The principle of Art Deco which is natively French started off as an artistic movement in the 1020s on the streets of Paris. While it drew inspiration from other movements like Neoclassical, Constructivism, Cubism, Modernism, and Futurism, it continued to distinct itself from them. Although many design movements have political or philosophical roots or intentions, Art Deco was purely decorative. Its essential stress laid on functional artistic design. The primary re-discovery of ancient architecture in this age led to its revival in the form of Art Deco. Much like the art and architecture of ancient civilizations, Art Deco is based on pure geometry. This characteristic is the heart of Art Deco. Art Deco moved out of his native home in Europe in the 30s to USA, from here it spread to nonEuropean countries such as China, Indonesia, New Zealand, and India.
6
Art Deco in Mumbai A unique combination of factors led to the adaptation of Art Deco style of Architecture here in Mumbai(then Bombay). Increase in tourism and travel in the early half of the 20th had made Bombay a cultural hub for western artists. Many touring European ballet, opera, theatrical and musical troops entered the Bombay scene. The upper classes and the business community which predominantly lived in the town side of Bombay readily accepted western contemporary trends such as Jazz, horse racing and cinema. The social and cultural ambience in Bombay was hence very conducive to the incorporation of Art Deco into what would become quintessentially Bombay. Besides tourists, Bombay was also becoming a political hub in the pre-independence movement at this time. The Chamber Of Princes was the official body responsible for negotiations between the Nawabs, princes and maharajas of India and the British government. These Nawabs, princes and maharajas started building houses here so as to avoid staying in hotels. Almost all of these houses were built in the Art Deco style, creating the appropriate patronage for this style. The increasing number of graduates in Architecture from foreign universities brought in the new wave of architecture in a way no one could have thought of and with intellectual ideas flying around Bombay was soon to become the Paris of India. In November 1937 the first Architectural Exhibition ever to be held in India which was organized by the Indian Institute of Architects at town hall displayed the modern trends in lifestyle all over the world, and as unsurprising as it would be- Art Deco was everywhere! The movements standing testaments were the new office building in the fort, Bungalows on Malabar and Cumballa Hill and Juhu, apartment blocks in Marine drive, Backbay reclamation and most importantly all the then new cinema halls such as Regal Cinema, Eros Cinema and Metro Cinema. The most glamorous symbol of the Art Deco movement was Cinema. Remember the times when actresses used to arrive in a limo, walked down a red carpet in a dress which in today’s standards would be called vintage, waving out to fans while walking to sun stone clad cream colored building for the premier of a movie which would generally sound like have a name on the lines of dream girl? Well that was the 30s in Mumbai in all its blazing glory and art deco was the architecture and the life style statement at the heart of it all.
7
Art Deco A cinematic experience The Regal Cinema was designed by Charles Steven, son of Fredrick Steven (The man behind CST). For its time Regal was the ultimate epitome of glamour. It was probably the first Indian cinema hall with completely air conditioned halls, underground parking and even a lift. Following this example the Idea of cinema being a luxury set in and cinema halls like Plaza Cinema (Dadar) Central Cinema(Charni Road), New Empire Theater etc. followed suit. Art Deco and Cinema reached a peak with Eros, which was rightly termed as the great grandpa of luxury cinema. Designed by Sohrabji Bedhwar, this building still stands today as a living mark of the good old 30s. Like Regal and Eros, Metro was the last word in luxury. The 2,943 square yard plot was formerly occupied by the Air force and was acquired by Metro Goldwyn Corporation on a lease for 999 with a ground rent of Rs.1 per year! Thomas W lamb, a New York based Architect laid the plans for the Metro. The complete interiors were imported from the states. The most sticking feature of the architecture is large mural paintings on both sides of the auditorium. The introduction of Art Deco architecture to the cinema culture is probably one of the most important landmarks in our cultural his-
8
tory. The idea of a movie date, the idea of having the red lounge seats at movie halls today, the idea of 5 star service at a movie, delivery at seat amongst many other things dates back to the 30s when the art deco reformation made cinema into more of an experience and less of a medium for common man.
Art Deco and culture Art Deco was a cultural statement. If not for the rest of the world, at least for Bombay it was and will be. The luxury which was native to this style was an expression of the lifestyle and culture then. People wanted change, people wanted to move away from the Victorian world (The British Empire as a whole), people wanted to travel, people wanted to exchange culture. People wanted to look forward to a new independent age and Art Deco was just the right style to exhibit this. The way Robert McGregor would put it “There was going to be no more poverty, no more ignorance, no more disease. Art Deco reflected that confidence, vigor and optimism by using symbols of progress, speed and power.” The development of Art Deco rapidly replaced Bombay’s Image from a Victorian to a modern and cosmopolitan city. This architectural style created a cohesive image of the city, combining its physicality and its style. While the Victorian era which stood for power drew to an end, Art deco symbolized a shift towards a modern Bombay and a modern India with contemporary aspirations. This period renewed Bombay as a city by opening itself up to the trend of Art Deco and truly keeping Bombay connected with the world and being the world’s gateway to India.
The Top Five Reasons Why 3D Has No Future
If, like me, you’ve been following coverage of the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, you will have noticed that the big trend this year was 3D TV’s. All of the major flat panel manufacturers were in Las Vegas showing off HDTV’s capable of displaying content in 3D. This fact, coupled with the runaway success of James Cameron’s 3D film “Avatar,” has brought the third dimension back into the limelight. With so much buzz around 3D, you might be wondering whether this is the future of cinema. Don’t believe the hype. Here are the top five reasons why 3D has no future:
There isn’t enough content It is true that in an effort to lure people back into theaters, the studios have been pushing 3D hard lately. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple to produce a 3D live action film as it is a 3D animation. To achieve 3D in animation, one instructs a computer to render a second channel of video slightly offset from the first.This is not significantly more onerous than creating an ordinary 2D CG animation. For live action films, however, 3D requires special cameras that are heavy and inconvenient to use. The practical upshot of this is that most of the 3D films being produced today are animated. This, of course, has implications for watching 3D films both in the theater and at home. If 3D continues to fail in winning over live action filmmakers, there simply won’t be much to look at.
The upfront cost of 3D hardware is too steep The reintroduction of 3D into mainstream movies has seen a modest degree of success over the past few years. Theaters
10
have been able to charge more for tickets to 3D screenings, which has helped them in offsetting the exorbitant cost of upgrading their projection hardware. But 3D still accounts for a mere fraction of overall ticket sales. This is because even with higher ticket prices, exhibitors cannot afford to make all of their screens 3D-ready. The cost of upgrading is also a problem in the home theater market, where HDTV’s have finally made their way into a majority of American homes. The vast majority of these households have only recently bought in. Is it really reasonable to expect people who just shelled out serious money for their new flat screens to go out and buy another $3000 TV? The value-add, especially considering the endemic lack of 3D content, is just not enough to justify the purchase. Even if the consumer in question did have the money, they would be wiser to spend it on upgrading their sound system, before going to 3D.
The quality of the experience is inconsistent and problematic I then went and suffered through all 172 minutes of it again in RealD. The IMAX 3D experience was not great. First, the glasses were recycled and although I was seeing the film on opening day, they seemed somewhat warped. Even after I had changed glasses, the 3D illusion was broken every time I moved my head. It was exhausting to have to hold one position for close to three hours, but it was either that, or stare at a blurry image. I walked out of the IMAX 3D screening with a crick in my neck. The RealD screening did provide a better overall 3D experience. The illusion was not broken by head movements and so I was able to watch it in a more comfortable position. Unfortunately, when I left the RealD screening, I had a headache that lasted for an hour and a half (more on this special 3D headache later).
The glasses are a literal barrier to entry While there have been many advances in 3D technology over the years, one thing that has not changed is the need for glasses. Depending on the particular type of 3D technology, these glasses work in slightly different ways, but the reliance on them to send offset images to the brain is still a mainstay of any 3D viewing experience. This is also true of the latest 3D HDTV’s which, we learned at CES, will ship with battery-powered 3D glasses. This is an annoyance at the theater, but can you imagine having to put on a pair of glasses to watch TV in your living room? And what do you do if you wear reading glasses? How about when friends come over to watch the Super Bowl, or theOscars? The glasses make a hard sell even harder.
Filmmakers, James Cameron included, do not really understand 3D Film, like photography and perspective painting, is already a three dimensional medium. Monocular cues like linear perspective, occlusion, and shadow, to name but a few, all provide the same sense of depth perception in a film, photograph, or painting as they do in real life. It is true that binocular cues add dimension to the other depth cues (when looking at objects up to 100 feet away), but it is a subtle effect and not the only way we see depth in the world or in film. While many filmmakers have an intuitive understanding of the principles of human perception, it’s not something that they study formally. Most get by in 2D, because there are established filmmaking conventions that they conform to which happen to play well with human perception. Unfortunately, 3D hasn’t been around long enough for such conventions to develop. 3D filmmakers end up using 2D film techniques that induce depth cues which are then contradicted by some of the 3D binocular cues that are layered over everything. When your brain is presented with such conflicting depth information, it will choose one version over the other, but when such conflicts happen many times over the course of a few hours, you end up with a perception headache. There are many other factors that influence our perception of 3D, including the focal length of the lens, the composition of the shot, and the movement of the camera, but modern filmmakers don’t seem to be aware of the effects of these important factors on the perception of their films. This is why watching a 3D movie doesn’t really feel like being there, it just feels like its own, somewhat annoying, thing. The push for 3D comes from a confluence of the old desire to create a more immersive cinema experience and the contemporary need to get people excited about going to the movies again. Unfortunately, the current 3D technology fails to deliver on the former and so it is destined to fail at the latter. A much more fruitful approach would be to adapt Douglas Trumball’s Showscan technology. What Trumbull demonstrated was that by shooting and projecting film at higher frame rates, he could create a much more immersive and realistic experience than what we get with a traditional 24 frames per second projection. His system, which involved 70 mm film shot and projected at 60 frames per second was dismissed as impractical and excessively expensive. In the digital age, this objection is no longer relevant. It is already possible to design reasonably priced digital cinema cameras and projectors that shoot and project at high resolutions and fast frame rates. This, it seems to me, is the next logical step in the evolution of cinema. Not the gimmick that we now call 3D.
11
Photo Stop! Revolution not Evolution There is a high possibility that you are a software addict. Daniel Mackie talks about returning to traditional art had made him a better designer. Decisions, decisions! Up until recently I, like many other illustrators, had been using Photoshop as my main illustration tool. However I abandoned it and picked up my watercolour brushes. What!? Why? Well, back in 1995, when I first started out as an illustrator, Photoshop was the new weapon of choice for a ‘freshout-of-college’ illustrator like me. I was bowled over by the effects I could achieve (mainly invert, curve and blur at the time). Photoshop had only one level of undo (control z) and no layers. The only way to go back in your design was to save different versions of your work as you progressed, but hard drives were the size of knicker draws at the time, not the great vacuous caverns that are available today. So you’d usually just plough on forward, hoping your computer didn’t crash, until you’d finished. Whatever command you instructed the software to do, you had to be pretty sure that was what you wanted, because one more commands down the line and you couldn’t undo it! You had to be brave! Photoshop is now a much more powerful piece of software. You can effectively go back in time and re-edit everything in your design. Now this is fantastic. But. Well for me, I started to notice in my own work that my use of colour was like everybody else’s – flat. I’d try a load of different colours out until I decided on the one I wanted (hue/saturation, brightness/contrast… etc). If something wasn’t working I’d move the layers around, try a few effects, scan something else in… etc. I realized I wasn’t making my mind up and making a decision about what I wanted. Having too much choice was making my working methods vague. I wanted to shore things up. I had some experience of using watercolour. I used to paint bowls of fruit at the kitchen table when I was a lad. I knew that when the colour went onto the paper it was difficult to get off, as it stains like claret on white carpet! If you painted over it you’d run the risk of everything turning to sludge brown. Because of its permanence, your drawing had to be spot on even before you started. Now this is the polar opposite of Photoshop. After being sure your drawing is spot on, you have to be one hundred percent committed to the colours you’re going to be using. You have to make a decision and stick to it. If it goes wrong you have to start again. The decision-making in the production of an illustration is one crucial part of the process. I also believe that limiting the options I have forces me to make better decisions throughout the creative process. When you have a number seven brush loaded with Cadmium Red you have to be sure that where you’re putting it is where you want it because once it’s on it’s not coming off. This kind of decision becomes even more loaded the closer to finishing the illustration you get. But you’ve got to make it.
14
16
The Classical Comeback-Liquid Comics Virgin/Liquid comics belong to one of the new schools of Graphic story telling. Moving away from the stereotypical comic super heroes, they brought in a new wave of digital art to re-interpret age-old stories that have dominated the Indian market. Their latest release Ramayan 3392 A.D, written by ShamikDasgupta and artwork by Abhishek Singh, has amazing quality in both the production and the story. Technological themes, often culminating in the same situations, replace the spiritual themes of the ancient texts. This reflects the classical Indian belief that the history of the universe repeats in cycles, eventually causing history to repeat itself in similar, yet alien ways. The company has many other titles as well in production. Sadhus, Devi, Snake woman are available in the Indian market.We had the pleasure to chat with one of the founders of this company Mr. Sharad Devrajan. How did you start this venture? My partners Gotham Chopra, Suresh Seetharaman and myself originally founded this company (which was then called VIRGIN COMICS) in 2005 with the Virgin Group including author Deepak Chopra and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur. In 2009, the founding management team was able to work with Virgin to complete a management buy-out and renamed the Company to Liquid Comics. From what we have been told, Liquid has quiet a star-studded backing in terms of contributors. Can you tell us something about them? Liquid collaborates with leading talent from around the world to craft original stories and character properties to be further leveraged into other media. The creators include John Woo, Guy Ritchie, Nicolas Cage, John Moore, Shekhar Kapur, Deepak Chopra, Dave Stewart, Jonathan Mostow, Grant Morrison, Marcus Nispel, Stan Lee, Ed Burns, Duran Duran, Hrithik Roshan and more. Unlike most graphic novel series, Liquid takes its characters from Mythology rather than creating them. Any particular insight that led to this decision? Liquid has created one of the world’s largest comic book libraries of characters and stories tied to the myth and lore of India and is ideally positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for youth entertainment with 550 million people under the age of 25 by Year 2015. Similar to the multi-billion dollar success of Japanese anime and Manga comics, Liquid intends to market its groundbreaking mythic content to audiences worldwide, leading the transition of India from an “outsourcer” to “a source” of dynamic creations and creators What were your plans initially? What is your vision regarding the future of Indian comics? Similar to the phenomenon we have seen with Japanese anime and Manga, which have influenced every aspect of popular culture and me-
17
dia today, our mission is to spark a creative renaissance in India. The next JK Rowling or Stan Lee is sitting in a village somewhere in India and our job is to find them, support them with the right resources and training and then give them a pedestal to share their unique ideas and vision with the world. Our hope is to create a haven for the country’s most innovative creators and launch a new wave of characters from India that simultaneously appeal to audiences from Boston to Beijing to Bangalore. It’s about reversing the funnel and taking our great characters, stories and creators to the world. Already our artists such as Mukesh Singh and Jeevan Kang have worked on books with some of the world’s leading creators and have built fans around the world who marvel at the work they do. The best is yet to come.
Can you tell us a little about trends in the Indian graphic novel reading market? As the Indian market begins its evolution and begins to define itself, it may find parallels in markets like France and Japan, where Superheroes are not necessarily the defining ethos and many other genres successfully thrive. At Liquid we believe, just as western comics were defined by "Man versus Science" and Japanese comics were defined by "Man versus Nature" (seen in Akira, etc where the industrial age unchecked leaves mans place with nature disrupted and leads to post apocalyptic wastelands or technological monstrosities), Indian comics/heroes can find rich storytelling in the concepts of "Man versus Mythology" how modern heroes interact and deal with the mythic undertones that have defined Indian theology and philosophy for decades. We think stories like the Matrix deal with Maya the illusion in a very contemporary fashion - and India’s young creators should find ways to tap into the great mythic heritage of the country to tell contemporary and fresh stories that can speak to audiences worldwide (such as the mythic undertones of Star Wars, Matrix, Harry Potter and most recently, Avatar). Western super heroes vs. Indian super heroes. If you had to pick, which one would you? The western superhero was really defined in the 60's by Stan Lee and his creative partners and largely a result of the cold war ethos and fear of the atomic age - many of the heroes of that era that still thrive (Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Daredevil etc) get their powers from mutations or unknown radiation that played on the fears of that time. In the same way Indian creators must tap into their cultures and prevailing contemporary issues, hopes, dreams and fears to serve as the source of inspiration for their characters.
18
What does the future look like for Liquid? We do have a number of film and television projects in development, such as the Warner Bros. film adaptation of Gamekeeper with director Guy Ritchie; Virulents with director John Moore; Voodoo Child with Nicolas Cage; Ramayan 3392AD with Mandalay Pictures; The Leaves with Summit Entertainment; The Sadhu with Hollywood Gang; The Stranded with the Syfy Channel; Beyond with Deepak Chopra and First Family with Fremantle Media Enterprises.
Creating Classics-Valmiki Comics Just when I was thinking that apart from Raj comics in India there could be no one here creating something as spectacular as what Liquid comics were doing, I got the first copy of “Sixth” by Vimanika. As soon as I turned to the first page, I understood this was a force to reckon with. Brilliant art and a good storyline, exploring the life of Karna reincarnated in the present world. Their other series Moksha is about Lord Hanuman after Ram's life has ended, as he is immortal. Karan Vir is a writer, editor, publisher, and conceptual director of Vimanika Comics, he has conducted years of research in terms of Indian mythology. Tell us about your history, how did you get into comics/ graphic novels and how did you start this venture?
What were your initial plans and future vision regarding Indian comics?
Well to start with I was never really into a lot of Graphic novels and comics; I used to read Amar chira katha, Dc & Marvel comics at the most. But I was deeply moved by the stories of our past, and used to hear them from my brother every night as bedtime stories. Sometimes LOTR also was narrated to us at a stretch, for days, an hour every night. So I thought if the U.S could present such a myth that never was history so well, then I think people like me can present our myth that was really our history very well. Initially I wanted to make movies, but because of lack of funds I couldn’t. So I thought - Why not do it in comics? It’s faster, less money is required and Virgin comics was going to launch in India, so they too were a part of my inspiration to start Vimanika because I thought if they staying there (the founders, I mean) they could connect with our stories here, then I am an Indian staying in India and I think I should value our stories and do my best to portray them and yes, not to forget my sister form the U.S who is now the Director of P.R and Marketing in the U.S for Vimanika. She encouraged me to go for it all the time.
We wanted to make them cinematic with top quality artwork from the best artists in India, which we did and still are doing, and that’s why we won an award for the Best comics in India - 2009 from CNBC TV 18 and Animation Xpress – The Golden Cursor Award.
19
Tell us about the people working along with you. Well, we have Sudhir and Amit, artists of great potential and they are ace pencillers, Colorists, of course from the best animation studios and not to forget Mr.Suresh Deegwal, who is an awardwinning artist himself. Deepam chatterjee is our writer who is a researcher, author and one of the 137 Scholars in India who really know about Mahabharata. What are the challenges that you faced in this venture as you started?
We have had distribution challenges, display challenges in book stores, a lot of book stores did not believe we would really sell, same with the distributers but in time our fans and subscribers had them convinced. We also had problems with funds, but thank god I had my parents who supported us with that. Also, it’s a great challenge to find the correct artists and writers because there are a lot of writers in India but very few comic writers, and I mean published comic writers not just wannabe comic writers. What made you decide the final look and feel of the comics, how do you decide the level of maturity in the comics and what would appeal to the readers? It is many things and not just one. From the originality in the script to the basic anatomy in the art to the narration of the story, if all this is good than the maturity level is there. It should not be a spinoff or a rip off of something that is present in many types of collateral in the entertainment industry of India. So can we expect games, memorabilia, movies based on
20
your comics? Tell us your plans regarding the same. Yes for sure! We are on Mobiles now so you will be able to download us in India on all phones and services. For Web comics and Games we are in talk with many organizations and will keep you updated. Also, Legend of Karna “The Sixth” – the first signature title of our comics is in the making as a cartoon series for TV. We are also in talk with a lot of production houses for movies as well. Tshirts, toys and other merchandise will be on their way too subsequently. What can the readers expect in the future. can you give us a sneak peak? Yes. We are launching a special limited edition of our most awaited 4th title “I am Kalki”
22
Camera Owner To
Music Photographer The Camera This one really depends on your budget, but the best thing that I would recommend is to go to your local camera store and see what feels best in your hands, it’s the next section that really matters. If you’re planning on using your camera for mainly concerts, I would advise buying the body on its own and investing in your own lens as the kit lens is useless in most venues.
Lens So, now you have your camera you’ll want to invest in some glass! For concerts, you generally need to shoot as wide open as your lens goes so getting a lens that shoots at a minimum of 2.8 is almost essential. Check out the Tamron/Sigma range, both manufactures offer midrange lenses (17/18-50mm) so again, check out your camera store for which you prefer. For slightly extra reach, there is also the 24-70 lens. This is generally for full frame users, but I preferred it to the 17-50mm on a cropped camera as it meant you could really get in close to the performer at the 70mm end of the lens. If you’re looking to spend more money, both Canon and Nikon have incredible midrange lenses that really are worth the extra money. At this point, you probably won’t need a 70-200mm too often, but you’ll need it if you’re ever shooting in an arena/festival. Here’s the lens that will get you out of sticky situations pretty regularly, the nifty fifty! It’s cheap and cheerful, I think it retails at around £80 at the moment. The 50mm 1.8 shoots at a pretty wide aperture so it picks up plenty of light. (If you’re looking to spend more money, the 1.4 is amazing)
Flash Whilst flash is generally not allowed at gigs, when you’re starting out I would recommend having it as an option, you can decide once you’re at the venue if you’re going to need it or not. Most small venues don’t really mind if you shoot with flash, so clear it with the band first and it will generally be ok. Try and avoid shooting the full performance using flash though, it’s fine for a few songs, but you have to remember that the audience has paid to see the band and it distracts them.
25
Settings
that can often occur under harsh red lighting. Then in post, turn down the saturation on the image and then adjust the white balance accordingly so it still looks natural.
So, now you have your equipment, what to do with it? About 85% of concerts are pretty dark, so you need to set up your equipment at quite a high iso. This depends on your equipment but I would generally start at iso 800 and then work my way from there. As previously mentioned, you need to shoot at a wide aperture, so set your lens to shoot as wide as it can go (usually 2.8) and you need to freeze your performer, so I wouldn’t start any lower than 1/125.
Focusing
If you’re shooting a performer that is going to be jumping around a lot, you’ll need a much faster shutter to freeze them, generally 1/250 and above, to achieve this you may need to up your iso to get enough light in.
Where to start shooting? So now you have your equipment and know how to set it up, you need somewhere to take photos. At the beginning, unfortunately, you can’t just walk into an arena and demand to take photos of Metallica! The best place to find out about local gigs is get yourself onto local forums and MySpace and message local bands playing in your area and ask them if they could set you up with a photo pass in return for a few web size photos for their MySpace account. Most won’t have a problem with that and will be fine. Go to the door of the venue and you’ll be on the guestlist.
Red lights Most jobs have their bad points, this is mine. I get asked all the time how to deal with red lights, unfortunately there is very little that you can do about it sometimes. The easy way out is to switch the image to black and white, red lighting usually comes out quite nice in b/w. The hard way? I generally deal with them by upping my iso further than I really need to expose for the lights correctly, obtaining a faster shutter and this will usually minimize the burning effect
26
This is another question that im asked quite often, personally I use one shot as servo simply doesn’t work a lot of the time at gigs. One shot will grab the focus of the artist, and then lock it until you press the shutter. Why not to use servo? Servo will be continually looking for any adjustments in your focus, so if an artist does something like point at your lens, the camera will skip to focus for the hand generally and you’ll miss your shot. Also, if a performer is standing still and then jumps, it will re-adjust the focus and you’ll miss the jump where as it would have been better to keep the same focus point.
When to use servo? If you’re shooting a metal gig where the performer is headbanging it will be a total nightmare to keep focus. The exception to this rule is The Prodigy, always servo for them! How to focus in dives? Focusing in really dark venues is always tough, sometimes you just have to look for a little bit of contrast on the singers face and then grab focus. If the artist is standing at the mic though, a trick to use sometimes is to focus on the mic, and then manually focus from there to nail the focus. Without a doubt the best way is to have your own website, this way you can control how the images are displayed and who can access them. Other ways are to get onto Flickr, MySpace or even create a Facebook group. The one that is probably going to work best though (alongside your own website) is to get onto local forums and after a gig post one photo (don’t post them all or they won’t bother to go to your website) and a link to the rest of your shots. This will get your name around and hopefully the right people will look at it.
Gear’d: Sony SLT-A77 After a four-year wait, Sony has returned to the enthusiast/semipro end of the DSLR market. Having made little impact in that market with the A700 that very closely resembled the conventional DSLRs made by Canon and Nikon, Sony has spent the intervening time developing something a bit different. The A77 builds on the company's 'translucent mirror' technology, and uses an electronic rather than optical viewfinder. The final result is a product that may look traditional, but is able to promise the unconventional. Spec-wise the A77 is impressive: it features a new 24MP APS-C CMOS sensor, 12fps full-resolution shooting and the highest resolution EVF we've ever encountered (a 2.4M dot OLED finder). It also uses a new 19-point AF sensor, 11 points of which are cross-type (sensitive to detail in both the vertical and horizontal axis). Clever use of the main sensor's live view allows the A77 to track objects as they move across the frame, enabling the camera to have a better understanding of which AF point it should be using at any given time.
wanted to perfect before launching an SLT into this market.) And, as with the A55 and a handful of other recent Sony cameras, the A77 offers in-camera GPS. It can be a really useful feature for organising and retreiving images, as allowing tagged images to be geo-located on sites such as Flickr. As with all GPS settings, it can take a while to locate enough satellites, or struggle to find them at all in built-up areas. Then, of course, there's a battery penalty to be paid. But despite all this technological wizardry, the A77 is actually a remarkably conventional-feeling camera. It may have a plastic top-plate, rather than the A700's tank-like magnesium-alloy construction, and use SD rather than CF cards, but in pretty much every other respect it looks and behaves like a logical progression of the series. Overall, despite the fact that it embraces a rather different set of technologies, it feels and behaves much like a conventional semi-pro DSLR. Sony SLT-A77 key specifications:
Last year's SLT-A55 gave some clues about how Sony hoped to bring its electronics know-how to bear in a high-end camera. Its fixed, semi-transparent mirror design meant Sony could do away with a conventional optical viewfinder and use an electronic display. It also meant that the phase-detection autofocus that gives DSLRs much of their immediacy could be used all the time. The result was a camera that could shoot at an impressive 10fps, could focus quickly in video mode and offered full-time live view with consistent DSLR-like behaviour in a way that no camera had really managed before. Unsurprisingly the A77 takes all these capabilities a lot further than the consumer-level A55 - it combines the latest processor with an electronic first curtain shutter to offer the level of responsiveness the more demanding enthusiast/semi-pro users will expect. The A77's massively improved viewfinder is also key to ensuring the A77 can hold its own against the very stiff competition it faces from the likes of Canon's 7D. (You don't have to read particularly far between the lines to conclude it was this feature Sony
27
24MP CMOS Sensor 12fps continuous shooting with autofocus 1080p60 movies with autofocus 2.4M dot OLED viewfinder 1/8000th maximum shutter speed, shutter rated for 150,000 actuations ISO 100 - 16,000 (25,600 with multi-image combination. Expands down to ISO 50) Auto ISO with customisable lower and upper limits Optional, profile-based correction of vignetting, chromatic aberrations and geometric distortion Pull-out three-hinge tilt/swivel 920k dot LCD screen Built-in GPS Top panel LCD Stereo microphone and external mic socket AF Micro Adjust Dust shake sensor cleaning
Art is a great status symbol in modern society and because of that it can be quite intimidating to the casual viewer. For many the first impulse is to blow it off, to see it as a worthless plaything for the rich and boring. This is too bad, not only because art can be a great source of pleasure in our lives, but because even a passing acquaintance with art can enrich and deepen our understanding of the world around us. Fortunately, developing a casual understanding of art is not all that difficult. It is true that some people devote their entire lives to studying the minutest details of an artists’ work, but there’s no need to become an expert to have a meaningful relationship with art. All it takes is a moderate attention to detail, a little bit of patience, and a willingness to reflect on your own feelings. Here, I’ll show you a quick way to approach and appreciate a painting, although the ideas here can be applied to works in other mediums (sculpture, drawing, even architecture and fashion) quite easily. There’s no shortcut to understanding I can give; great art rewards the hundredth viewing as much as he first, and you can spend a lifetime pondering the decisions an artist made in one painting. Instead, I’ll try to give you a process to follow that will help you get the most out of a painting the first time you see it. While I’m on the subject, a word about “great art”. Andy Warhol said that if you want to tell a good painting from a bad one, first look at a thousand paintings. There are no hard and fast rules about what makes a piece great, mediocre, or bad; remember, Van Gogh’s work was once considered amateurish and forgettable. There are, of course, standards that matter within the professional art world, but you don’t owe the professionals anything, so don’t worry too much about what they think qualifies as “great”.
Take a Look
29
Art should appeal to you first through your senses. That doesn’t mean a painting has to be beautiful to be good, but it must grab your eye in some way. Give a work a moment to do its thing — some works are intriguing in subtle ways. A work might grab your attention through its subject matter, it’s use of color, an interesting juxtaposition of objects, it’s realistic appearance, a visual joke, or any number of other fac-
tors.Once you’ve gotten an overall look at the painting, ask yourself “what’s this a picture of?” That is, what is the subject of the painting? The subject might be a landscape, a person or group of people, a scene from a story, a building or city scene, an animal, a still life (a collection of everyday items like a bowl of fruit, a pile of books, or a set of tools), a fantasy scene, and so on. Some paintings won’t have a subject — much of the work of the 20th century is abstract, playing with form and color and even the quality of the paint rather than representing reality. The painting above, by the Dutch artist Breughel, represents the Tower of Babel. Scenes from the Bible or from classical mythology are popular in older work; since the end of the 19th century, scenes of everyday life have become more common. If you know the story, you’re one step ahead of the game, but it’s possible to enjoy the work without knowing the story it illustrates.
What’s About?
That
All
Look for symbols. A symbol, very simply, is something that means something else. The Tower of Babel is a well-known symbol in Western society, representing both the dangers of pride and the disruption of human unity. Often a painting will include very clear symbols — skulls, for instance, were often included in portraits of the wealthy to remind them that their wealth was only worldly and, in the grand scheme of things, ultimately meaningless. But just as often the symbolism is unique, the artist’s own individual statement. Don’t get caught in the trap of trying to figure out “what the artist meant”; focus instead on what the work says to you.
How do they do that? The next consideration is style, which is essentially the mark of the artist’s individual creativity on the canvas. Some artists follow well-established styles — many Renaissance portraits look almost exactly alike to the casual viewer, for instance — while others go out of their way to be different and challenging. Some artists create closely detailed, finely controlled works, others slap paint around almost haphazardly creating a wild, ecstatic effect. It may not seem as obvious as the subject and symbolism, but style can also convey meaning to a viewer. For example, Jackson Pollock’s famous drip paintings convey the motion and freedom of the artist in the act of creation, despite being completely abstract. Vermeer’s Milkmaid, on the other hand, is notable for it’s incredibly fine detail and careful application of thin glazes of oil paints (which doesn’t come
30
across in a photograph, alas) which create a luminous quality, imparting a kind of nobility and even divinity to the simple act of a servant pouring milk.Some artists create closely detailed, finely controlled works, others slap paint around almost haphazardly creating a wild, ecstatic effect.
My Kid Could Do That! A large part of the appeal of art is emotional — some artists go out of their way to inspire strong reactions ranging from awe and lust to anger and disgust. It’s easy to dismiss work that upsets our notion of what art could be, and any visitor to a gallery of modern art is likely to overhear at least one person complaining that “any three-year old with a box of crayons could do that!” Knowing that an artist may be deliberately evoking an emotional response, it pays to take a moment and question our immediate reactions. If a work makes you angry, ask yourself why. What is it about the work that upsets you? What purpose might the artist have in upsetting you? Likewise, if your feelings are positive, why are they positive? What about the painting makes you happy? And so on — take the time to examine your own emotions in the presence of the painting. This is by no means a complete introduction to art, let alone a complete course, but it should help get you started in appreciating art. The more you know, the better the experience will become, but you don’t need to know much to get at least something out of a painting. Keep in mind these 4 concepts (I’m trying not to call them the “Four Esses”) — subject, symbolism, style, and self-examination — and pay a visit to your local art museum or gallery and see if you don’t find something worth your time.
32
In talks with
Mario Garcia An email conversation with Mario Garcia, one of the world’s most renowned newspaper designers. There’s a lot of buzz and speculation about “the future of Journalism”. In your opinion, what are the most important tasks and challenges going to be in the next few years? There is a future of journalism, no doubt. But it will be a journalism radically changed from what we are accustomed to. Storytelling will be at the center of it, but the stories will adapt to the platforms in which they appear. Print will not be king, but will play a role. I think that one cannot separate a discussion of the future of journalism from business models that will make journalism affordable by the companies that produce it. I believe there will be dramatic changes in the business models. Good journalism is expensive to produce, so we will have to adapt, and make radical shifts to accommodate it. Many people seem surprised how popular it is to read the news or even whole books on mobile phones. What’s your reaction? I am not surprised at all, because I am 62 and I am inseparable from my iPhone and sometimes I read parts of the Sunday New York Times on the phone, and I like it – although for me, nothing takes the place of the printed copy in my hand, but I adapt and I read where I can. That is the way the world moves. One cannot stop this. Probably an intentional switch between your iPhone and the printed issue of the New York Times could be part of the storytelling concept … Yes, could be. But when I read the Times in my iPhone, is when I am in some remote place in the world where I have no access to the printed version. If a picture is worth a 1000 words, an infographic or interactive data visualization is worth … ? Infographics are not as strong as photos, since they have to be studied, which takes a few seconds more. Photos and videos do convey the meaning of the story on the spot. What do you think about the data visualization and visual storytelling work by the New York Times? Do you think other publications are going to step into their shoes?
33
Indeed, this is the way to go, but the New york Times has a large, well trained staff of people who can do these things. For the rest, this is a goal, but quite a distant one at the moment. In modern journalism, the writing of an article does not end with its publication. The subsequent conversation and discussion is a vital part of it, but current design solution do not have much to offer. What are your ideas and suggetions for improvement? This is already happening in digital media; interactivity is a top priority for users who wish to interact with editors and with other readers; it is more difficult to do this in print, but major titles around the world are developing blog summaries and readers’ pages in print to bring in this need of the user to interact. Every newspaper should have, at least once a week, a blog summary page, what the top topics are, and what the readers are contributing through online, from photos to stories, to comments. Many people seem surprised how popular it is to read the news or even whole books on mobile phones. What’s your reaction? I am not surprised at all, because I am 62 and I am inseparable from my iPhone and sometimes I read parts of the Sunday New York Times on the phone, and I like it – although for me, nothing takes the place of the printed copy in my hand, but I adapt and I read where I can. That is the way the world moves. One cannot stop this. The technological bandwidth is between added graphical codes within the content or even more advanced: image recognition. What’s your take on digitally augmented paper? To think that we may be reading a story about food – tapas, for example – and really smell what the writers talk about (or taste the wine)? I know that mobile phones are driving a lot of this technology (look at the iPhone) and I am perplexed and amazed (like a child) by it all. Remember, I am 62 years old. Now about newspapers, and putting stories within the palm of our hand, and making all the other senses come alive, not just vision – if this is the future, I want to live another 40 years to enjoy it.