< Visual Aesthetics of “The Nintendo Wii” >

Last week for our tutorial task we were set the task of “look at an object and discuss it in terms of its visual aesthetics." I have chosen to do mine on the Nintendo Wii.

It's easy to admire the visual aesthetics of the Nintendo Wii because it has the look and feel of an Apple product. I think this because it elegantly shines like an apple product. This is empathized in the blue glow of the disc drive and continues to the trend of Appleness. The Wii is small and stylish which gives it a modern look that appeals to many people. Its white finish is subtle and will appeal to everyone because it of the colours neutrality.

With big chucky buttons on the front makes it look like the product is built to last and can cater for different types of fingers whether they be big or small and also limiting the buttons to 3 makes the console look simpler. Which shows that the product is looking for a wide range of target demographics.

< Practice Makes Perfect >

For last weeks seminar we got a little practice for the one shot film by doing one in the seminar. I was put into a group that consisted of Gemma, Otis, Katie and Cliff. I had never worked with these people so it was really interesting to find out what their thoughts and ideas were. The task we were asked to do was, choose a title from “Irritation” or “The meeting” and come up with a 20 seconds narrative for that title. Our group choose ‘The meeting’ and came up with the story for it which was a silent movie about a man wanting to get back with his ex girlfriend but when they meet he finds out she doesn’t want to be with him any more and chucks the flowers he gives her on the floor and walking away.

The feedback we got on the film was, their was unnecessary space in the frame and instead of zooming out at the end of the film we should have zoomed in to emphasis the mans loneliness. The group was praised for the good use of a consistent zoom. Yey!

< In My Element >

We have been given a another good project that i can get my teeth stuck into. All tough im from a film making background, this project is a little different to what im used to. The whole idea of shooting a two minute movie using only one take is faciating becuase you have give a lot of thought to the frame and what will be included in it as well as showing a clear narrative to the audince. This should be really intresting!

< A Bit of Reading >

Most of the book deals with giving the audience an outlining the purposes and aesthetics of sound in film and television. He involves everything to do with “audiovisual technologies” such as widescreen, multi-track sound, and Dolby stereo. He also gives explanations and examples of how sound is affected by space and time, as well as contemporary forms of audio-vision in music videos, video art, and commercial television.

The bit I read specifically had to do with Sound in Animation(Page 120). I choose this section because I felt that it will help with any other animation projects I will do myself as well as during the course.

I found some good information on using a technique called “Mickymousing”. Which is putting sound to actions. For example if u see a drop hitting the ground you put in sound to match what is being shown on screen.

I found the book easy to understand because they explained everything clearly but the words they used to describe where difficult because they used a lot of big world.
The book was easy to dive in because in each chapter there’s subsection on topics which makes it easy to just read the bit your interested in.

< Reflection>

Now I’ve had time to settle in and got one project under my belt i feel that there’s nowhere but up. I’ve managed to pack a lot in the last few weeks which by the way has been so much fun. After the lecture from Jules about reflection, I thought id give it a try so here goes!!!

The stop motion animation project was really good I felt for my first attempt at stop motion animation our group gave a descent effort. The video was simple but effective because it was classic stop motion animation (from my limited knowledge and what I saw on YouTube). We never tried to go overboard and complicated because no one really knew what they were doing but after some planning and idea assessments everything came together. With the knowledge and experience I got from that project doing another one will be beneficial. Plus Jules said that doing work in your own time is only a good thing. Jules does give some good advice. LOL.

The lectures and seminars during these past weeks have been really interesting and informative and I have learnt a lot from them. For example I had never used Adobe Premier. The skills I’ve learnt will also help me when I come to do my own stop motion animation because I’ve gained the experience and know how in the seminars.

I have found the tutorials a great source of help to me as they offer something different to lectures and seminars because they are more intimate. I find them to be more enjoyable and focused on particular topics. For example doing a book report where we had to read a section of a book from the library and explain how it will help us during the course as well what the book was about. The purpose of the exercise was good because it made me learn how to use the library while understanding a topic from the book I had not known about. The book id had chosen was Audio Visual. I’m still in the process of putting that on my blog so look out for that in the next few days.