Blogfoolery!

My Portfolio Website

2010-04-02T13:00:00.002-04:00

My portfolio website is up and running!

Josh Eckert.com

If you get an error screen, just reload/refresh the page. I'm hosting the site through IUPUI's Pegasus server, for now, and there's something wrong with the URL redirect. Every now and then the page doesn't show up on first load.

But go ahead and check it out!

Character Obituary

2010-03-04T14:59:00.003-05:00

Ergodic Literature and House of Leaves

2009-12-17T16:01:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, I picked up a book called House of Leaves from the library. I'd never heard of it until I came across its mention in a discussion about Paranormal Activity on The Onion A/V Club. It intrigued me enough to go out and find House of Leaves immediately. Rather than summarize the plot, which is difficult enough, I'll put Wikipedia's description of the book here, for the sake of expediency:

"House of Leaves begins with a first-person narrative by Johnny Truant, a Los Angeles tattoo parlor employee. Truant is searching for a new apartment when his friend Lude tells him about the apartment of the recently deceased Zampanò, a blind, elderly man who lived in Lude's building.

In Zampanò's apartment, Truant discovers a manuscript written by Zampanò that turns out to be an academic study of a documentary film called The Navidson Record.

The rest of the novel alternates between Zampanò's report on the fictional film, Johnny's autobiographical interjections, a small transcript of part of the film from Navidson's brother, Tom, a small transcript of interviews to many people regarding The Navidson Record by Navidson's [wife], Karen, and occasional brief notes by unidentified editors, all woven together by a mass of footnotes. There is also another narrator, Johnny's mother, whose voice is presented through a self-contained set of letters titled The Whalestoe Letters. Each narrator's text is printed in a distinct font, making it easier for the reader to follow the occasionally challenging format of the novel."

The description alone is daunting, though, so far, my experience reading House of Leaves has been more exhilarating (and some nights flat-out terrifying) than overwhelming. It's a really great way to immerse a reader into the world of the story. I would describe it as the adult equivalent of those Choose Your Own Adventure books I read as a kid.

Though House of Leaves isn't as overt as that. The genius of it is that by the very nature of the writing - the fact that, like Bram Stoker's Dracula, it is written as if the characters wrote every word - you feel danger not only for the fictional characters, but danger for yourself for simply reading the book. It's like you're discovering something you shouldn't be seeing. You get wrapped up in the sense of discovery as you interpret hidden messages in the text, refer to footnotes and footnotes about footnotes, and you read the appendices and examine photographs. It's an obsessive and rewarding multimedia experience.

I wondered what kind of novel this could be categorized as, since it has so many elements involved I couldn't even begin to classify it. It turns out, that it falls under the description of ergodic literature. Here's a definition from Statemaster.com:

"Ergodic literature is literature that requires special effort to comprehend or read, perhaps due to a "non linear" structure. The term is derived from the Greek words ergon, meaning "work" and hodos, meaning "path". Ergodic literature demands an active role of the reader, such that they become "users" who may need to perform complex semiotic operations to construct the reading."

So, by that definition, everything you read online is ergodic literature. This blog entry is ergodic literature. At anytime of your choosing, you can click any of the links I've provided and go on a separate path that will take you to things that I didn't write. And then that may direct you to something else that I haven't foreseen. And so on. The entire online universe is one big piece of ergodic literature.

As for House of Leaves, it's just another example of why I hope physical, paper-bound books never go away. The experience of reading House of Leaves would be miserable on a Nook or Kindle. When you read a book like this, it needs to look like this once you're done with it:

Website Redesign: Musicovery.com

2009-12-17T12:08:00.003-05:00

Since I talked so much trash about the Musicovery site, I figured I should offer a prospective redesign for their layout.

Here's the original:

Broken down into basic shapes:

And the redesign:

I think framing the web of songs within a dark, circular space would be a great touch, because it would make them all seem like they were floating in space, and you were at some sort of hub, controlling it all, picking and choosing the songs. Maybe the background could change shades with whatever mood you were picking for the music. Almost any color would be better than that blank white space they have now. And the ads could be relegated to the corners to keep things a bit more tidy.

Poster Trends: Footnotes for the future (part II)

2009-12-17T11:44:00.007-05:00

There is a theater in Austin, Texas, called the Alamo Drafthouse that is often used for screenings of old cult classics, new movie geek event movies, or sometimes for filmmaker moderated film festivals, such as Quentin Tarantino's QT Fests.

Whenever they have a special screening of an older film, they commission certain designers and illustrators to come up with a new poster to promote the screening. Though the styles have a lot of differences between them, there is an underlying unity that makes me think that there could be something to what they're doing that may carry over into mainstream poster design. I'll start with designer/illustrator, Tyler Stout.

His style of movie poster almost always consists of a massive orgy of floating heads, just piled upon each other among little knick knacks and various stuff from the movie. It's like a big fanboy geekout collage. Packed to the gills with obscure references and frozen moments taken directly from the screen. He keeps everything unified amid the chaose by sticking to only a handful of colors for the whole image. It's a style with a palpable sense of energy and glee for whichever movie is being represented.

If you look closely at the way the figures and faces are outlined, it looks like he's using Adobe Illustrator, or a similar vector-based program to make these images. There are a lot of outlines, which makes everything almost look plastic. Though, the wavy-ness of some of the line work makes me think that he may physically draw a lot of it, and then scan it into the computer for the finished work.

... come to think of it, this all looks like inkwork, now. Jeez. Look what computers have done. Here I am underestimating someone's handiwork just because it looks so precise. "He must have used a computer!" I say. For shame...

Poster Trends: Footnotes for the Future (part I)

2009-12-17T11:03:00.010-05:00

So you may have noticed I've been writing a lot about movie posters. Is my only ambition to become a movie poster designer? No, it isn't exactly my highest ambition, but I am sort of obsessed with them. In general though, I'm just very interested in how we choose represent stories in any medium with just one single image. It's not something that's going away any time soon. No matter how advanced technology gets, now matter how far removed our entertainment outlets get from printed media, stories will need posters or cover art, of some sort, to represent them and grab the attention of a target audience.

By looking at so many different design choices, good and bad, and seeing how much of it is repeated, I can get a broader sense of the design sensibilities that will define my generation, and thus I can begin to speculate on what sort of trends may become the norm in the future.

Already I've begun to see some trends among amateur and professional poster designers who are finding new ways to represent older films. Here are some styles I've noticed that could very well become a trend in the distant (or, not-so-distant) future.

A designer named Olly Moss has a small collection of posters made only in black and red and the results are excellent. It's definitely a minimalist approach, but the capacity to get so much across using so little is something that I think more and more poster designers may end up utilizing in future poster designs to set themselves apart. Of course, it will take a pretty adventurous marketing department to put their faith in this kind of design in the current marketing climate. There is a lot to compete against.

More to come in Part II.

Poster Trends: Visual Puns & Metaphors (part VI)

2009-12-16T10:54:00.008-05:00

Click here for The Visual Puns and Metaphors intro

The Truth in Shadow variation

Don't you wish our shadows did this in real life? It would be so much easier to cut through all the crap we talk on a daily basis and find out what someone is truly all about.

This has become one of the most commonly used visual metaphors in movie posters, so whether or not one really works depends on the execution. The Phantom Menace teaser poster is a great one. That's mainly because of the iconography involved. Anyone who watches movies knows who that shadow represents. But the positioning of young Anakin Skywalker (that irritating little brat) is also very striking. He looks so innocent and alone and helpless. And yet he will become... him. It's pretty sad when a movie's poster has more emotional impact than the movie. I know, The Phantom Menace is an easy target, but it had to be said.

Poster Trends: Visual Puns & Metaphors (part V)

2009-12-16T10:50:00.010-05:00

The Phallic variation

These are just shameless, aren't they?

This is something that's only done with comedies. Or, in the case of Shortbus, sexually explicit indie films about nothing else other than having sex and talking about sex. I haven't seen it, but I've heard it's pretty terrible.

Hot Fuzz is a sort of loving parody of cop movies, particularly buddy cop movies (Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys, etc), so the use of phallic symbolism is there to poke fun at the inherent (mostly unintentional) homosexual overtones that you'll find in the typical buddy cop movie. Hot Fuzz is fantastic, by the way. Not only is it funny, but it's a worthy entry into the very genre it's mocking (much in the way that Shaun of the Dead was funny, but also just a great zombie movie).

Mr. Woodcock is not so much using a phallic symbol as a... testicular (?) symbol, but it applies nonetheless. The other two movies are just bad sex farces.

All in all, I think these five posters are an accurate representation of how often this particular visual pun gets any attention from me. It's as if I've done some sort of poll, and the results are:

Only one in five movies that use the Phallic variation are actually worth my time.

Poster Trends: Visual Puns & Metaphors (part IV)

2009-12-16T10:44:00.010-05:00

Click here for The Visual Puns and Metaphors intro

The Symbolic Hybrid variation

These are always interesting. Even when they're not that great, they're certainly more appealing than the Floating Heads.

By creating a hybrid of two objects, whether they're people mixed with things, things mixed with things, or things that pile up to make another thing, the merging of the two forces you to evaluate what each thing is separately, and then what they mean together. That meaning speaks to some core element of the film.

Depending on the movie, they can't be too oblique. If there's one thing marketing departments try to shy away from, it's making the viewer feel stupid. But art house films can be a bit more obscure.

Take that AntiChrist poster, for instance. Everything about it is disturbing. It's an incredibly strong image. But what does it mean? Well, since I haven't seen it, I can speculate only with what I've read about it. I know, for one, that there is a pretty brutal scene involving scissors. Hence, the scissors and the blood. That stream of blood is also very strategically placed. I know that it is about a couple (Willem Defoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg) and that it gets pretty erotic at certain points. I also know that it messes with your head. It's a horrific and surreal experience. All of that is hinted at with this one bizarre image. So, though it is referencing a plot element that those who haven't seen the film won't catch, it is a very successful representation of the content.

The same goes for the rest of these examples. They are all capable of not only representing content, but also the attitude or tone of the films.

Poster Trends: Visual Puns & Metaphors (part III)

2009-12-16T01:26:00.006-05:00

Click here for The Visual Puns and Metaphors intro

The Odd Couple variation

This is a trend I know I've seen more of, and yet these four are all I could find. If you can think of any more please mention them in the comments. I've seen all four of these movies, so I can tell you, with authority, that each one is about Person A who is living a regular old boring life until out of the blue, they meet Person B, who turns their life upside down, for better or for worse. That is literally the basic synopsis of all four of these movies. And it's expressed with just this one image. It's very on-the-nose, but at least it's a layout that hasn't quite been overused to the point that it's lost its meaning. It's still very potent. And accurate.

Poster Trends: Visual Puns & Metaphors (part II)

2009-12-16T01:22:00.001-05:00

Click here for the Visual Puns & Metaphors intro

The Hidden Face variation

I'm using the term "hidden" loosely, here. The faces are obviously there, but they're not there, you get me? It's more of a visual pun than a metaphor and in general there isn't a lot of meaning to it aside from the fact that sometimes it's just cool to see a face made out of things that aren't supposed to make a face. It's a popular image for horror movies, as you can see. I had a lot to choose from actually, so just know you're only seeing the tip of the Hidden Face iceberg.

Poster Trends: Visual Puns & Metaphors (part I)

2009-12-15T13:46:00.001-05:00

I think I've mentioned before that I think movie posters are at their best when they focus on obscure plot elements that are representative of the film as a whole - OR - when they use a visual metaphor to express the theme or primary conceit of the film. Well, for this entry, I'm going to focus on just that; The Visual Puns & Metaphors

It's pretty daunting though. This particular trend is pretty general, so it's going to have to be divided into multiple parts. But it's totally worth it. I can honestly say that I did not know nearly as much about poster design until I started doing these. By deliberately looking for patterns and trying to interpret the reasoning behind those patterns, I've learned a lot about the different choices you can make in trying to represent a whole work with one image, and what consequences come from those choices.

So, without further ado...

The Silenced variation

The first thing that comes to mind with this look is, of course, censorship. And that's exactly why it's used. Most of the time, when you see a poster with this kind of metaphor, the movie is either literally telling a story about censorship (The People vs. Larry Flynt), a story about secrets "they" don't want you to know about (What Just Happened, Syriana, and Dysfunktional Family), or it's a visual way to express the word "silent" in the title (Silence of the Lambs, Silent Hill), which is a bit on-the-nose, don't you think? Especially with Silent Hill. The Silence of the Lambs poster is at least a provocative image. "Why the moth?" you think. But that Silent Hill poster just looks like a bad Photoshop job.

Poster Trends: The Warhol Look

2009-12-15T11:52:00.012-05:00

Continuing my focus on poster designs that pay homage to famous artists, I present to you, The Warhol Look.

As if this one needs any introduction. The high contrast print look has been aped so many times now. From people's Facebook/Myspace pictures to movie posters, Andy Warhol's influence can be found just about anywhere.

Much like the Magritte Look last time, the poster designs are paying homage to one specific series of works by the artist, as opposed to the artist's overall philosophy or style. In the case of The Warhol Look, the posters are referring to these:

Warhol loved celebrities and the concept of being a celebrity. When he made images like Marilyn, Jackie or Mickey Mouse, he was re-idolizing the idols. You would never see him make this kind of portrait of just anybody. They had to be icons.

Posters that reference this look are interesting because the very fact that the movie posters are copying his style is in itself an expression of the ideas Warhol brought about when he printed images of pop culture icons. It's kind of a meta-design thing. Warhol himself, or rather his style, has become the thing that's being printed and idolized over and over for whatever use deemed necessary.

More specifically, though, using the style for a movie poster serves the purpose of idolizing whatever character is featured in the image - as if to suggest that this character is an icon with enough pop culture status or mystique to be worthy of Warhol's style. In that sense it's almost a parody. Because, with the exception of the middle poster at the top (Man from Plains, a documentary about Jimmy Carter) the posters are idolizing fictional people.

Here are a few more:

Factory Girl is a movie about Edie Sedgwick, one of Andy Warhol's muses. So the use of his style for the poster is unavoidable, but I can't decide if I really like any of these. The color usage is appealing, the high contrast is always pretty striking, but, all in all, it's a little unimaginative to me.

Next up on Poster Trends, Visual Puns & Metaphors (part I).

Screen Art: The Thing

2009-12-15T00:51:00.008-05:00

Screen Art: Finding images in films that transcend their context.

Let's see, I haven't done one of these in a long time.

This shot from John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) may not look particularly beautiful or noteworthy by itself at first glance. I mean, sure, it's a picture of a head stretching and screaming in ways no human could, but aside from that, no big deal, right?

Well, I've thought for a while that if you crop it like this...

... well, then, sir, you got yourself a movie poster. Since I'm on some kind of crazy poster designing kick lately, I'll go ahead and add it to my to-do list, a long with that other Prestige poster I want to do and the Straw Dogs poster I'm currently tinkering with in my spare time. Yes, sir, I do believe a post for The Thing using the picture above as a basis would be pretty cool indeed. Reminds me of the poster of Pink Floyd's The Wall.

The Criterion Collection of Videogames (cont'd.)

2009-12-14T21:19:00.018-05:00

Okay, I can't help it. I've got to post some more of these. They're just too cool.

Now here's a great game just begging for the GAF Collection treatment. The original cover is atrocious:

The GAF guys came up with these:

The one on the left is decent. I think the title words should be spaced apart a bit more and possibly shrunk down a bit. The one in the middle is really cool, if a bit conventional (close-ups of half a face are pretty easy ways to create an instantly intense image). The one on the far right is my favorite, because it's an image that sums up the feeling of the game, which is very open-ended and a lot of the outcome is decided by your decisions. Also, I'd be willing to bet that whoever designed that one had Carl Sagan's astronomy books in mind:

And last but certainly not least:

News Map: The Bare Essentials of Aggregated News

2009-12-14T21:13:00.001-05:00

Allow me to present, Newsmap.

"Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator.

A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator. Treemaps are traditionally space-constrained visualizations of information. Newsmap's objective takes that goal a step further and provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe.

Newsmap's objective is to simply demonstrate visually the relationships between data and the unseen patterns in news media." (from Marcos Weskamp, creator of Newsmap)

Consider it a new use for Piet Mondrian's principles of design.

Personally, I can see myself using it quite often. As little time as I'm usually able to allocate to reading up on world events, I can't afford to be distracted by ads, trivial news items, or other obstacles posed by the standard design of most news sites.

The two news sources I check out the most are BBC News and The Daily Beast. The BBC is always excellent, but when I'm in a hurry, I check out the Daily Beast's "Cheat Sheet." Though sometimes, the Daily Beast can border on sensationalism.

This News Map, however, would be the perfect thing to drop in on when I need a quick fix. The heirarchy of information isn't set up by any agenda from an individual or organization. It's actually relevant. It's mathematical. I could definitely get used to this setup. I don't think it would carry too well on a large scale, though. I think people, for the most part, like their pictures right there for them to see on whatever news aggregation site they frequent. I do, too, most times, but this is just too convenient to ignore.

Musicovery.com

2009-12-14T18:01:00.008-05:00

MUSICOVERY

I really like where this site is coming from, but its music selection is weak, the interface is awkward and the sound quality is poor. It says you can get Hi-Fi quality if you pay $4 a month, but with Pandora.com being as top-notch, intuitive, and FREE as it is, well, Musicovery might want to think about adjusting their set-up if they want to compete.

Wait a minute, what's this? Down at the bottom of Musicovery's page?

Really, Time.com? You think this is one of the 50 Best Websites of 2009? The smorgasbord of ingenuity and design prowess just flowing all over the web and you think this is one of the best?

I mean, don't get me wrong I can appreciate the creativity involved in coming up with the idea. The fact that you can pick a song by your mood (Calm to Energetic, Dark to Positive) is very cool. But it's very poorly executed from what I can see.

Time.com says:
"The interface is so radically different from Pandora and Last.fm that it seems like it was beamed from an ultra-sophisticated, über-arty future utopia."

That's a bit much. If the "uber-arty future utopia" means we get the same awkwardly placed cleavage ads on our web pages, then, I'm not too excited for the future...

Seriously, guys, look at it (not the cleavage, the webpage). The awkward blank spaces. The mismatched lettering. It's an extremely lazily designed site. All the effort obviously went into that little player and the interactive spider web of songs that appears when you choose your music.

I guess this is just an example of an idea transcending poor execution. But that doesn't mean that better execution wouldn't make it even better.

The Lets Play Archive

2009-12-14T17:38:00.006-05:00

(from the home page of The Lets Play Archive):

A truly devoted display of games

If you're looking for game playthroughs online, you've just found the most compelling and entertaining collection. This is why we at PokerListings have decided to give our full support and thanks to everyone behind the Let's Play Archive. As we do to with all the poker online games, the Let's Play Archive focus on giving you the full experience of the games in an informative and entertaining manner. Just look at some of the great playthroughs below and you'll see what we mean. Awesome job guys!

At first glance, the whole point of The Lets Play Archive seems kind of ridiculous. People play some video games, record their entire gameplay experience via video camera or screen shots (with written or audio commentary) and then upload the files to this site, for people to come by and experience the game vicariously through them.

It's an unbelievably geeky thing to do, but that's okay, because I'm pretty damn geeky.

Gamers can drop by the site and use the playthroughs as either a guide for parts they're having trouble with, or just watch them play it. It sounds lame, but, if you're a gamer, you get it. I've just perused a few of these and the commentary they provide isn't annoying or intrusive. It's like what you and your friends would do if you were taking turns playing a single player game. You crack jokes and figure out the puzzles together. It can be a very communal experience and this site offers a little of that for you, as a spectator.

Another reason this is something to geek out over is if there is a game that you've always been curious about, but haven't had the means to play, you can see what it was like on this site.

For me, there is one game I hear great things about but probably won't ever get to experience for myself. That game is System Shock 2.

System Shock 2 and its predecessor are pretty widely known as two of the early masterpieces of computer gaming, but both of them were released at incredibly unfortunate times alongside two games that overshadowed them in popularity (Doom and Half-Life, respectively), so they got lost in the shuffle. This means that there haven't been any efforts to port the System Shock games to current hardware, which also means that unless you still have your old mid to late 90's PC, you won't be playing either of them. The creators, however, recently expanded upon the gameplay elements of System Shock with the modern classic, Bioshock, which I have played and can absolutely vouch for its reputation. So, in a way, System Shock has survived.

But I'm already planning on setting a side a couple hours one day to see the abridged version of this game. Thank you, Lets Play Archive. You crazy bunch of uber-geeks, you.

Cooking for Engineers

2009-12-14T10:45:00.000-05:00

I consider myself a creative person, but when it comes to cooking, I require strict directions, exact quantities of time to heat or cool and exact amounts to add or not add. Without them, I become lost, confused, unsure of everything and completely useless in the kitchen. Because of this handicap of mine, along with my general impatience when it comes to preparing food (let's just eat it, already!) I never cook. At all, really. This is something about me that my girlfriend, Lori, is very keen on changing very soon.

Well, she may not have to wait long, because I have found the perfect site for someone like me. I can't believe I found it and I'm incredibly grateful that it exists. It's called Cooking for Engineers.

I'm sifting through their recipes now and I'm excited. This is so freakin' perfect. I just found a recipe for a Chocolate Pecan Pie that I may be able to cook for Lori this Christmas. Oh, she'll swoon, for sure.

Thank you, internet. Why I never asked you for cooking advice all this time, I'll never know. But I hope this is the beginning of a long and fruitful arrangement.

Assignment: The Prestige Poster, Vintage Redesign

2009-12-14T10:30:00.001-05:00

A while back, in one of my Poster Trends articles, I mentioned that I thought the poster campaign for The Prestige really missed a great opportunity to pay homage to that late 19th Century style of magic posters. And instead came up with this:

And these, which are definitely more creative, and at least hint at the setting of the film more overtly:

Well, I ended up actually putting my money where my mouth is, so to speak, by making the posters myself using Photoshop and Illustrator. This was for a class, at first. We had to propose a redesign of something we thought was poorly designed. Initially, our final project was to actually create that redesign, so I got started on it early. But then our teacher announced that the final project assignment had been changed, so this ended up being extra credit.

I learned a hell of a lot, putting this thing together. I'll go ahead and document some of the steps that went into making it.

First, I took two of those posters from above and used the figures of the Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as reference and isolated their figures in Photoshop.

I discovered that the process is like the digital equivalent of chiseling a form into stone. I used the pen tool to create jagged shapes of different colors, then used the airbrush eraser to whittle the shapes down and fade into each other so the face looked soft and rounded.

Once I had his and Hugh Jackman's figures ready to go, I started laying everything out.

When I started making the characters for those bottom circles, I used the same technique as I had for Jackman and Bale, but tried to make it less realistic and more like the kind of sketch you would see on those old magicians posters. I didn't quite pull off the authenticity, but it definitely turned out more cartoonish than the Jackman and Bale's faces.

So I tried to keep that in mind so the style would be the same with each of the four heads. But when I got to working on Scarlett Johannsen, I got a bit carried away:

I'm really proud of how it was starting to turn out, but it's definitely too realistic for this poster. However, it's very cool to know that I'm capable of that kind of trace work at this point. When the right project comes along, whether in school or not, I now know I can pull that off. For this poster, though, this was more appropriate:

So, the final layouts went like this:

The sepia-toned version is just for kicks. I don't particularly like it without the color. Below is the latest draft of the poster. I tried to make it look old, gave it some texture and wrinkles.

I'm reasonably happy with it. It was a learning experience, first and foremost. I might tinker with a few details, but overall, I'd be happy to frame it and hang it on my wall.

In related news, I want to do another one! Here's the rough layout, so far:

The Criterion Collection of Videogames

2009-12-14T10:12:00.000-05:00

If you're a DVD buff, like me, you're well aware of the Criterion Collection.

The Criterion Collection's mission, in their words, is to gather "the greatest films from around the world and [publish] them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements," and also, to publish "the defining moments of cinema for a wider and wider audience."

A major part of their operation is pulled off with their cover art. The Criterion crew is lauded for their DVD box art design and for very good reason. 99% of the time, their covers are stunning, minimalist design pieces that do more justice to portraying the essence of the films than just about any other publisher around. Here are some great examples:

The key is that they always seem to focus on either something really specific that only people who've seen the movie could fully comprehend, or, they create some sort of visual metaphor of the movie's theme. To me, this is what every poster/cover of a major work should be doing, but, as we well know, that can't always be the case.

Now with that in mind, a friend recently tipped me off to this web page, where someone has posted a collection of alternate designs for classic video games, inspired by the design styles seen in the Criterion Collection. It's called the GAF Collection (all the designs are made by members of Gaming Age Forums, one of the most popular videogame message boards around). I'll post a few of my favorites, alongside the original box art.

I'll stop there. I could post so, so many more.

Google Building Maker

2009-12-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

Google Building Maker

Pretty smart of them to outsource such a massive project to a world of users. I'll admit, I'm curious to try it out. I want my apartment building on there. My parents' house. My friends' houses, my old schools, all kinds of stuff.

I think that feeling I have is what they're counting on. Our inherent vanity. To see pieces of ourselves up in places that the whole world can access.

But then, also, there's our curiosity of the world. That's part of the fun of Google Earth to begin with. To spy on places we'll probably never see firsthand.

I wonder if the Great Pyramids have been Google Built?

Discovering the Demoscene

2009-12-14T09:48:00.000-05:00

You know those computer graphics demos, where some trippy computer generated imagery animates to music? Well, apparently there's an entire underground scene of programmers and CG artists that get together in conventions, and contests and parties and just make demos.

www.Demoscene.tv

It's all pretty obscure and hard to appreciate if you're not a demohead and have a pretty extensive knowledge of the challenges that come with coding the demos. But it's fascinating, nonetheless. Especially seeing how many demos are made using really old technology.

According to the site, the demoscene started when programmers would encode their own imagery on the Commodore 64, or hack existing animations and images. That, along with Atari software, still gets heavy usage from these guys. Apparently, it's the challenge of the limitations. Seeing how much you can pull off with ancient tools, or, with the newer stuff, seeing how far you can push the limits.

The key is real-time computing. Now, for a long time, I've been under the impression that I knew what that word meant, but here's the definition (according to Answers.com):

(computer science) A system in which the computer is required to perform its tasks within the time restraints of some process or simultaneously with the system it is assisting.

and from Wikipedia.org:

In computer science, real-time computing (RTC), or "reactive computing", is the study of hardware and software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"—i.e., operational deadlines from event to system response. By contrast, a non-real-time system is one for which there is no deadline, even if fast response or high performance is desired or preferred. The needs of real-time software are often addressed in the context of real-time operating systems, and synchronous programming languages, which provide frameworks on which to build real-time application software.

This is getting harder to understand. The narrator in the intro to Demoscene.tv says that real-time graphics are different from the norm in that the things you usually see (say, in a Pixar film) are all pre-rendered graphics. This makes the concept easier to understand, and now I'm slapping my forehead. Of course. This analogy covers it:

Pre-rendered : Animated Movies :: Real-time : Videogames

D'uh. Okay, jeez. I get it.

Maybe.

So, let's see if I've got it: the videos you see on Demoscene.tv are all reacting to coding that sets a specific set of rules for various outcomes. Unlike a CG-animated film, in which things are molded to happen within a framework of pre-set rules, then played out and essentially recorded (read: pre-rendered), a demo, in the sense of the Demoscene, plays out "live," as the coding works with the hardware to render what you see as it's interpreted. REAL-TIME.

I think I got it.

So, I've watched a handful of them. Like I said, they're hard to appreciate without a full understanding of the challenges the creators faced, but even with the very basic (and probably still inadequately informed) understanding I have now, this one is my favorite:

Scroll-down comics

2009-12-14T02:30:00.000-05:00

This is pretty funny. Anyone who's ever seen any zombie movie will get it.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/zombie_how

Content aside, and maybe I'm just sheltered when it comes to web comics, but it never occurred to me to set up a comic that way. To just make it one long scroll, utilizes the most basic of web browser elements (the scroll bar) to great effect. There are little things you can do with timing and pacing in a comic laid out vertically for the entire narrative.

So could this work as well elsewhere? As in, not on a computer?

I don't think so. I mean, humans used to be all about scrolls, but then we realized how much easier it was to make much smaller pieces of paper, bind them, and turn them over with our hands. A scroll is big and awkward (obviously, I can say this because I remember the golden days of the scroll, firsthand).

With the computer, however, we can bring the scroll back in all its vertical glory, as evidenced in this little web comic. Hmm, I think I'll add another side project to my never ending, will-probably-never-finish list of side projects.

Delicious Monster and the Comfort of Collecting

2009-12-13T01:23:00.000-05:00

DELICIOUS MONSTER.COM

One day, all of us media junkies will probably have our entire catalog of movies, music, books and games compiled into one handheld projector/stereo/gaming device thing-a-majig, but until that time comes, we can at least pretend it's all in one place.

Delicious Monster is an application for collectors and obsessives. Namely, someone like me.

Though I've been using a site called Listal.com to obsessively catalog and rate everything I own and want to own, Delicious Monster offers the enticing ability to log down UPC numbers (Universal Product Codes) so that in the event that all your precious DVDs were stolen or lost in a fire, you would be able to provide the insurance company with the exact amount of and dollar worth of your collections.

Obsessive and paranoid, or thorough and prepared?

It's a personal preference. There is an undeniable attraction to cataloging my interests. I can't quite pinpoint why. A lot of people get it, but a lot of people don't, too. There are all kinds of personal factors that determine whether or not you're that type of person, but for me there's something comforting about it. Maybe it's the enforcement of order and sequence in an unruly world, if that doesn't sound too pretentious. There's a scene in High Fidelity that really nails this sentiment, in which John Cusack's character, Rob, is undergoing a massive reorganization of his record collection after breaking up with his longtime girlfriend...

Maybe it's as simple as nostalgia. Collecting and maintaining a collection is like looking at a time line of your life. You can clearly see where you've been, and where you are, and, maybe, be reminded of where you've always planned to go.

The Starter Pistol... an unfortunate situation

2009-12-10T22:58:00.000-05:00

So it looks like I have, let's see... six days to complete 32 blog entries.

I never would've imagined it would come to this. When we were given this assignment at the beginning of the semester, I thought, "Ooh, fun! I like blogging." Seeing as how I once had my own blog that I wrote for fun, I figured this was would be a cinch.

And yet here we are. Time is such a slippery little thing. Lost so easily and impossible to retrieve.

It's a good thing I have 29 drafts for posts that I started intermittently throughout the semester. It shouldn't be too hard to finish them.

...

BANG!!

And we're off!

Poster Trends: The Magritte Look

2009-11-08T14:27:00.001-05:00

Continuing my focus on modern poster designs that pay homage to famous artists, I now present The Magritte Look.

This trend's a bit harder to expound upon because it's not very common, but it has appeared in enough posters I've seen to make me wonder how many more are out there that I just haven't found.

There's just something about Rene Magritte's Son of Man, huh?

Rene Magritte was a Belgian surrealist painter from the late 20's to late 60's. His work often portrayed odd and puzzling scenes in a very straightforward style, as if he were painting a still life. In his own words:

"My paintings are visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question 'What does that mean'? It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable."

I love that. His paintings are great. There's such a palpable attitude to them. A very dry humor coupled with a sense of wonder.

He painted things other than guys in bowler hats floating or standing around...

...but Son of Man and the other bowler hat paintings are the ones that designers refer to when they really want to portray their movie as "offbeat." I think it works, but it can be a cheap move. It's too easy to just mimic such a prolific image and force those associations on the viewer. However, I think the best example of its use is in the poster for David Cronenberg's, Naked Lunch.

It's a variation on Son of Man, instead of a more direct parody of it, like the posters for Everything is Illuminated and Toys. It's taking the layout and applying it more obliquely to the subject matter of the movie. The texture and color of the image are great, too. It's like an old photograph. The humor is there, but it's unsettling in a way that Son of Man isn't.

Next time on Poster Trends, The Warhol Look.

Ikea Hacker

2009-11-07T12:45:00.001-05:00

IKEA HACKER

The Ikea Hacker blog is such a great idea. Apparently there have been so many great ideas for alternate uses for Ikea furniture that someone decided they needed put all the ideas in one place. Ikea's products are all build-it-yourself, and the directions they provide have been known to be notoriously frustrating:

People can upload their hack instructions using video or pictures. All the ones I've seen are fairly ingenious and very helpful. I found this one particularly useful, since I have pretty big cat in an apartment with very little storage space:

Flip Book Animation by Donato Sansone

2009-11-06T14:24:00.000-05:00

Here is an absolutely fantastic example of animation innovation. Well, more accurately, it's a new way of looking at an old method. You have got to see this:

VIDEOGIOCO by Donato Sansone from Enrico Ascoli - Sound Design on Vimeo.

I can tell there's some After Effects (or a similar program) being used to manipulate the edits here so they more effectively deliver the illusion of consistent movement between frames. The sound effects are extremely well chosen, too.

Could a style like this be used to tell a longer story? Sure, but it might become tiresome and uncomfortable to watch. A style like this, that is so un-polished, could really only be used for something this short, but what a style it is. There's a lot of raw energy and creativity at work here.

Paranormal Activity, Mockumentary Horror, and Simulated PTSD

2009-11-06T14:00:00.000-05:00

I saw Paranormal Activity a couple weeks ago and, despite my reservations about all the hype, it seriously got to me. I think it's great that this whole "mockumentary horror" thing has become its own genre and we can no longer just dismiss them as Blair Witch knock-offs (see Cloverfield, Rec, Diary of the Dead). It's an extremely effective method of immersing the audience in a horror scenario and using their imagination against them. When done well, they can reach classic status, as we've seen, though they can be incredibly divisive films.

I've heard people coming out of the theater saying things like, "I want my money back," or, "That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen," and I can't understand it. Well, actually, I can understand it, I just can't agree. People see this being called the "scariest movie of all time" and go in expecting it to fail. Their expectations are so unreasonable they feel they don't need to do anything to engage themselves in the experience. A movie like this needs you to be willing get lost in it. If you fight it at all, it doesn't work. Sure, the same could be said for any movie, but with these, in particular, the fact that they try to simulate reality with a method that inherently carries the association of being "real" (handheld camerawork, improvised dialog, etc.) we tend to be even more critical of its verisimilitude than we would with a more traditional movie.

Personally, I don't really have to try very hard to suspend my disbelief for something like this. I've been a horror movie buff for as long as I can remember, and when I see something like this, I want to be scared. I enjoy the thrill of a simulated feeling of danger, so I put myself on the edge of the proverbial cliff, intentionally. All the movie has to do is give me that little shove and down I go. Though this does not mean that I'll fall for anything that calls itself "horror." The torture porn craze (Saw, Hostel, etc) lasted for about three movies for me, and even that was two too many. And the seemingly endless, over-budgeted wave of remakes (House on Haunted Hill, House of Wax, Last House on the Left) hardly get a passing glance.

The bottom line is, if all the elements are in place and it's a well-crafted piece of filmmaking, I will submit myself to its powers with vigor.

Paranormal Activity had all the elements in place. Aside from a few moments when the actors underplayed or overplayed scenes, this was an extremely well-crafted entry into the mockumentary horror genre. This much, I hoped for. What I did not expect, however, was the lingering fear that ended up ruining my night. I was jumpy and anxious, wary of dark spaces and couldn't be left alone without nearly being overwhelmed with panic. It sounds ridiculous, but on a purely physical level, it makes sense: when you're stuck in a dark room, staring intently at a screen for almost two hours, reacting to every strange sound, movement or reaction from the characters, you're guaranteed to be in that state of mind for a little while afterward. It's like an extremely mild, temporary form of post traumatic stress disorder.

Of course, having a wild imagination helps, and there are scenes in Paranormal Activity that leave much to the imagination; things you hear but don't see. These things did a number on me, too, because I just couldn't stop thinking about what those things could've been or what could've actually happened. It was hard to shake.

So if the natural progression of horror films over the years has led to the creation of the mockumentary horror genre, what is the next logical step? Will it rely on an entirely new technology to become more immersive? It seems so. What more could be done with a film or video camera to make a movie seem more real than this? The only thing I can think of would be sort of a Candid Camera, reality-TV kind of scenario; the people in the movie wouldn't know they were in a movie. But then there's all kinds of liability issues which would push producers to manipulate events and feign reality (just like the reality-TV shows of today) so that concept is out the window.

I can't even begin to guess what the next big technological leap in filmmaking will be. Some form of virtual reality? Probably. For the time being, though, a well done mocku-horror-mentary will do just fine.

Marketing Stumptown Investigations to the Diehards

2009-11-05T13:00:00.010-05:00

I'm a big noir head. Films noir, novels noir, comics noir, sci-fi noir, neo-noir, you name it, I'm interested. There's been a big resurgence of noir appreciation over the past several years, and the comic book industry has become a real hotbed for the best of the best noir on the market (see 100 Bullets, Scalped, Criminal, and the unfinished Stray Bullets).

Which is I'm so hyped for Stumptown, an upcoming series written by Greg Rucka (co-writer of an excellent superhero/noir hybrid called Gotham Central, a series told from the perspective of the detective unit in Batman's Gotham City). And it's a private detective story, the most classic archetype in all of noir fiction, second only to the femme fatale.

The indie comic publisher, Oni Press, has come up with some very cool little ways to market the series. First of all there's this fake yellow pages entry:

Check out some of the names up there, too. Every single one of them is a reference to famous (or obscure) private detective character or agency, whether from books or film. Of course you have Spade & Archer, as in Sam Spade from The Maltese Falcon. And also P. Marlowe, as in Philip Marlowe from The Big Sleep. But then he's even included Valiant & Valiant. The detective agency from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Awesome.

This is definitely niche marketing, but I'll be damned if they don't have their target audience - me - in the palm of their hand. I'm very anxious to get my hands on this series. And it's a female protagonist, if you'll notice. Not many girl P.I.'s out there. This will be a treat.

Oh, and the Stumptown website? Well, it doesn't exist, but if you go there, you'll see this:

503-389-2135.

That number actually works, too. If you have a chance, call it right now. It's another great bit of interactive, immersive marketing.

Poster Trends: The Mondrian Look

2009-10-28T12:32:00.000-04:00

Continuing my focus on modern poster designs that pay homage to older styles and artists, I present to you the Mondrian Look (also referred to as, The Disjointed Squares look).

I've called it the Mondrian Look after the artist, Piet Mondrian, the Dutch painter, who, in the 1920's, created works such as these:

The posters that recall Mondrian are, whether the designers realize it or not, playing on the design principles he proposed in the twenties. Mainly, principles of organization and color - composing on a grid and making that grid the focal point of the design. The paintings were, in essence, design broken down to the most fundamental elements. It's a fairly cold, antiseptic kind of design.

In the case of the movie posters, the Mondrian Look sometimes, but definitely not always, is an accurate representation of the style of filmmaking in the movie. We see snapshots of characters or scenes from the film set apart in various frames. Like Mondrian's work, it's a very cold, stripped down look and sometimes the movies themselves are cold, stripped down, character-driven stories.

Unfortunately, it has become one of the most grossly overused poster designs around and the meaning suggested by the style itself has been all but lost. It now seems to suggest the same design intentions as the Floating Heads style. Mainly: SELL THE ACTORS.

Next up: The Magritte Look.

Over-Marketing?: EA's Dante's Inferno

2009-10-27T15:10:00.000-04:00

The fact that we can actually say, with a straight face, that there is a Dante's Inferno videogame coming out is something that seems a lot more silly and bizarre than it actually is. At first glance, it's as ridiculous as the idea of a Paradise Lost or A Christmas Carol videogame. It just feels strange to digest the idea that this antique pillar of literary history has branched out to such an unlikely medium of entertainment. When you look more closely at the situation though, you're quick to discover that its connection to the literature is essentially in name only. Aside from the references to each circle of Hell and the fact the main character's name is Dante (no other connection to the literary Dante at all), this is, for Christianity, what God of War was for Greek mythology. The gameplay also looks identical to God of War (which was very similar to Devil May Cry, which starred a character named, oddly enough, Dante), if that helps drive the connection home.

All that aside, Electronic Arts, the company producing the game, has come up with a fairly ingenious (though controversial, at times) marketing campaign to count down to the release of the game. Watch below to see what they sent to CHUD.com writer, Alex Riviello, to commemorate this specific circle of Hell:

I love how they forced this guy to actually engage in an act of wrath as part of their marketing campaign. It's a brilliant way to choreograph an engaging, interactive situation. It's definitely very memorable, too.

However, what does this actually say about their product? We know the artistry involved has to be top notch. Especially if their disturbing mini-books are any indication. But this kind of thing can backfire because it reeks so strongly of over-compensation. I'm sure the crew truly believe they have a top-notch product on their hands, but it just seems like an awful lot of hype before any substance. I predict it'll end up being a pretty solid action game with not much else to set it apart, except the visuals - something that every new videogame of this generation seems to emphasize over inventiveness and ingenuity in gameplay.

Nowadays, with so many avenues for companies to compete for our attention, big budget projects are pulling out all the stops to keep our eyes on them. Hence the viral marketing trend. Remember the Dark Knight's campaign, before Heath Ledger died? There were all these interactive web sites and Joker-themed scavenger hunts that kept people excited for the movie. Then, of course, Heath Ledger died and the marketing team didn't have to do much else. The hype was at its peak. But for a while there, they had the most potent viral marketing campaign I've ever seen. So how was the actual film? Passable. Enjoyable enough. Ledger's performance was legendary, but the movie itself? Merely decent, in my eyes.

That was a bit of a digression, but the point is that marketing campaigns for big budget projects have seemed to have more inventiveness behind them than some of the products/projects they're advertising. I guess the longer you're exposed to it, the more wary you get of this fact, because I know this can't be something that's cropped up in the last decade or so, it just seems like it has, because it's finally losing its effect on me.

Poster Trends: That Saul Bass Look

2009-10-22T09:45:00.000-04:00

After wallowing in the dull squalor of the Floating Heads trend for those last few entries, this next one is a breath of fresh air. I give you the Saul Bass look:

This style is named after the man who popularized the look, a graphic designer named Saul Bass. Aside from designing posters, Saul Bass was also famous for his title sequences, which were made with the same simplistic style you see in the posters. However, his opening titles were often jazzy, frenetic pieces that contained an energy that revolutionized how editors approached future title sequences.

Now, the posters above were all made sometime between the mid 50's and late 60's, but if you think they look modern, that's because this style has been mimicked countless times over the years. Here are some very recent examples:

There are a few specific attributes of the Saul Bass look that designers have taken cues from. First of all, the posters are essentially broken down to the most basic elements of design, defined by bold colors and strategically-placed geometric shapes and silhouettes that express the elements of the story.

Also, the font is almost always unstable, jagged, or broken in some way. This can convey a sort of playfulness, but it can also convey danger, or a threat of some sort. There's a sarcastic, sometimes cynical edge to the lettering, regardless of the movie, which is a very modern feeling to convey. Sometimes, all you need is lettering to get this across:

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) is a very melodramatic, tragic story (with one of my all time favorite titles, by the way - it comes from the Irish saying that begins, "May you be in heaven half an hour..."), but by using the Saul Bass look to represent the film, the designer was able to communicate the underlying element of dark humor that runs throughout the film. The story is a tragedy, but it's about a pair of criminals (brothers, in fact) so desperate and clumsy you can't help but laugh intermittently during their steep plunge into chaos.

The posters are also heavy with visual metaphors. The most striking example, to me, can be seen in the poster for Precious (2009). We see the silhouette of an overweight girl, cracking apart, presumably caused by the sinister hand at the center, which could symbolize her abusive mother, or the disdain from society, in general. The color palate and the placement of the silhouette is very similar to the Saint Joan (1957) poster. This has to be intentional. Both posters represent films about struggling, ostracized female youths.

In my searching for more posters, I found a blog called Film the Blanks that takes random movie posters and reduces them to basic shapes, which inadvertently creates a kind of basic Saul Bass-esque design. The titles are always hidden, so you also have to try to figure out what movie the poster is for, based simply on the shapes provided. It's a pretty cool experiment.

This style is definitely not fit for every movie, but when it's paired with the right material, it offers some of the best, most timeless design you can find. While I would like to see it in theaters more often, I also don't want the style to become over-exposed and lessen its impact. I have a huge soft spot for this design and any movie that uses it always gets a second look from me.

Next up on Poster Trends, I think I'll analyze the Artist Homage - posters designed specifically to pay homage to a famous visual artist. You might be thinking that the Saul Bass Look could be categorized under the Homage label, too, and you'd be right. But the Artist Homage look is, more specifically, a design that references an artist from a particular movement in art history (pop art, cubism, surrealism, renaissance, etc.).

Code Generated Art

2009-10-12T10:33:00.000-04:00

In August, Smashing Magazine posted a list of 45 examples of code-generated artwork. That is, artwork created using not only sophisticated computer software like Maya, 3D Studio Max, and Photoshop, but also programs, like ActionScript, that take algorithms and generate imagery according to whatever code is typed into the computer. There are some really beautiful images, and looking at them got me thinking of the time when I'd hear people (mainly my high school art teachers) criticizing computer art as a medium less worthy of praise or admiration because, as they said, "the computer does the work for you."

People don't seem to be saying that as much anymore. I think many of those in the art field, at the time, were still feeling threatened by computers - as if they'd be replaced by automated artists churning out works on an assembly line somewhere. Luckily that turned out to be very far from the truth. Computers are merely another tool in the artist's toolbox.

Here are some of my favorites from this list.

"Circle Explosion" by Mark Knol

"Composition #72" by Patrick Gunderson

"Crimson" by Natzke

It's the perfect union of art and science, or mathematics, if you want to get technical about it. Despite the fact that the computer is the one implementing the information, it still takes a human mind to give it the right information to create the image. It requires not only computer knowledge but also some understanding of color and compositional concepts. Cool stuff.

Then, of course, there's the more representational side of computer generated art. These are amazing.

"Hektor" by Mark Denko

"Living Room" by Phillip Widmer

"The Artist Himself" by Piotr Fox Wysocki

Epilogue for the Floating Heads

2009-09-28T09:30:00.000-04:00

I'd completely forgotten about this until my friend Jeff reminded me. This video was made about a year ago and it nails the Floating Heads thing perfectly. Check it out.

Movie Poster Floating Heads - watch more funny videos

Poster Trends: Attack of the Floating Heads (part V)

2009-09-25T16:10:00.000-04:00

This next one, I call the Ring variation:

This could technically be a sub-variation of the Totem Pole design I mentioned previously. Though, unlike the Totem Poles, this variation is most often used for movies with an ensemble cast where no single cast member trumps another too much, in terms of star power. Looking at that Urban Legend poster, you can see that there are ways to make this variation one of the more visually interesting Floating Heads variations. The "broken glass" thing is kind of cool, if not at all original. But then you look at that Much Ado About Nothing poster and... well, that might just be one of the worst posters I've ever seen.

I don't know about you, but I've had enough. There are a few more Floating Head variations I've noticed, but let's save that for another day. Maybe. I mean, aside from analyzing the choice of font and color scheme, there's not a whole lot to read into when you look at a Floating Heads poster.

When Poster Trends returns, I'll be analyzing one of my all time favorite designs: That "Saul Bass" Look - a style I'd best describe as the complete opposite of the Floating Heads. I look forward to it.

Poster Trends: Attack of the Floating Heads (part IV)

2009-09-25T15:55:00.000-04:00

This next variation, which I call, the Smoke Plume variation, is particularly guilty of being extremely vague in regards to portraying any details about the movie itself (also see the Abandon poster, in part 3):

Though it seems this variation is mostly used for thrillers, images as innocuous as these rely solely on the tagline to get anything about the story across. In the case of that Prestige poster, the tagline is no help at all. It's basically assuming you've already seen the trailer. Otherwise, how else would you be able to tell that it's a movie about dueling magicians? If it were up to me, a design influenced by those old 19th Century magician posters would be a really cool throwback to the era in which the movie takes place, but it would also make for a more interesting design.

Poster Trends: Attack of the Floating Heads (part III)

2009-09-25T15:45:00.002-04:00

(click here for the Attack of the Floating Heads intro)

Looking at all these ugly posters is wearing me down. Seriously, look at these:

I mean, I've seen posters like this for as long as I can remember, but until now, scrolling through them one after another, does it really hit home just how little innovation and creativity there is in this field. Or rather, I should say, how little it is encouraged. I know there have to be some designers out there who come up with some really interesting designs, but get shot down when they present it because the studios want the actors to be more prevalent.

Take that Point Break poster, for instance. The image of those three robbers, standing on the rocks in their presidents masks with the waves breaking behind them, is a very cool image by itself. It looks fun and dangerous at the same time. But when you shrink that and have these giant heads plastered above them, staring at you, the impact of the figures is, literally, whittled down to almost nothing.

I can just imagine it:

"Yeah... it's a cool picture, but where are the stars? Why don't you go ahead and put Patrick and Keanu's heads right... HERE."

It's frustrating to think about. Because aside from being as aesthetically inept as they are, most Floating Head designs do a terrible a job of actually expressing what the movie is about, or what it feels like. Heads, everywhere, with looks of concern, of pensiveness, a smirk here and there... but what the hell is the movie like?

Screen Art: The Last Temptation of Christ

2009-09-25T14:05:00.000-04:00

From Martin Scorsese's 1988 film, The Last Temptation of Christ.

Cinematographers have been inspired by classical painting for many years, but this is a prime example of just how influential those classic images can be. This shot is a direct descendant of a 16th Century painting by Hieronymus Bosch, titled Christ Carrying the Cross.

What's most impressive to me, as far as how the painting was replicated for film, is how they managed to fill the shot with actors whose faces are almost as varied and animated as the faces in the painting. Also, you can tell the cinematographer (Michael Ballhaus) used a long focal lens to flatten the depth of the image, simulating the crowded and 2-dimensional layout of the painting.

Poster Trends: Attack of the Floating Heads pt 2

2009-09-24T01:43:00.001-04:00

In the last post I mentioned that one of the ugliest things about the floating heads poster is the fadeout around the edges of the heads. Well, there are ways around that shoddy fadeout, however. This next variation - the Stripe variation - manages to sidestep or distract from the shoddy fadeout by placing the floating heads in a stripe. The result is still, unfortunately, a generic floating head design, but the contrast of the stripe on a blank background makes it seem like a more coherent design:

Then, of course, there are slight variations on the Stripe layout that reveal even stronger design possibilities.

The Inside Man poster is my favorite of these three. I love how the text is incorporated into the layout. There's actually some hint of visual poetry going on, without infringing upon the need to sell the cast of the film.

But, in the end, they've still got those damn floating heads.

Poster Trends: Attack of the Floating Heads

2009-09-24T01:32:00.002-04:00

Since my last post got me thinking of movie marketing, I've decided to do a series of entries that will point out and analyze different trends in movie poster design. I'll go ahead and get my least favorite poster design out of the way so I don't keep putting it off.

The dreaded Floating Heads style is easily the most commonly seen movie poster design there is, because Hollywood pays big bucks to its stars and they need to make sure they use that star power to the fullest. As a result, we have to deal with looking at arguably the ugliest, least imaginative posters around.

The intentions behind this design are simple: recognizable faces sell movie tickets. If you were a Tom Cruise fan or a Will Smith fan and had no idea what movies they were in at the time, one look at the poster would be enough to bring you in. These designs perfectly embody the business end of filmmaking. The movies are a product that needs to be sold and these faces help sell it. As you can see from the choices above, Floating Heads are always accompanied by some tiny representation of the story. A tiny silhouette or a landscape or an object. Other than that, any sort of message or impressive design sense takes a back seat.

That said, despite the constraints of this design, there can be many variations. I call this the Totem Pole variation:

Much like a totem pole, these heads are stacked from top to bottom. The order they're placed in always represents some sort of hierarchy. The biggest is either the most important character or the most expensive or popular actor in the film. This design is most commonly used for epic adventure films, which makes me think it's a throwback to the old painted designs for similar films of old:

However, back then the fact that it was handmade at least lent a sense of artistry to the piece. Now, the figures are just plastered onto the image in Photoshop, resulting in an extremely shoddy fade out around the edges of the figures. This is actually what irks me most about the Floating Heads:

It looks so rushed. And cheap.

Expectations and Movie Marketing: "Unbreakable" Retrospective

2009-09-24T01:28:00.000-04:00

I've always been fascinated with movie marketing - what makes a good trailer, poster, and why. How much do you reveal? How much do you withhold? These things can drastically affect a viewer's experience with the film, because they create very specific expectations. There have been countless movies over the years that I've disliked simply because the marketing promised something that wasn't delivered. Though, there have also been many movies that I ended up loving in spite of the way they were marketed.

It seems that for ages the central tenant of movie marketing has stated that it's better to misrepresent the movie in favor of reaching everyone (or at least the largest demographic) than reaching the exact audience the movie was made for. Obviously, the reasoning is simple:

More asses in the seats = more $$$.

Marketing generally doesn't care if that means the audience comes out of the theater unhappy. They've already coughed up the cash, so marketing considers that a job well done. But there are cases that clearly show us how much more successful a movie could've been if it had been marketed to the right audience.

The best, and yet, most tragic, example of this is M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable (2000).

Coming right off the heels of the massive success with The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan's next film had a lot of expectations attached to it before the first trailer even hit screens. When information about the movie finally started to reveal itself, people were confident that Shyamalan was about deliver yet another - if not classic - at least a solid, creepy, suspenseful film. The trailer showed us a man in a hospital (Bruce Willis) being told that he was the sole survivor of a deadly train wreck, and he didn't have a scratch. Cue the quick flashes of the disaster, accompanied by frantic clashing sounds. After some ominous slow motion walking and Sam Jackson talking like Lawrence Fishburne in The Matrix ("Are you ready for the truth?") the same thing was on everyone's mind. We wanted another Sixth Sense experience, and it appeared that Unbreakable would be more than capable of delivering it.

The problem was, Unbreakable wasn't scary at all. There was suspense, yes, but people went in expecting to be jolted out of their seats once in a while. It didn't really happen. What we saw was a very deliberately paced film about a man discovering that he was, essentially, invincible. Many of us recoiled at this, bucking the true nature of the film in favor of the empty promises of the trailer, and in a way, that terribly generic poster (more on movie poster designs, next entry), but then there were those of us who were floored at the revelation that we were actually watching a very elegant, moody, and by many accounts brilliant, superhero movie.

However, at the time, those disappointed were heard loudest. The box-office performance was dismal. Critics were lukewarm, and apparently continued to misrepresent the film, even after seeing it (Richard Corliss of Time Magazine said Shyamalan was adept at "balancing sophistication and horror" - again with the "horror").

All this because of the expectations perpetuated by the marketing campaign.

It's well-documented that Shyamalan wanted to market Unbreakable as "the story of an unlikely superhero," but met resistance from distributors at Disney, who wanted instead to portray it as a thriller. Last year, in a New York Times article entitled, "Shyamalan's Hollywood Horror Story, With Twist," Shyamalan mentioned his regret:

“I remember the moment that it happened, exactly where I was sitting at the table, the speakerphone,” he recalled in an interview from his office in a converted farmhouse near Philadelphia. “That moment may have been the biggest mistake that I have to undo over 10 years so the little old lady doesn’t go, ‘Oh, he’s the guy who makes the scary movies with a twist.’ ”

I wonder if this really was the moment that Shyamalan's career was sabotaged. This misconception of his affinity for "plot twists" has been nothing but a bane to his film career. Though, that's still no excuse for how terrible his films have progressively gotten (The Happening is one of the worst films I've ever seen - laugh-out-loud bad). Only two or three of his movies hinge on plot twists (The Sixth Sense, The Village, possibly Lady in the Water - haven't seen it) the rest simply withhold information from the viewer - information the viewer is actively seeking. A twist, on the other hand, is something that blindsides the audience. So if someone says the twist in Unbreakable was lame, they just don't realize what effect movie marketing has had on them. Dude, there was no twist.

Expectations and Comedy: "The Story of Everest"

2009-09-17T14:46:00.000-04:00

It's been said that deconstructing why a joke is funny is a great way to make sure that joke will never be as funny again. In a lot of cases, this is true. Especially if you're right in the moment when someone's told a joke or something funny has happened, and somebody goes, "Oh my god, that's hilarious. Because we were all expecting ________ and instead ________ happened and wow, that is funny." Awkward silence follows.

But since this is a blog, far from being in the moment, and because we touched on the essence of comedy in class the other day, I've picked a personal favorite sketch that shows, rather blatantly, just how effective the manipulation of expectations can be in comedy. In a way, comedy is all about expectations. The comedian manipulates the audience to expect one thing, then either delivers just that, or sideswipes them with something completely unexpected, in such a way that forces them to laugh. Sometimes it's about diversion, other times it's about delivering exactly what you get them to expect. It depends on the context, of course. So, without further ado, Mr. Show's "The Story of Everest."

I have watched this sketch countless times and, in all honesty, I have not been able to watch it without laughing out loud, each time, and with progressively more gusto. It's slapstick, but it's very strategic slapstick.

It begins by exploiting the audience's complete lack of expectation. Thomas (played by recurring cast member, Jay Johnston) arrives, greets his parents, and begins telling his tale of conquering Everest. The audience chuckles at the folksy, super-cheesy acting of the cast, perhaps because they think the words will be the source of the joke. That's the diversion, right there. Like a magician, the writers divert our attention to something we immediately perceive, all the while carefully setting up the trick. The man is telling his story with full conviction, and his parents react to every word with gasps and awe. All the while, the man is stepping back, ever further...

When he falls, it's completely out of nowhere and our laughter comes from a very instinctual place. The pure physical prowess that Johnston displays in executing a rehearsed fall and making it look completely spontaneous and accidental is something to be admired, and it's the primary reason the fall continues to be funny for each of the SIX times that follow.

But there are other elements to be considered in the subsequent instances. The fade in/fade out, set to the same piece of music, becomes comical when repeated and allows us to recover from the last fall and sets our expectations for the next. The writers know we are expecting more falls, so they come up with different ways to surprise us, or make us wait longer than we expect. Personally, the fall that makes me laugh the hardest is probably the last one (4:29): the moment of silence right before the loud violence of the fall usually has me giggling before it even happens. The last two are the best because they're the most ridiculous, really. To fall that violently from a fixed position is pretty much impossible. Which, of course, is the most important element to the comedy: the absurd.

Mr. Show (created by David Cross & Bob Odenkirk) was all about the absurd and, at its best, it was a Master Class in Absurdity. If, unlike me, you were unimpressed with this sketch, I hope you can at least appreciate the craft of it and, further, I urge you to give a few of their other sketches a try. These guys were masters.

The Pre-Taped Call-In Show

The Audition

I'll Marry Your Stupid Ass

Screen Art: Raising Arizona

2009-09-15T21:55:00.001-04:00

Screen Art: Finding images in film that transcend their context.

This shot from the Coen brothers' 1987 comedy, Raising Arizona, isn't particularly remarkable in terms of color, symbolism, or the context of the scene, but it struck me when watching it that, as a freeze-frame, it could be a pretty damn cool painting.

It reminds me of something Rene Magritte might do...

It's kind of a surrealist, pop-art kind of thing. In the shot from Raising Arizona we see a serene, unremarkable landscape with an almost cartoonishly perfect sky and then something odd plastered right smack in the middle. It gives me the same kind of dreamlike feeling as the Magritte painting. Could it, too, be considered a similar form of pop-art? I think so. And if I can figure out a way to enlarge it and frame it and hang it on my wall, I will.

Mac's Trouble With Titles

2009-09-15T16:11:00.000-04:00

First of all, I wasn't even aware there was already a Macintosh Operating System called "Leopard," let alone the new, even clunkier-sounding "Snow Leopard." This just seems out-of-character for Mac. I understand that they'd want to get away from simply numbering each of their new OS's and try something with a bit more zing, but I think giving them animal names is not a step in the right direction. I imagine they must be trying to evoke some kind of instinctual consumer response.

Some people hear "Leopard" and they think "fast," or "elegant," so in that most basic sense, it might be seen as an effective title.

But when I heard it, my first thought was an elementary school kid pretending he owns a big software company. His favorite animal is a leopard, so he goes up to his dad and tells him about his new make-believe OS (the kid probably doesn't even know what it stands for, but maybe his dad's a software engineer so he hears it around the house a lot) and says it's called "Leopard."

"Why Leopard?" asks Dad.

"Cuz leopards are cool and they're the fastest mammals on earth."

"Actually, cheetahs are the fastest. Why don't you call it Cheetah?"

The kid thinks it over a moment, and his eyes widen in excitement.

"... Yeah. Cool! Thanks, Dad!" the kid exclaims, and runs to his bedroom to draw a cheetah.

Then the Dad goes to work the next day and presents his idea for the new Mac OS title - Leopard - because he's a lazy thinker and stole the idea from his eight- or nine-year old son.

This is just an unnecessarily elaborate way of saying that I think the Snow Leopard title sounds really childish and totally unrelated to anything Macintosh. Maybe it's just me. I mean, I'm by no means knowledgeable when it comes to computer software and hardware. Nor am I more partial to Windows than Mac or vice-versa. I'm approaching this purely from a marketing perspective. For example, I think Windows recent OS, Vista, has a classy and appropriately innocuous title. Corporate-sounding, but just provocative enough to evoke some immediate feelings of peace and beauty.

Too bad that has nothing to do with how Vista actually functions.

Grizzly Bear: "Two Weeks," Two Videos

2009-09-09T15:53:00.000-04:00

God, I miss music videos.

More specifically, I miss the time when MTV actually meant Music Television. Sure, they pretty much "killed the radio star," helped usher in increasingly obnoxious fads and more often than not you would find yourself making fun of the videos (which in itself was a fun passtime with friends), but every so often there was a video that reached iconic status and became ingrained in our culture in ways that just can't happen anymore. It was once a medium that launched the careers of some of our most unique and creative filmmakers (ie. Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze), but now it's hardly noticeable amid the cacophony of Youtube hits and misses.

But, alas, time marches on, things fall apart, etc., so now we have to just take what we can get, which, judging from these two videos alone, can still be pretty amazing.

This first video for Grizzly Bear's recent single, "Two Weeks," is the official video for this song, which means that its main purpose is to reflect the attitude of the band and, in a way, introduce them to newcomers. I think it does a pretty good job in both departments.

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks from Suspicious Sounds on Vimeo.

If you already know Grizzly Bear, you know that they're kind of like the modern indie rock version of The Beach Boys. Their vocal harmonies and the general dream-like nature to a lot of their songs make it hard to avoid the comparison. If you don't already know them, this video sums them up pretty well as the twisted choirboys they are. The subtle enlargement and shrinking of their facial features is a particularly nice/disturbing touch. And the exploding head thing that occurs right along with the crescendo near the end of the song is just as effective.

Now, here's another video for the same song, this time made by an extremely talented fan. With no access to the band members, this guy made the video solely to serve the music. It's a real treat.

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

There are times throughout the video when the imagery seems to be directly related to the lyrics - like early on, when we see the cars on the highway and we hear "a routine malaise" - but for the most part, the images relate to the song in the most abstract sense. It's all about the feeling, first, and interpretation, second. I really like how the birds wing flap to the beat and, later, when we emerge from the tunnel to a bright, wide open environment, right along with that same crescendo that had the guys' heads exploding in the first video. All in all, very well crafted, and, at the same time, representative of the band's indie nature, aesthetically.

Screen Art: There Will Be Blood

2009-09-04T13:24:00.001-04:00

Screen Art: Finding images in films that transcend their context

This shot from There Will Be Blood (P.T. Anderson, 2007) is one of my all time favorites.

In this scene, the man has just unintentionally revealed information that has caused the main character to mistrust him, so his head is, metaphorically, "on the chopping block." His fate is sealed. The shot only plays out for a few seconds, but the fact that it reflects the plot point symbolically - covering everything below his neck in shadow - is just brilliant. He looks like a drawing - the way his body is so graphically silhouetted against the background in perfect profile.

Assignment: Website Redesign pt 3

2009-09-04T10:32:00.000-04:00

Lastly, we have hotbot.com, one of the forgotten search engines in the Google-driven world we now live in. Though, with such an awkward and bland design, there's a good reason many of us don't use it.

Broken down into basic shapes:

And the redesign:

If your logo's going to do the Yin Yang thing, why not take it all the way and really make the screen pop? I'm sure they have enough trouble competing with a giant like Google, so they might as well set themselves apart aesthetically. Of course, there's the question of functionality: when the screen cuts to search results, would the black & red background stay? Probably not, because then the text would be illegible. But then an abrupt cut to a pure white screen with text would be pretty awkward, too. So maybe the answer would be to keep the black & red background, but put the search results text in a grayish box that would lay over the background. Just a thought.

Assignment: Website Redesign pt 2

2009-09-04T10:20:00.001-04:00

Next up is boo.com, which is an easy target, I'll admit, with its broken links and bad HTML. But let's pretend for a minute that it didn't end up branded as one of the biggest dot com flops of the late '90s, and instead see what can be done to fix what's there.

Broken down into basic shapes:

And the redesign:

The first thing to do was bring the page up from the bottom left corner of the screen and reduce the amount of links available on the main menu. Also, I replaced the ugly rainbow design on two of the buttons with a more appropriate purple, so that your eye is drawn to them, but they're not such an eyesore. The background has been changed to a solid yellow-orange, instead of that stark, blank white, but I could also imagine a real subtle pattern in there, too.

Assignment: Website Redesign

2009-09-04T10:14:00.002-04:00

First up is CHUD.com, an excellent site for impassioned movie reviews, commentary, and up to date news on all kinds of film geekery. Unfortunately, it's riddled with seizure-inducing ads and organized with a general disregard for coherence. Coincidentally, as of today (9/4/09), they're "Undergoing Massive Beneath the Hood Improvements," so at least they know there's a problem.

Broken down into basic shapes:

And the redesign:

Since its primary function is to give us news and editorials, I brought in a little symmetry and made it a bit more like a newspaper. The ads are still there, but they belong on the rims of the page, and the search bar has been moved to the top right corner, on the header, where most people would expect it to be, anyway. I decided not to mess with the color scheme, because the black and green is essential to the theme of the site. "C.H.U.D." is a reference to a little known 1984 horror film of the same name, about a city plagued by mutants from the sewers.

Treacherous

2009-09-02T16:41:00.000-04:00

This is not a blog.

Well, technically it is, but more specifically this is an Electronic Design Journal for my Design Issues in Digital Media class.

And, yes, my instructors, I know this doesn't count as a post.

This is not a post.