For my final media product I am presenting a short video which more or less represents a video response to the Varsity clip uploaded by Huddersfield University against Bradford. For the main part of the video people representing different sport societies are going to be answering a few questions which concern Varsity.
The action is static through most of the video, with a small spoof commercial at the end, which I am not going to divulge yet. enjoy the video, and I hope you have enjoyed the whole blog as well.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Caricature
Caricature by Sebastian Kruger
Basically a caricature is a portrait of a certain character or living person, that is distorted or exaggerated in some aspects.
Caricatures have multiple roles, they can be there just to amuse people, or like in recent years they have been used in political purposes. Caricatures have been around since the time of Leonardo Da Vinci. The point was to offer something similar to the original but more powerful than a simple portrait.
Now caricatures can be seen anywhere from politicians in editorial cartoons to movie stars which can be found in magazines.
The narrative structure
A story has the traditional 3 parts we have all been accustomed to: beginning, middle and end. Some new elements of the narrative are being introduced to us now: enigma, snags, snares and cliff-hangers. They are there to keep the reader/listener interested, make him finish the book. The syntagmatic structure of a story is composed by kernels, which are key points that instigate, continue or resolve and satellites which have a role to maintain the tension in a situation. Since kernels are points of action that advance a sequence, they cannot be removed, reordered, or replaced without substantially altering the sequence. Satellites, by contrast, can be omitted, reordered or replaced without revising the sequence.’ (Cohan& Shires 1988)
Usually a story begins in a state of equilibrium, which is later disturbed by a force. Then a second force in the opposite direction comes and resets the equality.
There are several types of narrative, some have a story and no plot, and some have both. Other plots are character driven. In some cases the characters can be stereotypes, this was the audience can easily relate to it.
Stories have been a part of our lives since forever, and it would be hard to imagine living without stories. Everybody needs them, not only young people.
The power
I think everybody knows the story about this photograph and Kevin Carter the photographer. I will let it speak for itself, a picture if worth more than 1000 words.
The miracle of Music
I realise that I have wrote all these words about art and I haven’t mentioned music anywhere. Probably the most common form of art accessible to absolutely anyone, people have been singing long before they have been drawing. I honestly believe music is a miracle, it has the power to heal people, to bring them together, express feelings, it’s a catalyst for memories and so much more. Music is everywhere around us. I remember now, something that my music teacher told us when I was about 12. A long time ago some people made an experiment and actually wanted to see how much a person can stand without music. I don’t remember the exact numbers, and even though I have internet access now I don’t want to look it up, but I know results were surprising. Maybe in our everyday lives we don’t realise this thing, because you can easily listen to some music and not be aware of it, because the process is so familiar to us, it’s virtually made unconsciously.
Having said all this, I leave you with a very nice song and video, and never forget to “Sing!”
The Golden Triangle
Leonardo Da Vinci - Mona Lisa
Let’s refer to Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ to fully understand the golden triangle. As opposed to the rule of thirds, the subject here is placed in the middle of the painting. But we observe that Leonardo is using another technique here. The golden triangle is a way of arranging the elements of a composition, in such a way that they describe a triangle, with the base ta the bottom of the painting. Here, Mona Lisa’s hands constitute the base of the triangle. The colour is predominantly warm, with light gently being depicted on her shoulders, and hands. The lines are continuous and we can see the viewer is placed in the middle of the frame. The eye movement of the viewer is coming down from the top to the bottom losing a bit of detail at the end.
Railway
Maybe on of the classics when it comes to photography, the railway tracks going nowhere. The composition is pretty much standard, the horizon line is almost 2/3rd up following the rules of thirds. The viewer’s eye movement is captured by the top of the railway tracks and drawn to the lower right corner. As an effect the lower left corner is a bit more dark, as the viewer’s eyes will not pay much attention to that part of the photo.
Astrophotography
Photo by Alex Conu.
Astrophotography has to be one of the most interesting branches. This picture belongs to a young talented artist by the name of Alex Conu. I have tried on several occasions to take a picture such as this but I haven’t yet succeeded. One thing I can say for sure, one day I will be able to take photographs such as this one. We can see that even here, the basic rules of composition are followed, this only come to complement and make the photo even more interesting.
Bird photography or actually wild-life photography in general can be very entertaining. I have taken this picture only in a park, not much of a wild-life there, but still there is a great feeling when you capture any kind of a good shot. Here I have used the rule of thirds to position the subject. The composition is very simple, no overcrowding the picture. The colours are vivid, as I said earlier, I love vivid colours, the more the better, but they also have to make sense. There is a wide variety where you can go for wild-life photography, and I would recommend it to everyone, it gives you a feeling of freedom.
Who am I?
My name is Stefan, I am a reasonably good photographer if I can say so myself, not in the pro league but above average as well. I have started this blog as a coursework assignment, but it turns out I really enjoy it after all.
Thru my blog I have tried to exemplify different expressions of art, from pictures to movies. Photography being my big passion, I have along the way, showed you different types of photography, some that I exercise myself and some, that I only admire yet, but hopefully one day I will be also doing it. Seeing as this is a pretty good plan to start with, I will continue to do so, exemplifying different types of photography and I will try to capture your interest.
Monday, 11 April 2011
Air-planes and photographs
This picture incorporates two of my biggest passions; one is represented by the magnificent Concorde, and the second one is the picture itself. The Concorde was the only supersonic passenger aircraft that travelled the skies. In all its history only one fatal accident was recorded but that was enough to shut it down unfortunately.
Flying has to be one of the most amazing experiences ever, maybe because we are not supposed to fly, so all the feelings and emotions associated with flying are strange to us, thus exciting.
M.A.S.H.
M.A.S.H. is my favourite TV show of all time. I can honestly say I have watched over 50 times each episode, that’s how much I like it. It is a TV show about the Korean ‘police action’ that took place in the 1950’s. In the show we see the everyday life of a front line, surgical hospital.
The first 4 season are on a much funnier note, with amusing situations everywhere, mocking the war. But as time goes by the personal touch of Alan Alda as a director is felt. The show begins to have a sarcastic and ironic tone, while still keeping up the jokes and the funny situations. Only now they try to emphasises the seriousness of the war, and its effects on everything around us.
It is a show I would recommend with all my heart to anyone.
Sports
Photo by AP
Sports photography is something else I have been introduced to since I came here. The multitude of sport teams and events between them gives you a big chance of shooting mostly every sport out there.
It is very tricky I can say. You need to have excellent eye-hand coordination, and also a good intuition to figure out what they key points are going to be, where the ball will go next. Sound very easy but in fact it’s not, and it requires a lot of training. Probably a good way of doing it is sticking to the same team and learning their tactics this way you are able to anticipate and get better results. This must be easy to do in a college/uni environment but if and when you become a professional photographer you won’t have that luxury, so you better be prepared. But then again there isn’t much hidden meaning in sport photography. What you see is what you get, the main idea is to capture the most interesting seconds in the game. That doesn’t mean the players for example won’t have their face flooded with emotions that you will later be able to see on the pictures. Most of time they won’t even be aware of al this, as the pressure of the game is to much, and they just play it without thinking how good they will look in a photograph.
Lunchtime
This has been one of my favourite photographs for a long time now mostly because it’s simplicity in composition. What gives it that extra edge is when you read the title ‘Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper”. Then you become interested, and look-up exactly what height the workers had their lunch. You can only be amazed when you find out that the picture is taken at about 260m high, at the 69th floor of one of the Rockefeller Centre. It was taken by Charles C. Ebbets in 1932.
Next we see the same basic image but without all the workers on the beam. The second picture is a commercial from Volkswagen, the well-known German car manufacturer. It’s catch line is that the new car is so popular, and that the word has spread so fast, that even the guys having that lunch are out getting it probably. Very nice concept, and very bold idea of making a commercial, but I keep wondering for someone who is not familiar with the initial picture, won’t it be a bit hard to figure out what is going on?
Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper photograph, taken by Charles C. Ebbets
Image by Vicky Gitto, art director Alessandro Campani and copywriter Stefano Guidi
Photography, The Passion.
I have always, since I can remember been fascinated by photography. Just being able to capture a moment in time, it is an amazing possibility. For a long time, my main focus was on landscape photography. For one you do this while you are on the move, and you get the opportunity to travel around, meet people, exchange cultural ideas and so on. Since I have come to University a new opportunity has risen. Fashion photography, was something that I looked at for many years, never practicing because I more or less didn’t have subjects and material. But here, at uni, there are a number of societies that have different fashions shows and numerous events, so I had the opportunity to try it. I have to say it’s very interesting, and there are numerous possibilities in which you can create a great photo.
The pictures I have choose to accompany this post are very generic, but they show examples of both types of photography.
Portrait
Portrait photography represents the capture of a single individual or a small group where the face and facial expressions are predominant. It has been used since the early start of photography. At that time it was mostly used for special occasions such as weddings, family reunions. In recent times portrait photography has been used for fashion, modelling, advertisements alongside the usual situations.
When I am capturing a portrait, I try to position my subject usually by following the rule of thirds. As you can see from the picture I have included in the post, the focusing is on the subject, while the background is slightly blurry. I have achieved this by shooting with low f stop. This helps me bring all the attention to the subject. Of course depending on the context we can use a bigger f stop and include some background detail in the picture. But it’s all about perspective, it’s all about signifying, sending a message and every artist has his own unique way of doing that.
Landscape
The sea. I don’t know what it does to you, but for me it’s the personification of freedom. Every year I eagerly wait for the summer to come, starting with the 1st of May which is the first day we usually spend at the sea-side. This year is going to be different. This year I am at University in England, and it’s going to be very difficult for me to go on a holiday like I used to. Putting the nostalgia aside, I want to bring your attention to this picture. It is landscape photography, which I for one love to do. I am thinking when it comes to photography, it’s all about light, colours, and composition. Nowhere else then in landscape photography can one come across all the variations of the rainbow. In this particular picture we see, the sea-side resort called Vama Veche, which is basically the only place I enjoy back home for a holiday. I have applied a few filters to this image, even though I am not a big fan of post-editing, but in this case it seemed right. I have managed to send out with the picture a tiny bit of the atmosphere that surrounds that area. This takes us back to my last post semiotics. I conceive this image as a sign, and for me, having all those memories back there; it has a certain meaning, significance. For someone who has never been to that specific place, it will be just another image of a sea-side resort.
Semiotics
Semiotics is the ‘science of signs’. It was introduce by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. Its main purpose is the study of not only what we refer to as signs in everyday speech but of virtually anything that is used to express something else then its primary meaning.
Charles Sanders Peirce was an American philosopher and scientist. Peirce had a very good point when he said 'we think only in signs' (Peirce 1931-58, 2.302). Signs can take the form of virtually anything, words, sounds, flavours, objects etc. but even so they don’t have a meaning until one has been associated by the viewer. ‘Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign’ Peirce continues to tell us. The way signs are perceived is mostly unconsciously, we associate them with familiar settings, with social conventions and so on.
A sign is composed of two parts, after Saussure’s two-part model. The signifier is the form which the actual sign takes and the signified which represents the concept. The sign then results from the association of the two. The relationship between the two is the ‘signification’. A sign must have these two elements.
Accessed on March 10th 2011
The Golden Ratio
Christina’s World Andrew Wyeth
The Golden Ratio is actually a mathematical number. It represents a ratio between 2 elements of a composition. Basically what it means is that a space must be divided in specific ratios for it to be aesthetic. “For a space divided into equal parts to be agreeable and aesthetic, between the smallest and largest parts there must be the same relationship as between this larger part and the whole space”. This is how José M. Parramón explains it in his book The Big Book of Oil Painting.
If we try to see the actual golden ratio in this painting, we shall look at the girl and the small barn. It would be a bit extreme to actually make a mathematical ratio, but you can form an opinion just by looking. We can also see the presence of the rule of thirds here as well. The main points of interests are at the intersection of the separating lines and the horizon line is almost splitting the image in 3rds.
The Golden Ratio, accessed on March 11th 2011
The Rule of Thirds
Paul Cezanne (1904 – 06) Mont Saint Victoire
Let’s take a closer look at this painting of Cezanne. If we talk about framing, we can easily see 3 different areas, the closest zone which is the forest, middle part houses and field and the background where we have the big mountain. The lines are pretty sharp, with sketchy brush strokes. Every zone is differentiated by colour as well. Cezanne this way spreads the elements according to the rule of thirds. As another characteristic of the rule of thirds, we can spot the big house in the lower left corner at the intersection of two lines. The level of details isn’t that great but you can still understand what the picture depicts.
Regarding the viewer we can say he is pretty much in front of the painting, and has a clear view of the entire image. His attention will be drawn to the biggest element of the composition, the mountain, and will continue from there to go down. Then from there the motions of the viewer’s eye will go down, probably from left to right. As a result the bottom part of the image isn’t detailed, but in fact a bit dark.
Perspective
As a first task I would like to ask every person who reads this post, to try, without analysing the picture too much, try to figure out what's depicted here. After that, take a longer, better look and compare it with your first impression. I think most of you will have a big surprise.
Perspective plays a monumental role in art regardless of its form. John Berger is an English critic, novelist, painter and author. 'Never will a single story be told as though it's the only one' John Berger (Viking Press, 1972; p. 129). There is a lot we can take from his quote, and I think this is what motivates most photographers, or artists for that matter. You will always try to put your special marker on each creation, make it unique, own it, really own it not just under the copyright law, but have your own perspective in each piece. It’s all about perspective, the way you see the image, then create it, and how you inspire the viewer to read it, thru composition, effects, lights etc.
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