The Miracle Workers

by Porter Hall
Billboard
June 8, 1996

From Getting The Graphics just Right To Fulfilling A Surprising Demand, The Task Falls To Some Behind-The-Scenes Production People

From mastering to manufacturing, duplication to distribution, the production departments at record and video labels have to meet demand, keep costs down, please the talent and, during peak periods, perform miracles-all while making the whole process look easy. Here are first-hand stories from some of the people involved in making a recording a title.

Coolio, "Gangsta's Paradise" (Tommy Boy) Paul Adelberg and Barry Koven, Tommy Boy's production department

To capitalize on the success of Coolio's hit single from the "Dangerous Minds" soundtrack, Adelberg and Koven had to work quickly to release the rapper's second album. "From the time the company decided to release "Gangsta's Paradise,' we had committed to covering all aspects, from compiling the credits, trafficking through layout and design, through all the manufacturing phases, while allowing our sales department adequate time to ship the product and set it up in the marketplace--all within two-thirds of our normal production period," says Adelberg. To that Koven adds, "It involved a lot of communication. Everybody had to pitch in and come through, and we made it happen."

"The Bodyguard" soundtrack (Arista) Milt Sincoff, senior VP of production, manufacturing and purchasing Arista

"We had Orders [for The "Bodyguard"] that came out of nowhere; it was an overnight smash," says Sincoff. "The figures on this were astronomical. 'I Will Always Love You' was one of the biggest-selling singles in history. When the album took hold, we had every major vendor in the business making this, and the pressure was beyond belief Then at the same time, we got hit with the Kenny G album, and that went through the roof" Sincoff adds that his department doesn't let best-sellers impact the production of other titles. "That's part of the function of a good production person: you don't lose the forest for the trees. You have to take into consideration that nothing else gets hurt. You can't close down shop because you have a big chart album."

Eagles, "Hell Freezes Over" (Geffen) Robin Sloane, VP of creative services, Geffen

Making a product stand out yet still conform to the exigencies of retail often poses a problem. Don Henley wanted the Eagles' live set to have a full-bleed cover, one that would exceed the hunts of jewel box packaging; yet to allay the concerns of the label's marketing department, it had to fit within standard retail racks. Existing packaging schemes, such as DigiPak, were considered, but none quite fit, the bill. "Then we came up with this 0-card approach that wraps around the jewel box and gives us a full-bleed surface and-after we experimented with sizes and thicknesses and got our hands on virtually every retail bin ever made-still fits into those bins," explains Sloane. "This was a first for this type of packaging. It was different, it was aesthetically pleasing, and it fit into the retail racks. Everybody was happy."

Joni Mitchell "Turbulent Indigo" (Reprise) Robbie Cavolina, designer

This year's Grammy winner for best album package, "Turbulent Indigo," was a collaboration between the recording artist, Joni Mitchell, and freelancer Robbie Cavolina. "We start.. ed on Valentine's Day in 1994 and turned it in by September, and broke all the rules along the way," recalls Cavolina.

Using an offbeat packaging concept developed by Chicago manufacturer C-Case, Cavolina and Mitchell photographed Mitchell's home filled with her own paintings, building toward a three-panel triptych effect with the 35mm sthots patched together into a Continuous frame. "I used really cheap film and a one-hour photo developer," Cavolina laughs. "And somehow we still knew this would be a Grammy winner." A booklet insert of Mitchell's poems filled a large pouch in one of the panels, a modification the design team specified. The first two runs of 100,000 units each sold out quickly. Unfortunately, subsequent runs were in lots of 50,000 and too small to be cost-effective for an all-paper case, so later editions were put out in a standard jewel case. "In a way, when you get something that works that perfectly, it's almost appropriate to break the mold," Cavolina says.

Blind Melon "Soup" (Capitol) Chris Jones, Tommy Steele, Jeffrey Fey, designers

While special packaging is usually associated with promotional editions, it's also often done as a reward to an artist's fans. That was the case with Blind Melon's "Soup," for which the band, Chris Jones, Tommy Steele and Jeffrey Fey were nominated for a best package/boxed set Grammy.

"They were coming off a big record, and they anticipated that this one would do well, so it was like a gift for their fans," says Fey. Described as a "cheesy diner vibe," the cover features a photo of record producer Andy Wallace eating the alphabet soup that spells out the band's name. The hook to the package was a leatherette trimmed menu listing the tracks. Printer AGI found a company that makes plastic-cover, trimmed diner menus, and specially configured a design to hold the five-inch CD insert (diner menus are usually rectangular). And AGI assembled the color separations from Color, Inc. in Hollywood.

Garth Brooks, "The Hits" (Capitol Nashville) Carlton Davis, production manager

With over 50 million in sales for Brooks since 1989, his first greatest hits collection reflected the Oklahoman's tendency to use loyalty as the determinator in whom he works with. Nashville-based Team Design has done the graphics for all of Brooks' records, and production manager Carlton Davis has worked with Brooks at both companies. "On The Hits,' we developed the concept while sitting in a room listening to Garth talk about the songs on the record as we took notes," Davis recalls. "Almost as we came up with copy, it was being typed in and laid out. The project was done on a very tight deadline." The artwork-an image of an American flag overlaid on Brooks' face re-created in photographic form from the silkscreen image-came at the suggestion of Brooks front a T-shirt design from one of his European tours. But its genesis actually lay even earlier. "I mentioned that he looked like KISS," says Davis. "He's a big KISS fan, so we kidded him a lot about that."

Dave Matthews Band "Crash" (BMG) Lou Vaccarelli, VP production, manufacturing, purchasing for BMG North America

According to Lou Vaccarelli, the final graphics for the new Dave Matthews Band album were late coming in, but for a good reason. "We feel the [best] position is to take the opportunities as they come about. We want to give the A&R people, the marketing people, the sales people and the creative people as much time to do the right thing on the master tape, to go through and analyze all the mixes that are key and to give the consumer what the artists feel is their best effort." Outsourcing its manufacturing allows BMG's labels to set the tempo for a project. "We try to take advantage of this," explains Vaccarelli. "I know we've taken advantage of some of our lead time, being able to service a late-breaking soundtrack. We've been able to take on soundtracks that were passed on by other labels simply because they couldn't turn it around quickly enough."

The Cranberries "Doors And Windows" Enhanced CD (island/Philips Media) Aubrey Moore, VP of inventory and production, PolyGram

For Moore, it's the relationships that make a project like the "Doors And Windows" look "We're the guys who have to be really cool, calm and collected and not panic. So even the things that seem virtually impossible, we have to make sure they get done without a lot of screaming and hollering and so forth. We have a wonderful group of people who work very hard, and they make the obstacles look easy to overcome. It has its own challenges apart from sales and marketing, and you have to know you're doing. It takes a long time to develop the relationships and to find out what needs tic) be done."

"Little Things BCD single (Interscope) Colleen Campbell,Interscope's production department

Interscope's Colleen Campbell has gone to great lengths trying to satisfy artists' requests while being mindful of the production schedule. [Little Things ECD] was the first enhanced CD single manufactured through WEA," notes Campbell,"Getting everything correct, especially the new technology, was a bit of a struggle because the technology was so new and because the band insisted that people with both Macintosh and IBM be able to use it. We ran into problems when the Macintosh side would work but the IBM side would crash and vice versa. What we finally did was fly the people from Highway One, the company that created the enhanced CD) and the gold master, to Specialty Records in Pennsylvania and had them work directly with the manufacturers to figure it all out and get it correct. "

"Jurassic Park" (MCA/ Universal Homo Video) Michael Daruty, VP, post editorial services for Universal Studios

Michael Danty's department works year-round, mastering new titles and transferring classic films for video. "In the film-to-tape transfer portion, we actually do scene-to-scene, color correction on it. We re-time the motion picture from a 35mm inner-positive using a Rank Telecine. We re-balance it, because the electronics of the Telecine are different from the electronics of the projection, so we really have to time the whole movie over again. We probably do about a reel in every day or day and a half. So 'Jurassic Park,' a seven-reel show, could literally take us eight or nine days just to do the first initial color correction." Daruty figures that. when various compressed and enhanced soundtracks are mastered, as well as the creation of different versions for various video formats and foreign markets, the process for a successful film such as "Jurassic Park" can occupy a month or more. This is diligence is required, however, for a quality transfer. "We spend a great deal of time with [the films creative team usually the director of photography] trying to get the look that they're after and trying to recreate for the little screen what they intended for the big screen," says Daruty.

"Babe" (MCA/Universal Home Video) Craig Relyea, VP of marketing, UNI

"Babe" had plenty of box-office success. "If the theatrical art succeeds in its mission to communicate the message to the audience, then we don't make any adjustments," explains Craig Relyea, who supervised the video's packaging. "In fact, it would be highly unusual for any company to do that under those circumstances." "Babe" was sent to Rank Video Services America for duplication and the reduced-size artwork was sent to an undisclosed printer, who sent the sleeves to Rank for assembly. Two rebate inserts were also enclosed, one for Tropicana, one for a video of 1940s cinematic predecessor "Francis The Talking Mule." Where the packaging for "Babe" could get really interesting, though, is for the next generation. "It has the potential to become a perennial, like the 'Wizard Of Oz,'" says Relyea. "It opens up the possibilities of collectors' editions and other special packaging down the line. Even as we were working on it, we got the sense that this was a once-in-a-career-type film."

"The Madnesss Of King George" (Hallmark Home Entertainment) Erin Meaker, director of operations, Hallmark Home Entertainment

"It was hectic because there were so many different pieces involved. The announce tool-kit was quite spectacular," says Meaker, referring to "The Madness Of King George." "It was a big kit that contained screeners and a CD. The shipping of that had to be coordinated with the standee, which was going out to 7,000 retailers across the country. The timing worked out fine. We delivered on time, but it took more time to put the kit together than it did to actually produce the standees. We ran into problems on the trade ads, where there were last minute changes. We were waiting for blurbs to come in from publications that had to be dropped in at the last minute. We were at final film, and we had to drop it in an ship it within an hour. In relation to how everything runs, it was hectic vet it came off fairly well."

"Cutthroat Island" (LIVE Entertaiment) Andrew Blumke, executive director of operations, LIVE Entertainment

Sometimes demand for a product can catch a company by surprise, and production departments are expected to have enough in inventory. According to Andrew Blumke, the orders for "Cutthroat Island" came as unexpected. "Though box office was less than $1 0 million, it did 240,000 units, including Canada. In order to keep inventories and costs down to a minimum, we really don't pull the final trigger until we know what our final duplication number is going to be. And the only way to know what your number is going to be is to get actual figures from the distributors themselves. It's the only way to really make it work. Who would have thought we would sell 240,000 units on a title like "Cutthroat Island"?