Circles: Very busy with the jumps cuts for a simple narrative. I understand the art direction but the jumps cuts was almost dizzying. Story was ok, I get the point of have the ghost girl representing the spirit world and sneaking clues with in the cuts.
Soldiers: Another afterlife theme. Simple editing but effective, Arlington like setting. music sets the tone of emotion. Soldiers ACUs clues their place in the story as being dead.
I loved these videos! The designer did such a good job of developing character and creating suspense. I felt like I could follow and understand the story line, even with no words, and was intrigued to see what happened next with the characters. The use of common sound effects, like squeals and eating, helped explain the story in a way that kept it entertaining. I think the use of words would have added a childlike feel to the video, which wouldn’t work with the theme and content.
I also liked the consistent dark imagery. The lack of color and noise really made the story more interesting and made the sound effects and visuals stand out more.
I wasn’t really a fan of this video from the beginning. Maybe it was Edward Tufte’s monotone voice, but I just didn’t love his style. I also wasn’t the biggest fan of some of the suggestions he offered up; such as adding more details in the weather and stock market apps.
He described the stock market interface as ‘cartoony’ and while I understand what he’s saying, I also like that about the iPhone. I think it makes it feel less business-y and appeals to a larger audience.
I do understand a lot of what Tufte is saying about changing the border around pictures and things like that. Overall, his analysis was interesting and thoughtful
I watched the short video, “Forget the Film, Watch the Titles”, and was so entertained by the example. The idea of using a computer, something so many people are familiar with, was incredibly interesting. I think the thing that was most intriguing to me is that I feel like I know a Mac computer, and understand the different tabs, etc – but Aaron Becker introduced them in a new and clever way that kept me very interested throughout the entire title sequence. The title sequence also directly relates with the film, which is not only important, but also helps the audience look at the film in a different way.
It was also cool to see the story boards and how far along they were when presented to HBO. Ours have been so focused on the first ideas and iterations, but these were very developed.
I watched the video on Troika Design Group, which was quite interesting. Except the Kristen Olsen smiles the entire time she talks…that was a bit unnerving.
Troika seems like a really interesting place to work and I’m surprised by how many large clients they have. Their work environment seems incredibly casual, yet the produce fantastic designs for so many large name companies.
Troika makes me think about how much I would like to be called an expert in one area. Troika really seems to make use of the skills of their individual staff members, and I would love to work for a place that has a similar philosophy.
I read a few of these, but the one I related to the most was the essay about plagiarism. I think it’s true, most of are do plagiarize. Sometimes it’s without noticing and meaning to. I felt bad for the person at the beginning of the essay, the one that almost published a novel until other people realized the author took passages from other authors. I do believe that it can be an accident to plagiarize. Some people do it unconsciously. I believe that a person could hear a story when they were little and then recreate the story without realizing that they’ve heard it before. We all use idioms and cliches, which I guess could be some form of plagiarism too..they’re not our own words.
Following bootcamp, while I knew I wanted to stick with the program, I was worried as to how much y I could realistically learn and retain in 10 months.
I’ve come a long way the past couple of months, and through all the stress, flailing, and self-doubt, I’ve really enjoyed this class and feel like I have a significantly deeper understanding of aesthetics and art (in addition to their application). I also think the presentations and critiques have been as useful as the actual execution projects in terms of learning.
Although participating in a 10 month graduate program is fantastic in the sense that I’ll (hopefully) have my masters this spring, there are certainly numerous areas (even simply within our Visual Aesthetics class) that I’d like to spend more time on (like motion graphics, typography and modularity, storytelling and narrative, etc.).
In the beginning of the semester I was not sure what this class would entail, and now that it has come to an end I have realized that I learned so much more than I ever thought I would. I think the thing that has impacted me the most about the course was the emphasis on the design process as a key component to the overall success of my designs. From now on I will think about my designs from beginning to end instead of by just critiquing the final product. When it comes to my interactive designs I have a hard time not thinking about the visual content (typography, typeface, interface design) after taking this course and I’m extremely excited to see how this new found interest and understanding of these topics will impact my career in the future.
Intrigue! TV-for-a-face bible-toting robot gets stabbed trying to deliver the good news! Irony! He was trying to escape from one murderer into the arms of another!
Ominous, macabre shorts with cartoonish, steampunk bots, each Pica Towers film demonstrates the power of storytelling through showing, rather than telling, as there is no dialogue or text of any kind. The audience has to learn the story from various suggestions in each shot, and Pica Towers is packed with details in each frame.
The tile of the first short film, “The Good News” is both clever and ironic, as it plays on the idea of Christians who go door to door to spread the “good news,” except in this case, the little TV bot holding a bible is clearly scared and disturbed about something when antennae bot opens the door. Yet, what from what the audience has seen, the bot (we’ll call him antennae bot) who opens the door, seems sinister as well as he is shown raising a chained smaller bot at the beginning of the film. Ironically he too falls victim to the unseen murderer.
Twist! Blind TV bot stumbles upon three dead bots featured in first film!
The beginning of the second film, which also has a great tongue-in-cheek title “Hound of Flesh,” shows a blind TV bot trying to get back his cane from a dog. The shots that peer around the corner, especially those that feature flickering lights in the background, are particularly effective for setting the mood– it’s almost as if he’s being followed. The shaking of the camera and stumbling sounds shown after cutting away from him stepping out over a set of stairs is a clever way of showing the audience that he fell. It’s the next scene however, that the audience finally sees the connection. There is the TV bot, face-down, and still bleeding, and then we see the two bots from before, both hanging from the ceiling, dead. It’s a fantastic shot, and all the more powerful because the blind TV bot has no idea what’s sitting in front of him (and I’m guessing he can’t smell, since he’s a TV?). The audience then hears the gunshot from final film, (which took another play through for me to notice). I have no doubt that as I continue to watch them over and over, I will notice more correlations amongst the three films.
Before this class I used to just look at things and decide if I thought something was appealing to me or not – didn’t think much about the layout, the font, and the little details. I now notice that I pay more attention to mobile websites, to their color scheme and the information that they put on their site. I get frustrated now if I can’t find what I’m looking for right away. Now, I notice how much attention is put in every site – or anything that is supposed to attract users. In creating content and graphics, the creator has to think of the user/viewer. What would please them and how to make something simple for them. It’ s a hell of a lot of work. A 30 second animation clip took me countless hours and got me to the point of wanting to bash my computer into my professor’s head. Bottom line is, i now appreciate what I’m looking at. I think the project that impacted me the most was the mobile interface design. It was difficult to decided what should be put on a mobile site and what should be excluded. It was also difficult to think of what pleases the viewer and what types of viewers will look at the site…will they be visually impaired, do they have fat fingers..?
