CONTENTS 4. 6. 10.
Anti beach reading complete guide
History of cinema from Lumiere brothers to David Lynch
David Droga
and mindful advertising
Uncanned Magazine is produced by the Editorial and Publication class – 3rd term Graphic Design at LaSalle College Vancouver. See more magazines online: http://issuu.com/macromagazine INSTRUCTOR: Daryl Askey STUDENTS: Shaima Almutairi, Marissa Anderson, Gianluca Cescon, Junggi Chae, Jennifer Kunzer, Vakai Muregi, José Noriega, Char Perry, Agnes Van Gijzen, Michael Vorontsov. 2 uncanned magazine
August, 2016
CONTENTS
12. 15.
16. 18.
Seven video
Thundercat
Dreamcatchers
Optical illusions
editor’s tips
how to create you own
and the sweet apocalypse
psychology
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ANTI BEACH READING.
Novel recommendations for the unntionated.
T
where magazines start trying extra hard to tell you how to live your life. Summer brings hot weather, hot weather brings beach body workouts and DIY popsicle recipes. You’ve got to tone your arms up and throw the most aesthetically pleasing barbecue on the block or your entire life up to this point has been meaningless. We don’t care that you’re a doctor and a lawyer with thirteen supermodel children, you’re worthless if you’re not taking this extravagant vacation and drinking stuff out of a fruit. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, while you’re hauling your newly spray-tanned carcass to the shore of some still-too-cold his is the time of year
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body of water, you have to read as performance. Or at least, I’m assuming it’s as performance, because nobody should read any of those uninspired book recommendations except as some kind of elaborate prank.
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BEACH READING, AS A CONCEPT, HAS ALWAYS COMPLETELY BAFFLED ME.
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Typically, these recommendations include romance novels, cliché sob-stories (not too sad, though, so you don’t cry off your sunscreen) and vaguely trashy self-help books that most people wouldn’t go near if they weren’t
planning on reading them on a beach. The only remotely justifiable reasoning I can see here is that people typically wouldn’t want to read anything heavy or difficult to understand while they’re on vacation. While I guess I could get behind that idea, I’m completely against the recommendations that get served up like clockwork from May to August. Romance novels? I’d rather die. Tepid attempts at tugging the heartstrings? Jokes on you, I have no soul. Self-improvement? That’s for suckers. We, as a society, can do better. If you’re like me and you have extremely strong opinions on things that, in the grand scheme of our infinite universe, don’t matter at all, you’ll probably prefer
these beach reading recommendations. Keep in mind that your friends may interpret your choice in literature as an attempt to seem more intelligent than they are. They also might view your choice in activities as a categorical rejection of Summer Fun and call you a killjoy. In that case, two out of these three books are big enough for you to smack them in the ankle with and cause a fair amount of damage. You could also fling the remaining one like a throwing I guess, but if you had that kind of athletic ability, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article. star, I guess, but if you had that kind of athletic ability, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article.
The Three-Body Problem
Cixin Liu
Are you a huge nerd? Do you, at least, enjoy reading books with lots of equations and footnotes so you can feel like a huge nerd? If so, you’ll love this science-fiction novel about aliens coming to invade planet Earth. It starts out during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, but most of the plot takes place in the year 2006. I do regret to inform you that the three-body problem does not involve actual dead bodies (which is what I first thought when I picked it up). Going into the second act completely blind actually made it better, which is why this recommendation is about as vague as it possibly could be. Shoot me an email if you can verify the accuracy of any of the math and physics used, because I honestly assumed everything checked out. I went to art school.
The Room
Jonas Karlsson
This book is about as close to traditional beach reading as I am going to get. It’s a short read and it takes place in a totally normal Swedish office with characters you might encounter in real life. However, there’s no romantic subplot, and you won’t learn anything about how to be a better person—unless, of course, you interpret the main character as a warning example. It follows the workplace antics of Bjorn as he attempts to maximize his efficiency, climb the corporate ladder, and hang out in a small, quiet office room to get away from his “inferior” co-workers. If you don’t need to be able to relate to your protagonist (or, alternatively, you can completely relate because you’re an android who has infiltrated human society), this is the book for you.
House of Leaves Mark J. Danielewiski
A wildly simplified description of the plot: a man goes into his dead neighbour’s apartment to clear some of his stuff out and discovers the outline of a novel reviewing a movie. This movie is about a family who moves into a house. The house is slightly bigger on the inside. The layout sometimes shifts. There’s a pitch-black maze in the hallway. The movie touts itself as a documentary, but there’s no way any of this could be real. The beauty part of this novel is that the experimental style means you sometimes have to tilt the book around to read the text, which counts as a sport. If anyone asks what your book is about, you could scream wordlessly for about five and a half minutes and they would probably retain the exact same amount of information. . uncanned magazine 5
HISTORY OF FILM
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The history of film began in the 1890s, when motion picture cameras were invented and film production companies started to be established. Because of the limits of technology, films of the 1890s were under a minute long and until 1927 motion pictures were produced without sound. The first decade of motion picture saw film moving from a novelty to an established large-scale entertainment industry. The films became several minutes long consisting of several shots.
~The Jazz Singer, 1927. (Alan Crosland, Gordon Hollingshead)
T
he first rotating camera for taking pan-
ning shots was built in 1898. The first film studios were built in 1897. Special effects were introduced and film continuity, involving action moving from one sequence into another, began to be used. In the 1900s, continuity of action across successive shots was achieved and the first close-up shot was introduced. Most films of this period were what came to be called “chase films”. The first use of animation in movies was in 1899. The first feature length multi-reel film was a 1906 Australian production. The first successful permanent theatre showing only films was “The Nickelodeon” in Pittsburgh in 1905. By 1910, actors began to receive screen credit for their roles, and the way to the creation of film stars was opened. Regular newsreels were exhibited from 1910 and soon became a popular way for finding out the news.
N
ew film techniques were introduced in this
period including the use of artificial lighting, fire effects and low-key lighting (i.e. lighting in which most of the frame is dark) for enhanced atmosphere during sinister scenes. As films grew longer, specialist writers were employed to simplify more complex stories derived from novels or plays into a form that could be contained on one reel and be easier to be understood by the audience – an audience that was new to this form of storytelling. Genres began to be used as categories; the main division was into comedy and drama, but these categories were further subdivided. During the First World War there was a complex transition for the film industry. The exhibition of films changed from short one-reel programs to feature films.
Exhibition venues became larger and began charging higher prices. By 1914, continuity cinema was the established mode of commercial cinema. One of the advanced continuitytechniques involved an accurate and smooth transition from one shot to another.
1920’S
The United States reached what is still its era
of greatest ever output, producing an average of 800 feature films annually, or 82% of the global total (1997). During late 1927, Warners released The Jazz Singer with the first synchronized dialogue (and singing) in a feature film. By the end of 1929, Hollywood was almost all-talkie, with several competing sound systems (soon to be standardized). Sound saved the Hollywood studio system in the face of the great depression (Parkinson, 1995).
1960’S
During the 1960s, the studio system in Hollywood
declined, because many films were now being made on location in other countries, or using studio facilities abroad, such as Pinewood in the UK and Cinecittà in Rome. “Hollywood” films were still largely aimed at family uncanned magazine 7
~ Laurel and Hardy, 1927-1950
audiences, and it was often the more old-fashioned films that produced the studios’ biggest successes. Productions like Mary Poppins (1964), My Fair Lady (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965) were among the biggest money-makers of the decade. The growth in independent producers and production companies, and the increase in the power of individual actors also contributed to the decline of traditional Hollywood studio production.
1970’S The New Hollywood was the period
following the decline of the studio system during the 1950s and 1960s and the end of the production code, (which was replaced in 1968 by the MPAA film rating system). During the 1970s, filmmakers increasingly depicted explicit sexual content and showed gunfight and battle scenes that included graphic images of bloody deaths – a good example of this is Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left (1972). During the 1970s, a new group of American filmmakers emerged, such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Woody Allen, Terrence Malick, and Robert Altman. This coincided with the increasing popularity of the auteur theory in film literature and the media, which posited that a film director’s films express their personal vision and creative insights.
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~ Casablanca, 1942. (Michael Curtis)
1980’S
During the 1980s, audiences began
increasingly watching films on their home VCRs. In the early part of that decade, the film studios tried legal action to ban home ownership of VCRs as a violation of copyright, which proved unsuccessful. Eventually, the sale and rental of films on home video became a significant “second venue” for exhibition of films, and an additional source of revenue for the film industries.
The Lucas–Spielberg combine would dominate “Hollywood” cinema for much of the 1980s, and lead to much imitation. Two follow-ups to Star Wars, three to Jaws, and three Indiana Jones films helped to make sequels of successful films more of an expectation than ever before. Lucas also launched THX Ltd, a division of Lucasfilm in 1982, while Spielberg enjoyed one of the decade’s greatest successes in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial the same year.
1990’S
The documentary film also rose as a commercial genre for perhaps the first time, with the success of films such as March of the Penguins and Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9-11. A new genre was created with Martin Kunert and Eric Manes’ Voices of Iraq, when 150 inexpensive DV cameras were distributed across Iraq, transforming ordinary people into collaborative filmmakers. The success of Gladiator led to a revival of interest in epic cinema, and Moulin Rouge! renewed interest in musical cinema. Home theatre systems became increasingly sophisticated, as did some of the special edition DVD’s designed to be shown on them.
The early 1990s saw the development of a commercially successful independent cinema in the United States. Although cinema was increasingly dominated by special-effects films such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Titanic (1997), the latter of which became the highest-grossing film of all time at the time up until “Avatar”, also directed by James Cameron, independent films like Steven Soderbergh”s Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) and Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) had significant commercial success both at the cinema and on home video.
~ Schizopolis, 1996. (Steven Soderbergh)
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How
DAVID DROGA
Creates Advertising That Matters
S
ometimes the biggest ideas can be the simplest, the smallest and most
obvious. For David Droga, founder and creative chairman of Droga5, the notion of give and take turned out to be a game-changer for his award-winning advertising agency. Launched in 2007, the UNICEF Tap Project, which raises awareness and funds for clean water projects, asked diners “when you take water, give water.”
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{ This ongoing collaboration was conceived, not as a dis-
posable annual advertising program, but as a simple, scalable way to give in flexible increments, from $1 for regular tap water in restaurants to $5 for celebrity tap water. It underlined the value of the tap water taken for granted everyday. By changing customer’s mindsets, the project has raised nearly $3 million and benefited from pro bono work by agencies in 23 markets. At the core of Droga5’s mission is impact: what
they call creativity with a purpose. Droga counts himself fortunate to be amongst the first generation of business leaders who don’t have to choose between building a robust business with global reach and giving back to society. For all the success Droga5 is having, the goal is not simply growth. Droga says that the
Generosity is as much showing your vulnerability as it is your passion for something,
company focuses on the projects they take on, making sure that the mission and actions of the companies align with those of the agency. They have earned a reputation as an innovator of sustainable ideas built around social good. “We can be problem solvers so that it’s more than just about creating ads,” he says. “We’re very much an advertising agency, but it’s not about creating ads as we know it.”
And Droga has been quite outspoken about the state of advertising as we know it, saying that 90% of advertising is pollution and that the industry, which has the potential to impact every sector, can and should do better. Droga seeks to set an example with his work, creating something positive that elevates the industry. “Inspiration or emulation, I’ll take either,” Droga says.
}
Droga5 attracts like-minded individuals who are creative,
kind and ambitious. “They’re generous with their time, with their support, with their nurturing,” Droga says. “We’re still a competitive, high-performing place but what makes a difference is there’s a backbone and great ethos here. It’s not succeed at any cost; it’s succeed the right way.” Droga’s forte is not in handing
over large donation checks but instead he prefers the investment and emotional attachment that comes with using his skills for good. “Ideas more than ever can make the biggest difference in the world,” Droga says. “We’re communicators, we’re problem solvers and we’re lateral thinkers and there’s nothing that can’t be improved with that. The world needs us and we want to be needed.” Engaging the resources and talent at the agency to make a difference is an integral part of the company. For Droga5, the starting place with a client is not what the campaign is going to look or sound like but what is the impact going to be. That approach may require stepping away from the project, sharing the project with others or admitting a lack of expertise. “Generosity is as much showing your vulnerability as it is your passion for something,” Droga says.
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SEVEN VIDEO {editing tips and techniques} Want to take your video editing skills
from beginner to pro? These tips and techniques can help you become a great video editor. Becoming a great video editor isn’t easy, but with practice and patience you’ll be editing like a pro in no time. Here are a few of the most important tips and techniques you need to know to become a professional video editor.
1
Choose the Right Software
Picking the right editing software is a lot like picking the right car. They’ll all get your from A to B, but depending on your tastes and preferences, you might prefer one above the rest. The following is a quick breakdown of the most popular professional video editing software in the world. If you want to read more information about where each of these programs stand in the professional video editing world, check out our post on the The Big NLEs. ADOBE PREMIERE PRO • Price: $50/mon. • Pros: consistent
•
updates, multicam editing, tons of online support, customizable interface, dynamic link with other Adobe software Cons: updates can be buggy, slower exporting than FCPX
FINAL CUT PRO X $299 • Pros: fast workflow, compound clips, sleek interface, multicam support • Cons: only for Mac, no backwards compatibility with FCP7 • Price:
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2
Pick the Right Computer
While having a great computer won’t necessarily make you a great video editor, a faster computer will allow you to focus more of your time on the story you’re trying to tell rather than your computer rendering. Everyone has their own opinions about what computer is best for editing, but it all depends on your own preferences. Here are a few tips for optimizing and picking the right computer for video editing. GET AN SSD CARD A fast storage drive is one of the most important investments you can make for video editing. INCREASE MEMORY (RAM) Increased RAM will almost always lead to faster editing speeds. This is why most modern NLEs recommend that you have at least 4GB of RAM — but if you’re serious about video editing, you’re going to need a lot more processors.
3
Editing For a Story
If you take nothing else from this article, remember that as an editor you are a storyteller! Editing is so much more than simply cutting footage. It’s an opportunity to take your audience on a journey. Whether you’re editing a complex narrative film or simply putting together a corporate video, there is a deeper story being told. One of the easiest ways to think of your story is through the lens of the ‘Hero’s Journey,’ popularized by Joseph Campbell. The story breakdown goes like this, as outlined by former Disney executive Christopher Vogler:
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Keyboard Shortcuts Are Your best Friends
One of the fastest ways to tell the difference between a professional and novice video editor is to simply look at how much they use the keyboard. Editors who have been in the industry a while know that a few seconds saved here or there add up over time. So if you’re serious about saving hours (if not days) on projects, it’s best for you to learn how to use those keyboard shortcuts. Luckily for us, there are a lot of really good keyboard shortcut resources out there.
5
Learn the Lingo
Video editing isn’t just a hobby or a profession, it’s an industry. And just like any industry, there’s a ton of lingo to learn. Practically speaking, you don’t need to learn all of the terms on this list to become a better video editor, but a fundamental knowledge of the concepts may help you communicate better with other video editors or clients. Here are a few basic concepts you’ll need to know: JUMP CUT A jump cut is a cut that allows the editor to cut out portions of time. A jump cut can preserve visual interest without the audience having to watch boring fluff. Think of a guy holding an egg over a building and then cutting to a clip of a splattered egg on a sidewalk. Even though you didn’t see the egg falling, it’s obvious what happened in between. The following is a great example of a jump cut from The Royal Tenenbaums. J- AND L- CUTS J and L cuts are an essential tool for tying two scenes together. In a nutshell, a J or L cut is an overlap of either audio or video onto the next scene. They’re named for the shape they make in your editing timeline. Although you don’t need to learn all of the terms on this list to become a better video editor, but a fundamental knowledge of the concepts may help you communicate better with other video editors or clients. uncanned magazine 13
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Good Music Changes Everything
David Lynch, one of the most innovative directors in the world, once said: “Films are 50 percent visual and 50 percent sound. Sometimes sound even overplays the visual.” Want to know the easiest way to tell the difference between an indie film and Hollywood blockbuster? Just close your eyes. As editors, it’s easy to focus way too heavily on the visuals and to keep the audio as an afterthought. This is of course a mistake. THE BEST THING TO DO is license good music online from a royalty free music provider. I know what you’re thinking: spend money on music? I can just get free music online. While this is true, free music is free for a reason. In order to get the best audio possible, you’re going to need to spend a little money.
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Exporting for the Web
While it’s easy to get caught up on the big screen, in reality most of your projects will be viewed on phones, iPads, computers, or TVs, so it’s important to know the proper way to export for the web. The goal when exporting a video for web is to create the highest quality possible without ending up with a huge file size. There are four main factors that determine how large your finished video will be. Let’s break them down here: CODEC: a Codec is the type of file format that your video will be saved as. The more compressed the codec, the smaller your video’s size will be. However, smaller file sizes tend to be lower in quality. RESOLUTION: Resolution is how many pixels your video has. For example, a 4K video has 4 times the resolution of HD video.
~ Blue Velvet, 1986. (David Lynch)
BITRATE: Bit rate is the amount of data dedicated to a second of video. A higher bit rate will result in higher-quality video and larger files. Some programs allow you to set a minimum and maximum bit rate. FRAME RATE: typically, you will want to export your video in the film standard (24fps) or the TV broadcast standard of 30fps (or 25fps in PAL). While there isn’t much wiggle room here, it should be noted that if you decide to export your video in 48fps or 60fps, your file size will likely double.
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creating a
DREAM CATCHER. Dream catchers are one of the most
fascinating traditions of Native Americans. The traditional dream catcher was intended to protect the sleeping individual from negative dreams, while letting positive dreams through. The positive dreams would slip through the hole in the center of the dream catcher, and glide down the feathers to the sleeping person below. The negative dreams would get caught up in the web, and expire when the first rays of the sun struck them.
SUNSET DREAMCATCHER The dreamcatcher has been a part of Native American culture for generations. One element of Native American dream catcher relates to the tradition of the hoop. Some Native Americans of North America held the hoop in the highest esteem, because it symbolized strength and unity. Many symbols started around the hoop, and one of these symbols is the dream catcher. DREAM CATCHER LORE: Native Americans believe that the night air is filled with dreams both good and bad. Good dreams are clear and know the way to the dreamer, descending through the feathers. The slightest movement of the feathers indicated the passage of yet another beautiful dream. Bad dreams, however, are confused and confusing. They cannot find their way through the web and are trapped there until the sun rises and evaporates them like the morning dew.
Sinew, the shredded fibers of
when hung over
or near your bed
and swinging freely in the air, dreamcatcher chases the dreams as they flow by. The good dreams know how to pass through the dream catcher, slipping through the outer holes and slide down the soft feathers so gently that many times the sleeper does not know that he/she is dreaming. The bad dreams not knowing the way get tangled in the dream catcher and perish with the first light of the new day.
animal tendon, was used for cordage, binding points on arrow shafts, and for backing material for bows.�
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Listening to
THUNDERCAT the golden age of apocalypse
IN Los Angeles, you can fit three weeks into a New
York minute.
This isn’t based on any sort of factual data. In reality, I just made that up while sitting in a borrowed Los Angeles apartment on a cool summer night. Vacationing on the Left Coast has taught me several things, most of which I already knew. More than anything, I realized that California rocks to the rhythm of its own G-Funk era drum. That is why I have always appreciated it’s art. Naturally, I’ve been as cliché as possible in my musical endeavors while resting under the California sunshine. Engaging in the sounds of artists too often ignored in my own Midwestern enclave (Blu, Terrace Martin, Dom 16 uncanned magazine
Kennedy, L.A.U.S.D., etc.), there is nothing that I’ve enjoyed more than simply driving down Fairfax releasing obnoxiously high levels of Nate Dogg into the already congested atmosphere. As trite as it may sound, this is the effect of a few days out West.
{
The soul of California has its own signature flair. The vibe is often, like its people, laid-back with an eccentric touch.
}
It’s outgoing and adventurous, with just enough cool to justify its inclusion in the summertime staple of drop top convertible rides through the neighborhood. In the words of Californian urban poet Natassia “Kreayshawn” Zolot, “I’m in the coupe cruisin’…” Swag.
Joking aside, whether it’s trunk-rattling bass from Oakland’s newest rapper or the the mellow sensations of beachfront jazz, California has an undeniable charm. This appeal comes from a long lineage of gifted artists ranging from Roy Ayers to the Pharcyde. Few, however capture this essence quite like musician Thundercat. Known for his bass work with Erykah Badu, Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner recently released a stream of his entire solo album (via Brainfeeder) compelling me send up praises to the Bay Area’s resident deity Lil’ B, The Based God.
{
The album is indiscernible in characterization.
}
There are elements of jazz, funk, pop, and soul intertwined amongst the underrated bass work and surprisingly sharp vocal performance Thundercat. If there was any sort of label worth giving to this collage of sounds, I would perhaps go with “futuristic.” It’s an abstract term and expresses the limited availability of language in describing art. The sonic peculiarity of this album couldn’t possibly be encapsulated by one word, or even ten. It’s a complicated fusion of this, that, and everything in-between. Despite, its otherworldliness, I find the album to be quite accessible. It has a melodious strand that runs throughout, beginning to end. With perfect synthesis, this beauty is build atop dark undertones, both vocally and instrumentally. A palpable treat, the album still manages to leave any listener with a haunting aftertaste. This contradiction of sound manages to enhance an already decisively evolved project.
I say all of this to introduce you to the soundtrack to my West Coast excursion. With a million and one musical points of entry, I chose Thundercat. His sound brings together the best of the West with something that few people are capable of doing. It’s fun, free-spirited, and above all incredibly diverse, just like the region in which he resides. But, it needn’t be relegated to just that. My lasting impressions of The Golden Age of Apocalypse fall into a place of both admiration and appreciation. There’s a flexibility, not only sonically, but conceptually that allows for this to be a record that stays in heavy rotation, wherever you may be. It has the warmth of a West Coast summer day, with the right injection of demurity to fill an artificially-lit apartment during an autumn in New York. Thundercat transcends both musical archetypes and regional trends. If you don’t know, now you know.
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illusions optical Psychology:
The Kanizsa Triangle Illusion In the Kanizsa Triangle, illusory contours create the illusion of an equilateral triangle.. The Kanizsa Triangle is an optical illusion in which a triangle is perceived even though it is not actually there. The Kanizsa Triangle illusion was first described in 1955 by an Italian psychologist named Gaetano Kanizsa. In the illusion, a white equilateral triangle can be seen in the image even though there is not actually a triangle there. The effect is caused by illusory or subject contours. Gestalt psychologists use this illusion to describe the law of closure, one of the gestalt laws of perceptual organization. According to this principle, objects that are grouped together tend to be seen as being part of a whole.
{
We tend to ignore gaps and perceive the contour lines in order to make the image appear as a cohesive whole.
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}
The Negative Photo Illusion Did you think that you needed a darkroom to process a negative photo into a full-color image? In this fun optical illusion, you can see how your visual system and brain are actually able to briefly create a color image from a negative photo. HOW TO PERFORM THE ILLUSION: • Stare at the dots located at the center of the woman’s face below for about 30 seconds to a minute. • Then turn your eyes immediately to the center x of the white image on the right. • Blink quickly several times.
What do you see? If you’ve followed the directions correctly, you should see an image of a woman in full-color. If you are having trouble seeing the effect, try staring at the negative image a bit longer or adjusting how far you are sitting from your computer monitor.
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