Artifact for Rise fitness gym.

Justin and I decided to work on the commercial and it actually proved to be more difficult than we thought. We had to think of a way to make a commercial about physical disability that didn't feel like an Ad. 'Rise fitness gym' isn't actually real, but physical disability is.
in the beginning we talked about filming fantastical scenarios, very rocky montage workout type stuff. Eventually we had to step back and tell ourselves to be carful with the material and keep in mind about the audience.
So we kept it simple. We gave it an interview feel, neither Justin or I have a physical disability so it was important to me to portray the person seriously. So I was just myself. I didn't want to generalize it too much where it felt like a statistic and I didn't want to be too specific to exclude some of our audience, but mostly I didn't want to make it seem fake.

Compose Your Frame.

I took this photo at one of the side entrances of the Eccles building, I felt the triangular fountain structure in the middle of the path was perfect for a "Diagonal rule".It actually also has Index Vectors, it's tips pointing toward us and the opposite ends of the parking lot. The pathway is a perfect example of a Graphic Vector, guiding our eyes toward the parking lot as well as to the far end landscape. The light negative space of the sky I feel is a good contrast to the mountain.
The man, which I feel like I lucked out on, is a Motion Vector, he gives us the sensation of momentum, or in other words, the feeling that he is moving towards somewhere/something. I feel lucky that I caught him in mid-walk.

With the Rule of Thirds, it helps that the man is placed on the right of the photo instead of the middle, I think it helps draw more attention to him. With all the Diagonal lines going around with the side of the building wall next to him and the building glass (window?) on the opposite side, along with the sides of the fountain structure in the middle, it all helps guild the eyes throughout the photo. Also (and I hope I'm not tooting my own horn at this point) but I actually like how the electric pole post has a index vector both in the reflection and out of it, as if it's pointing in two directions.
(the upside down.)

The tone of the font.

One of the things I look forward to when I start watching a movie are the opening credits, in fact often times it's the first thing we do see. 

That is why it's so important, it sets the tone of what the viewer is about to see, the font should encompass the movie as a whole. 

I can't tell you how many times I've seen a lazy font tacked onto a movie and how much it ruins it for me, it might have had a nice song on but the font's are too ugly for me to fully enjoy it.

So when I saw the opening credits to this: 

It blew my mind, and I was so happy that someone was still taking to consideration the types of font they were using that I didn't care if I didn't like the show, my faith was restored. It also sets the tone so well. 

Now the font they used was ITC Benguiat:

Compared to most fonts ITC Benguiat is actually a fairly recent one, It was created by Ed Benguiat and released by the International Typeface Corporation (hence ITC) in 1978. It was also loosely based on the typeface used in the Art Noucaeu period, which looks like this:  

Quite the jump. 

Ed Benguiat interestingly enough used to be a well known Jazz Percussionist when asked why the career change he said: 

"I’m really a musician, a jazz percussionist. One day I went to the musician’s union to pay dues and I saw all these old people who were playing bar mitzvahs and Greek weddings. It occurred to me that one day that’s going to be me, so I decided to become an illustrator."

The font began to pop up on the book covers in and the 80s and 90s most of which were the wonderful Stephen King covers.

and even on "The Smiths" 1987 album "Strange ways, here we come." 

Fonts now are made digitally, back in the day, Title sequences were still made manually with a projector and camera. So when they were making the font for Stranger Things, the designers decided to do first try it manually so they could get the gritty feel to it, and later incorporate it into the final product.

It makes me so happy to hear that designers in a age of digital design are using old methods to (re)create something new.

Good & Bad Design.

Good Design 

The image its very simple yet impactful, the space is occupied with a flat shape of the earth and the eyes focuses on the two forms of windows and subjects. The color hue of the space contrasts with the box so we can clearly the product: FedEx.

It tells us what FedEx does: they deliver your mail across the globe. With the two people handing it to each other from two parts of the world, with little effort means that FedEx delivers fast.
It's interesting to me that the texture of of bricks make it look almost like a building, I think it's a wall.

Bad Design

While the first uses less to tell a lot, this uses a lot but it says less. the message is the same: "we deliver fast" with a sprinting robot and blurry landscape behind him to give it the feel that they are FAST, and it even gives it an illusion of motion in a print medium.

The reason it falls flat is that the robot is computer animated and we can clearly tell, it takes me out of the ad and just tells me that it looks fake, the blur around him kind of looks like a last minute photoshop edit. it's done poorly. The lines are there to draw our eyes but sadly there isn't much to see.

Prints.

A few prints that I thought were well-done. 

A anti-rape campaign.
The two page spread glued together and when the reader forcefully opens it, it says:

"If you have to use force, it's rape." 

Contrast, Balance and Harmony.

A still from AMC's "Better Call Saul"

The yellow light in the background with the window on the right contrasts and balances with the dark corners of the room, the color temperature seen on the brown walls also give it balance along with the placement of the subject.

The rule of thirds technique helps give the photo balance because instead of the middle, the subject is placed left and sort of in the background, giving the room a sense of depth. The subject is also the most lit in the room for the eyes to easily spot him. The shapes also give it balance, the walls and the ceiling with the missing panels help give it shape.

The Harmony for me is found in the bleak colors and dark corners and shapes of the room, even though the subject is the most lighted he is still dimly lit. The left to right lighting going from sickly yellow to a glimmer of natural light coming from the window, give it a depth but in a cluster-phobic kind of way. All of it tells us that he doesn't make enough money to afford a better office with enough space, we can also tell that with the heater right behind him. The camera, along with everything else, was well placed to give us the sense of isolation.

Visceral response.

A promo photo for the FX show "Louie".

For me this captures the little humorous moments we have, even if sometimes life can feel a bit black and white.

Since its black and white there isn't much intensity, but the value is there.

We can see that he's in the subway and judging from the textures, the dirt and the dents, we can tell that it isn't the fanciest of trains. Just an everyday person going through everyday life.

The main character in the picture isn't taking center stage but instead is placed in the left corner. I'm sure the photographer had the rule of thirds in his mind but what I like to think it also means is that sometimes, we don't feel like the main character of our own story. None the less it still draws our eyes attention to him and his face.

His face expression sells it for me, It's like he's thinking, "Oh wait, did I bring the house keys?"
and even though he looks worried about something, there is a graffitied smily face. It's almost like he doesn't know he's in a comedy.
The ad production did a great job capturing the feel of the show with this photo I think.

But I've already seen the show so I'm very interested on how this photo affects someone who's never seen or heard about it. 

And now for those who are interested, here is a little story from the guy in the photo; Louis ck.