My video before effects

How are the transitions? Type? Timing?

video

Internet

So, my internet at my apartment officially sucks beyond belief. I can't even sign up with vimeo it's that terrible. Video of my after effects will be posted tomorrow when I have better internet at my house. LAME.

Melanie - out

Thing In Class

Journal 10

Good is? An integrated media platform for people who want to live well and do good. We are a company and community for the people, businesses, and NGOs moving the world forward. GOOD's mission is to provide content, experiences, and utilities to serve this community.

Good seems to pull from a huge variety of sources to gather...well...what's good out there. There are articles, videos, animations, clips, sound bites, speeches, games, and other things that can all lead up to what good is.

This is like a moving infographic...I like it. Your Daily Water Use The graphics are a bit too simplistic, but it really does get its point across. I like the smiley Earth at the end. The music also fits really well.

Inventions: Sleep Running This is all about will power and time to exercise. I get annoyed with his voice over, but the cuts and the transitions in the animation part is really nice. The art style also is pretty sweet

HW - Speeches

I did the exercises to two speeches because I want to see if thousands of people choose JFK's inaugural speech before I decide on that one.

JFK Inaugural

JFK Inaugural Address

1. Who is speaking?

a. John F. Kennedy

2. Why was/is the speech important?

a. During a time of racial tension and there was a need for an increase of civil rights. War was looming and soviet aggression was spreading.

3. Why do you feel in is important or interesting?

a. The speech focuses on freedom. This is what America feels is its greatest calling is to spread and keep people and countries free. Even now, we fight for our rights and liberties. People always demand things of the government, but never think about the actions they can take to better their own situation. This is definitely an issue in America today with health care, Iraq, obesity, and welfare.

4. What is the emotion, mood, tone, personality, feeling of the speech?

a. Emotion: hopeful with caution built in

b. Mood: inspirational

c. Tone: forceful

d. Personality: Serious and in askance

e. Feeling of the speech: Powerful, gets people to react and move

5. What is intonation, emphasis, what is loud, stressed, or soft? Where are the pauses?

a.

6. What do you FEEL should be loud or soft, long pause or rushed?

7. Is there a call to action?

a. To get people involved in the country. Everyone should take a stand, not just the government

8. When listening to it, what are key/emphasized words?

a.

9. How does it make you feel?

a. Stirred to action. Ready for change. Hopeful that my actions can make a difference

10. How do you image the audience felt?

a. Very uplifting, gave confidence that he was the right man for the presidency (from daddy) Proud to be an American

11. Could there be another interpretation of the speech?

a. Foreign leaders might have felt this was a warning, especially communist leaders.

12. Write/find a short bio, of the person giving the speech:

On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die.

Of Irish descent, he was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy. In 1943, when his PT boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy, despite grave injuries, led the survivors through perilous waters to safety.

Back from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, advancing in 1953 to the Senate. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history.

In 1956 Kennedy almost gained the Democratic nomination for Vice President, and four years later was a first-ballot nominee for President. Millions watched his television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President.

His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." As President, he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II; before his death, he laid plans for a massive assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty.

Responding to ever more urgent demands, he took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, calling for new civil rights legislation. His vision of America extended to the quality of the national culture and the central role of the arts in a vital society.

He wished America to resume its old mission as the first nation dedicated to the revolution of human rights. With the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps, he brought American idealism to the aid of developing nations. But the hard reality of the Communist challenge remained.

Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles, already armed and trained, to invade their homeland. The attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro was a failure. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign against West Berlin. Kennedy replied by reinforcing the Berlin garrison and increasing the Nation's military strength, including new efforts in outer space. Confronted by this reaction, Moscow, after the erection of the Berlin Wall, relaxed its pressure in central Europe.

Instead, the Russians now sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away. The American response to the Cuban crisis evidently persuaded Moscow of the futility of nuclear blackmail.

Kennedy now contended that both sides had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and slowing the arms race--a contention which led to the test ban treaty of 1963. The months after the Cuban crisis showed significant progress toward his goal of "a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion." His administration thus saw the beginning of new hope for both the equal rights of Americans and the peace of the world.

Address on Vietnam War - Spiro Agnew

Address on Vietnam (4-09) – Spiro Agnew

1. Who is speaking?

a. Spiro Agnew

2. Why was/is the speech important?

a. There were many riots going on about the Vietnam War. He was addressing the ignorance of the youth involved in these acts hoping to stop their rioting

3. Why do you feel in is important or interesting?

a. I like this speech a lot because it makes me think about my generation and the music that has been inflamed by Bush’s acts in Iraq. Everyone took the “anti-government” side without really considering why America did what they did. They didn’t try to change things by listening to both sides or helping volunteer. Bands just made more music about how crappy American government was (Green Day’s American Idiot) and their followers just jumped on the band wagon. Now we are more conscious about supporting the soldiers, but the feeling is the same; senseless war and senseless death

4. What is the emotion, mood, tone, personality, feeling of the speech?

a. Emotion: Outraged by the stupidity in our country

b. Mood: Scornful

c. Tone: Scolding

d. Personality: Intelligent and thought out, but more as an upset adult yelling at stupid kids

e. Feeling of the speech: Makes you feel like an idiot

5. What is intonation, emphasis, what is loud, stressed, or soft? Where are the pauses?

a.

6. What do you FEEL should be loud or soft, long pause or rushed?

a.

7. Is there a call to action?

a. To get the youth more interested in knowing the facts and stop just following others and making trouble

8. When listening to it, what are key/emphasized words?

a.

9. How does it make you feel?

a. It makes me want to make an effort in learning about which government topics I feel strongly about. It makes me want to think through decisions instead of acting rash.

10. How do you image the audience felt?

a. Defensive. They believed what they were doing was right.

11. Could there be another interpretation of the speech?

a. People who were not involved in the war really didn’t think anything about Agnew’s address. Also, he was the VP…who remembers the VP’s speeches? My parents don’t

Write/find a short bio, of the person giving the speech:

(b. Baltimore, 9 Nov. 1918; d. 17 Sept. 1996) US; Vice-President, 1968 – 73 Agnew was a new "ethnic" American, born the son of a Greek immigrant father. He dropped out of Johns Hopkins University and then studied law in his spare time. After war service he became a lawyer and entered Baltimore politics. He rose rapidly and was elected Republican Governor for Maryland in 1966. At this time he was a relatively liberal figure in the party. He achieved national prominence for his tough law and order stand in handling the riots in Baltimore which followed the killing of Martin Luther King. In his bid for the presidency in 1968 the Republican Richard Nixon selected Agnew to be his running mate. Agnew was a compromise figure, acceptable to conservatives in the south and the border states, as well as to the liberals. Nixon was also aware of private polls which indicated that all leading candidates would on balance hurt his election chances, but Agnew would not. As Vice-President, Agnew carried the attacks to Nixon's critics over the Vietnam War and his speech writers gifted him many colourful phrases. He claimed to speak for the "silent majority" and attacked the media as "nattering nabobs of negativism". These abrasive speeches pleased the right wing and articulated some concerns over the role of the media. Not long after he and Nixon were re-elected in 1972 Agnew was accused of taking bribes, or kick-backs, from contractors in Maryland. He denied the charges but in court did not contest the charges of evading federal income tax and he resigned in disgrace. Only one other Vice-President, J. C. Calhoun in the nineteenth century, had resigned, and that was because of political differences with the President.

Journal 9

Motion Videos:

Saul Bass Motion

Without Sound - The movements flow with regard to gravity. I feel like they have good start up and stopping speed that you would see with gravity and external forces. I really payed attention to the way the motion moves rather than timing with sound. It helps see the fluidity of the objects.

With Sound - With sound you get an entirely different feel. The big brass band playing really made me feel like I was watching an older tv show. The sequences seemed more like watching I Dream of Jeanne. The hand took on the appeal of Thing in the Adams Family.

Six Youtube Videos

1. I Love NY - Type in Motion

W/O sound - The movements of the type seem jerky at times. Also, the legibility wasn't that fantastic, but I don't think it was about the words, it was about what the words did. The word "vibe" shook giving the feeling of vibrate. I think the city had the words "Bustle" moving up and down. The movements of the type gave you a sense of what the word itself describes. The images and graphics usually just popped onto the screen and the type grew from them. Sometimes it work, but others it seemed awkward. It was good from the body, but not so much the record.

With sound - The sound gives it a metro city feel. The droplet fits well with the beat, but the "Let's take a hit" doesn't fit with the type on the screen. I honestly liked it without music better. I liked determining my own feel of the motion. The music just decides it for you. The color is mostly black, but when the trumpet gets more upbeat, more colors are thrown in. These go with the music's feel. Yellows, blues, and reds. Transitions are mostly following a line of type until it can begin a new sequence of type.

2. Dane Cook's "Driveway Intruder" - Type in Motion

W/O Sound - I can easily read the speech with just the type and I know what's going on. It is also easy to tell which words Dane Cook is yelling about because the color gets more vibrant and the text gets HUGE. The words also take the form of what he his talking about. Driveway turns into a driveway and so forth

With sound - The laughs actually go with how many laughs start with. I love the fading of the text. The timing is so great on this and the way the type layers is spectacular. The colors are mostly yellow and white with pink for laughter. It really is just for contrast instead of emphasis. The transitions come with laughter and disappearing of the text. The text never really leads you to a new section of the speech.

3. Experimental Type in Motion

W/O sound - the first thing I noticed was the speed. It was all pretty fast and hard to see emphasis due to stopped or slow words. I could barely read some of it. The way the type transformed or lead into other type was nicely done. I liked the background and the yellow, blue, and gray. These changed the color of the background to vary the video up a bit.

With Sound - Woah there is a creepy low voice guy reading this. The speed of the type really doesn't match his cadence of the voice. He seems to have a slow drawl and the type was flying by with undue emphasis.

4. Bugs and Daffy Type in Motion

W/O sound - the type starts out huge!!! and pretty much stays huge. The big words are hard to read because the type was sped up to fit it all. It was very blurry. The fight between the two characters was noticeable by type color, actually words, and location of how they flew to the back and edges of the screen

With Sound - So, the who big words thing...they aren't shouting until about the middle of the video. Also, grammar...it's wabbit season...not its wabbit season. Dumb. The only part of the speech that really is neat is the fight and how the fire explodes at the end. I do not care for this one that much.

5. Type in Motion

W/O sound - The movements of the type were kind of like frame by frame cinematography. It was very jerky, but I will have to wait for the sound to see if that fits in with the sound. It was really hard to tell what I was supposed to read first because the later type never really faded out for a bit so type just kept piling on without clear hierarchy. Transitions are just white flashes on the screen, but it works with the choppy way the type moves.

With Sound - I never expected a country song. The choppy motion of the words doesn't go with the fluidity of the singer's voice. It is actually really distracting. The chorus is pretty sweet. The typography is formed well and looks fantastic. I would make the type slide like in the Saul Bass Motion piece. His was fluid and ran with a speaker. It wasn't halting.

6. Flight of the Conchords - If You're Into It - Type in Motion

Without sound - what makes this video the most unique is that it starts off like a real book. The pages turn and the words fly off the page to make a blank slate for the next page. Sometimes the words were replaced by graphics, and the type created really neat looking layouts and combinations. The words also multiplied even if the speaker doesn't repeat them thousands of times it helps the viewer understand the meaning behind his words.

With Sound - Guitar! and birds? The placement of the words really fits with when the speaker pauses and his fluidity. The type also changes for which singer is singing. The nice soft singer is a thin, serif font. The deeper voice is all caps, bold, sans serif. The closing of the book really goes with the end of the music. I think this is my favorite because the type does more than just write what the singer says, it also gives character to each voice and connotations.

3 Movie Title Sequences

1. Catch Me If You Can

Fantastic. I have always enjoyed this title sequence. The graphics, lines, and colors all perfectly represent the time and feeling of the film. It gives you a sense of drama. The cat and mouse game that takes place during the movie is well thought out in the title. The characters conflicting attitudes and roles is also evident. Scale changes in the beginning show how the main characters are equally above the "normal" people. Then, near the end they become smaller and about the same size. They are taken down a notch in society and more even with each other.

2. Panic Room

They were the first (really) to put type into a city scape and make it look like it was just part of the environment...then of course Heroes did it several years later. It has become popular in other movies also, but Panic Room really makes it legible without making you read everything head on. The type also sometimes is like a hide-and-seek game. The music also sets the scene for showing the danger of what's about to come. The metallic sheen of the letters could also relate to the metal room the main characters will spend most of their time in. The city is shown as a busy place which contrasts with the isolation the characters feel when intruders enter their home.

3. Spiderman 2

I love the comic book effect on all of the marvel comic movies. Spiderman 2 really outdid them due to the lighting, music, and spectacular typography. The text flies, breaks apart, scatters. The graphics are all enhanced with lighting. The photography all has a nice comic book effect and gives you a recap of the first movie. It's like the audience gets to see the graphic novel prequel of the movie they are about to view. It engages the viewer, but it does take away from the words when the pictures are also there. I barely read them.

Journal 8

So I definitely posted this before class, but I posted it to the class blog. So, I took it off there and am now posting it on here.

A better alternative to futura would probably be Frutiger. It is a clean typeface with the same modern feel as futura but without the overuse. It's legibility is also higher do to the large x-height.

Can Graphic Design Make You Cry?

I chose this article because of the title. Yes graphic design has made me cry. When I first related this to myself, I mostly though of crying because of frustration that is so inevitably created by the high demand and workload of being a regular college student. Then, after reading the article, I actually thought about the author's point. Beautiful design that has a powerful meaning and impact. I think, for me, movie posters are really the only type of graphic design that moves me. Some times book covers can move me or create feeling. I have been shocked by billboards and ads, but I have never been moved to cry.

I think someone could potentially design something that would affect me so deeply that I cry, but as of yet...I have not found it.