Artist Statement

I have had an interest in media and have not taken a formal class in median until now. In general, I find digital media interesting because there are visual messages and subtext within them. These messages directly have an impact on the way we shape, see and interpret our lives and our environment.

My curiosity lies in marketing, more specifically target advertising research. I love how people can be manipulated using subtle cues, as well as how individuals live their lives by these molds/models present in our society, which positively and negatively impacts us.

My favorite form of media is music. It is the only form of entertainment most frequently used in my life for the longest time span. My playlists are composed of music selections ranging from the deepest part of Africa to Billboards Top 100. Nothing beats an epic orchestral score. (ex. "To Victory" from the movie 300, "Woad to Ruin" from the movie King Arthur (Hans Zimmer is the man), " Hell's Gate" from the video game Rainbow Six Vegas.)

My second favorite type of media is video games. Video games function as an escape for me from reality. It suspends everything around me while allowing me to explore the realms of another world. Two main elements of video games that I like, are the music (surprise surprise) and the story.

Media is a great form of communication, when all is said and done. It can be use to have a great impact on society and it can also be use to have a negative impact as well. It is a field were the imagination runs wild and an idea is JUST not an idea.

Compose by Nature

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

I woke up around 10am on Sunday, May 11, 2009, Mother’s Day and went about doing my daily morning routin.I grabbed my tooth brush and toothpaste from my dresser top and headed to the bathroom, and took a shower shortly afterwards. After eating my breakfast, I realized that my dogs have not been walked as yet. I went back to my room to put on a more “public fitting” attire and off I went with my dog Tommy. 

            

 Somewhere between the sun beaming down and the wind stirring past me, I became more aware of my surroundings both visually and acoustically. Visually everything was more detailed. I started noticing things around my neighborhood that  I did not realize before, such as the small tree in front of my house and how

 neatly the trees are aligned along the road.  Its important to note that I have been living in my neighborhood for almost 4 years. I was also taking a panoramic view, as compared to focusing on a specific item/subject.

      

Acoustically, my ears picked 

up detailed sounds that would have

 gone otherwise unnoticed. On this sound walk I heard the wind rushing by the tree leaves over

 head, the storm door aggressively fighting with the wind to stay closed, the metal lash on my dog’s collar wrestling with him to contain his excitement.  It was a surreal feeling hearing these everyday sounds that are not so everyday. What was amazing about this whole experience was stopping and listening to this beautifully constructed and orchestrated soundtrack that was being performing, in which, I did not know was playing before.

Great Designs

On a daily basis we encounter numerous amounts of designs in advertisements in various mediums of media, such as print, video, sound, and more. This is an attempt by businesses and institutions to grab our attention and as a result we give them a few seconds to become aware of what is being advertised. Within these vital few seconds we are deciding whether to stop and listen, read what is being offered, and continue our daily routines. I believe within these few seconds a good design is significant.


A Good design is being able to translate a rather complex idea/message into visual, audio, or literary terms for a specific target audience.

With respect to the visual aspect, good design is having a good color scheme, attention grading, easy on the eyes visuals (controversial images, the grid system, etc.).

An example, of all these things taking into consideration in creating a great design, is the Häagen-Dazs website.


We can see these aspects of visual designs being put to use on this website. For instance, the grid system, great color scheme, and “soft” looking visuals that fits the “feel” of the ice cream.



Audio is a very challenging form because it is difficult to master. We are saturated by noise in our everyday lives. With respect to audio, good design is having “important” familiar sounds played out to get attention. For example, vocals of a well-known artists/actor, sound of fire alarm truck, or someone that is well known within our society, like President Obama, are all “important” familiar sounds that can be uses to create a good design. Music plays an important role also, however not every one have the same taste in music. In that case, familiar sounds should be used with caution unless you are targeting a specific audience.

With respect to the literary aspect, Good design is to have good typography with the appropriate colors, font size, spacing, balance and contrast, which can carries the mood/feeling of the message effectively to the individuals that will be receiving it. Here are some examples of great typography in its creative form.






A great design triggers emotions and sensations that the receiver of the message didn’t expect to feel, happy, inspire, sad, lonely, etc. It is the composition and presentation of the overall design that can generate these feelings inside of us. It is not the visuals or the audio alone that plays the part of carrying this message, it is the overall part of the design machine, visual/audio/typography and its gears, color, balance, content, contrast, words, spacing, etc, that are responsible in creating a working design.

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire(2009) is a motion picture base on the adaption of the book "Q & A" by Indian civil servant Vikas Swarup. The setting of the film takes place in the city of Mumbai, India and is told through a series of flashbacks.


This movie is very fast paced. You really feel like you are in the dense and rapid moving city of Mumbai, with the constant motion of the camera. I believe the use of the low angle shots in the crowed area, for example in the train station and a slums brought forth the claustrophobic feeling of being surrounded by many people adding to the overall feel of the movie framing.

There were also various other shot sizes used in this the motion picture to tell the story, for example, ECU (extreme close up); CU(close up); MCU (medium close up); MS(medium shot); MLS (medium long shot); LS(long shot); ELS (extreme long shot), HA(high angle shot), and SA(standard angle shot or eye-level).
The dominance composition of the colors brown-yellow-red aptly reveals the whole interest of the film (1) and the urban setting of developing India.

What does "Slumdog Millionaire" look like overall?

A montage of the entire film reveals a dark image dominated by unsaturated light tans, greens, and blues, with a few bright oranges and blues at the beginning and end.

What is the "Slumdog Millionaire" dominant color and composition?

Taking the mean of the entire film produces an olive green image with slightly brighter center-shot.

What is the "Slumdog Millionaire" dominant color pallete?

The SI-2K Digital Cinema Camera (2) was used to capture some of the fast paced (tracking) movements of the city of Mumbai, which can be seen in this train station sense of the movie.



There was a continuous amount of dolly and pan shots throughout the film. Especially in the scenes in which, he is the contestant on the game show, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire".
It is obvious that to archive some of the shots in the movie, support systems such as cranes and rails had to be used to capture some of the landscapes of the slums and the city arena. Different lens, such as wide, normal, telephoto and zoom lens, were also used in the making this motion picture, that kept the flow of the narrative.

Overall Slumdog Millionaire is an incredible moving picture, even so that it has been recognize by the Oscars for the technical achievements in cinematography, music (song & score), film editing, sound mixing, writing and not to mention the best picture and directing Oscar. (3)

Sources:

1) http://lab.softwarestudies.com/2009/02/art-of-dominant-color-in-film.html

2) http://www.siliconimaging.com/DigitalCinema/News/PR_01_31_09_Slumdog.html

3) http://www.oscar.com/oscarnight/winners/

Museum of the Moving Image

Going to the Museum of the Moving Images for the first time was quite an experience. I was presented with works of the first motion pictures made to modern day technology used in creating 21st century motion picture. It was a fascinating walk through the time line, of the creation of media as an art form. Things like sound effect, sound editing, and music supervision were some of the elements that has evolved over the decades that breathe life into this medium. A few interesting items that are worth mentioning include the first use of tri-color camera in film, early forms of video games, and sound editing processes used in movies.

The use of the tricolor camera had a major impact on the industry because introduced the audience to another layer of the narrative of movie making, color. The first feature films to utilize this technology are The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, and The Woman (1). As it was also pointed out by my tour guide, making a tricolor was very expensive, however the quality of the film remains intact for an extended period of time.

Video games also played an important role transforming media into the form we know it as today. This 10 billion industry had its major success early with video games like Space Invaders (1978), Asteroids (1979), and Battlezone (1980) (2). It was also exciting to see some of these old school arcade video games, from the era they were built, at the museum intact and playable. On a closing note on the subject, video games has also given us some of our noticeable culture icon to date, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Pac-Man, Mario, etc.

Personally speaking, the highlight of the tour was the sound editing process used in film. I was blown away by the sound editing demo that had been shown to us. It never occurred to me as to how much work goes into the sound with respect to creating a feature film. It was brought to my attention that in a typical action film you have over 100 different layers of sound in one scene. This could range from the sound of a fire truck in the background, to the explosion of atomic bomb in the foreground. I was in awe by the process of putting together different sounds to bring an image to life on screen. I now have new profound respect for a Foley artist.

Sources:



1) http://www.films101.com/earlycy.htm



2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Video_Arcade_Games

Welcome all to my So...um...yea, blog. Im not quite sure what thoughts or stories i will be sharing about the digital media world but i assure you it will be as enjoyable to read it as it was writing it.

My name is Vedesh Persaud and welcome once again.