Farewell!

This semester has gone by SO fast. I’ve learned so much in the past three months it’s hard to take in. At the beginning of the semester, I was really excited for the course but slightly nervous. Nervous that I wouldn’t be good at the programs that we were going to be using but excited that I was going to get to try things I never have before. When we were shown some of the examples of pieces that had been created I was pretty intimidated. But once we had our first few classes, I realized that everything was going to be explained to us step by step and I was excited to see the kind of portfolio that I would have by the end of this course.

I was surprised with how much I loved going to the lectures. The fact that we have the chance to be a part of a program where lectures include cool things that you can find online, and neat stop motion videos that we can aspire to make one day still boggles my mind. I learned so many helpful things throughout the lectures, and having a teacher that is so passionate about the subject at hand really helps.

For me, there wasn’t really anything that stood out about this course that I didn’t enjoy. I thought the tutorials were all very descriptive, and help was always available if I needed it. If I could go back in time, something I would change about my personal experience would be to learn Photoshop on my own. I felt that people who had used the program before did do a lot better on the Photoshop assignment but things like that happen with anything. If it was a songwriting assignment I would be ahead of the game, but I’m not the most tech savvy person. I would really love to continue with Digital Media classes throughout my four years because I think the things that we have the ability to do in this generation is amazing. Watching various videos in our lectures greatly changed my perspective on our digital world. I knew that we were becoming a more technological society, but I didn’t know the extent at which this was happening. The lectures and labs opened up my eyes to the possibilities that we have in our future, especially after going through a program like Radio and Television Arts. This program also made me a lot more confident in my technological skills. Like I said before, I was originally hesitant about this class because I’ve never been a computer person. But now that we have learned the basics of this software and had the chance to explore it, I’m much more confident with digital software and my creative ability. This course also helped me realize something else. If I want to be involved with the digital media field, I don’t necessarily have to be the one behind a computer. Though computers may one day become my area of expertise, as of right now I’m more of an idea person and that’s still okay. Ideas are the driving force behind anything, especially in digital media. So even if I’m not the best with computers, I could team up with someone who loves working with computers but doesn’t have many ideas and we could work together to create something amazing.

The most important thing that I am taking away from this class is all the ideas that I have been exposed to. I’d like to think that I’m a very creative person and the fact that I have now been exposed to videos, concepts and technology that I have never seen before  is really important to help me express my ideas. For example, I may have had an idea to make a creative website that could reach a large number of people and only ever thought of fun games and activities that I could put on the website. After learning what I have in the lectures, I could now apply the interactivity concepts to my website. Instead of just having a basic website with pictures and videos, I now know that I could create some sort of game that fans could be involved with and have them find clues across the city, leading them to a final prize- a thought that may have never entered my mind before this course. This is just one of the many examples of ways that I could apply the knowledge I’ve obtained in this course to ideas that I will create in my future.

I’ve said this is previous blogs, but I am very grateful to be in this program. This course in particular forced me to think outside the box. Every assignment pushed me in a way that I have never experienced before. Knowing that our teacher was going to see 20 + album covers made me want to design something like no one else had. It also gave me the chance to explore various programs and apply it to my everyday life. Though I may have not had the best looking album cover, the feedback I received was very helpful so when I decide to make another one for my own CD, I already have some ideas and ways to improve my original design.

I hope my blogs have been entertaining and informative these past 12 weeks! Thanks for taking your time to read them and I’ll be sure to keep posting.

p.s. here's a sneak preview of my logo for my website :)

Interactivity and Web Media

I’ve slightly touched on the concept of the importance of a good website in a recent blog, but this week in our Digital Media lecture we explored the topic even more. Websites are essential to marketing. It’s a way for people to gather information about a product or person with the click of a finger. Seeing as how we are now living in the digital age, a personal website is starting to become as important as a resume. We have an upcoming assignment where we have to design our own website about anything we want. This got me thinking about website’s themselves, and their importance in society today. Website’s used to just do basic things: show some pictures, maybe a video, have an info page, contact information etc. But they were all pretty one-sided. By one-sided I mean that-when visiting a website- you knew that you weren’t having a direct connection with anyone (chat sites excluded). But recently there has been an innovation that combines the informative side of a website with the interactive side that a company can now bring to the table.

We talked about various interactive websites that allowed the visitors of the websites to get involved in an activity and feel as though they are a part of something. Whether it’s going to a location, finding a clue, and submitting online for a reward – like the Halo fans got when they were allowed to play Halo 2 before it was released, or something like what Nine Inch Nails did. We watched this video in our lecture that amazed me on multiple levels. It started when someone found a USB in a bathroom after a Nine Inch Nails concert and took it home with them. They uploaded it and long story short they transcribed the sound frequency and turned it into a digital signal and noticed that – when extremely zoomed in – the sounds were made out of numbers. The fans called this phone number and followed a whole bunch of other directions that took them to an abandoned warehouse and they all went willingly. The end result was a reward of a free private concert for the dedicated Nine Inch Nails fans. Fans of bands, products, games-they all love things like this and it in turn is a very effective marketing strategy.

We also talked about the history of games in the lecture and how they have the ability to create an augmented reality. I’m not into video games or computers games so when Laurie asked the class to raise their hands if they were gamers I didn’t put my hand up. Then she clarified that she didn’t only mean video games, but even people who play games on our their cell phones. As she said this a statistic was put up on the board about the amount of people our age who play games. My initial reaction was that it must be wrong, but then I realized almost all of us do fall under that category. We all use games as an escape from our world, even if it’s playing a simple game on our phones or iPod’s. Apparently 97% of us use games as a diversion from our everyday lives. If you want more statistics on percentages of various demographics you can go to http://pewresearch.org/pubs/953/teens-video-games-and-civics. When looking on this website the statistics astonished me. It’s crazy to think about how reliant we are on technology. Whether it’s to make websites to market ourselves or products, interact with people all around the world, or entertain ourselves on our daily commute. Where would we be without entertainment that we can hold in the palm of our hands? Who knows. All I know is that I’m excited to see the amazing things that are created within the next decade, and I hope I’m the one the creates some of them.

Our Social Identities (long lost week 9)

I’ve always known that it was a good thing for a company to have their own website. It’s something that would be essential to any company as it is a means of advertising a product, selling a product, giving the history of their company, and basically making their company look as good as it can. Something that I didn’t know was the importance of having a personal website. I thought that it would only be useful for someone who was selling something or trying to do some sort of advertisement, but then I realized something. We are selling and advertising ourselves in this day and age. We are marketing ourselves to future employers and basically the world. Websites may be useful to showcase talent and one’s work and achievements, but it is surely not the only thing a future employer will be looking through when you hand in your resume.

Early on in the semester, we had lectures about the impact of social media in today’s society. It’s literally everywhere we go. In our laps, on our phones, sometimes even on the side of moving vehicles (only in Toronto would you see a video advertisement on the side of a truck).The fact that I can have GO Train notifications sent to my phone telling me the train’s going to be 4 minutes late still boggles my mind. That’s an example of the way social media is affecting everyone and most of us love it. We all realize how much time we spend on Facebook or Twitter reading about other people’s lives yet somehow we can’t stop. It’s become a part of our lives and has greatly influenced how we as a society function. Most of the time, social media is here to help us – whether it’s helping us to spread the word about a product we’re selling, or connecting us to long lost friend. Like I said, most of the time it’s here to help us, but it we’re not careful, it could easily hinder us too. We have to be very conscious of what we are putting on the internet because it is very easy for anyone can see it. This brings me back to my point about future employers researching us online.

 A website that we create of ourselves would be a great representation of everything we have to offer – if done correctly. But many are unaware of how easy it is to have your privacy breached. Facebook is changing privacy settings without telling anyone, some things you say on Twitter get posted straight to Google (if you search you’re name), and those embarrassing pictures that were taken of you last weekend, everyone’s already seen them. This is where the “hindering” aspect of social media comes in. If our generation is not conscious of what we are showing on the internet, and how easy it is to search our names and have everything about us known, then we’re going to be in a lot of trouble. Gone are the days where you could hand in a resume, go in for an interview, and get the job- all the while knowing that you have complete control regarding what your boss knows about your personal life. But this is what society has come to. We will get Googled and Facebook’d before we even get a phone call about a potential interview. I’m very fortunate that all this was pointed out to me, and I hope that someone stumbles upon this that hasn’t yet learned the importance of social media in this day and age.

We are lucky to have a world of possibilities at our fingers tips, especially in this generation, and in this program. The things that I’ve learned from my teachers and throughout the early morning lectures have changed my outlook on media a lot, and I am very fortunate for this. Before this program I was unaware of how much social media was used by everyone, and how posting informative tweets and blogs are helping us to create our own social media identity. Truthfully, I probably would have never begun to blog if it wasn’t a part of the curriculum but I’m very glad that I am now. By the end of these four years, I will have a blog filled with interesting concepts and theories, a twitter account to demonstrate that I understand the importance of social media in today’s society, and a lot to offer a business and I am very fortunate for that.

Motion Graphics Artist Statement!

I spent a lot of time trying to make this assignment look how I wanted it to. Like I mentioned in my previous blog, I had a major set-back when my original idea didn’t work properly. So I changed my idea from a stop motion project for 16 and Pregnant to a video trailer for Paranormal Activity 2. I had a few ideas for how I wanted to film this, but in the end I think I chose the most effective way to show the most information in 5 seconds.

When I imported my video to After Effects, I decided that I wanted the video to have a very home-made feel to add to the “real” essence of the movie. The movie is filmed in such a way to make it look like it is all home-made footage so it appears as though it’s all real. So I used a normal camera and had my friend shake the camera while looking around the hallway to show a sense of fear and nervousness. The original video was plain so I decided to add some effects to it. I added an old movie effect that gave my video lines across the screen, once again adding to the home-made feel. I also added a night vision effect, but turned down the opacity to 20% so that the green wasn’t too over powering. When editing the clip, I accidently put a marker at the beginning of the video and it went bright green, and when I showed people, they really liked this about the clip. I then added a bend effect which bent the video and added to the chaos that I was trying to create. The last thing I did was add the hand drawn typography. I wanted to write in red to add to the spooky theme of the clip. I also wanted to write very messily so it looks like someone just scribbled it. This could then be interpreted as someone who was writing in blood, and had to write a fast note. I used the paintbrush tool and instead of creating a text layer, I wrote it right on top of the clip. I really liked the way this ended up looking because you can still see the static of the video in the background.

When it came to the sound for the video I decided that I wouldn’t add any music, just sound effects. In the original video, my friend was breathing heavily so I kept that it for most of the clip and cut it when he was breathing in so it sounded like he was suddenly shocked and out of breath. It sounded fairly plain with just the breathing, so I decided last minute that I would add a heartbeat constantly going throughout the clip. When I get scared, I can clearly hear my heart so I thought by adding this sound that it would make the viewer feel as though they were standing there witnessing this themselves.

If I had extra time to work on this assignment, something that I would change would be the way that I filmed it. I had my friend film it while breathing heavily and shaking the camera to represent how scared he felt about the situation, but when I took the video into After Effects I realized I could have shaken it myself. If I had of done that I would have had more control over how much it shook, and in what direction. In addition, I filmed it with a regular-not the best quality- camera. I originally did this purposely to add to that home-made and jittery feel which I liked. But once again, once I had the video in After Effects, I realized that I could have filmed it with a better quality camera and make it fuzzy myself so I had more control over how fuzzy it was.

I’m very glad that I got the chance to explore this program. There are so many things that you can do with video and text that I thought I would never be able to do myself. Though this is my first making a piece of motion graphics, and it may not be the greatest, I am looking forward to using this program in the future and creating amazing things.

My Motion Assignment in Progress!

So I had a major set-back with this assignment. The blog that I wrote before this talked about my wondrous fool-proof idea for my motion graphics assignment. But once I started working on it I realized that it wasn’t going to be as easy as I imagined. Long story short, I had to come up with a brand new idea for this assignment and I decided I would do a 5 second teaser for Paranormal Activity.

I decided that I would use a normal video camera and have a 5 second clip of someone in a room, shining a light on the wall, saying “what was that?” or “are you in here?” and hearing a bang (representing some sort of ghost). I tried this out and found that the noise of the bang wasn’t picking up that well on the camera, and nothing about the video-when played back- seemed at all scary. Then I had this idea to do the same sort of thing and at the last second have the camera zoom in on a door knob that started shaking. I once again tried that out and when played back it just looked extremely corny.

So I sat around thinking of what I could film in 5 seconds that could somehow summarize the movie, and show something scary at the same time. So I had an idea that my friend would hold the camera while breathing heavily, and move the camera from one side of the hall to the next. When the camera was on one of the bedroom doors it would show that there was no one in front of the door, then the camera would pan to the bedroom, then back to the door where a person would appear. After that the camera would drop or dangle to create a sense of disorientation then the title would flash on the screen. I’m going to hand write the text in red so it has a creepy and personal feel. I may even have it appear as though a child wrote it for that extra erie affect.

I tried to post some of my video footage on the blog but unfortunately wasn’t able to. I then tried to create pictures out of my video but once again was not able to so it will be a surprise when you see it on Tuesday! I still have lots of editing to do but I hope it will all come together as I planned. What I learned from this assignment was that my first idea won’t always work. The original idea that I had came to me instantly and I was sure that it was going to work. Instead of coming up with backup ideas just in case it didn’t work out, I focused all my time on this idea and ended up wasting a couple weeks that could have gone towards a better idea.

I hope to get it all done and I'm excited to see what the final product will look like!

Motion Graphics and After Effects!

For the past little while in our Digital Media class we have been using a really cool program called After Effects. I find that it is a lot like Photoshop but even more advanced because it allows you to work with video. When I first used After Effects, I was very surprised at all of the things this program allowed you to do, and I am very pleased that we get the chance to work with it.

Right when I read the assignment sheet for the motion graphics assignment, I immediately knew that I wanted to do some sort of stop-motion clip. I thought that the videos that we watched in our lecture were so cool and I was really eager to try something like that myself. The program that I’m going to do a clip for is 16 and Pregnant. The reason I chose this show was because I had an idea from the start that I wanted to write on a calendar and rip it apart while making it look like the calendar was changing month to month.

When I started drawing on the calendar, I was writing things such as “English presentation today” or “unit test today” which suggested that the girl who owned the calendar was in high school. Then I wanted all the things that were written on the calendar to lead up to one main focus. I got the idea that this would be a high school girl’s calendar and each month would say something like “6 months left!” and counting down until the final month. I would make it clear that this was a high school girl’s calendar by strategically dropping hints within the activities that happen throughout the month. I would hint that the girl was pregnant by saying things like “pick up crib from aunt sue” and “doctor’s appointment at 1pm”.

I want it to look as though the pages are being ripped off piece by piece while counting down to this girls due date. The final month will have nothing on the calendar but the words “due date” on one of the days, and I will have a heading that says “16 and Pregnant – Monday’s at 5pm”. I realize that I only have 5 seconds to get all this information across so I may only do a 3 or 4 month countdown to the date. That’s my plan for the assignment and hopefully it works as well as it does in my head!

The Power of Typography!

Typography is a very powerful tool used to make a poster or design effective. I had never really noticed it before, but the typography of a design says alot about it. When it comes to movie posters, the typography has the ability to tell you about the theme of the movie without saying more then the title. Below I've posted 3 posters for movies that I thought had very unique typography.




This is a poster from the horror movie “The Last House on the Left”. I’ve always found horror posters much more fascinating then say comedy posters, and the reason being because of the typography that tends to be used. From what I have seen, it is a much more unique and detailed typography then other genre’s tend to use.The typography used for the title is very effective because it immediately sends a message to the viewer. Using a typography that looks like it has been slit and cut, and appears to have blood splats flying off of it instantly has the viewer thinking this is going to be a graphic horror movie. The fact that the word “house” is the only word that is in red and has blood coming off of it, it foreshadows the fact that something brutal may occur inside this house. The interesting part about this font is that it seems to be a pretty basic font that has had editing done to it. The clean look of the font makes the blood spatter that more shocking because it is so unexpected. This typography appeals to horror movie fans and does its job while following the theme of the poster.

Here’s another horror movie poster that caught my attention. I find this typography very intriguing. The fact that it looks as though it was drawn in blood and is very shaking immediately tells you it’s a horror movie involving lots of blood and gore.  The font stays basically the same throughout the poster and is written on some sort of slant every time it’s used. This gives it a chaotic feel that adds to the theme of the poster. The typography wouldn’t have been nearly as effective if it was in yellow or blue. It would have had that scratchy hand drawn look to it, but the fact that it was put in red allows it to be perceived as though it was written in blood. This sort of typography appeals to the horror-loving audience because when you see this type of font, you instantly know what the theme of the movie is.

I thought I would finish this blog off on a brighter note, which leads me to the Shrek movie poster. The Shrek typography is very recognizable for people of all ages. Its bubbly style, rock-like texture and Shrek ears on the bright green “S” is what makes it so unique. Though the movie appeals to most age groups, the typography especially appeals to children because it looks fun and cheerful. It also says alot about the movie that you are about to watch. Because it is such a fun and cheerful font, you know that it is going to be a fun and cheerful movie. The color of the typography is also very effective in making it so powerful. If it was a plain font with orange lettering, it wouldn’t have the same impact. The “S” would not be able to stand on its own and have the audience know that it’s representing Shrek – as it does behind the characters. The Shrek “S” is a symbol and trademark on its own. When you see those ears, you immediately know which movie you are about to watch. This typography supports the theme of the movie and was very effective in the overall presentation of the poster.

Before it was pointed out to me, I didn't realize how much of an impact typography has on a piece of work. I didn't even realize that people could design their own! Now that I know how important typography is, it will help me create more complete designs of my own that have one solid theme throughout.

Here's a link to a website with a bunch of cool different typographies!

http://www.youthedesigner.com/2010/03/18/40-extremely-cool-and-inspiring-typography-designs/

Enjoy!