Blog #4 class Evaluation

This past semester taught me a lot about the basic fundamentals of film and media. Learning skills that range from production work that goes into film making, and the different techniques that can be used to portray different meanings in films, to the media side of learning about advertising techniques such as websites and print work, and how much work that can be as well.

         I thought the Lecture classes were the downside of the class however. There were a few lecture classes where we spent the entire class learning about a subject then finding out was wasn't relevant to the tests, Such as the binary lecture. It seemed as if we spent a lot of time on learning un-important information and not enough time on the important.

         Learning about HTML was a really interesting section of the Lab. I particularly enjoyed those couple of classes where we worked on Text wrangler. It really showed how much work goes into creating a website and how complicated it can be. Dealing with all the codes and link systems it can be very tedious work and the simplest mistakes really instantly change the outcome of the website. One subject I wish we would have spent more time on was learning about the film camera and the different parts on how they work. We only got a few minutes in one class to really take a look at it. And one subject which i was surprised  we didn't learn about- since the class was about new media today-  was the techniques of  working with professional digital cameras and all the different parts and settings that involve those cameras.

Overall the class really sparked my interest on what is to come next semester. It should binteresting to see how much hands on work we will get.

Design i like

From your first look, its obvious to see that

this design by Forum snowboards breaks pretty much all of the rules involved with advertising concepts. This collage has absolutely no balance in it whatsoever, it uses at least 10 different fonts, and has pretty much every color possible along with numerous different patterns all mashed together. And yet all of these concepts seem to be the reason why it I have it as my Wallpaper and cant stop staring at it everyday.

With so much going on within the picture, i think this forces the viewer to observe the image even more. Instead of one quick glance and simply seeing there product, you have to continue to stare at it because your always finding new images and colors and designs within the same picture. And in the advertising business, the longer you can get someone to look at your product, the more likely there going to use it. The extremely bright neon colors along with the hypnotizing design tells a little bit about the company and the team itself. The image seems to look like a party on its own, which can pretty much describe the mentality of the forum team since it consists of pot smoking, party going, rebellious snowboarders. This also resembles Forum's style of snowboarding clothes as well, with jackets, snowboards, and pants consisting of bright colors and mixed matched patterns, its definitely a company that attracts a younger more outgoing crowd.

Reel Dialogue

Although the three documentaries all dealt with transgender and homosexuality issues in America, i thought it was great how they all discussed different issues effecting LGBT. Whether it was personal issues involved with being transgender, which the man in No More Lies seemed to have, although he claimed to be a transgender man, as the film progressed he seemed to become more confused about himself and how he tries to portray himself in society. Or the second film Don't Bring scottie involving family issues of being gay and the family acceptance of the boyfriend. And Kelly Anderson's film, involving coming out at the work place and the extreme difference in acceptance people have throughout different parts in America.

I thought David Palvosky's Don't Bring Scottie  was really touching in the way that David and Scottie struggled for Davids family to accept their relationship . It really displayed the difference in societies views on the issue, depending on your location. It really showed how people can also change their views once seeing the lifestyle that their not used to. when the family met Scottie i think they became more accepting of Davids lifestyle and realized that their son is normal just like the rest of there children.

Out At Work by Kelly Anderson really showed the progress that has come in the work place since the early 90s. it also displayed the huge difference in acceptance in the work place depending on your location. It was unbelievable in how different the librarians acceptance was who lived in New York city, compared to all of the other people that were in constant struggle for there acceptance. It really brings out the reality in the situation on how divided our country still is. cities are much more accepting to new ideas and ways of life than smaller towns, especially in the south.

What i see

After watching the movie Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock, it was easy to point out many instances in how Hitchcock was able to use the camera work alone to enhance and  progress the story along. The entire movie takes place in one apartment which makes it all the more difficult to keep the audience interested. through the use of camera angles and effects he was able to keep our focus.

There were many great examples of the kulashov effect in the movie. The scenes where James Stewart ( Jefferies) would look through the courtyard and into his neighbors lives. As he watched in, Hitchcock would use cuts, showing actions and reaction shots, many times Jefferies would have the slightest facial reactions but with the editing we were able to understand based on what we knew he was looking at. It was also interesting to see the camera techniques that Hitchcock used to enhance our vision on what we saw in the courtyard. as Jefferies would sometimes use his own still camera with a long lens to zoom into his neighbors apartments, Hitchcock would cut to a close up POV of what Stewart was looking through his camera.

The use of framing played a great role in this movie. the courtyard itself seemed to be a large painting with separate little frames in which each character lived there own little lives. and the only time Stewart could look into their lives if they were in the room ( the frame) that faced into the courtyard.

museum of moving image

The museum showed a lot of famous memorabilia and old fashion systems that really helped display how technology in media began and in some cases, is still used today. I was particularly interested in the station that showed the live sports editing. I always knew that sports games involved live camera editing but i never knew it was coming from one man in charge calling all the shots. After watching it in the booth it seemed extremely complicated an requires a lot of concentration an quick thinking. The technicolor printer was also pretty interesting. The machine itself was extremely large and looked pretty complicated, but after the tour guide explained how the three film strips get combined into one, it seemed like a much simpler process, and only needed to be controlled by one person.

After finally looking through a real kinetoscope, i was amazed to see how far the moving image technology has come. the viewing hole was extremely small, and the film only lasted about 30 seconds and only had one subject to look at, without a background. The film color itself wasn't even black and white it was more of a sepia color, and the lady explained that the machine was flamable and would blow up sometimes when people watched it. Today we have the comfort of large movie theaters and home theatre system with clear HD movies, without the process of a Technicolor printers and manual editing of the film strips.