London

I recently got back from a short stint in Paris and London. It was a wonderful trip, and very active and busy, how I like my life. I've been very busy since returning to the states, but not active. I sit all day, and although I love my job, I don't love sitting. I guess that's what I get for falling in love with graphic design.

Not to say that graphic design cannot involve technology, but let's face it, in today's super fast world, it's much more efficient to design everything in one place on the computer than making it an activity involving several creative mediums. That's one reason I love photography so much because it gets me out of a chair!

The trip to Europe did not lend itself very much time for casual or event organized conceptual or artistic photography. My group was very A to B with very little dilly dallying in between. We had to fit a lot into a very short amount of time. I returned with very few photos with the quality I prefer for my 365 Photography Challenge. I managed to scrape up a few.

One thing I loved about both Paris and London, but especially London was how everything was designed well. Not even necessarily well, but I liked looking at these design whether they were good or not. I liked the way the cars, the telephone booths, the mail boxes, the little bins, the street signs, the underground, the buildings, the lines on the road, the store fronts, the pubs, and the fashion looked. Everything fit so well together, and just looked nice. Things in the U.S. don't look that pretty, and as an artist, I really value the visual beauty of the city. For about 24 hours I said, 'Screw all my life plans, I'm moving to London', and then I came to my senses and said, 'Don't screw all my life plans, but after I do those, I'm moving to London'.

I also love the food, but that's a different story. I don't know what people are talking about when they say British food isn't good. Have any of them had a meat pie?

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Title Sequence

I just saw the film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and although this is not a review of the film, I will saw it was a very well-made film, though less stylized than I was hoping. Rooney Mara was fantastic, playing sometimes very subtle discomfort and sometimes a very subtle joy. For such an extreme character, she was mostly played subtly. Daniel Craig also didn't disappoint, but still had his British accent. Cinematography-wise was good, but I don't recall it standing out to me. Perhaps it wasn't supposed to?


What I really want to talk about, and perhaps my favorite part of the movie, was the opening title sequence. It's like nothing I've seen before. Maybe I've been watching the wrong stuff, but this sequence, I was blown away! The music mixes perfectly with the odd imagery that barely relate to the film, but just create this very odd mood to get you uncomfortable enough for the story ahead. The thing is, I think the American release has scaled up the "edginess" factor of the "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" like she's so freakishly insane and unattainably, freakishly divine in her superior freakiness that we need to be interested in her and therefore see the movie (it's interesting to note that the book and movie actually center mostly around Mikael Blomkvist, especially the first half of the book) but it's a fantastic marketing technique that I wholeheartedly support not simply because I love Lisbeth Salander's character, but mostly because it means we get great art like the freaking awesome title sequence. In my opinion, it rates only second to Watchmen, but comes ahead of the first Sherlock Holmes' closing sequence, which had me drooling.






Talk about an example of low-key lighting, it remind me of some of Erin Olaf's work. Half my enjoyingment is the swirls extending from the letters. The typeface is traditional and severe enough to really fit a European punk aesthetic. And perhaps it just the imagery, but the slowly extending letterforms are kind of creepy.

Twilight and Breaking Dawn Movie Posters

Breaking Dawn teaser poster

Through surfing the internet I found this poster, and decided to see what people thought about it. Well, I didn't last long, because that research took me to too many Twilight-centric fansites, which made me think that maybe I really didn't need to know.

Not being a fan of the series, but managing to read almost all of it anyway, I know what the story is about. And who isn't familiar with Twilight's rabid teen fan base? Therefore, it's curious the studio went with a poster like this.

Personally, I like it. I think it's a brilliant teaser (I find teaser posters are usually more creative and seducing then the official posters). I have always liked the treatment of the title, it's quite beautiful and elegant. Although I don't consider myself a Twilight fan, I think the title fits very well with the people it's intended to appeal to. The image is of a breaking dawn, and it almost looks like a book cover. I'm considering the fact that the reason I'm liking this poster so much has something to do with the fact that I normally don't like the posters at all, so by comparison, this is very nice.

I remember when the Joey Lawrence photos of the first movie came out and besides dripping with jealousy that he was so young and successful, I quite liked the photos. It was the posters that defy physics that I had a problem with - what's with the kicker lights on Bella and Edward coming from within their embrace?

The official Twilight poster and
my recreation without kicker lights

I tried to recreate it without the kicker lights back in 2008 - and everybody I asked preferred the first one. It was one of those defining moments where I realized the difference between advertising art and fine art. Nobody else seemed to mind the unreality of the lights coming from nowhere. They argued one couldn't see Bella's face clearly enough in my version, which is true. The kicker light, though thin, removes half her face, and she already has a deep shadow over the eye. I think my counter argument was that she was not a well-known actress, so one didn't need to show her face clearly to attract viewers to see the film.

If this happened on the Breaking Dawn poster, my argument would be that she is a well-known actress in a well-known cult movie with a loyal fan base and is quite recognizable with only half her face visible - especially juxtaposed with Edward and the twilight logo. But actually, those are just "pride" arguments, I think that advice was justly given.

The Blue & Orange Film Still dilemma

My brother, Nathaniel, and I were talking about color correction, specifically within movies. He mentioned an article he read (very similar to this one at Into the Abyss), about cinematographer's lighting the subjects with an orange light and the background with blue light and how it is used quite often. We agreed that it was a pleasing look, but also that it was a somewhat lazy approach to lighting because it works so well.

Disturbia with Shia Labeouf

Disturbia

Disturbia

Eagle Eye with Shia Labeouf and Michelle Monaghan

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
with Dan Radcliffe and Bonnie Wright

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
with Robert Downey Jr.

Isn't there some sort of drive in all creatives to create something original

For some cases, it make absolute perfect sense, like combining natural lighting with indoor lighting. The two temperatures create blue and orange lighting respectively. I've seen blogs mention teal/orange "offenders" where this is the case. Right now I'm sitting in a room with a window and tungston light: blue and orange. The first two Disturbia images I posted above pass with this exception.


I'm going to say this and then retract my statement a little, but just bear with me. Generally, if everybody is doing something, then suddenly I don't want to do it at all. But really, that's not entirely true, because I don't want what somebody else is doing to limit what I am doing, so on those terms I do what I want. I am inspired by what other people are doing, and I consider what other people are doing, and if I feel what I am doing is exactly the same, then more often than not I don't want to do it anymore. That's not always the case, because perhaps teal and orange is exactly the right choice to create some sort of mood. If I don't use teal and orange, suddenly I am losing because my pride got the better of me.

And to be honest, I like the look. Not all the time, but complimentary colors are nice looking, and just because it's prevalent doesn't mean it's gross. Teal is a beautiful color, and it looks great in movies and posters (which also suffer from a lot of teal/orange designs).

With that said, orange lighting makes everyone looks like they got a really bad tan, and that's not cool.

Blog Prompt #27

I am interested in photography in the common sense of the medium - portraits, candids, still lifes, etc taken on a recognizable camera, hung on the wall as prints. Sarah, my professor, encouraged us to think of photography differently than this. Before her class, I would never have thought to turn in what I ended up doing. I used photography as textures to create scenes within a collaged world. I used Photoshop - my favorite medium - to collage different layers together and create the perception of depth to my images.
I taught myself After Effects because I'm very interested in motion graphics and how motion can use depth in an entirely new way, such as parallax (the effect that occurs when, say, you are driving past a farm and the near corn stalks move much more quickly past your window than the distant farmhouse), which is impossible with still graphics.
My goal is to work in the entertainment industry, so I created a poster, a book cover, and a logo slate. All existed as still graphics and as motion graphics, so it was quite interesting to figure out the best way to design both and have them stay consistent with each other.

Visual Artist Statement

 My professor, Sarah Buckius, had a very interesting creative exercise for class today. We printed out our thesis projects on a black and white laser jet printer along with three sentences of our artist statement. We cut up the paper and made a flat collage, a 3D collage, and a time-based collage (I used a long shutter speed).

From Dust flat collage, Kim Berens

From Dust flat collage, Kim Berens

Horace 3D collage, Kim Berens

Horace 3D collage, Kim Berens

MSU Filmmaker's Club logo motion collage, Kim Berens

MSU Filmmaker's Club logo motion collage, Kim Berens

Alex Stoddard

Alex Stoddard is a only 17 years old, and is a great example of how photography is changing. Not specifically in terms of the equipment used to make photographs, but the possibilities available to show those photographs. Alex started taking photos not long before he decided to take on a 365 - taking a picture and sharing it everyday for a year. His photos greatly improved over the course of a year, and you can see his learning curve. I can see that some of his images are digitally manipulated - which means that more are, but I just can't tell!

Alex was born in Jacksonville, Florida, but is currently growing up in Georgia. I suppose he must go to school, but he recently quit his job at an arcade because he's officially self-employed. Based on comments on his flickr posts, he has several commissions for prom pictures and "other client stuff". He has a blog where he posts very little at a time - a short video, and answer to a questions, a link to a friend's artwork, and that sort of thing. He's currently on his 302 day of his 365, which not only means he only has 63 days left, but also that all of his current success in photography has come in the last 10 or so months.

He explains in this interview that his 365 has helped him discover his emotions, as well as his photography. This is very evident in his shots, which are quite emotional, and very ethereal. I find his photographs incredibly inspiring, both where it concerns living my life and taking my own photographs.


 He does mostly emotionally dramatic photos, but he has a sense of humor as well, evident in this photo.

Here is his very first 365. Awful, isn't it? The one in the woods is day 4. His color correction has much improved. That's what I like about this project. You really see the improvement of the photographers. And you don't see an amazing picture everyday, and that's okay. It helps me have less pressure on myself to always be perfect, because than I can just create what I feel compelled to create without worrying that others will judge my overall talent over one image.

Here's his most recent photo.