Saturday, December 5, 2009

Design I Like

When I was trying to pick out a "design i like," I tried to think of an advertisement that had quickly gotten my attention and made me think about the story behind the product it was selling. Thinking in that way, I chose the poster from the RPG game Fallout 3. The poster is simple, not overly flashy but does a really good job at attracting my attention, and the fact that the only hint that it is referring to a game is the company and studio names at the bottom, forces you to scan the whole picture to look for information

The basic picture, a family playing football during a picnic, has a 50’s era depiction of family life, with a husband, wife two children, and a dog. The text at the top, prepare for the future, written in a retro font, combined with a smiling cartoon figure in the back gives it a feel of a life insurance ad from the era. First viewing this however, the juxtaposition of the words “prepare for the future,” with a weathered and damaged looking poster show instantly that something bad has happened and the “future” to be prepared for has already come. Then when you think how this represents a in world poster, the fact that nobody has changed It, combined with the ageing of the paper and the weathering implies that whatever happened was a major event. Looking further down and seeing the words Fallout 3 brings te whole thing together and changes the feel to a Cold War era bomb shelter ad, for a threat that turned out to be real.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Museum Trip

The Museum of the Moving Image had many artifacts that detailed the progression of movie and television production from its infancy to the present day. One of the first areas that I saw contained a multitude of filming cameras. Just by looking at their changes in construction materials, size, loading method and lens style from one camera to the next, I was able to see the progression of the cameras from bulky, fragile models to the compact and portable ones that we use today. The music mixing room was interesting to me as it highlighted the significance of music in the ability of movie to properly convey its message. Just by changing the instrumentals on a video clip of an alien spaceship emerging from a cloud bank from the movie Independence Day, the entire feel of the clip could be changed. It was an ominous feel with the original track, but the other samples had you rooting for the aliens or happy that they have returned after being gone for so long. The museum really made the effects of technology on media production apparent. Signals went from analog to digital, pictures went from black and white to color, and movies went from Kinetoscope films of people flexing or sneezing, to full length features with plots, action and music.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Second Post

This is my second post, YES!!!.

First Post