THE END!

It’s been 13 weeks already! Wow time flies by fast! I remember how nervous I was the first day of class, especially for this class. I thought that it would be very difficult and that I would have a lot of troubles, but with the help of my lab instructor and my TA everything went smoothly. I enjoyed working in Photoshop and After Effects even though they were somewhat challenging. I really enjoyed the hands on experience we got in the lab classes and the lectures where we got to learn more about the digital media world. The tutorials done in the labs were very helpful and made me  feel comfortable especially because I did not know anything about After Effects. I also enjoyed having lab classes where we shared the work we created. It was awesome to see how everyone went about doing their projects and the thought and creativity put towards them. It was also great to get positive feedback on my projects because it gave me a lot more confidence with my work.

I enjoyed every part of this class and can honestly say I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I learnt so much in both the lecture and the lab and I actually enjoyed going to them. While 9am is extremely early to have a lecture, I attended every lecture because they were always very interesting. I loved watching videos, and talking about the media world because that is what I am really interested in.

The course gave me a new perspective on the digital media world. I see how much of an impact it has on our lives and the importance of it. Will I pursue a career in digital media? Possibly! I have been using Photoshop since high school and I have always loved the program, so I would like to continue using it. It has only been one semester of RTA and we have only focused on audio production and digital media and I have enjoyed both of them. Next semester we will be doing TV studio which I am so pumped for! So I can’t really say if I am going to pursue digital media as a career.

The most important thing that I am going to take away from this course is with time and hard work I can create something incredible. For example while working in After Effects I had a lot of troubles understanding the program. But I stayed up late nights and set my mind to it and created something I am really proud of. Another very important thing that I learned this semester is that GOOGLE NEVER FORGETS! This is something that will definitely be important to remember when I start looking for jobs in the media world!

Gaming!

Gaming, that word is used very often in the Moshe-Steinberg household. Growing up with two older brothers, I was forced to play video games with them.  We have almost every game system from the N64 to the Wii. Since I am surrounded by video games, I have turned into a gamer! Some people would think that playing video games too often is a bad thing, but there are some positives to playing. One of my favorite games is NBA2k12. There really are a lot of perks to playing this game.

1)   Escapism.

Sometimes you need to take a break from the troubles of life and sit down and do something that you wouldn’t normally be able to do. In NBA2k12, you can imagine you are the Toronto Raptors and play a regular season, make it to the playoffs, and win a championship. Obviously, the chances of this happening in the real world are slim, but in NBA2k12 where you control the players and the game, anything can happen!

2)   Social

Just like talking about last week’s episode of “Gossip Girl” to a friend, many people talk about the fun they had in a game.  Many NBA fans most likely own this game and have things to say about it.  NBA2k12 is also a two-player game! So you can compete against each other using different teams.

3)   Exercise

You probably are thinking, how does playing a game give you exercise? Since NBA2k12 is a basketball game, you will get an urge after playing it to pick up a real basketball and get on the court. 

THE HANGOVER TRAILER!

Originally, I was pretty set on the idea to do the movie “Up”, but I was having trouble starting it. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make a stop motion or take a video. I also thought about drawing what I wanted to do, but I am not very artistic. I thought the best thing to do was just think of another movie.

Over the weekend, I went to a Bar Mitzvah, and the idea hit me that I should do my project on “The Hangover.”  The movie is about a group of friends who get drunk and are so hung-over the next morning that they can't remember what they did the previous night. This is exactly what I portrayed in my trailer.  The scenery to take the pictures was perfect because I was in a party setting and because I was staying in a hotel. I took pictures of my two brothers posing in different settings holding drinks and doing crazy things, such as dancing and proposing marriage to each other. In the hotel, I was fortunate to find a large empty whisky bottle and a bag of empty beer cans in the hallway across from my room. I took pictures of them and included some in the trailer to portray the partying and hangover.  

I decided to make the pictures move fast and just show the quick highlights of the night. I wanted to give a quick feel of what the movie is about. I also made the pictures move fast to make it seem as though the night was a blur and that many things happened. I added the video of my brothers lying passed out in their hotel room the next morning, with clothes thrown all over the place, to show the aftermath of the crazy night that they had spent. 

While working in After Effects, I had some problems making the pictures appear quickly and then quickly disappear. After trying to think of ways to do that, I realized the easiest way was to set a key frame changing the opacity. I also struggled with the font. I wasn't sure how I was going to make the font and if I wanted to give the text crazy effects. I then looked at the movie poster for “The Hangover” and saw that the text on it is actually very simple. I added an outer glow to the text as is done in the movie poster. I added the song “Live Your Life” by Rihanna because it was used in the original trailer and represents the message clearly.

Overall, I am very happy with the way my trailer turned out. I followed the guidelines, and I believe that what I showed told the story of the movie without giving too much away. I didn't want people to be confused with what I made which is why I made it very simple and to the point. Working in After Effect, although challenging, was a lot of fun! 

TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING

For the last couple of weeks we have been talking about how effective transmedia storytelling is.  My favorite television show, The Office, currently uses transmedia story. When the Office first premiered in 2005, “The Office” struggled in ratings.  A year later, NBC released the episodes on iTunes for viewers to download.   Soon afterwards, NBC also created online content, including original webisodes and games, on The Office website. The addition of online interaction proved to be highly successful. Through transmedia storytelling, The Office has successfully enhanced the experience for the audience by allowing viewers to learn more about the characters and to be interactive with the show.

The Office successfully uses the internet, through character vlogs and webisodes, to advance character development by giving viewers information about the show’s characters that are not seen in its television episodes.  For example, prior to the start of Season 4, The Office website posted vlogs about what the characters did over the summer. These summer vlogs did not go into the next season of the show, but the audience was able to learn more about the characters. The many vlogs they have, have been successful in allowing the audience to connect more to the characters in The Office.

During its third season, The Office started creating webisodes, which are short episodes of a show that air only on the internet. The Office currently has seven different webisode series that portray the supporting characters in the show. These webisodes allow the audience to continue their enjoyment of The Office by watching additional mini-episodes on the internet. Although the audience does not need to watch them in order to follow the television show’s plot, the webisodes allow the audience to become more engaged with the characters and story. 

The Office successfully uses online games and interactive activities to generate more viewers and enhance the viewers’ experience. For example, fans can make an account for the online game Dunder Mifflin at Sabre , where they able to pretend that they are a part of The Office. Fans must join a branch of the company and participate in tasks and games in order to reach the top of the Dunder Mifflin Company. Every time a fan wins a game or task they are given points, which allow them to win rewards.

Here is a link to NBC website for the office. If you are a fan of the office, check out the website, and be apart of their transmedia storytelling.

http://www.nbc.com/the-office/

AFTER EFFECTS

After Effects, surprisingly not as difficult as I thought it would be. In High School I learned how to use Adobe Flash, which is very similar to After Effects. In Flash I learned how to create key frames and move objects. In After Effects you can do all that and more! I am enjoying the program and having so much fun in my lab class learning how to use it. I have explored the program and have seen all the cool things you can do.

For my motion graphic assignment, I decided to do the movie UP! UP is one of my favorite Pixar movies.  I don’t know 100% how I want to go about doing it, but I have thought of some ideas. Since UP is the story of an old man who ties balloons to his house and lifts him up in the air, I wanted to create a motion graphic showing that. How I am going to create it, I’m not too sure about, but that is the idea! I am thinking of possibly doing a Claymation Stop Motion.
Here is a video of the style I am thinking of doing.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn-Ztku1Tzw&feature=related

TYPOGRAPHY

This week we learned how crucial it is to choose the right typography. Different typefaces give the image you are viewing different messages. It is important that you pick the right typography for the message you want to convey. If you are making a horror movie poster, you aren’t going to use a font such as comic sans. The following examples are of DVD covers that use typography effectively.

Toy Story: 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKKzIv0RM6UHnluahdjduadKRv_EUZO7jDKxqTKv70GzroNhSPbiYFwA8yX3qekAaO1ch2DodLIB42UPAVreuTUx1fgCYMearwIEhxuSGE4MFmd0yBDCeymEM5Zfv_5SQf1fq5rriO3Y/s1600/toy-story-3-dvd-cover.jpg

Since Toy Story is a movie for children, it is important that the typography is simple and easy to read. The typography used in this poster works because it is big, bold, and colorful. The typeface jumps out and is the first thing that the viewer sees. Yellow, red and blue are primary colors and contrast well with each other.  This typeface is very effective for the target audience of the movie.

LOST

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3637/3612927911_bbd68c33e0.jpg

LOST (aka my favorite television show) effectively uses typography in their DVD cover. The name of the television show is very important because it explains what the show is about, which is why they used a bold typeface. Since the show is one word, it is important to have it stand out. Also they put cracks in the inside of the font that reflects the mysterious and distorted part of the show.

The Simpsons Movie

http://www.beyondhollywood.com/stillsx/2007/11/simpsons-the-movie-dvd-cover.jpg

The typography used in this cover successfully demonstrates the central theme. Viewers of The Simpsons know that the show’s characters are yellow and that the main character, Homer, likes doughnuts. These aspects are clear in the typography. They creatively turned the “O” in “Movie” into a doughnut. The font is very bold and yellow, which shows that the movie is fun and a comedy. By identifying the word “MOVIE” in big letters, the poster promotes the movie rather than the television show.

MOTION GRAPHICS!

The past two weeks in BDC192 we have been talking about motion graphics. We have watched many different videos on YouTube of some awesome motion graphics.  The time and effort that goes into creating such an amazing piece of art really amazes me.

            During my BDC192 lab, my TA Lisa Young showed me some of her favorite motions graphics. She showed me many that blew me away and left me speechless. There were many that I loved, but the one I want to share is called T-Shirt War.

This video was created in two days, and used 222 t-shirts! Crazy! What they created is funny, original and extremely creative. I love the use of color they use in the video because it really helps it to stand out more. It has a nice flow to it and you can barely tell that they took a bunch of pictures instead of filming it. You can tell a lot of planning was done before to create all of the different t-shirts. This video has given me a lot of inspiration for my next project!

ARTIST STATEMENT

I decided to create a CD cover for the artist Jack Johnson whose genre of music is soft/alternative rock. To make the CD cover appealing, I made sure to follow some of the rules of C.R.A.P.  Because I wanted the cover to reflect the type of music that Jack Johnson plays, I picked very soft colors that contrasted well with each other. The green and the blue go well together and focus the viewer’s attention on the main part of the image, which is the blackbird.  I also followed the rules of alignment by aligning and organizing the text in a top-down manner.  I didn’t want the viewer to get lost while looking at the cover.

I needed to overcome many obstacles when creating the CD cover. Before I created this cover, I had a totally different concept in mind.  I was going to do a jazz CD cover, with a silhouette of a person on a white background and the artist’s name and the CD title in a bold font.  The image I created did not express the genre of the music well, and it looked unorganized and visually unappealing. I commissioned my work and was given a lot of feedback on how to make the design stronger.  I redesigned the cover based on this feedback, but I was still unhappy with how the cover looked.  For this reason, I started again from scratch with a different concept and image.  While looking through my hard drive, I found a photo that I had taken at a park and decided to use that for the CD cover.  Because parts of the image were unnecessary, I cropped a selection of the more effective parts of the picture to include on the cover.  I then manipulated the image on Photoshop to make it stand out more.  To do this, I adjusted the levels, brightness, and contrast.  I had difficulty choosing the right font to go with the picture. I didn’t want it to be too bold to take away from the actual picture, and the font needed to have a softer look in order to reflect the genre of music.  I chose a font that was thinner and gave it a drop shadow to make it more visible.  I chose “Do You Remember” as the CD title because the image reflects the uplifting, calm, and happy mood in this Jack Johnson song.  Because the original background was white and too plain, I added a blue background and changed the opacity so it flows well with the rest of the picture.

Overall, I believe that the final product turned out to be very strong. I am happy with how it looks, and I believe that it could be a possible album cover for Jack Johnson. 

Photoshop!

In our digital media lab we have been focusing on Photoshop. I have been using the program since I was in grade 10, and have loved it since. Photoshop is an excellent program and is easy to use. Photoshop can do many different things to a photo. It can change the color, opacity, lighting and much more. I have enjoyed using the different tools in Photoshop to create cool images by using multiple different effects. I created an album cover that I think shows my Photoshop abilities. I am excited to share what I created in my lab class on Tuesday.

Many magazines use Photoshop to alter the appearance of their model, which I believe is a downfall to Photoshop. The media shows us images that we come to accept as true. When female see pictures of thin models on magazines, they feel that is how they should look. The medias message is that being thin and beautiful attracts the opposite sex. In reality, pictures are photo-shopped to take away all their imperfections. These images, though, become the standard to which others compare themselves and other people. When people don’t live up to the standards it makes them feel negatively about themselves and others. We all have our imperfections, but shouldn’t we embrace them, rather than hide them? Through the use of Photoshop, we can hide our pimples, take away unwanted fat on us and so on.

  

For example take a look at this picture of Blake Lively on Seventeen Magazine. There is a strong glow to her face, her arms are thinner, her chin is more shaped, her neck is more defined and so on. Photoshop can do a lot to a photo, and make it seem so unrealistic to what the person actually looks like.

C.R.A.P

This week in BDC192 we learned about CRAP, an acronym to the rules of design.

C- contrast
R- repetition
A- alignment
P- proximity

This is a helpful way to remember the important components to have in design. Using these rules, it will help me to make an excellent poster for our first assignment. I went online to find many different pictures that incorporate the design rules. Here is what I found!

                                                                                                                                                           

Contrast

Contrast is when two elements on the page are different and help make the picture stand out. Contrast is used well in this iPod advertisement because of how the colors work together. The green background helps make the silhouette stand out. And the silhouette helps make the white iPod stand out. This picture focuses the viewers’ attention on the most important part of the picture, which is the iPod

Repetition

Repetition is to repeat a design throughout the page. This Andy Warhol style picture repeats Marilyn Monroe’s face but with different colors in each section. This is useful because it is attention grabbing. It allows the viewer to see the different moods of Marilyn Monroe through the colors. It also has contrast because of how the colors help the main subject stand out.

This is a picture of alignment. Alignment is when everything on the page is visually connected. It is important not confuse the viewer and have the elements in the picture all over the place. It’s important to have a balance between positive and negative space. This picture is a perfect example of using positive space. The text is aligned from top to bottom and the viewer isn’t lost reading it.  It is easy to follow because the writing stays consistently in the middle.  The picture is also aligned because it has the characters on the right and left side.

Proximity

Proximity is having elements related to each other close together. In this picture there are headings and then subheadings underneath. This makes it more visually appealing because it is organized.  By organizing it in subheadings the reader can access the information easily.  

C.R.A.P is a valuable design principle to follow and a way to know if what you are making is visually appealing to the viewer.

Google Never Forgets

       In our second digital media lecture, we discussed our digital footprint. A digital footprint is the tracing we leave online when we visit websites, log in and out of our emails accounts, and leave comments and chat messages on sites such as Facebook. Online personal information that we think is private or shared with only people whom we choose is really public. Even information that friends post online about you contributes to your digital footprint and identity.  Our digital footprint is also permanent. Once information about us goes online, it is there forever.

       Our digital footprint can be traced by strangers, who may judge you based on your online profile. Picture this. You go for a job interview, and you feel as if you made an excellent impression on the employer. You leave the interview feeling secure that you will be offered the job. That night you go to a party with your friends and get wasted. Someone takes a picture of your wild night, posts it on Facebook, and tags you in the picture. Later that week you receive an email from the prospective employer saying that you did not get the job. The employer searched your name online and found many pictures of you passed out drunk and concluded you would not be a desirable employee. This is one example of a negative footprint that can ruin an individual’s future opportunities.

       Fortunately, my digital footprint is positive. When I googled myself, I only found some of my profile pictures from Facebook.  I also went on the website called spezify.com and searched my name. I saw a few of my tweets about my favorite television shows, but nothing that I wrote was inappropriate. Based on my digital footprint alone, people would know that I am a teenage girl who loves listening to pop music, watching television, and spending time with friends.

      

       Because I do not have a common name, it is easy for people to find information about me on the internet. For this reason, I make sure that I only post information and pictures on Facebook that show my interests and are appropriate. I am very aware that people might have access to my account, which is why I am careful about what I post. I have made all my settings on Facebook private. After this lecture, I have considered changing my twitter setting to private because the whole word doesn’t need to see my tweets. I will also be more conscious as to what I post online.

       In my opinion, it is important to have a balance between what you share online and what you keep to yourself. I do believe that, if you are careful about what you post online, there are a lot of advantages to having an online identity. It is connects people who have similar interests. It allows others to learn more about our personality. It also allows us to share opinions on current events and issues. You shouldn’t post anything online that you might regret later, such as pictures of you being drunk or or comments that are rude or hurtful to other people. You don’t want to post information that would risk your safety or the safety of others. For example, you should not post personal identifying information such as your phone number or address.  As long as you have a balance, then having an online identity can be a good thing.

Just remember, Google never forgets, so be careful what you post online!