Culture and the media

Culture around us is changing drastically and this then changes the way we perceive things through art and graphic design. Technology is becoming more advanced so that everything is starting to be more accessible. 

Artist Media Ltd

A City In Colour from Artist Media Ltd on Vimeo.

Tom Henshaw

Going Against the Grain - Colour Grading Test from Tom Henshaw on Vimeo.

Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali has done the exact same thing in the way of his use of colours to create an unsettling feel within his artwork. The dark tones create a sense of mystery, even some of the brighter colours that are usually presented as nicer colours have been used in a way that still gives quite an unsettling sense within the paintings. The emotions that are conveyed through all of these paintings leave the audience as an unease. 

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat has such an interesting take on showing emotion through his work. I like how the colours and the textures within the painting really grasps an understanding of how your meant to be feeling. These painting are quite unsettling, and I feel this is done by the thick dark lines shown in all three of these paintings. Bright blues and reds really come through these paintings but again its not very calming but adds to the unsettling feeling you get when you look at them. 

I find these paintings very inspiring when looking at how to use colours to express emotion through my own work. Because even using bright colours but done in a certain way can see make the audience at an unease. 

Jackson Pollock

I wanted to research into other artists ideas and ways of how they show emotion within their art. I thought of Jackson Pollock because I feel that there is so much depth in these paintings and I feel that so much emotion is shown through them too. I like how it feels just so messy and the colours he uses too to create the painting adds to this effect. 

This first painting Pollock has only used blacks whites and browns. This gives me the impression that its quite an angry painting and dark. I like how the white contrasts well with the black. Showing that black doesn't always get the high end, that white and purity can shine through all the dark times. 

This next painting Pollock has created is very colourful. I like the use of yellow and red in there. It feels to be quite a mixed feeling. The touch of blue shows the sadness and the red shows anger and warning, whereas the yellow and white and pink make the painting to seem happier. However, you have to take into consideration the act of movement within the painting. There's so much going on you can really concentrate on one part for too long without looking at the next. I feel that this has something to do with the use of colours and how they all interlink together with certain emotions. 

This particular painting represents fire. I like how the chaos really comes through in this painting. You have the red and white which represents the fire and the black which represents darkness. This portrays well at how terrible a fire can be and can cause so many problems within the situation. I feel that Pollock has used colours in a professional and mature was, understanding what the tension of the situation really is in reality. 

Why Colour Is Important

Colour is one of the most powerful tools a designer can use and to do so you need a high understanding on how colour affects us, this is key in communicating messages effectively. Colour is all around us and it effects us in our day to day lives. For example, in nature we a know that red is a warning colour and that yellow can be in certain situations a danger colour. Over thousands of years we have interpreted colour to mean things, in a way we have learnt to read the world around us using colour. However, living in a modern society people think that this development has been lost, but it has not. Understanding the power that colour holds over us and using this effectively is what designers strive for. 

A Different Response To Media

There are many different ways to interpret media and I feel that it doesn't just have to be set by one artistic skill to represent that. After I had researched into gaming and how violence can be shown through, I decided to broaden the ideas on you can represent an idea through using alternative techniques. 

Through the use of movies its all about composition and how you move and change the angle of the camera to represent how mood can be expressed. There are no limits with a moving image because you can have an actor show emotion as well as using shots to express their feeling. Also adding in music sets the scene because you can express the strain or happiness the moment has. This allows the intensity of the scene to further come through and it starts to really engage what the audience should be feeling within this particular scene. 

Not only can a movie can show and express emotion but photography can as well. This is slightly harder to set the scene however, because you don't have music or a moving image to follow the story in its intensity. All you have is a single image and it needs to capture your eye within the first few seconds for you to understand the intensity of the story. 

There are two ways you can create a still image. Through a digital camera and through a film camera. A digital camera allows you to recreate a scene over and over again so that you are able to re-try capturing a particular still that expresses how you feel. You are to freely experiment with the ISO and shutter speed to create the perfect image and for any that don't come out how you want you can just delete. What I like most about film is that you have one chance to capture the essence of the scene. I like the idea of this and how it can make the person taking the photo to work harder on getting it perfect first time. I also like how different film canisters can create different colouring effects. I feel that using film the colours come out more vibrant and intense. 

Emotion Through Colour Themes

One huge aspect that I feel clearly controls the emotion through film is through colour. There are however different aspects within colour that you need to consider when colour grading on film. 

You need to consider:

- Brightness
- Contrast
- Quality of Light
- Focus
- Perspective
- Colour
- Grain
- Look

Brightness 

Brightness within photographic images supports the underlying emotion of the scene. Terms such as High-key lighting, Low-key lighting and Mid-key lighting represent different overall outcomes.

The content within each scene dictates the need for how bright or dark it needs to be. Upbeat films general have high-key lighting and low-key films general are for slow or taut dramatic action. Although these parts usually refer to the overall brightness within the frame it can be use for specific aspects of the film, to define and illuminate certain areas for the attention to composition. 

Contrast

Contrast has a range of tones between white and black and its how you use this within the image to how you can create emotion. Low contrast images have a wider range of tones which appear to be softer, whereas a high contrast has a fewer range of tones and appear sharper.

Quality of Light

The quality of Light is down to how hard or light it is. A hard quality of light has darker shadows and sharper edges where a soft quality has light shadows.

Focus

The focus of the image is down to how sharp it is. Depth of field is the amount of acceptable focus behind and in front of the subject.

Perspective 

The perspective changes and can be manipulated by the choice of lens. This can change the distance between the foreground and the background and how it appears on screen to be closer together or further apart. A depth perspective can effect the perceived speed of movement.

Colour

When editing colour within an image or movie you use several different aspects that are used to change the colours. For example changing the hue can manipulate the lighting, art direction and laboratory procedure. A scene be edited a certain colour which can convey different emotions, locations and time. 

Different colours relate to different tones and mood someone can feel. Such as cool colours are associated with sad or dark or calming emotions, whereas warm colours are associated with happiness and romance. These colours can also determine different times of the day or distant time periods. 

Changing the hue from different scenes helps the audience understand the development within the sequence and it also creates a variety of moods. 

The change of colour saturation determines on how rich the colours may appear on screen.  When made high, the saturated colours become vibrant, while when made the opposite the colours aren't as bright and come across quite muted. Through the use of doing this it can create different techniques within a movie by indicating different time periods within. 

Through the use of colour and if it is used correctly it has the tendency to draw the eye, this all can depend on how they are arranged in the composition. Contrast of colours within a frame can be used to convey characters or tension within a scene. 

Grain

Grain depends on the quality of the image of movie, it is the tiny particles of dye crystals. This is usually invisible but under certain exposure or when the image has been edited through saturation and levels so much that the conditions can start to be very noticeable. This can result in a gritty look but it can be used as a technique within the film. 

Look

The look is obviously the visual feel of the movie but it can also be a lot more than that. The look within the image or video can be manipulated by all the different aspects I have previously mentioned. By having all of them work together it sets the tone and mood for the image. It can be done in a very subtle way which can compliment the image or video well. 

Showing Emotion Through Media

Showing emotion through media is not something that can be done easily, despite its importance to interpersonal integration in modern lifestyles. But when done effectively can express strong emotion through a moving image or just a still. 

I feel that emotion within a motion film is crucial to portray how the characters are feeling and set the mood for the film. You need that there so that the film can become powerful and relates to the audience well. 

Everything within the the design piece is crucial to how it effects the reader no matter what form the design is in. This allows the design to become a more mature piece by allowing the readers be enchanted through the message that is said. 

Violent Video Games and Bad Behaviour

A meta-analysis of 98 studies with nearly 37,000 participants, includes without equivocation that violent video games increase aggression. Also further evidence in Italy indicated decreased self-control and increased cheating. 

"Participants who played a violent video game for only 35 minutes exhibited less self-control, cheated more, and behaved more aggressively than did participants who played a nonviolent video game."

A violent video games effect on kids is worsened by the interactive nature. For example, in many of the games you get rewarded for being more violent and the more you kill the more you win at the game. Through this the act the violence is done repeatedly throughout the game where the person is in control of the violence and experiences the violence with through their own eyes. The idea of this is that from the repetitive nature of these kind of games leads to an effective way of developing a learning behaviour, such as becoming aggressive. 

People can become socially isolated which leads to less time being spend doing other activities such as interacting with friends and family. 

You can learn the wrong values from playing video games such as violent behaviour, vengeance and aggression that within these types of games you are rewarded. Negotiating and other nonviolent solutions are often not options. Women are often portrayed as weaker character that are helpless or sexually provocative. Keeping this in mind games can be easily confused between reality and fantasy. 

Jon Harris & Danny Boyle

Jon Harris has also inspired me with the way he used film to create tension and longing. There are many films that are inspiring but one if particular again is 127 hours. He has used his editing techniques in an interesting way. He has managed to build tension and helped the audience relate to the pain and desperation the character within the movie was actually happening at the time. 

I feel that it was a lot harder to try and relate the storyline considering that it was based on a true story. And with the directing skills of Danny Boyle and the use of adding in scenes to show his insanity starting to kick in from the lack of water, sleep and food, starts to brush on the depth of the desperation his must have been actually feeling. 

With the use of these ideas to set the mood of feeling his desperation, Harris adds in short clips of the main character which help along the movement of the audience starting to understand and feel themselves his desperation. I like the use of short clips from adverts and events that happened the year of the accident and using that to convey his desperation. Such as old coke adverts all coming together to show his depression of water and showing close up clips of his water bottle where it allows you to see his dehydration. Also the quick changes between shots again shows his desperation to get out of there.

Jean-Clément Soret

Jean-Clément Soret works for a company called MPC Advertising. Soret is their Global Creative Director of Colour Grading and has received numerous outstanding industry accolades. He is a five-time winner of Best Colourist at the British Arrow Craft Awards, and was voted Best UK Colourist four years in a row and Best UK VFX artist by Televisual Magazine. He also received a Fellowship award at the British Arrow Craft Awards in November 2013. 

Jean-Clément works with internationally acclaimed Director and DP's across both commercials and film. What I find most inspiring about his work is how he can create an atmosphere that suits the video just through using colour on film. I found a short video where he worked on the colour gradient within it. I feel that without the lighting textures within each individual video it wouldn't make the ideas and concepts of the video shown to be portrayed in the right way. 

L'ODYSSÉE DE CARTIER from Digital District™ VFX Post-Pro on Vimeo.




John Lewis 150 years  | Never standing still from Jean-Clément Soret on Vimeo.


Jean-Clément Soret also worked on a film that I found absolutely fascinating called 127 hours. I feel that the way he has used colour within the film gives the footage a rich feel to it and completely contrasts with the storyline and whats happening around him. 

Through the use of colour within a film I feel can completely change ash set a mood for the film. There are many aspects within a movie that all adds together to create an effective movie and I feel the a digital colourist is vital in the setting of your mood. 

A brief History of Video Games

The earliest design of video games weren't actually how you see them but instead they were text that created the world around you allowing the player to explore. These kind of games were simple to use and simple to make, they work around the limited RAM by focusing on a story rather than the graphics. The largest evolution of gaming was the transition from text into an actual visual format. In 1980 a game was released called Adventure which included the player gathering loot and simple monster fighting. Due to the technology at the time and the limitations computers had then the character itself was a coloured square and any other aspects to the game were crude pixelated graphics. However, this new visual game was a revolution within the gaming industry. 

With the technology becoming more advanced the development of video games proceeded in its advancement alongside it. They firstly took advantage of the hardwares capabilities which were increasing, to accompany the development of technology so that they could store more of the game. The controllers also started to develop further so that they now look how they are in modern forms. More inputs on the controllers meant more actions someone could take in a game. Then from now our most modern controllers the development of the mouse and keyboard combination allows for an even greater number of player inputs. 

These slight changes within the development of gaming through the years has affected adventure type games in unique ways. As good as the original Adventure game with its storyline, the development of design within modern games increases the adventure and genre, which then there came for a demand for more sophisticated stories and moral choices. 

How Technology Affects Us As Children

Technology effects the brain in different ways than if you were to just read. Nicholas Carr uses an interesting metaphor to represent the ideas and differences between the two. 

Book reading is like scuba diving in which the diver is submerged in a quiet, visually restricted, slow-paced setting with few distractions and, as a result, is required to focus narrowly and think deeply on the limited information that is available to them. In contrast, using the Internet is like jet skiing, in which the jet skier is skimming along the surface of the water at high speed, exposed to a broad vista, surrounded by many distractions, and only able to focus fleetingly on any one thing.

Through using this idea researchists have found that a child that plays video games and any other media such as watching TV e.c.t., can increase reaction times and the capacity to identify details among clutter. This doesn't necessarily make children stupid, however just makes their process of thinking different from others. For example, using the internet to search in search engines is causing children to not remember things a such but more skilled at remembering where to find it instead. 

With the information that is now available to us 24 hours of the day it is becoming less important for children than to know where to look for something. Through this the information that you once needed to retain in our brains allows our brains to start and engage in more 'higher-order' processing such as contemplation, critical thinking, and problem solving. 

Pros and Cons of Technology

Pros

• You can save money with using the later technology. Larger companies use conference calls from different branches to host meetings. This reduces costs on traveling.
• Technology saves time, you can now email someone for a quick response. You can fax someone documents. 
• You can be more sociable, you can get to know what you're friends are doing all the time and can arrange a quick meet up. 
• Education, you can learn more about the world, it makes it easier to research or revise for exams. 
• We can all be globally connected to one another. 

Cons

• Distraction, you have access to games or social media which means you are constantly getting distracted by what is actually happening around you. 
• Companies use cookies to collect our data without us knowing. They find what we're interested in and try to advertise to us. They then can sell on our data to other companies leading into unwanted calls or junk emails. 
• The need to upgrade. When new technology comes out you want to get the latest technology. If you hold back on old technology you might not have access to certain updates. Games are constantly upgrading which means you have to buy the next game to get newer and cooler items. 
• We may start to depend on the technology. Not being able to get around anymore without a satnav. Or needing to know things straight away. Companies may depend on technology to do business and when failure happens they may not be able to do their job.