Wednesday, September 26, 2012
DTC 355 Blog #5
1. What I liked about the sample webtexts, were how neat and professional they looked. I enjoyed how on the Dove project, the author put all of the webtexts at the top and bottom of the page. It framed the main content well and made it very easy to navigate through the text. I enjoyed how the author of the Life based web comics chose to make her project like a comic, I thought it definitely made things more exciting. However, the one thing I would have changed is maybe adding a page counter, or something to show how much further you had to go, because towards the end, there was quite a bit of text on each page, and it took all of my will power (haha "will power") to keep on reading. Maybe because when I am reading a real comic, if I don't find the joke after a few seconds, or I don't find it particularly entertaining, my brain gets bored. So maybe I was subconsciously expecting a joke to come up, but I wasn't getting there, so my brain got impatient and wanted to stop. Who knows. In any case I thought it was a very creative way to present the topic.
The third link however was broken so I did not get to see that one.
2. My original idea for my webtext was to put the two videos side by side, and then analyze difference aspects in columns and rows below them, looking for similarities and differences. Now I am thinking that wouldn't be the most visually pleasing way to present it. I am thinking of maybe having two rows of links at the top, on the left would be the democratic candidate links, and on the right the pages for the republican candidate. Then I would put a big "VS." in the middle, and maybe have a picture of mount rainier with American flags or something in the background. Then the actual content would come below that, with the video being towards the top of the page, and the description below it.
Monday, September 24, 2012
DTC 355 Project 2 Pitch
For my project 2 topic, I chose to focus on the Washington State gubernatorial race between Republican Rob Mckenna and Democrat Jay Inslee. Having seen some of their political ads on TV, I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast two advertisements by each of the candidates. Oddly enough they try to depict themselves in similar ways, but their approaches are a little different, and sometimes pretty funny once you notice them.
I would like to look at Rob Mckenna's "Family" and "Job Creation" , and Jay Inslee's "Built" and "Get to Work" advertisements. In both Mckenna's "Family" ad and Inslee's "Get to Work" ad, they use the tactic of showing the candidate with his family. Mckenna goes a little overboard, in rapidly jumping from each and every family member, while Inslee talks more about his family, and portrays himself as a regular working man. Each of these ads were their candidates first TV ad to air, so they have similar purposes,but they take it in different directions.
In the next pair of ads, the two candidates talk about making jobs, and again, while they have the same subject, they go in different directions.
Given the similarities of the content and purpose of these ads, but the differing styles, I think they would make for an interesting topic to analyze. For my final project I will create a webpage with side by side comparisons of each of the rhetorical categories for the coinciding pairs of ads. This spatial organization will help the viewer to be able to spot the differences, and similarities of the rhetoric used in each advertisement.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Dtc 355 Post 3
Emphasis:
When the video starts playing my eyes are immediately drawn to the note pad becuase it is sitting front and center of the screen, then as the person begins to write, my eyes stay on the notepad and more specifically follow the hand as it writes so that I can read what they are trying to say. However I noticed that my eyes kept wanting to look around the screen, because the area around the notepad is really disorganized and it there is so much to look at. In addition to the jerky stop motion it seems like the author is trying to emphasize something being a big mess. It could just be a hint that the rest of the movie is going to be a muddled mess, or more likely, they are probably trying to say that the whole process of Digital Rights Management is a huge mess. As far as this emphasis being effective, I cannot really tell for sure because I haven't seen the rest of the film, but I believe they get their point across well. I am not very knowledgeable on the topic of DRM, but it appears the author is against it, and thinks people who support it are maniacs.
When the camera freezes after the first page has been completed, this makes the viewer pause, and then read over and consider what the author means by "Digital Robbing Maniacs". This seems like an effective strategy because it forces you to think about what has just been written, because there is nothing else happening on screen. The freeze frame emphasizes the statement that the author thinks DRM should stand for Digital Robbing Maniacs instead of Digital Rights Management.
The disjointed sort of jerky music definitely helps emphasize this feeling of something being wrong. It goes along perfectly with the jerky animation, and actually kind of adds to a feeling of stress when I watch the clip. I can feel my heart beat pick up as I listen to the music, and in combination with the mess on screen, and the disjointed animation, it just makes you feel like it is a tense situation, as if there is something wrong and this film means business.
Contrast:
The "Call for Papers" video is basically one big contrast. Just about every element in the video contrasts with another. The lighter words contrast with the dark gray box, and the dark gray box contrasts in color with the light gray background. The sort of futuristic techno music and the robotic voice both contrast with the old fashioned cartoon becuase of their difference in time periods. The effect of these contrasts for one make the words easier to read and understand, otherwise they would just blend into the background. However the contrast from the sound and the video is a little odd. The contrast between having a futuristic voice and an old cartoon just make for a weird effect. I would have liked it better if they had a sort of 1960's style announcer to go along with the cartoon. I feel like it would have been a better fit, and maybe have seemed more effective, becuase the use of the robotic voices almost just sounds like they couldn't get an actual voice actor.
In the section from 0:55-1:08, the light colored text is contrasting from the black background. I think the background was deleted from this section because they are now speaking directly to the students on what the requirements are for their entrees. Additionally, they probably didn't have any cartoon clips of the little character that would apply to what they are talking about, so in order to emphasize the requirements, they decided to go to a completely black background. Now that the background is black, there is a much greater color contrast between the background and the text, however the sound no longer contrasts with what is going on visually. The element that is now most emphasized is the text, and what the voice is saying. The author didn't want the audience looking at anything else other than the text.
If I were asked to design a flyer for The JUMP I would probably use a style to match the video and use the little cartoon character. I would make the words The JUMP very large and in contrast to the rest of the flyer, maybe in a black color since the character is mainly a light gray. I would do this in order to make the name very prominent and make it stick in people's mind. Other information would also be written in a darker color to contrast with the rest of the page, however they would be in a smaller font and possibly even lighter color in order to keep the emphasis on the title of the journal.
Organization
For my series of photos I chose to put the American Flag with the fist, the married couple,the wall full of groceries, the crowd of people and then the stacked cars in the dump. The reason I chose the American flag first, is that I was to basically represent the American dream, and use it as an opener for the rest of the slide show. The next picture of the married figurines further represents the American Dream of getting married, having a little house and 2.5 kids. The wall full of groceries represents what it takes to feed the American Dream. In order to live out the American Dream, we need a lot of resources. The crowd of people represents the sheer amount of people wanting to live that dream. The picture of the crushed cars shows the cost of that dream. The overarching story was that in order to have every person live out the American Dream, it requires a ton of resources and makes a lot of waste.
If you flipped the order and had the trash pile first, and the American flag last, the meaning could change so that America is proud of its garbage and excessive consumer lifestyle. You could maybe even say that it is what makes America great.
If you added music, such as the Star Spangled Banner, or the National Anthem, the hopeful sounding music could be a nice contrast with the message. Another idea would be to play patriotic music throughout the slideshow, and then as it hits the picture of the large group of people have the music fade in to something ominous to emphasize that the pile of garbage is a bad thing.
Alignment:
While the alignment between the two words is disjointed, they end up aligned horizontally halfway in between the two words' animation cycles. The word "murmuring" has two alignments which are aligned horizontally every other letter towards the left side of the screen, while "insects" is aligned more towards the center of the screen.This unusual alignment sort of leads me to think that the words are meant to be less literal and more metaphorical to be left up to the interpretation of the audience. It definitely gives it a more poetic feel.
In the Earth scene, the words "In the weeds" and "murmuring" have a matched alignment, slightly to the right of the center just below the moon. The word "Insects" is aligned just right of the moon, leaving a nice little side-subtitle for the moon. I may be over-analyzing this, but the words "In the weeds" appear, they take on an arrangement similar to uncut grass, or a field of weeds. The consistent alignment of the moon and the streaks in the sky make it seem like all these scenes are connected into one story. I usually end up focusing on the moon, and the words near the moon because the words seem to fall near the moon. I don't think the scene would be as effective without the alignment between the elements on the page. The alignment itself almost ads to the poetry, so instead of the words just being a poem, the placement on the screen makes for a sort of visual poetry.
The Air scene has its words aligned to the left, and I think the author chose to align them there because the moon is nearer to the right side of the screen, meaning there is more empty space on the left. and in this scene, there were longer phrases, so in order to keep the words from covering up the moon, the author aligned them to the left. The audio content is sound clip of a lady describing how she saw people jumping from the Twin Towers during the attack on 9/11. In relation to the alignment of the words, the sound clip starts playing just as the words "In the Sky" fade in and fall into place.
In the Water scene, the words align with the curvature of the eye and fade to form the tears of the eye. The man in the audio is hard to hear, but it sounded like he was reciting poetry, and one of the lines includes the words tears, and it sounded like he was getting choked up at the end. The whole alignment of the words in combination with the mournful sound clip create a feeling of sadness and mourning in the viewer.
The three titles in the menu are not aligned because the author wanted to tell three different stories. The fact that the words Air, Earth, and Water are all aligned differently shows that they dont want this to be a uniformed thing, but a more poetic project. The lack of alignment leaves a bit of a choose your own adventure to the sequence, since typically we read from top to bottom, left to right, but these word are arranged so that we cant go from top left to bottom right. The purpose is probably to have the audience pick one of the scenes, watch it, think about it, mourn for the loss, and then move on. This project is as much a memorial as a poem, intending for the audience to sort of just wander through at their own pace and take as much time as they need.
Proximity
In my creation of the cover for the book, The Seagull I grouped elements together mainly by placing them close together. I placed the title in big bold letters at the top, with a subtitle directly below it. Then I placed a picture of a seagull in the middle and the author's name at the bottom of the screen.
I thought the most important element of the cover was the title of the book, which is why it is in large black letters at the top of the page. I also thought the author's name was important, so I chose a large font and typeface for that element as well, however it is at the bottom of the page, so it is less important than the title.
In laying out the elements in a traditional way I found that it can be limiting because you cannot really rotate your wording, or play around with the layout as much. It seems like the Title has to go at the top of the page aligned in the center, with a subtitle underneath it and the author's name at the bottom. If you could change the alignment so that the wording is running vertically down the page, it could stand out enough to effectively catch people's attention and make them give the book a chance. Or if you have all the words rotated at a 45 degree angle, it could also attract attention if done in a way that is readable.
When the video starts playing my eyes are immediately drawn to the note pad becuase it is sitting front and center of the screen, then as the person begins to write, my eyes stay on the notepad and more specifically follow the hand as it writes so that I can read what they are trying to say. However I noticed that my eyes kept wanting to look around the screen, because the area around the notepad is really disorganized and it there is so much to look at. In addition to the jerky stop motion it seems like the author is trying to emphasize something being a big mess. It could just be a hint that the rest of the movie is going to be a muddled mess, or more likely, they are probably trying to say that the whole process of Digital Rights Management is a huge mess. As far as this emphasis being effective, I cannot really tell for sure because I haven't seen the rest of the film, but I believe they get their point across well. I am not very knowledgeable on the topic of DRM, but it appears the author is against it, and thinks people who support it are maniacs.
When the camera freezes after the first page has been completed, this makes the viewer pause, and then read over and consider what the author means by "Digital Robbing Maniacs". This seems like an effective strategy because it forces you to think about what has just been written, because there is nothing else happening on screen. The freeze frame emphasizes the statement that the author thinks DRM should stand for Digital Robbing Maniacs instead of Digital Rights Management.
The disjointed sort of jerky music definitely helps emphasize this feeling of something being wrong. It goes along perfectly with the jerky animation, and actually kind of adds to a feeling of stress when I watch the clip. I can feel my heart beat pick up as I listen to the music, and in combination with the mess on screen, and the disjointed animation, it just makes you feel like it is a tense situation, as if there is something wrong and this film means business.
Contrast:
The "Call for Papers" video is basically one big contrast. Just about every element in the video contrasts with another. The lighter words contrast with the dark gray box, and the dark gray box contrasts in color with the light gray background. The sort of futuristic techno music and the robotic voice both contrast with the old fashioned cartoon becuase of their difference in time periods. The effect of these contrasts for one make the words easier to read and understand, otherwise they would just blend into the background. However the contrast from the sound and the video is a little odd. The contrast between having a futuristic voice and an old cartoon just make for a weird effect. I would have liked it better if they had a sort of 1960's style announcer to go along with the cartoon. I feel like it would have been a better fit, and maybe have seemed more effective, becuase the use of the robotic voices almost just sounds like they couldn't get an actual voice actor.
In the section from 0:55-1:08, the light colored text is contrasting from the black background. I think the background was deleted from this section because they are now speaking directly to the students on what the requirements are for their entrees. Additionally, they probably didn't have any cartoon clips of the little character that would apply to what they are talking about, so in order to emphasize the requirements, they decided to go to a completely black background. Now that the background is black, there is a much greater color contrast between the background and the text, however the sound no longer contrasts with what is going on visually. The element that is now most emphasized is the text, and what the voice is saying. The author didn't want the audience looking at anything else other than the text.
If I were asked to design a flyer for The JUMP I would probably use a style to match the video and use the little cartoon character. I would make the words The JUMP very large and in contrast to the rest of the flyer, maybe in a black color since the character is mainly a light gray. I would do this in order to make the name very prominent and make it stick in people's mind. Other information would also be written in a darker color to contrast with the rest of the page, however they would be in a smaller font and possibly even lighter color in order to keep the emphasis on the title of the journal.
Organization
For my series of photos I chose to put the American Flag with the fist, the married couple,the wall full of groceries, the crowd of people and then the stacked cars in the dump. The reason I chose the American flag first, is that I was to basically represent the American dream, and use it as an opener for the rest of the slide show. The next picture of the married figurines further represents the American Dream of getting married, having a little house and 2.5 kids. The wall full of groceries represents what it takes to feed the American Dream. In order to live out the American Dream, we need a lot of resources. The crowd of people represents the sheer amount of people wanting to live that dream. The picture of the crushed cars shows the cost of that dream. The overarching story was that in order to have every person live out the American Dream, it requires a ton of resources and makes a lot of waste.
If you flipped the order and had the trash pile first, and the American flag last, the meaning could change so that America is proud of its garbage and excessive consumer lifestyle. You could maybe even say that it is what makes America great.
If you added music, such as the Star Spangled Banner, or the National Anthem, the hopeful sounding music could be a nice contrast with the message. Another idea would be to play patriotic music throughout the slideshow, and then as it hits the picture of the large group of people have the music fade in to something ominous to emphasize that the pile of garbage is a bad thing.
Alignment:
While the alignment between the two words is disjointed, they end up aligned horizontally halfway in between the two words' animation cycles. The word "murmuring" has two alignments which are aligned horizontally every other letter towards the left side of the screen, while "insects" is aligned more towards the center of the screen.This unusual alignment sort of leads me to think that the words are meant to be less literal and more metaphorical to be left up to the interpretation of the audience. It definitely gives it a more poetic feel.
In the Earth scene, the words "In the weeds" and "murmuring" have a matched alignment, slightly to the right of the center just below the moon. The word "Insects" is aligned just right of the moon, leaving a nice little side-subtitle for the moon. I may be over-analyzing this, but the words "In the weeds" appear, they take on an arrangement similar to uncut grass, or a field of weeds. The consistent alignment of the moon and the streaks in the sky make it seem like all these scenes are connected into one story. I usually end up focusing on the moon, and the words near the moon because the words seem to fall near the moon. I don't think the scene would be as effective without the alignment between the elements on the page. The alignment itself almost ads to the poetry, so instead of the words just being a poem, the placement on the screen makes for a sort of visual poetry.
The Air scene has its words aligned to the left, and I think the author chose to align them there because the moon is nearer to the right side of the screen, meaning there is more empty space on the left. and in this scene, there were longer phrases, so in order to keep the words from covering up the moon, the author aligned them to the left. The audio content is sound clip of a lady describing how she saw people jumping from the Twin Towers during the attack on 9/11. In relation to the alignment of the words, the sound clip starts playing just as the words "In the Sky" fade in and fall into place.
In the Water scene, the words align with the curvature of the eye and fade to form the tears of the eye. The man in the audio is hard to hear, but it sounded like he was reciting poetry, and one of the lines includes the words tears, and it sounded like he was getting choked up at the end. The whole alignment of the words in combination with the mournful sound clip create a feeling of sadness and mourning in the viewer.
The three titles in the menu are not aligned because the author wanted to tell three different stories. The fact that the words Air, Earth, and Water are all aligned differently shows that they dont want this to be a uniformed thing, but a more poetic project. The lack of alignment leaves a bit of a choose your own adventure to the sequence, since typically we read from top to bottom, left to right, but these word are arranged so that we cant go from top left to bottom right. The purpose is probably to have the audience pick one of the scenes, watch it, think about it, mourn for the loss, and then move on. This project is as much a memorial as a poem, intending for the audience to sort of just wander through at their own pace and take as much time as they need.
Proximity
In my creation of the cover for the book, The Seagull I grouped elements together mainly by placing them close together. I placed the title in big bold letters at the top, with a subtitle directly below it. Then I placed a picture of a seagull in the middle and the author's name at the bottom of the screen.
I thought the most important element of the cover was the title of the book, which is why it is in large black letters at the top of the page. I also thought the author's name was important, so I chose a large font and typeface for that element as well, however it is at the bottom of the page, so it is less important than the title.
In laying out the elements in a traditional way I found that it can be limiting because you cannot really rotate your wording, or play around with the layout as much. It seems like the Title has to go at the top of the page aligned in the center, with a subtitle underneath it and the author's name at the bottom. If you could change the alignment so that the wording is running vertically down the page, it could stand out enough to effectively catch people's attention and make them give the book a chance. Or if you have all the words rotated at a 45 degree angle, it could also attract attention if done in a way that is readable.
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