K at r i n a S c o t t Methods and Madness
Experimenting with merging
The piece, shown on the left page, was myself merged with the chosen celebrity, Katherine Jenkins. The another two pieces, shown on the right page, are experimenting with merging a human face (myself) with an animal. The production of these pieces were created using Adobe Photoshop. This was by altering the visual capacity of the layers and then realigning the images. The outcome is effective and surreal, making the images appealing to an audience.
The three pieces displayed on the double page spread show the outcomes of my experimentation with merging images.
P r e pa r at i o n f o r b r i e f 1
In a team work exercise, the chosen subject was Cheryl Cole and the challenge was to create a piece that showed a new perspective of her. The three images shown make up are story board. The idea was, Cheryl Cole is now a target according to the press, as she visited Iraq. Gaddafi replaces Cheryl Cole on the Xfactor. All the celebrities that have visited Iraq then create their own army. It was turning what was happening in her life presently into a comical, abstracted version. It allowed the group to think about communication, context of the work and ethical issues. Therefore not taking it to the point that it is offensive. The pieces can stand as a series of images, but could be changed into an animation.
Above is the original image, ‘99 ways to tell a story’.
Shown right and below are my three different interpretations of the original image.
Re t e l l i n g a s t o r y
The original story board was entitled ‘99 ways to tell a story’ by Matt Gooding. The challenge was to retell the story in three ways. It allowed the thought process of looking at different perspectives. Therefore discovering that the way a piece is designed can change the context completely. It can create a different feel and impression. From group feed back, the image that was layered and peeled back to reveal each box was chosen as an image that stands out and a clever idea.
Rese a r c h f o r S h o o t i n g s ta r s
My chosen news topic to develop into a film was Twin Towers. In order to think of ideas to challenge the event, I considered different ways to approach it, like in the previous tasks shown (Cheryl Cole and ‘99 ways to tell a story’). These were looking at new interpretations, explanations, exaggerations and insinuations of the Twin Towers. This lead to thinking about conspiracy theories from the event. The angle of conspiracy theories was to highlight to society that media today normally provide a one sided perspective. The media culture that is seen today has implications on the consumers and producers of the news. As a consumer it is shaped to interpret and interact with information in a biased way. For the producer they have to project information under restriction and regulations. Questions that came from my research were, was it all planed? Was flight 93 shot down by government? Why do Americans always need to be portrayed as hero’s? These questions formed the basis of a story for my film. To help with the making of the film I went to the editing workshop that Mark organised. This was really helpful in equipping me with the tools to make and edit a film.
The film ‘The Pelican Brief’ highlighted how powerful a conspiracy theory can be and the repercussions of finding out about one.
I created an inspirational moodboard out of images I found relating with the event of the twin towers.
To generate ideas for the film, the use of putting thoughts on to paper allows ideas to trigger from it.
Link to the film- http://vimeo.com/30375092 and is uploaded onto my blog- http://katrina.gdnm.org/
C r e at i n g A t h o u g h t p r o v o k i n g f i l m
The film shows a different perspective on the 9/11 attacks. It demonstrates two points of view. The recognised angle, 9/11 being a terrorist attack, with ‘flight 93’ being hijacked and American citizens being heros by stopping it to reach it’s intended target. The other view is showing a conspiracy. What if George Bush knew the plane was intending to hit the Whitehouse, therefore ordered it to be shot down by the United States Air Force. This was then kept a secret to protect Bush’s representation. The criteria that was considered when making the film was; editing, critical stance, communication, appropriate and context. Therefore the film is concise and one minute long. It shows a controversial opinion. It communicates clearly two points of view, it being a terrorist attack or a conspiracy. It was original, being a story of two perspectives and showing suggested dialogue that could of happened. And it was within context of creating a new interpretation of the Twin Towers.
Do w e know th e w hole truth?
The images show four stills from the final film. The film was created using Adobe Photoshop and exported into Quick Time. It is made from 360 photographs and images, exported at 6fps. The sound was put on top and edited, so the softer and louder parts go with what the imagery is showing.
For the next brief, Paper Co, the chosen brief was Henderson Global Investor’s. To gain inspiration and knowledge for the initial designs, existing direct mail images were collected.
Initial thoughts for the creation of a direct mail piece for Henderson.
I n i t i a l T h o u g h t s a n d D es i g n s
My group was Sophia and me. Together we chose the Henderson Global Investor’s brief for the national competition for Paper Co. Initially we went away and came up with initial ideas. This was to give us individual ideas and to think personally what we could do. We met up and discussed what we had both produced. This gave us a chance to see what we liked. It led us to think about taking parts of each others ideas and merging it together to create the strongest solutions. The first crit we went to was really helpful to pick a resolved idea to focus on. We gained positive feedback and realised that ‘safety’ was our focus brand value. After the meeting me and Sophia discussed what to do next. When doing this we came up with a slogan, ‘safety is the key to our success’. Therefore our packaging, brand values and ‘witty copy’ would centre around this.
My four initial designs.
My idea to have a downloadable App for an external link for the company.
The feedback received from the crit (shown left) and the notes taken from the meeting me and Sophia had after the crit (shown below).
M y D es i g n s f o r t h e b r a n d Me and Sophia created our own ideas, to later choose what we liked and merge bits together. My designs for the brand values and ‘witty copy’ are shown right. After researching into Henderson Global Investor’s competitors; such as Legal & General, Citibank, Bank of America and Credit Suisse, I then had a greater understanding of what brand values are like for similar financial company’s. I wanted to incorporate our chosen brand message, ‘SAFETY is the KEY to our success’ and have our chosen brand values into the witty copy for it to all link together. Therefore I thought of the idea of a car key and using that to make relatable comparisons.
HENDERSON GLOBAL INVESTORS- ‘My Account’ With the global economic down turn, the banks having low interest rates, everyone is looking for alternative ways to invest their money...
SAFETY is the KEY to Henderson Global Investors success... mindful of the risks, yet alive to opportunity. We give you better investment decisions for better investment outcomes. If we were a key to a car we would be a Bentley... INNOVATIVE, SMART, RELIABLE, EASY TO OPERATE and SOMETHING YOU WANT TO BE SEEN IN! Like driving the luxurious Bentley we want you to feel in control behind the wheel and let the car give you the experience you deserve. We are a group that you can be proud to be a part of. We know you want us to deliver a performance that meets high expectations, and we take into consideration that every investment decision has a direct impact on you. Therefore we structure ourselves with empowered decision making at the heart of our business. Like Bentley, we are an award winning corporation. That said, once hearing about our investment opportunities, everyone wants Henderson Global Investors to be their account.
My design for the Henderson business card.
Development from the crit
As well as creating the brand and the ‘witty copy’, further developments were made in a creation of a business card and a prototype made. For the consumer I designed a Henderson business card to have a link to the Henderson web site and a link to the downloadable App. I thought a business card would be a great way to keep information, even if the direct mail is not kept. The production of it was made to be simple. It is clear and precise, so the customer can obtain more information quickly and easily.
Sketches to get to the final idea of the layout of the business card.
Creating parts of the inside of the box. Sophia designed the booklet to sit in the indented bottom of the box.
Photographs of the prototype we made for the crit closed and open.
The feedback received from the second crit.
An example of a few of the mock ups that had to be created in order to get the booklet perfect.
A n a dd i t i o n a l b o o k l e t
We gained from the feedback that our design for direct mail was good, but it was more high end. Therefore as an improvement create two ideas, keep that design for high end clients and have another for wider distribution. I then started on the template for the new booklet. I wanted to make it from one A3 sheet of paper to make it easy for the production process, as it would be printed in large numbers. Therefore to get the right pages in the right order, I worked it out first using paper. I had to make a few copies to get the right design, folding properly and find out the best way to do the fastening. The same as the booklet, I wanted to get the envelope template right first before I cut into my lovely gold card! I had to make sure the envelope was thick enough to take the booklet, as it was a couple of millimetres thick.
An example of a mock up that was created in order to get the envelope right before cutting into gold card.
F i n a l des i g n f o r t h e p r ese n tat i o n t o A n t h o n y B u c k , v e r o n i c a h e av e n AN D TUTOR S
The final four presentation boards are shown right. Me and Sophia received positive feedback from Anthony Buck (from Henderson Global Investors) and Veronica Heaven (from Paper Co). They thought the direct mail was very professional and makes the consumer feel special. They liked that we researched into Henderson’s competitors. Anthony thought the brand values making up Henderson was really strong and showed their brand values clearly. The consideration for using only one sheet of paper out of 9 lives paper was a great idea, as it takes into account environmental issues. For the final hand in we wanted to rearrange the boards and add information, as we would not be there to talk about it when we submit it for the competition.
T h e f i n a l s u b m i ss i o n
Supporting the four A3 boards of information, we had to create a proposal to explain in depth our intentions, considerations and about our final designs. This is shown right.
These are the final four A3 boards that me and Sophia submitted for the competition.
Serial thriller
The next brief was to see the journey of a rumour. After realising how much are society uses social network, I immediately knew I wanted my rumour to involve that. I chose to use facebook, as most people I know have it and use it a lot. When looking for rumours on facebook to give me an idea I found a rumour about facebook shutting down. I used this concept to tell to friends and family by calling them on the phone and then got them to email me back what they heard. When it started to become smaller and easier to recite, I spoke quickly so it was harder to hear what I had said. In a transcript style I wrote out the email’s I received (shown right).
My hand in
Shown on this double page is my information graphics that I created with my chosen collection, languages. My feed back was positive and I received a B+ and a Bfrom the tutors. My positives were I had clear, formative graphs, visible data, great imagery used, changing the perception with my other graph and having a glossay of terms. To improve it, was suggested to change the layout of the spread.
Link to the film- http://vimeo.com/31606110 and is uploaded onto my blog- http://katrina.gdnm.org/
D e v e l o p i n g t h e t r a n s c r i p t s i n t o a n a n i m at i o n
It shows visually how a rumour can change in the process of re-telling a story. What is evident in the animation, is the rumour becomes smaller and more to the point over time. At first the change of the rumour is only minimal and then it changes to it being distorted quicker. This could be due to me reciting the rumour quicker when the rumour was smaller in order to make it harder for them to retell the story. It was interested that the date of ‘facebook shutting down’ changed and once one person had recited it wrong then the following people would be given the incorrect date. When receiving the reactions to the rumour, facebook is closing down, it highlighted how social networks are now seen to be vital in today’s society. It is now a big form of communication.
Story of a rumour
The images show four stills from the final animation. The animation was created using ‘imovie’. I experimented with this process instead of my usual method of using Adobe Photoshop. I found it simple and easy to use and enjoy creating films using both processes.
O n e d ay ta sk
In my group our questions we chose at random were: 1) Observe someone for 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes & 10 minutes. We observed Sophie as she was likely to stay in the room. What was interesting was how the four of us all approached it in a different way. I recorded what she was wearing and appearance first and then went on to bullet point what she was doing. We all did this differently. It was interesting to see how she uses her hands a lot when talking and shes very expressive. 2) Explore a local place you have never been to. We observed the new building at University, as none of us had been there. We decided to record the information from a close up point of view. This meant the place where we were was more obscured and you have to look harder to work out where it was. 3) To use images from someone else and then give them a new meaning. We used the famous painting by Edvard Munch, ‘The Scream’ and played with it, changing the figures in the background with people everyone would recognise. The task showed me different approaches I could take. This skill can be helpful in other situations.
B r i e f 4 - b i o g r a p h i es
The task was to investigate and interrogate the live of a randomly chosen person, using three new methods and communicate our findings in a format of our choosing. My personal challenge was not to use Google at any point for this brief, even to help find train times. I think everyone, including me, over use search engines on the Internet. When discussing this with my dad he said how “back in our day there was no Internet, we just had to do any research using books�. That made me think. I found out my chosen person, Simone de Beauvoir, was a novelist. Therefore to show my method of solving this brief, I wanted the piece to be a written journey. I created imagery to display my findings. One solution was to use information graphics, so the imagery was incorporated with writing. Another idea was to have a completely written, reflective piece on my journey and the processes, in a tribute to her being a writer. I explored both ways.
Information graphics, showing my journey in exploring Simone de Beauvoir visually using three new methods.
M y w o r ds o n b i o g r a p h i es The alternative to Information Graphics As an alternative to my simple information graphics flow chart, I thought I would write a reflective piece, as a tribute to the novelist Simone de Beauvoir. From doing the Biographies brief I learnt, it pays to get out into the world, rather than just researching from a computer at home. My journey below shows how I came to this conclusion. My challenge to myself, was not to use google at any point for this brief, even to help me find train times (which I always do). I think everyone, including myself, over use search engines on the internet. When discussing this with my dad he said how “back in our day there was no internet, we just had to do any research using books”. That made me think! My first method was to look visually at the name, what can I guess from it? The name made me think he or she was French. Once finding out I was pronouncing the name wrong I then realised it must be a women. I found two logical bits of information from doing this. I would not of even thought of doing this before. I would of got the name, typed it into google, without even guessing what the person was. My second method was communication. Asking people around me. I had a family gathering at my nans and asked everyone there if they knew of Simone de Beauvoir. The winners were the ladies, due to my nan believing she was a writer and feminist. She remembered reading a book she had wrote. Again, without this brief, I would not of gone to my family and asked the question, because google would have found it out for me. In future I will always ask people around me on issues and topics I am doing, because it is great to get other’s involved in my work and get other’s opinion. My third method was to use a library. I wanted to know if the background information on Simone de Beauvoir my nan had told me was correct. I wanted to see visually in books rather than a computer screen what she does. My first library search was the university library. The only book I could find in there was entitled ‘Simone de Beauvoir. The Ethics of Ambiguity’. From reading parts of this book it confirmed my nans view that she was a writer and feminist. She was described as a novelist, dramatist and philosopher, who was the most distinguished women writer in modern France. This also confirmed my guess that I got from looking at her name. I then wanted to visit other libraries I have never looked in before. It is shocking to say, but I have only been to library’s that were in my school and now university. I took this opportunity to change that fact. I wanted to search for Simone de Beauvoir and see how much content each library had on her. The only library I could not find anything in was the Stoneleigh library. I think this could be due to it being a very small library. I found out when talking to the librarian that it actually faces closure. It shows that as most people have the internet in their homes, libraries are not used as much and with the cases of small libraries, they are not getting the funding to stay open! It was interesting travelling to different destinations and finding out the information. I also discovered that in The Women’s Library they have exhibitions. When I went there it had a free exhibition on ‘All Work and Low Pay: The Story of Women and Work’, which I would not of discovered if I had not gone. It showed the extraordinary range of jobs done by women over the past 150 years and opposed the ‘myth’ that women did not work until the second half of the twentieth century. I believed that ‘myth’ before seeing the exhibition and I loved looking at the old photographs. There was also a few exhibitions on in the British library. The one I went to was, ‘A Hankering after Ghosts: Charles Dickens and the Supernatural’. The exhibition showed how Charles Dickens used supernatural phenomena in his work, while placing them in the context of scientific, technological and philosophical debates of his time. After presenting my findings in the last crit on this brief, it raised other questions. Do we get more information on the internet? Yes, but it is off less value. With the internet it is closed information and the search engine gives you the sites that are used the most. This does not mean they are the most useful to me. The library allows interaction with the ‘real’ world. It arises the debate over our tailored internet. This can be seen when going on facebook and having an amazon account. It makes you become in a feedback loop, as it suggests from previous experiences what you want to see. What if you want to see something different? On the programme with Mark Zukergerg, ‘inside facebook’, it said if your status turns to engaged, adverts will then pop up with wedding dresses! It is crazy to think everything we do on the internet is being tracked. This discussion coming out of my work showed how thought provoking the simple task of going to a library can be. It is by doing these experiences that I learn new things. These can then help me in the future.
E va l uat i o n Methods and Madness I feel semester one has gone really quick. I have enjoyed the range of briefs. It has stretched my abilities, as I have learnt new skills and working to deadlines. I personally liked the challenge of the Paper Co competition. I thought it was a great opportunity to go to the Bafta’s for the presentation. It was also a great experience to have a real life brief and have to present formally to a client. I enjoyed working to a tight deadline and handled the pressure that came with it. It made me realise how much can be achieved in such a short space of time. I think through out this semester my tutors have been really approachable if I need help and I think it is great we get a chance to feed back to them and they always ask for our opinions. I believe with this year I have been made a more persistent person, as before if something went wrong I would give up, but now I want to keep doing it until I finally do succeed. My time management has improved this semester, as I know how to cope better when I have multiple task to do. At some stages it is harder than others, like when there is a brief to do, essay to write and portfolio to create, but by making priorities and allowing time for each thing, I manage to do it. From doing the workshop with Pete Hellicar and Joel Lewis, I learnt that when you set yourself a time to get something completed, you can get so much more done. From doing many presentations through out the entire course I have gained in confidence. When I was at sixth form, I dreaded presentations. Now I no longer fear speaking in front of others and actually enjoy presenting my work, so they can see what I am doing and to receive feedback from my audience, students and the tutors. From doing the various briefs I have understood the implications of the wider practical and social aspect of production and consumption of contemporary culture. This can be seen in shooting stars. I took into consideration that media in today’s society produce restricted information. This is due to us as consumers wanting to impose a pattern and structure to our experiences. We have a tendency towards visual paranoia, therefore we want to see what is going on, whether it is hard to look at or not. Media today play on this and only expose a one sided point of view. In the shooting stars brief I waned to show another perspective. This was in a way of a conspiracy theory. With the Paper Co brief I was in the process of
producing a direct mail piece and had to consider the consumer in order to create a piece that was usable in the real world. Factors to do with the environment, making it recyclable, had to be taking into account. The theme I chose for my serial thriller brief provoked me to think about how our society communicates today. Instead of verbally communicating, we are increasingly using the internet, such as social networks. It makes me wonder what life will be like ten years from now, as the change from the last ten years has been drastic, becoming a digitalized society. The implications of this could make humans struggle with the simplicity of communicating physically to one another. This can already be seen in younger generations choosing to text rather than call one another. The final brief was biographies that raised the political issues of funding for libraries. With most people having access to the internet, libraries are suffering. Big libraries have dealt with this by becoming more of a tourist attraction by hosting exhibitions and talks. Smaller libraries are the ones affected in the economic down turn that we are in and face closure. It was also a great experience to make myself not use the internet and see what libraries can offer. It pays to get out into the world, rather than just researching from a computer at home! I have gained knowledge this semester by using a range of processes, such as film making, creating and presenting for a client, photography and discovering new research methods. I particularly am pleased with my progression with my film production, as before I could only create animations at a basic stop frame level and now I am exploring new techniques. At first I was not looking forward to the shooting stars brief, as it put me out my comfort zone. However from taking the challenge and experimenting with improving my technique, I enjoyed making it. Thus I have explored the process more in my Independent study. I have learnt from creating my portfolio’s that it gives me a chance to properly reflect on my work. I always try to reach a conclusion and make sure that the work I produce, is work that can be externalised. It is nice to look back and evaluate what I have created and feel a sense of achievement. On reflection I can see how far I have progressed from when I started at university and have learnt new skills to take into next semester. I want to continue progressing and learning new things and I am looking forward to what will come next.
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