Assignment 1B and 1C

For this assignment we were told before the Christmas holidays to take photographs of either our lives growing up or of our home so for this I ended up taking pictures of my room as this is the place where I do of my work and is the place that is my own and personal, unlike the rest of the house which is obviously my parents home and this would not best describe who I am and what I am like. The person I swapped with was Kyle who like me had taken photographs of his room and with these I had to analyze his interests, influences, possessions and environment.

What I saw from Kyle from looking at all of the items in his room was,

A passion for music

Organized in his own way

Into film and t.v

Nostalgic

Cluttered

Likes to relax by himself

Doesn't care what people would think of him

Collector

Prefers to think alone away from others

Sense of humour

Doesn't like to show off

Has a great interest in course

Doesn't feel the need to express himself

Is reliable

Prefers to keep out of others way

Maybe a little bit lazy

Proud of things he has achieved

Has a contrast between fact and fiction

Possession

Kyle is really into his music as seen by the turntable he has along with his guitar, hi fi and old records in his room and has a really good taste bands from the posters on his wall suggesting that he may have gone to some concerts and brought them back to a memorabilia or may have also just seen them while shopping and just picked them up, the type of music I would say kyle is into is more rock and possibly alternative rock but also think that he may just respect most types of music.

Looking at his shelves I saw a few Dragonball Z action figures still in the box so this could suggest that he is a bit of a collector and keeps things that would remind him of his childhood and things that he was really into, this also shows that he maybe a slight geek ( I say that in a very nice way as I am the same) as well as some of the films and books he has which tell me that he likes fictional films that have special effects, action and comedy but in books he reads they are more on factual topics for his course and may not like to read fantasy books.

Influences

From the book Kyle has I say that people who have influenced him the most for his course is mainly Stephan Sagmeister, but because I did not see any photo's in his room that he possibly may have been influenced in his course as he found it more interesting and followed in something that he alone found enjoyable.

When looking at the room again I saw that there was a plate and glasses in his room which could say that he prefers to work on his own away from everyone so that he can think and reflect without anyone there to say anything, so this could also say that he influences himself as well.

The DCA bag that is on the floor can also mean that he likes to go to places where he knows he can find inspiration and find out more of what he prefers to look at telling himself the kind of person he is.

Environment

His room is slightly cluttered, this could mostly be due to the size of his room as it is quite small and the bed takes up most of the room, but his desk area says that yes it is cluttered but he knows where everything is, this could be because he may be slightly lazy but has things left about for a purpose so he will not loose anything and is simpler for him to pick things up when he needs it right there and then.

This could also be that Kyle is a very relaxed person, his laptop is on his bed could mean this is where he prefers to work, he can just lie back, work on projects, listen to music and not have to move around a lot.

Other things I have noticed about Kyle are that from the clutter in his room he does like to spend time on his own, he may well go out with his friends but at times just prefers to stay in and have some alone time and let the world pass by where he can do things that he wants to do instead.

I think that when Kyle speaks to people the main topic may be about music or film etc rather than politics or events that have happened on the news, maybe does keep to himself but may prefer this as he doesn't care about what people think about him, what you see is what you get is what he may be to other people.

I think Kyle wants to do well but would rather do it all on his own instead of asking or accepting help, this could be to prove to himself that he can do it, he may also find that what he does at university enjoyable otherwise he may of changed subject, he may well be doing it because it is something he thinks will be more of a passion than a job one day.

Terry Pratchett: Living With Alzheimer's

During the Christmas holidays on one of the really bad days of snow we had, and there was no chance of me going outside for any reason at all, decided to spend the day watching t.v which is something I have not done since I was about 13. I think it was just after lunch when I was looking through the Sky Anytime shows that I saw the two-part documentary, Terry Pratchett: Living With Alzheimer's. This was a program that documented how Terry Pratchett has been dealing with Alzheimer's disease, his preparations for the future as well as him finding out about the disease.

It began with him six months after he was diagnosed with it and throughout the show said just how much it had changed his life, it was here that I realised just how very little about Alzheimer's that I actually knew of, just how he explained it all started off a small tiny things such as forgetting where you put your car keys and in his case he mentioned that he hates misspelling, and never really needed to use the spell checker on his computer and then gradually he got worse and worse up till the point where he was using it all the time, and after a certain amount of time gets his assistant to type for him instead as you really saw him struggle with it.

There were two thing that made me really think about just how this can be very frustrating especially when Terry Pratchett took about 8 attempts to do his tie up and you really saw him struggle with his, this was no act, you saw just how embarrassed he looked and how frustrated he became at both himself and the disease. The next was when he visited a support group where he met other people who suffer from it, this was where he saw just the beginning of how bad it was going to get, but when he spoke to a retired professor of science who has dealt with this for a few years now so just how much strength he had gained from it, even through all the frustrating and forgetting times he sought strength from his family and friends.

I admittedly say that I barely knew anything about Alzheimer's until I saw this program, obviously I knew what it was and what it did but I never really knew what it really did to a person, juts how much it subtly affected their lives, how you forget the simplest of things, how when a person is reading they can actually see the next line jump up to the next. The feelings that people who suffer from this disease are all things I will never and hopefully will never understand, to know that you will only get worse and then one day not knowing and remembering anything such as who your family is or even who you are.

Did you even know that a person can suffer from this for 10 years before it becomes noticeable that they have it, there would be no signs for years then one day it decides to show up.

There has also been some debate recently due to the author's thoughts on assisted suicide, even though many people would disagree with it they have to understand and respect a persons decision to take this course of action as no one would like to know that they would live one day without a clue of who anyone was, this is something that I do not know whether I am with or against it, I would really need to think about it but I do however understand why a person would want to do it.

Illusions

When I was in the final block of my HND year at college we were given a very exciting project, the purpose here was to create a corporate identity for a fictional themed cafe bar that would be called Illusions. The bar was an upcoming magic themed place similar to the Hard Rock Cafe as well as other themed functions, and this would be somewhere were the family can go for a meal or friends and relatives can enjoy a night out.

So obviously now you know it was magic themed and so now onto what the identity was meant to be about. The purpose of the brief was to create a logo for the cafe bar Illusions that would capture what the place was about mainly in just the word as we were told to preferably use typography instead of an image with the name in type next to it, and we were to make the logo an illusion in itself to go with the magic theme.

I started off this project with quite a bit of difficulty as I couldn't find the right type of magic theme that I wanted to incorporate into my design so struggled to come up with a decent idea and saw that most people in the class were creating some really good sketches for their designs, and upon seeing this decided to go back and do a little bit more research and then started to go with an idea of using magic card and knew I wanted to create an image made out of the type, but still wasn't too sure of how `i was going to to this until my tutor showed me some very creative pieces of work where the artist had images of fish, a gorilla and buildings using nothing but type with a very funky 1960's style. This became my inspiration but never did find out who the designer was.

Once I had decided on a theme and style I then had no problem coming up with designs and it was through this that I wanted to design a logo that looked both fun and attractive, that would appeal to almost any age group. I then decided that the shape I wanted was an ace of spade to go with my card idea and so did a few various sketches of how I would fit the text inside the image as I thought that by doing this I could make the actual text/image and illusion so that when someone looked at the logo they would have to look really hard to read what the image said and once I had the final solution I chose two fonts that I would alter to become my logo. The fonts I used were Musicals and Action Is.

So then I had finished my logo but though it needed something else just to make it more peculiar and appealing so I then made the letter O stand out a bit more but changing it to a different colour so that it then became the focal point of the identity and also decided to make it swirl like what you see when someone is being hypnotized.

In the end I was actually pretty proud of this logo and hope you like it as well an feel free to comment on what you think of it.

Ocean Fear

I am now writing about a personal fear of mine, one that I cannot stand and have always stayed away from and that is deep water, I cannot stand to be anywhere near it, I can barely go to any beach and go further than just about knee level before I stop. It is something that I have never been able to explain, as I have no problem with the deep end of the swimming pool but the ocean that is a different story. Like I said I have no idea why I have always been afraid of it, as nothing has ever happened to me in my life such as a traumatic experience to put me off it, so have no idea where this has come from.

What I do not like about it is that I do not feel safe, even if I was with a lot of people around me I still wouldn't feel comfortable be in there, I like to know what is below me and be able to see it. This is different when I am flying as I can see what is below me most of the time and know what is below except when flying over the ocean but I do feel different about it as I trust the captain not to crash the plane as they would not have been aloud to fly the plane if they didn't have the proper training etc. but being in the water just scares the life out of me, it is my one and only nightmare that I do ever get, being alone in the middle of the ocean, floating their on my own, with just nothing but empty space and whatever is down there below me.

I will admit that I do sometimes have a problem with it, not in films as I normally tend to think that the film is rubbish and keep watching not even thinking about the deep ocean but do at times have a problem watching it on documentaries but because I like watching documentaries I will keep watching and just not think about it, this is something I have never properly been able to explain even to myself.

I do have a few memories of being in deep water, the first was when I was about four or five and my family were on holiday in Spain I think and my mum and dad took me on a boat trip, then never being on a boat before and never at the time had any fear of the ocean was very happy to go on but the remember the further we got from land the more scared I got and more I started to cry, and was even worse when a few days later when we went on another boat that went more around the coast with a looking glass to see the wildlife under the water, I took one look and that was enough for me and have never done anything like it since.

The next memory I have was when I was fourteen and we were on holiday in Mexico and were taken for the day to and ancient Mayan temple then onto a cavern where we were all aloud to jump into the cavern pool and me jumping from quite some hight only to resurface to the words this pool goes down 20 meters and travels for miles and miles under the land until it reaches the sea, an this was enough for me to panic like crazy and get out of there immediately, I had never been so scared. I don't even like underwater caverns as I would be too afraid of getting stuck or even lost.

It is because of this fear that I have that I will also be basing my next tattoo on, I am hoping to get a water dragon as this symbolizes protection, just really hope it really works but will be saving up for this and will be some time.

Journey to the Edge of the World

Now I am writing about another Christmas present I was given this year but instead of a book it will be a DVD this time. The DVD I got was Billy Connolly Journey to the Edge of the World which was on television just over a year ago I think but am not sure about that one. This documentary took place over a period of 10 weeks as Billy travels on a once in a lifetime journey through the North West Passage, a legendary route deep within the arctic circle that had perilously thwarted explorers for centuries.

What the program does is show people what life on the Passage is really like, the weather conditions, the work, lifestyles, the people and just how much has changed over the last 50 - 70 years and it really is quite extraordinary to see just how much has. The first few placed he visits first are more city populated where he learns to fish and see the gravestone at the Titanic crew and passenger burial site of a J. Dawson, with a very funny scene where all of these Japanese teenage girls are all taking their photographs next to it thinking it is Jack Dawson from the film but is really a Joseph Dawson who now has a case of mistaken identity. Other places he visits are a scarecrow museum where he sees even a scarecrow version of himself and meets quite possibly the craziest but funniest old man alive.

The next step of his journey is through the towns and villages of the Inuit people and how much their way of life has changed the most, how they basically live in little shanty towns trying to adapt to modern day life but still keep their old traditions alive so that they can keep going for many years to come, and it is here that Billy experiences a very emotional story when he is in the local museum and watches a film from over 50 years ago of what live in the area used to be like and saw that back then all the people were smiling, but not any more, and found it even more emotional when he discovered that the old man who was sitting next to him watching it had family shown in the film and went in there every day to watch it just to remember what life used to be like and how he will never live it again.

The show then goes further up the passage following old explorers trails and we discover just how many had failed an never returned due to the river and sea freezing up with ice forcing them to abandon their ships and eat themselves to death due to lead poisoning from the tins for their food and eventually reverting to cannibalism. Eventually Billy travels to the old gold mines and sees old ghost towns where the gold was eventually drained and the people moved on but learnt how to mine for gold from one surviving miner who family have kept it going over the years.

Towards the end of his journey we see him being initiated into a tribe by sharing a steam with others to earn their right of something which I have sadly already forgotten and then meet a 75 year old women who looks strangely crazy walking about with her massive riffle living on her own in the middle of nowhere before reaching the his last destination ending his truly amazing experience.

This entire program was as you could see very emotional for him and seeing the wonderful landscape and seeing what like really is like in these areas does make the person watching it respect and be thankful for what they have. What I liked about it was that Billy Connolly was speaking to you as though you were really standing beside him, just with the way he would talk to the camera and tell his jokes making you laugh with him. What I found really funny was that he carried with him throughout the entire tip and can of repellent bear spray to keep of Grizzlies away as informed by those well known to the areas who themselves are carrying riffles instead, it made both me and my family laugh at this. Another thing I liked about it was the landscape and just when you looked at it yes some of it was very similar to Scotland but it made me want to go to these places at just how different the whole place was from home, and I really enjoyed seeing the difference in cultures that we are well known to compared to the culture in the program and just how different they really are.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes watching documentaries or people who enjoy Billy Connolly and hope he does another one similar to it but will be buying his other DVD's where he travels around Scotland and another one around New Zealand where it is both stand up and documentary of him traveling to each gig and sharing his experience with the audience he is performing for.

Moving Pixels

It has been a while since I entered my last blog so many apologies and will try not to let it happen again. But saying that this will be a short blog entry. So for this latest entry I am going to be telling you about a book I got from my mum and dad for Christmas called Moving Pixels - Blockbuster Animation, Digital Art and 3D Modeling Today by Peter Weishar. The book is about basically what it says in the title and is an informative book on how these sorts of art are created and how difficult they are as well as how experimental each of them are.

The book explores various parts of CGI (Computer Generated Image) and how they are used across a wide vary of film and television, these ranging from mega blockbusters to the latest documentaries and goes into all the different companies who spend a lot of time and very hard work trying to make the CGI the best they can. All images shown in the book are from film, TV and computer games and fine art from the 21st century.

What I like about the book is not all the images taken from screen shots of the big films where more money than can be imagined was spent in the process of making them but the independent artwork from those who are making all the more obscure and strange images instead of the over the top CGI that we all see but what certain individuals consider to be an art more than say a big giant elephant from Lord of the Rings or a massive battle scene from Star Wars but just little objects etc seem to have a little more detail in them.

Where The Wild Things Are

Last night I went to see the new film based on the popular children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, as I have been looking forward to this film for quite a few months now and wanted to see how they would make an entire film based on a book that was about 38 pages long. The film does not take on the plot of the book but more expands upon it taking the idea and making a dark, playful tale based through the imagination of one little boy.

The film is about a young boy named Max who is a troublesome person, wearing a whole body suit with whiskers on it, being brought up by a single mother of two and during an incident Max creates to get his own selfish way runs away from home and through the power of a child's mind sails to an island inhabited by seven very tall monstrous creatures who are all very depressed with the way their lives have all turned out and would do anything to ll be very happy again. So when Max arrived and starts helping the strongest and most angry of the beast destroy all their homes the other gets angry with this and try to eat him, but due to a very imaginative and extremely impossible lie becomes their king to rule for them for all time, or until they are all depressed again and decide to eat him.

Max comes to befriend the beast Carol who just wants them all to stay together and all be happy and have things the way he wants and believes that this can only be done through Max and will defend anything he says trusting that he will keep them this way forever but when things start to get even worse than they were before Carol tends to loose his temper and threatens the little boy and chasing him intending to kill him very violently.

This in my opinion was a very good film that is defiantly not for younger children, even though it is based on a child's book it is not for them, more a film of a child for adults told through the eyes of a child with a very wold and at times disturbing imagination. What I really enjoyed about it was the lack of special affects as it felt very natural and the whole island was part of the story and how each part worked in with the plot, such as who owned what being a hole in a tree or a rock on the ground. It is a very dark story and a very depressing one and everyone is depressed for most of the film and at times did get a bit uncomfortable to watch as you really though that they were actually going to end the film with these beasts eating the young boy as part of his punishment for not keeping them happy, and just how angry the all got was very believable and worked very well with the tone of the movie. The monsters had some heart to them with all their deep emotions and anger, jealousy, love, loneliness and hatred, all had an element of Max's own emotions helping him realize just how lucky he is and that he has no need to be the way he is and through the course of the film we see that through every beast's emotion he is realizing just how much they are all his own.

Overall this was a really good film and would recommend you go and see it, but would advise that taking young children would be very frightened of this and would want to leave not very far into the film as it is a slow film and has the same sort of tone all the way through the film and would even think that kid's could even have nightmares about this, the maker's made a film of a child, not a film for a child.