night. "We wanted to play up the fact that Taylor Swift is a huge country/pop star, but that she's also very young. So, design-wise, we had to make it hip and exciting," says Toonk.
Mantra's creatives worked with Lodge to storyboard and create bold screens inspired by a contemporary version of the conceptual artist Barbara Kruger. Using Kruger's signature style of captions set in white on red, Mantra broke up the screens using revolving boxes to reveal significant lyrics that underscored the passion of the performance.
Using a combination of Adobe After Effects as well as Maxon Cinema 4D and MoGraph Module, Mantra's team, under Lodge's direction, worked quickly to deliver the content for the screens in just three weeks. As the screens were created before the lighting design, the CMA production team was able to then integrate the graphic reference from each screen into the other production phases of the show.
"This year, more than any other year, the screen creative and the color palette very much drove other creative aspects of the show, including production and lighting design," says Salkind. "An example would be Lady Antebellum's 'Need You Now' performance, where we shot and created stills that were treated to look like Manhattan in the dead of winter. That translated to the cool tones in the lighting, as well as to what was decided later to have snow actually falling on stage. This was a nice touch that really rounded out the entire performance. What's important about an awards show like this is that everything is integrated and we work closely with the CMA producers to make that happen."
Mantra's team on this project included Anna Toonk and Laurel Heisman as co-producers and Salkind as creative director.
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