An example of a film that uses the typical film structure of a beginning, middle and an end and also fits to Joseph Campell’s theory of the hero with a thousand faces (1949) is 500 days of summer. The story follows the protagonist Tom played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his pursuit to get the girl of his dreams, summer. The film uses a fragmented storyline and shows the “love story” on different stages of the relationship over the time of 500 days. Although we are told that “this is a story of boy meets girl but this is not a love story”. The story cleverly let3s the audience know which stage of the relationship they are at by showing them the amount of days into the 500. We also know the mood and how the relationship is going by the use of colour and the weather in the illustration showing the amount of days.
The hero in the story is Tom as we are lead to feel sorry for him as he falls knowingly and hopelessly in love with the "evil" Summer who he believes leads him on. As the story has a fragmented story line we know during the film that there are going to be ups and downs in the relationship at that Summer still has not really done anything wrong. Yet as an audience we still cannot help being on Tom's side as we feel just like he does, that Summer has led him on. As he then tries to forget about her he meets her on a train to a wedding and as he spends time together with her again he remembers the times he shared with her before. As the story progresses we find out that summer is engaged to be married despite not wanting to form a relationship with summer, the two meet again and talk but there is a mellow tone to their discussion despite the two characters being friendly towards each other. The story ends and the two separate despite the two remaining civil we still cannot help taking toms side as he is the one who fell in love with her and is left alone.
As an audience we find Tom’s character more relatable as we see him in emotional states we have all been through ourselves and we really want him to form the relationship with Summer. We want to see him happy, despite us as audience knowing what may happen before he does. We also can perhaps relate his character as he lets us more into his life than summer does as we see his home, his friends, his workplace which is where he meets Summer and his family.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Friday, 25 November 2011
Lecture 5 - Graphics communication
Legibility
When making my test/mini magazine I wanted to make sure that I was connecting to my audience in the right way. Questions I had to ask myself were; had I laid out the cover & pages in the correct way? Was the colour & background of any text suitable & can be read easily? & most importantly is the font at a good size for everyone to read? Legibility is about finding the right information not about the text so this can be applied to an image, which is what I wanted to portray in the practice for my front cover. The theme of the magazine has to be based around Birmingham so I wanted to make sure that the cover was not obviously an image of Birmingham as it wouldn't suit my magazine or my target audience. However I still wanted there to be something recognisable on the front cover as the magazine cover is also not going to have a lot of text on the cover. So I choose to use an image I had taken of the Selfridges in the bullring's texture/pattern.
Researching contact
For our final magazine we’re a planning to make the magazine along the theme of it being a one of magazine for each city and this month it is based around Birmingham. When researching this subject we were very lucky as we both live in the city and was therefore very easy to look around for inspiration, I work in the main shopping centre so it was very helpful to gain an idea of the fashion sense and type of people in Birmingham. Other ways of researching in to this subject was to go to the local museum of art and see what people locally are producing creatively. The lost in lace exhibition was extremely helpful to us as it helped us produce and come up with an idea for a make-up shoot based around lace.
Making sure the content was also appropriate for our audience meant that we could base it around our lives and what we already knew. Just like how a women’s fashion magazine’s such as Glamour or Elle can use their own knowledge when planning ideas for the content of the magazine. Other primary sources can be used when planning your magazine such as going to fashion weeks, galleries, exhibitions, and trade shows.
In regards to my own work I find legibility and researching you content properly incredibly important as it is the information that guides the audience to what they need to know. Legibility again does not need to be referred just as font it can be anything you use to display your meaning to your audience. It’s about addressing your Target audience in the right way making sure that it is saying the tight thing to the audience and you are conveying your work in the correct with the right signs and making sure you are also connecting with your audience effectively.
When making my test/mini magazine I wanted to make sure that I was connecting to my audience in the right way. Questions I had to ask myself were; had I laid out the cover & pages in the correct way? Was the colour & background of any text suitable & can be read easily? & most importantly is the font at a good size for everyone to read? Legibility is about finding the right information not about the text so this can be applied to an image, which is what I wanted to portray in the practice for my front cover. The theme of the magazine has to be based around Birmingham so I wanted to make sure that the cover was not obviously an image of Birmingham as it wouldn't suit my magazine or my target audience. However I still wanted there to be something recognisable on the front cover as the magazine cover is also not going to have a lot of text on the cover. So I choose to use an image I had taken of the Selfridges in the bullring's texture/pattern.
Researching contact
For our final magazine we’re a planning to make the magazine along the theme of it being a one of magazine for each city and this month it is based around Birmingham. When researching this subject we were very lucky as we both live in the city and was therefore very easy to look around for inspiration, I work in the main shopping centre so it was very helpful to gain an idea of the fashion sense and type of people in Birmingham. Other ways of researching in to this subject was to go to the local museum of art and see what people locally are producing creatively. The lost in lace exhibition was extremely helpful to us as it helped us produce and come up with an idea for a make-up shoot based around lace.
Making sure the content was also appropriate for our audience meant that we could base it around our lives and what we already knew. Just like how a women’s fashion magazine’s such as Glamour or Elle can use their own knowledge when planning ideas for the content of the magazine. Other primary sources can be used when planning your magazine such as going to fashion weeks, galleries, exhibitions, and trade shows.
In regards to my own work I find legibility and researching you content properly incredibly important as it is the information that guides the audience to what they need to know. Legibility again does not need to be referred just as font it can be anything you use to display your meaning to your audience. It’s about addressing your Target audience in the right way making sure that it is saying the tight thing to the audience and you are conveying your work in the correct with the right signs and making sure you are also connecting with your audience effectively.
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Lecture 6 - Production & Outcomes
Q: What is the importance of understanding ones design process?
Activity - In words and pictures demonstrate your own, individual design process from brief to conclusion
When I am given a brief I find it very important to come up with a lot of ideas so the first thing I’ll do to get my mind into the state of working is to plan out my ideas using a spider gram or a list of everything possible that comes into my head. Then I like to define my ideas or develop some further, and look at what I actually have to produce and see a range of them and annotate the piece in detail so I can try and understand every aspect of it.
This is an example of what I would do when I am set a project for the first time, I straight away make a spider diagram of any ideas I have at that current moment and as the project develops I go back to it and add more to show how certain ideas may have developed or not. This image is taken from my RVJ for this project.
I also find making a collage of images very helpful as they are an immediate reference point that I again can go back to refer at any time. I read magazines and newspapers all the time so this way of putting my ideas is very helpful to me as it is quick and all the things I have taken from a publication have now been put into one place for me to go back and look at. This will be something I do from right at the beginning right until the end of a project as I just find it so helpful and I also think the use of collage fits really well with what I have chosen to look at in this project. I also plan on using collages as a way of making a creative background for an article piece as you can easily show what the article or magazine is about from using a range of images in this way.
This page has been taken from my RVJ at a point where I have been looking at what is out there and how we could perhaps re-invent an idea and use it in my own work, and to give it an appropriate twist to my project. I find looking at what is out there and finding something you like a very helpful tool as you can find out what you love and what you do not like, and if you even find nothing you like at all, at least you know what you do not want your project to look like.
The booklet on the left is the mock up for the magazine for this project, I made the magazine in a week and learnt so much from it, I realised how I wanted the magazine to change and how even if you think all your ideas are really good they may not flow too well together. It is really important to make a few mock ups or tests before you start making the final product as you have not experienced what it is going to be like when making the actual final piece. Ideas may not flow as well together or may not be as good as a product as they seem as an idea, or the idea just might not be appropriate for that piece.
Activity - In words and pictures demonstrate your own, individual design process from brief to conclusion
When I am given a brief I find it very important to come up with a lot of ideas so the first thing I’ll do to get my mind into the state of working is to plan out my ideas using a spider gram or a list of everything possible that comes into my head. Then I like to define my ideas or develop some further, and look at what I actually have to produce and see a range of them and annotate the piece in detail so I can try and understand every aspect of it.
This is an example of what I would do when I am set a project for the first time, I straight away make a spider diagram of any ideas I have at that current moment and as the project develops I go back to it and add more to show how certain ideas may have developed or not. This image is taken from my RVJ for this project.
I also find making a collage of images very helpful as they are an immediate reference point that I again can go back to refer at any time. I read magazines and newspapers all the time so this way of putting my ideas is very helpful to me as it is quick and all the things I have taken from a publication have now been put into one place for me to go back and look at. This will be something I do from right at the beginning right until the end of a project as I just find it so helpful and I also think the use of collage fits really well with what I have chosen to look at in this project. I also plan on using collages as a way of making a creative background for an article piece as you can easily show what the article or magazine is about from using a range of images in this way.
This page has been taken from my RVJ at a point where I have been looking at what is out there and how we could perhaps re-invent an idea and use it in my own work, and to give it an appropriate twist to my project. I find looking at what is out there and finding something you like a very helpful tool as you can find out what you love and what you do not like, and if you even find nothing you like at all, at least you know what you do not want your project to look like.
The booklet on the left is the mock up for the magazine for this project, I made the magazine in a week and learnt so much from it, I realised how I wanted the magazine to change and how even if you think all your ideas are really good they may not flow too well together. It is really important to make a few mock ups or tests before you start making the final product as you have not experienced what it is going to be like when making the actual final piece. Ideas may not flow as well together or may not be as good as a product as they seem as an idea, or the idea just might not be appropriate for that piece.
Monday, 31 October 2011
Lecture week 4 - Research & Inspiritation
Audience:
Understanding the audience is possibly the most important part of your work when working for a client, or if you want your work to be well received by your audience. Understanding the audience properly can let you understand your own work and aim it at your audience to each tiny detail. You can focus your work into one point of detail and branch out to your audience from there. To understand your audience properly lots of research needs to go into finding out what they want from a piece of art work and what their likes and dislikes are in general. Finding out about their lifestyle, cultural background and the area they currently live in can influence their lifestyle choices. For example as fashion changes a person’s style can develop and change frequently but it may however not be how they would dress, they dress to fit the current trend. Whereas other people may feel comfortable in a certain way and will always dress like that as it what they know and feel comfortable in. this can be applied to art also as people tend to practice in one area and have one career choice instead of practicing in different areas. So when trying to understand an audience for a client it is important to find out how open minded they may or may not be or to try and focus in one area to a niche market that you know will love the piece.
Visual vocabulary
When making this RVJ I struggled trying to document my work as photographers don’t have that instant freedom to draw or sketch out a possible idea or piece like an illustrator or a graphic design may do. I realised that I had to make my own way or documenting my progress so I went about this by collecting images or text that may inspire me or that I found interesting and kept my possible ideas in my head so when I was out or looking I was always thinking of what I could put into the sketchbook to help me generate good and exciting ideas. Other photographers keep written diaries or journals to keep dreams or ideas fresh in their heads or to come back to refer at a later date. Looking at other photographers as part of my research allowed me to reference their work and then use or interpret it in my own work my in my own way. having a sketchbook or a notepad is a great way to help yourself make the development in your own visual vocabulary and enables you to be more productive in your practice as it gives you some motivation to practice you area. By experimenting in your area, for example my area is photography and I like to experiment with my practice in the darkroom as it can have an unpredictable outcome whether it is good or bad. I then will document this in a sketchbook or scan them into the computer, sometimes experiment with it more on Photoshop and upload to a blog, where you are able to choose to share your work with everyone or just still keep it to yourself.
Understanding the audience is possibly the most important part of your work when working for a client, or if you want your work to be well received by your audience. Understanding the audience properly can let you understand your own work and aim it at your audience to each tiny detail. You can focus your work into one point of detail and branch out to your audience from there. To understand your audience properly lots of research needs to go into finding out what they want from a piece of art work and what their likes and dislikes are in general. Finding out about their lifestyle, cultural background and the area they currently live in can influence their lifestyle choices. For example as fashion changes a person’s style can develop and change frequently but it may however not be how they would dress, they dress to fit the current trend. Whereas other people may feel comfortable in a certain way and will always dress like that as it what they know and feel comfortable in. this can be applied to art also as people tend to practice in one area and have one career choice instead of practicing in different areas. So when trying to understand an audience for a client it is important to find out how open minded they may or may not be or to try and focus in one area to a niche market that you know will love the piece.
Visual vocabulary
When making this RVJ I struggled trying to document my work as photographers don’t have that instant freedom to draw or sketch out a possible idea or piece like an illustrator or a graphic design may do. I realised that I had to make my own way or documenting my progress so I went about this by collecting images or text that may inspire me or that I found interesting and kept my possible ideas in my head so when I was out or looking I was always thinking of what I could put into the sketchbook to help me generate good and exciting ideas. Other photographers keep written diaries or journals to keep dreams or ideas fresh in their heads or to come back to refer at a later date. Looking at other photographers as part of my research allowed me to reference their work and then use or interpret it in my own work my in my own way. having a sketchbook or a notepad is a great way to help yourself make the development in your own visual vocabulary and enables you to be more productive in your practice as it gives you some motivation to practice you area. By experimenting in your area, for example my area is photography and I like to experiment with my practice in the darkroom as it can have an unpredictable outcome whether it is good or bad. I then will document this in a sketchbook or scan them into the computer, sometimes experiment with it more on Photoshop and upload to a blog, where you are able to choose to share your work with everyone or just still keep it to yourself.
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Lecture week 3 - Connectivity
Artists are often inspired by each other’s work or historical events or movements that have already happened, but can lead them to imitating others work. History also plays a massive part in being the influence for their work as previous art works, events are often re-created in their work. In fashion looks and styles often come back time and time again and are still accepted in the industry and worn again.
This can also be applied in photography where the paintings of Adam and eve by Jan Gossaert Called Mabuse and Lucas Cranach are often re-created. The questions that are often asked in modern re-creations of art is who came up with the idea first? What is the story behind the piece? What is the link between the original and the new artist interpretation & how the piece has been re-worked or re-used? For example David LaChapelle's piece with Naomi Campbell called "the rape of Africa" imitates a pre-Raphaelite image by Botticelli Venus and Mars - 148 but the meaning behind the image tells a different story. The title of the image is what gives away what is really happening in the image as it is about the destruction, poverty and abuse of Africa.
Then there are obvious copies of artists using each other’s work, for example Rihanna’s video for her single S&M directed by Melina Matsouka is a direct copy of David LaChapelle’s Italian Vogue photographs and the "Striped Face” photo in particular. The use of lighting, colour scheme, the video’s theme and styling is at times almost identical to the photographers work; LaChapelle did sue Rihanna and claimed “"directly derived" from some of his magazine shots.” The video was also again attack for its unoriginal ideas as 19 year old photographer Phiipp Paulus claimed that his photograph “paper world” had been copied in the video as well. As at one point video is shows Rihanna trapped in a plastic sheet with duct tape crosses, the two images show an obvious comparison between the two pieces of work. Not only is the setting similar but both of the images show strong use of the colour red as Phiipp Paulaus’s image has the model wearing a bright red dress with a rounded/bubble shape and in Rihanna’s video her hair is also bright red and styled in exaggerated curly bob.
click here for guardian article
When re-working an image it is important to show your own work in the image, so the image can show the audience the foundations of the old image, but shows your interpretation of it and to also show the link between why you have perhaps intentionally shown why you have chosen to copy this piece.
This can also be applied in photography where the paintings of Adam and eve by Jan Gossaert Called Mabuse and Lucas Cranach are often re-created. The questions that are often asked in modern re-creations of art is who came up with the idea first? What is the story behind the piece? What is the link between the original and the new artist interpretation & how the piece has been re-worked or re-used? For example David LaChapelle's piece with Naomi Campbell called "the rape of Africa" imitates a pre-Raphaelite image by Botticelli Venus and Mars - 148 but the meaning behind the image tells a different story. The title of the image is what gives away what is really happening in the image as it is about the destruction, poverty and abuse of Africa.
Then there are obvious copies of artists using each other’s work, for example Rihanna’s video for her single S&M directed by Melina Matsouka is a direct copy of David LaChapelle’s Italian Vogue photographs and the "Striped Face” photo in particular. The use of lighting, colour scheme, the video’s theme and styling is at times almost identical to the photographers work; LaChapelle did sue Rihanna and claimed “"directly derived" from some of his magazine shots.” The video was also again attack for its unoriginal ideas as 19 year old photographer Phiipp Paulus claimed that his photograph “paper world” had been copied in the video as well. As at one point video is shows Rihanna trapped in a plastic sheet with duct tape crosses, the two images show an obvious comparison between the two pieces of work. Not only is the setting similar but both of the images show strong use of the colour red as Phiipp Paulaus’s image has the model wearing a bright red dress with a rounded/bubble shape and in Rihanna’s video her hair is also bright red and styled in exaggerated curly bob.
click here for guardian article
When re-working an image it is important to show your own work in the image, so the image can show the audience the foundations of the old image, but shows your interpretation of it and to also show the link between why you have perhaps intentionally shown why you have chosen to copy this piece.
Monday, 10 October 2011
Lecture week 2 - Graphic Arts
When working it is important to have an important workspace that is appropriate for you, and a place that you can realistically work in. It can assist you in how and what you produce, by having inspiring things such as books, collections of objects and photographs or objects that are familiar to you so you feel comfortable in the workspace. However it can also help you broaden your usual ideas and outcomes, when surrounded by inspiring workplace. For example in my work place I surround myself with things that I know will excite me and generate productive or new ideas. I’ve chosen to arrange and organise things in a way that reflect my interests, passions and personality, and that I know I like and will keep me positive during the creative process. I like my space to not be too cluttered so that it helps me not to feel cluttered or messy in my head when I am working, even though I might.
Artists are also known to usually collect things, which can generate the inspiration for their work and also can come a running theme in their work. An examples of an artist that use collecting as part of their work Is British pop art artist Peter Blake’s whose work is a collection of objects or a collage that has been put together at random, as he chooses his objects randomly for the piece. For example his album art work for Oasis – Stop the clocks (greatest hits) is a collection of items that as the viewer feel suit the band and their image, as it has a very ‘mod’ feel to it, which musically and in the bands clothing style they aspire to be. Another Pop Artist that uses collections in their work as a running theme is painter and printmaker Wayne Thiebaud who uses food and objects such as books and children’s toys as a collection in his work. In his work the use of a collection of one subject works well is because the exaggerated use of colour and subject fits well in the genre of art and aesthetically works well. It allows the audience to feel childlike, familiar and young, therefore captivating the audience with these ideas.
Artists are also known to usually collect things, which can generate the inspiration for their work and also can come a running theme in their work. An examples of an artist that use collecting as part of their work Is British pop art artist Peter Blake’s whose work is a collection of objects or a collage that has been put together at random, as he chooses his objects randomly for the piece. For example his album art work for Oasis – Stop the clocks (greatest hits) is a collection of items that as the viewer feel suit the band and their image, as it has a very ‘mod’ feel to it, which musically and in the bands clothing style they aspire to be. Another Pop Artist that uses collections in their work as a running theme is painter and printmaker Wayne Thiebaud who uses food and objects such as books and children’s toys as a collection in his work. In his work the use of a collection of one subject works well is because the exaggerated use of colour and subject fits well in the genre of art and aesthetically works well. It allows the audience to feel childlike, familiar and young, therefore captivating the audience with these ideas.
Sunday, 2 October 2011
Lecture 1 - RVJ
The principles I have chosen to look at are the skills of drawing by hand and practising the skills of each side of your brain. I feel that when using the learning journal it is important to practise drawing by hand as it gives a more physical and personal aspect to it. This principle again makes the physical connection between you and your work; therefore it uses your right side of your brain, which is your creative side. The use of physical of mark making shows an experimental side of working out a final piece instead of using generic idea making tools like a spider-diagram. Being more experimental with the way you think and putting those ideas into the learning journal will change and give you the confidence to quickly get those ideas out of the your head, and then allow you to experiment further than you initial thoughts. I find that I have this problem when I use my sketchbook as I worry about what the outcome will look like instead of being concerned about what the actual drawing is, its ideas and how to develop this further. Using this principle allows you to describe and show yours ideas whether you are a skilled drawer or not this process allows you to clearly and simply show your thoughts and design process. Leonardo DaVinci used this process to show the development of his subject matter and solve its problems. Keri Smith uses this idea of letting yourself go when developing your ideas in the early stages of your work. Keri Smith is an illustrator, whose book “How to be an Explorer of the World” shows her free and creative style, yet still remains to have a running theme of certain use of colour and collage. It is important to have a theme in the sketchbook to keep everything linked together, so it flows well, shows your creativity but is not just a bunch of messy or unorganised thoughts. In her journal she uses simple straightforward sentences, underlines the key words and then illustrates these ideas further using playful illustration and small diagrams showing her personality. Her book “wreck this journal” also explores the ideas of people allowing themselves to be messy and experimental whether they want to be or not by following the instructions left for the reader in the book, this again shows society’s way of trying to always aim for perfection and not letting themselves go. These characteristics are typical of the right side of the brain, which is creative, playful and experimental; everything a visual learning journal should be. Another artist that uses a learning journal/sketchbook to help process their ideas is Henry Moore who sketched out possible design ideas for the shape of his next sculpture, these ideas may not necessarily mean much to anyone else but him. From this he is able to physically feel what they could possibly look and feel like if they were to be made, by going through this process it is essential to feel what the ideas are going to be like to ensure that the right outcome is going to happen and solve any possible problems when it comes to making. However for process of making a learning journal both sides of the brain will be greatly needed as you will need the creative side to produce successful ideas for example to get successful ideas you need organisation to record them, and allow you choose which ones will be successful, this will be done by using the left side of your brain.
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