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.

Blog Response #23

I'm kind of going to deciding what kind of pieces I'd like to do as I go, so bear with me. I'm not sure how possible it would be to do stop motion in flash, but an interactive stop motion could be very interesting, allowing the user to help someone make a task, such as making breakfast, etc. I'd keep it simple, with maybe just two or three decisions that allow for a couple different outcomes. I think the piece could be even more dynamic if in some of the outcomes, the user 'failed', but won in others.

A second idea I had was projecting video through a six-paneled window. It would be interesting to start with a video of blinds, then have them either open or have silhouettes moving behind it. Where I'm having trouble though is figuring out how to incorporate still photography into the work. A last minute thought I had was having a group on the other side of the window, critiquing the class as they sit and critique the piece itself.

I'm liking the idea of video quite a bit. One idea I've had involves people watching a computer screen or television, but something bad is in it. One person becomes still and begins to pixelate (which is where I would begin to implement photography). The other begins to run away but is being chased by whatever force was in the TV, pixelating cars and trees in it's path. I haven't decided it he gets away yet.

A last idea I had was incorporating typography and photography into a very clean graphic design poster. I was thinking of having a couple kissing, but slowly fade into a pile of typography near the bottom using a series of masks. I think the type would be a little somber or negative rather than happy, though I haven't written it yet. It would also be cool to mix 3-d typography with photos, maybe in very, very large landscapes.

Well sorry this is both late and really abstract, I kind of spaced out there.

And something else

In-class Critique

Blog Response #21

I guess I could argue that I've constructed my identity since birth in a crude way, kind of chiseling my personality off from a blank slate. I'm a big believer in the thought that every emotion, experience, and choice affects you in some way, even in the most minute sense. It takes the thousands of these little things to construct a personality. For me personally to construct my personality comes through choices I make, but even then I don't have much control over the world that gives me those choices. I do feel like there is a difference between construction and performance however, and I can perform on a day to day basis without necessarily constructing personality (in fact I may be doing the opposite). I feel that to get through a typical day, everyone has to put on at least a thin mask in terms of their behavior. Take a job, for example. I'm not saying your not being yourself at a job, but you are certainly controlling yourself more than you would with friends or alone, it's necessary for society to function. With this definition, performance isn't necessarily the over-the-top as people expect.

Personal culture is affected in much the same way, but I think it's necessary to look at the media when you look social environments. Most subcultures just naturally develop through common ground/ a network of close relationships/ etc., but once these grow, media seems to latch onto it and turn it into something much larger. Media culture (although there are many of them) spreads far enough to give a code of aesthetics/attitude/behavior to anyone willing to give the attention. At this point, it is a total construct. People make their entire salaries by planning out trends to disseminate throughout the public, a completely unnatural occurrence.

As far as physical environments go, one could argue to buildings themselves are artificial constructs, but I wanted to look at this idea on the macro scale. I've been fascinated the past couple years that countries are completely made up. Such a simple idea, but pretty hard to figure out when I was younger. Every war every fought over territory was essentially fought over imaginary lines. It takes the unanimous support from almost every citizen to simply recognize borders, names, leadership, etc. (except in certain sticky situations) to make it real. Yet it happens, and will seemingly may never break. Absolutely nothing on the entire world follows the rules of our modern world except for humans. It really is a mind-boggling thing.

This last statement I'll keep short and brief. It's not supposed to sound sad or negative, but rather a little uplifting. The little things close to you are real. Whether an intimate conversation with a friend, a design you poured your heart into, or an observation of the sky that makes you stop for a second. All those are real. It's about perception, what's real to you may be a construct for another. Everything outside of this realm is fake to some extent. I think that makes the smaller things, that really affect you more special. Does that count as an answer, or full of too much sap?

Worktime