Process and Production - After Effects - Task 1 - Trailer

In the first session I was asked to come back to the next session with 10 - 20 images and with a copyright free audio file in order to start making a 10 second trailer. I decided I was going to base my trailer around being on a train journey and show what you see throughout. 

In preparation for the trailer I took a vast amount of images on my own train journey which provided me with more than the recommended amount; this allowed me to have choice when creating my trailer. I got the audio file from http://freemusicarchive.org.

Before going into Adobe After Effects I needed to edit my images in Adobe Photoshop so that they were suitable for use in my trailer. 

Contextual Portfolio - Modernism?

How do we think about Modernism? 

During this lecture we started to understand modernism and how the movement started and evolved. It was driven by technological change in the 18th and 19th century; it was part of the technological industrial revolution. Whereas film was in the 19th and 20th century (the new language) and internet was in the 21st century. 

As part of this movement and style, as an artist/designer it would appear that the old style of designing based around natural form and materials had been rejected in order to make way for new design. The movement celebrated the use of technology over hand made items. Designers preferred geometrical forms in comparison to the decorative motifs and surface 'art'. There modernist principles spread through Europe to groups such as the Bauhaus, De Stijl, Constructivism and Futurism. Modernism was the era of the 'ism' movements such as surrealism, dadaism, cubism, expressionism, impressionism and more. Their work made use of a grid system to organise the layout of a page and keep its simplicity throughout; although they stayed away from being decorative, they used diagonal lines in pieces. 

A motto that has stuck with me is from Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe who said 'less is more'; I think this phrase is a good summary of the modernism movement. This motto also relates to their belief that function should always be the made focus over form. They believed that design doesn't have personality, the main focus was the purpose of the design. 

Looking at modernist pieces you can see that they only use a few colours in one piece; using a simple colour palette so that the colours didn't overpower the information being put across. They tended to mainly use sans-serif as it is a clean type that is legible. Another element of their practice was space awareness; space was a main element to their design. 

Modernists: Armin Hofmann, Joost Schmidt, Josef Muller Brockmann, Jan Tschichold

My Opinion

The modernism era is a personal favourite of my as I love how clean the designs look due to the consideration of space within their work. Also I think that the idea of using a grid system is useful in designing a book, magazine or a series of work etc as it allows you to have a consistent layout. As I have said earlier, 'less is more' is something that I think design should be like; if the design doesn't fulfil its purpose/function, it has failed in my opinion. Although I think that practice works well within design, I also feel that design should be expressive as well, as long as it doesn't distract from the message that is trying to come through. Overall I think that the modernism era was needed in order to push design and push the boundaries; from this period of time design has developed and progressed which wouldn't have happened if modernism hadn't have been formed. 

Process and Production - Physical Studio - Task 2 -Mood boards

Process and Production - Physical Studio - Task 2 -Mood boards

For our next task we were asked collect images in relation to different aspects of the article in order to build up a profile of the article. Using images from the internet I started to produce mood boards; on these mood boards I wanted one about Mr Bolinger, one about his job and then one in relation to the model aspect of the article. 


Below are my first mood board images that I had collected before having my second Physical Studio session; from Speaking to John I quickly realise that it would be in my best interest to collect images that go in more detail about the article so that the images actually could tell the story without the need for words. 

 

Contextual Portfolio - Universal Visual Language

Universal/ unified visual language
This is were visual language can be interpreted by anyone from anywhere in the world and the message behind the visual concept will be the same as the word universal means global and widespread. 

In terms of the Bauhaus and Black mountain college with their practice they created a universal visual language. Walter Gropius from the Bauhaus wanted to break down the barrier between classes and therefore create a product that would be accessible to everyone and therefore be universal in design. 

From my experience of Art & design in education, I have always been influenced to produce design ideas/concepts that can reach a large audience and therefore be aware of elements of design meaning different things when shown to different audiences globally. 

I think that the idea of universal comes from the fact that a design should be able to reach large widespread audiences and to reach a large audience you need to consider the design universally. I think that there is a need to think of visuality in terms of visual language as like I have mentioned above colours etc can represent different things entirely in different countries and cultures. 

Process and Production - Adobe Creative Suite - Photoshop Introduction

For the first session of the Adobe Creative Suite I was introduced to the use of Adobe Photoshop; the next session will be on Adobe Illustrator. 

One of the aspects of this session was learning about how to set up a document for both the web and print; for web it should be 72 res (not always) whereas for print it is 300 res. After looking at the different document setups we moved on to producing something using the software.

There are many steps to create the end result which I will go through:

Step 1: First you have to line up the light bulb and the screw; whilst creating a mask layer of the screw layer so that you can use the brush tool to rub out the unwanted lines from the picture of the screw inside the bulb. You will then need a clean up layer which is where you use the eraser to remove the black in the background. Another layer is created to remove the metal rods using the patch tool.

Step 2: Add a mask layer to the stick and erase the background of the stick. Then move the tree into place and create a mask layer for this to remove any unwanted branches so that you are just left with the tree leaves. Reposition the tree top so that it looks attached to the stick. Using command U; you can change the hue, saturation and lightness to the desired effect that you want.

Step 3 - :  Make two copies of the tree top by duplicating the layer; then move one above the existing tree top and warp it to fit to the light bulb. With the second copy place that below the existing tree top and reflect the image; then do the same as before. If there is any excess around the light bulb, create a mask layer for each duplicate and erase areas. On both duplicate layers change the opacity down so that they look more like shadows.

Below is the tree that i produced in Adobe Photoshop; to create it I made use of layers, mask layers, the brush tool, patch tool and filters and effects etc.  

After producing this I want to progress my skills further as this was the first time that I had properly used Adobe Photoshop and therefore my skills are quite basic and need development.

Process and Production - After Effects - Task 1

After being introduced to vimeo I started searching/ browsing through the content on the website to find inspiration and pieces of work that were of interest to me and my practice. There are all types of videos on the website which makes it interesting to look through. When I start creating short clips in my After Effects workshops I will begin to put mine on there as well for the public to view. 

I began by search the city due to currently doing working on a brief in relation to the city in flux; I thought this may help me progress forward with my project. I found a video which shows a city evolving as the car travels through the virtual city. This is an interesting concept as it shows the way a city can change and develop during a short time scale. Also as it is a 'paper city' it could suggest that the city can knock and built back up again easily to develop the city when change is needed. 


Here is the video of the Paper City; 

Paper City from Maciek Janicki on Vimeo.

Process And Production - Physical Studio Task 1 - Article Write-up (Man Meats Model)

Is America going too far with everything and everyone becoming super sized? The portion sizes are considerably bigger in comparison to the portion sizes of the UK for example; I mean the difference in size must be more than double.  In fact if you take Dale Bolinger, 43, from Florida, he’s taken the concept to the extreme by actually becoming a cannibal.

Bolinger, by day is a supermarket worker whose role is to process a customers shopping basket through the tills in order to pay the bills. Although, it will become apparent that he is now taking elements of the job home with him in order to support his super size meal lifestyle. In his normal Suburban home he has set up a catwalk style runway in which he’ll get models to parade up and down; he will then choose between the models and decide which one he wants to eat. The element of his job is brought through the form of having the models dress up in food he has collected from the store he works at.

The supermarket worker has grown up with good values, with the sense of right and wrong; yet he doesn't see that eating people is a wrong and immoral thing to do. I decided to delve deeper in to the world of Bolinger in order to gain a fuller understanding of his thoughts and reasons behind the way he lives his current life in comparison to the normal childhood he once lived. At first it would seem that he had a regular upbringing by his parents Gill and Robert Bolinger both aged 72 who also both now retired from their careers. His mother was a nurse whereas his father was an teacher in a local school near to where the family lived. It was only when he grew up that his life change in to the life he is currently living.

So I decided to call Mr Bolinger for an interview and he happily agreed to meet up with me at his place of work, Walmart. I waited in the staffroom for him to finish; when he came through the door he was full of smiles and happy to meet me; he looked like any other person who works at Walmart. Then I began to ask him questions about his life….

So Mr Bolinger what do feel about your upbringing, do you feel you had a normal childhood?

It was just the same as any of my friends the same age as me, in fact I feel I had a better childhood than what some children go through at a very small age. For example I have never experienced any violence or domestic abuse, and it’s quite sad to say that I’ve known friends be subject to this.

Would you call yourself a cannibal?

Well in a technical sense I would have to call myself a cannibal as I have in fact eaten the flesh of another human being which is what a cannibal is described as. However, I see what I do as a way of living and it’s just another meal, nothing more, nothing less; I don’t see the topic as something special or shocking.

Why wouldn't the topic be shocking! you are eating the flesh of a human!

Well it’s become natural to me and therefore it just seems a normal thing to do, whereas I can understand to outsiders that the act of eating human flesh would be quite unusual and quite frankly strange. But to me is it as normal as having a slice of toast in the morning or having a coffee which are seen as normal daily actions.

When did you start to become a cannibal?

I first started to become a cannibal about 5 years ago, so when I was around 38 I guess. 

What was the reason for you becoming a cannibal?

I was thinking about my life in general as I was gradually getting closer to the big 4-0 and I thought to myself about what I have achieved in my life and all the missed out opportunities. Then I began to think about the future and it came to my attention that what would we do if our resources were to run out? What would we eat? How would we survive? We rely too heavily on animals to provide meat for us for our consumption, this is when I began looking for alternatives which is when I stumbled across the idea of becoming a cannibal. 

 We all know that resources are running low as the consumption per person is rising, however don't you feel that we should tackle this issue before we all turn into cannibals? 

This problem if solved could also be seen as wrong in a sense, as for you to lower the consumption impact that humans have, the government would have to limit people on how many children they are allowed in order to lower the population and therefore lower consumption. China have been criticised for doing this exact thing, so imagine what up roar there would be if this was a worldwide situation. Also being a cannibal is an alternative to eating poor defenceless animals.

Why don't you become a vegetarian if you feel so strong about killing animals?

As much as I value animals and I don't necessarily want to eat human flesh but I feel it is important to have protein in your diet. I know you can live without having it in your diet but I feel you are healthier when you do get protein in your system. 

Do you think you could ever stop?

It is possible but I’m used to this lifestyle now and I think it would be hard for me to change how I live; although if it was found that there was a better alternative I would be open to try it just like I have tried this lifestyle.

Thank you for meeting up with me Mr Bolinger and giving your time up, I hope you do find this alternative way of life for yourself.

Your welcome, I was happy to clear up any issues that have come to light through the media. 

So the question to us all, what will the future hold for us in terms of what we will eat; will we become cannibals or will we seek another alternative? It has been interesting investigating the life of Mr Bolinger as it’s so far from normality and the general publics lifestyle. I wonder if this will become our way of living in the distant future but for now it is just the minority and in my opinion it should be kept this way.

Process And Production - Physical Studio Task 1

For the first workshop I was asked to bring two newspapers, scissors, a pen and writing paper; before the workshop I was unsure on what we would be doing with this equipment, however this soon became clear during the session.

During the session we were asked to look through the newspapers to find articles of interest and then with these articles ​either create a short story or an article style piece of writing.

When looking through the newspaper I had brought with me I came across a story about a cannibal and a story to do with models; both were of interest but for completely different reasons. The reasons I chose these articles was because they were so different I thought I could come up with something interesting and unique; they also gave me the opportunity to put my own stamp on the story/article.

I chose to produce an article and I'll admit I struggled at first to write it as I've not been used to writing articles; however when I began to write the rest just came instantly as I could be so free with the article. The article has only one main character, with only a couple of sub-characters. The theme throughout the article is that an American man eats models from his own personal catwalk/runway in his house.

My overall intention is to keep the audience interested throughout the article and in some sections to shock the reader. The article will help the audience to understand the characters' way of life and come to terms with what he does.