Final Series Write-Up

Okay, new write-up now that my reality isn't being torn asunder. I must say I underestimated the amount of fingers that would actually be required for the composite. As a result, I spent more time constructing rather than integrating the fingers into a more realistic piece. Maybe They didn't need to be more realistic though, they turned out quite a bit creepier than I intended. Like I said in the critique, the print quality at kinko's was awful, but the murkiness really added to the work as a whole. My roommate mentioned maybe I should include the arms in the shadow, but I'm not sure if that would prevent the monuments from being recognizable. I guess, overall, I don't think this series is portfolio worthy yet. I'd really like to go back in with a lot more time.

Final Series

With the critique coming up in 5 hours, I'm a little unsure about the project. The print quality turned out a little poor at Kinkos, but for some reason, the texture of the prints have such a great impact on the work. I'll right more tomorrow, but for now, it's bedtime. See you all soon!

Blog Response #24

I'm not completely narrowed down on what I'd like my final to be, but I'm happy to cover the motivations on several of them.

One idea is to show humans living in societies build around animals. It sounds a little silly, but I'm just talking about societal organization. The figures would still be in the civilized world, but they may be running or flying in a V like geese, or swimming in a mass clump like a school of fish. It might be really hard to pull off, but I'd like the viewers to think about how we organize and socialize currently. The work could be a really interesting was of showing that our societal structure isn't so permanent. It's changed a thousand times in the past, and maybe a bizarre photograph will display how easily it will happen again.

Another cool idea I had was having really big tools destroying buildings, skylines etc. It would be a cool reason to play with particles or fake some really chaotic destruction. My ultimate goal would be to make the series as visually stimulating as possible. I'd like the viewer to be a little shocked at first, but then proceed to make up their own stories about what could have happened (Is it raining giant tools?!, Is this just a giant's playground?, etc.).

I'd really like to composite some fake schematics/blueprints with buildings and turn it into some kind of advertising portfolio piece. It could be an architecture campaign, making people think about all the planning that went into a building they typically take for granted. I would draw out the schematics myself, based on the angle if the photo.

Combing rightside-up and upside-down worlds would be a lot of fun, which is one I might end up going with. The problem is that they'd all need to be inside, but getting the correct vantage point for all the shots would be tough in such a confined space. It's hard to say my motivations for this one, I was leafing through my sketchbook for ideas and came across a doodle I did a few months ago. I really just want to approach surrealism with this one.

Well, I feel like I have a million more ideas, the real trick is going to be picking one cohesive theme.

Assignment #5

I finally finished my people font! This took a lot longer to edit than I originally thought, but I feel pretty happy to finally stitch it together. There's a thousand and two things I still want to do to it, and I see it as a potential graphic design portfolio piece, so I'm definitely going to do so. Jeremy mentioned in the group critique that the letters look a little like alphabits, and Sarah mentioned adding veins or something else could help combat this. I still want to add these in, but I just plain ran out of time. I decided to call the type 'body language', and I put the name in the negative space. It was a really interesting process putting these together. It was really time consuming at first, but once I did like 8 or 9, cruise control kind of just took over. The backgrounds are not all the same color, which bothered me at first, but now I feel as if it gives the piece more character.

I don't want anyone to watch this video before class, because I want it to be a surprise. It's a mirror critique to critique our critique. I really wanted to shoot it in our classroom, but sadly there was a class when I scheduled the shoot. I guess my two biggest challenges were getting all the actors on the same page, then managing to get the scene in one take. I wanted it to be seemless because excessive editing would make it feel too cinematic or staged. This way, I can manage to capture the slight awkwardness/candidness in a crit. I guess I don't have too much else to say, and the success of the video really depends on how the crowd interacts with it. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Edit: Okay, boo. This video won't load, sorry! Everyone will have to wait until 8 am.

In-class critique

Secondary Response to Assignment 4

I got a lot of good responses out of the critique for this past assignment, with a lot of things I'd like to fix next time I get a chance.

I'm glad the class responded well to switching the angle in my pants piece, but Kim did point out a couple of flaws in the lighting I didn't entirely notice at first. I think the only way to really fix it is to re-shoot the pants. I got a great piece of feedback from a fashion major who wasn't in our critique too: it bothered her more than anything that the back of the pants wasn't visible. I'd really like to find a way to incorporate that back into the photo.

I'm having trouble remembering everything said about the traffic photograph, but it is something I'd be interested in turning into a series. That being said, I would like to develop a better way to overlay the cars on top of each other, I'm afraid I lose a bit too much detail and color, kind of giving the whole piece a ghostly feel. Maybe it works for the concept, but I'm up for more exploration.

I'm really glad I took the buttons and title screen out of the Zelda piece. It's a pretty straightforward concept that people could get without a multitude of pointless and slightly obnoxious clues. I still think more work needs to be put into the left side of the model. I fixed up his shirt quite a bit, but there's still a blur in this hat and hair that isn't really sitting well with me. This didn't come up in the critique, but upon reflection, I'd really dig some more contrast on the model himself, it would pull everything together really nicely.

I'm still really response at the positive response I got on my Fight Club poster. I still feel slightly like it's not my work, and I explained that in the credits under the title. I was curious if anyone would happen to glance at them during the crit, but to no avail. I did have a lot of fun with the piece though, and has made me much more open to trying it again in the future.

Assignment 4 Final Pieces

Ahoy there classmates! It's about that time again to do the pre-crit post to the blog. I suppose I'll get right into it. This left one is my favorite conceptually. It can be taken as both funny and serious, and to be honest, I don't care which. It was a bit of a challenge to shoot with the self-timer, especially the pants. To shoot them, I had to hold onto my ceiling beams, shirtless, and pray that I could keep my balance in a running pose until the shutter snapped (I looked really stupid). Cutting the lower half off of me wasn't nearly as hard, I used the poles in my basement to hide most of my legs, and just patched the rest out. I might still reshoot those legs just to get the lighting right. Anyway, my expression is a bit goofy, but I think I managed to capture the emotion I was aiming for.


This second picture is a reshoot. I originally perched on top of a parking structure and was shooting cars from an aerial view. It didn't allow for great lighting and the cars kind of all muddled together. I decided to shoot on the ground, making the cars recognizable and I came out with a much better composition. I got a lot of weird looks from people driving by, but they were worth it. This prompt also made me realize that there are A LOT of silver cars out there. C'mon people, get some personality. Edit: I'm sorry if you drive a silver car.




I wish I took more advantage of this assignment taking place over Halloween , but I did manage to shoot my roommate a little in his wicked Link costume. I wanted a twist in it however, and what not a better way than to have him be playing the game himself. I want the photo to be more fun than meaningful, but I can't help but feel a bit somber about it. As he looks at himself, he could be trying to relive his past, perhaps he's a much more washed up Link now. But maybe I'm just being ultranerd, too. I did add the health and magic bars to push that idea, but I dropped using the whole interface. That cluttered the frame up quite a bit and cheapened the piece as a whole.




Finally, I wanted to try to recreate the Fight Club movie poster. I was apprehensive to do the poster prompt for a while, and was even wishy-washy during the whole process. I found the recreate to be much more challenging than I originally anticipated. I wish my models looked a little bit more like Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, but then again, if the world was full of Brad Pitts and Edward Nortons, we'd all be in trouble. This is also my first attempt at integrating typography into photography. I obviously had other type to model off of, but I really enjoyed the process, and I'm thinking of implementing it into the next multimedia piece as a design prompt. That's all I really have to say about it, I hope you enjoy the work. I've posted the actually poster below so you can be the final judge.