Mis-En Scene

The movie I decided to break down is one that was up for many awards and also brought home a couple in 2015 due to it's lighting, cast, and direction. Whiplash is a movie that very well captures the motif of fear and anxiety through many different vessels. Specifically the vessels I will break down are that of direction and lighting. The movie was able to bring home best supporting actor (J.K. Simmons), best film editing, and best sound mixing. The most underrated facet of the movie was the lighting in my opinion, while being well received by most patrons, it did not catch the eye of the academy voters.The lead gaffer in the movie, Elan Yaari, encapsulated the incessant fear and nightmarish feel with his lighting schematics in the feature. Although the scene comes together primarily because of the script, the lighting scheme is the cherry on top. It seems as though Miles Teller's character is stuck in some sort of musical purgatory led by devilish ensemble instructor Fletcher (J.K. Simmons). The overhead spotted lighting scheme glowing down on the students gives the feel that they are mere test subjects. The movie is very vulgar but does a very wonderful job of being tasteful while keeping a sense of raunchiness.

Director

Although fairly unoriginal I have found that I am most drawn to a couple different directors. Being from Las Vegas and knowing the underlying motif of the mob and it's influence on my home town, naturally I was drawn to the likes of Director Martin Scorsese.  Scorsese being of Sicilian decent also matches that of my background drawing a connection to the director. I've been a Scorsese fan my entire life specifically after watching one of his early documentaries "Italianamerican" where his parents are the main subjects describing their life in Sicily. Moving on to classics like: Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, The Departed, and even Hugo it makes it hard to not fall in love with his work. Most movies of his depict the life of old school mobsters coupled with heavy violence and writing. Another overlooked aspect of his work in my opinion are the musical scores used in his films. It becomes easy to forget that he directed films like Bob Dylan’s No Direction Home, The Rolling Stones’ Shine A Light, the George Harrison documentary Living in the Material World, and of course, arguably greatest rock doc of all time, The Band’s The Last Waltz. He has a very rich musical background mainly consisting of classic old time rock songs from Ray Charles to Cream, The Rolling Stones, and The Clash.

Here's a taste of some of his work (Don't let the heinous commentary deter you from the wonderful work of the director):

Compose A Frame

I took this photograph in the bathroom of my home at an obvious tilted angle upwards. Although it is very simplistic I enjoy the way the lines of the cabinets, blinds, and shadows draw your eye through the picture. The way the shadow is casted right above the toilet seat is in the location of the bottom left third of the frame making it seemingly the most interesting point of contrast as well as the focal point. Although not the most interesting of content in that third, it still finds a way of doing it's job of drawing your eye.

Here are some other intriguing photos I've taken:

Axioms of Web

Upon perusing the web for intuitive interfaces utilizing the aspects of seamless browsing and communicating with the consumer, I found a very well organized web page. The web page I found is http://fantasy.co/work. The page interestingly enough displays companies ad campaigns encouraging intuitive design to those who are involved in web design/advertising. It displays an array of examples of companies utilizing interesting design. All the while the website itself is appeasing in it's own right.

The use of grid and flow is what communicates the overall smoothness of the interface. You are able to seamlessly glide through the contents of the webpage in a very efficient and organized manner. When browsing the web page there is a sense of continuity in that the interface itself guides your eye into what you've clicked on. A continuity guided by actual motion, very subconsciously appeasing. The communication aspect itself is fairly self explanatory in that the point of the web page itself is to encourage the use of smart design v. engineering and functionality. Urging companies to focus on the possible upside of well executed design. Another nice subconscious aspect to the page is the simple "blocking" of the links being displayed. It creates for another interesting aspect to the site.

Design Eval.

Good Design.
I decided to choose a fairly basic topic in shampoo bottle design. Although bottle architecture is not a topic you regularly think about, there is a large importance to contain these products in a packaging that is subconsciously attractive. If you put these bottles next to the ones in the lower example without seeing a price tag, you would more than likely say that these bottles of shampoo would be more expensive. What merits these larger prices. Is it quality of the product? Is it the sheer price of bottling the product in a more formidable incasing. This product is able to use the simplicity of a beautiful winding shape as well as the incorporation of some nice basic cool colors of turquoise and ivory white. Also a very nice use of balance in terms of the way the bottles numerical markings along with the way they are able to conform when stacked up next to one another.
















Bad design.
Although a fairly reputable brand, the bottle itself in terms of design isn't very elegantly executed. The straight and flat nature of the lineage with really no form alteration leaves the bottle "unsexy". Although a fairly marketable color in the female community the bottle itself seems as though not a lot of architecture/thought went into the decision making process. When you compare this bottle to the ones placed above, one would guess that the better product would come from the latter. It's in our brains to associate good design with high expense and high quality. When you see something simply designed well you are more willing and apt to pay the prices being presented. You are more justified in paying the more expensive price when something looks nicer. Which is funny.

Contrast, harmony and balance

Aside from the very obvious contrast in terms of there simply being a faint sheet of snow in the heart of the desert. The contrast stems in the colors more for me due to the fact that pieces of the desert sand are tainted with a pure marble white. A very harmonious setting in terms of nature showing that there can be not only a contrast in beautiful colors but also a change in weather in a seemingly dead desert biome. This mix of color and weather creates a great sense of balance making for a setting that explicably feels homey.  A nice use of space by the photographer utilizing the rule of thirds by revealing the skyline in the upper edge of the frame as well. All in a all, although not the most artsy use of framing and schematics, its a setting that feels safe and warm which isn't a bad place to go in art from time to time. Also, not a tacky use of "safety" however.

Visceral Response

I decided to choose the picture for a multitude of reasons other than the fact that it simply represents a sense of serenity.

The usage of lines, space, and color are what truly captivates me as a patron of art. Not only is it simply a cool picture because of the utter change in elevation but the ability to make you feel warmth and calmness is what makes this photo simply beautiful.

Theres an obvious sense of format in terms of the the way the road directly cuts through the middle of this photo using the aspect of lineage as well as the way the lines direct your attention down the middle of the frame. The beautiful warm colors of the trees create another obvious sense of serenity because of the "homey" type color palette.

There is also a nice use of space as you can see the road continue on into the distance in the middle of the piece. There's really not a much negative space in this photo as most of the piece is filled with some kind of beautiful piece of imagery.

All in all, a very fine piece of art and something that gives you that nice sense of nostalgia we're all longing for. Reminiscent of the long trips as a young child venturing through the likes of upstate New York.