Alignment
1. How would you describe alignment of the words "murmuring" and "insects" in the opening scene? How does the unusual alignment (reflected on screen and timed) add to your interpretation of the text?
+ The way that the word "murmuring" fall into place seem more like rain droplets, especially on the blue background. Which gives the words a very calm feeling. As they begin to align themselves the word begins to have extra emphasis on each letter of the word, perhaps in the tone or sound you would say each letter if they were musical notes. While "insects" materializes from the "in" in "murmuring" and drops off. The alignment of the words focuses your eye reading left-to-right because it is on a blue, blank background with one design near the bottom and one in the top left. So your eyes are drawn there immediately and gives it a sense of clean execution as well as tranquility.
2. Now watch the "Earth" scene. What other elements are aligned in this scene? How does the consistent alignment of elements across screens (and also across some of the scenes) affect how you read these scenes? What elements do you end up focusing on? Would the scene seem as effective if all of the elements on the page (upside-down moon, contrails, words, background color, etc.) had no shared alignment?
+ The color changed from blue gradient to a red-to-green. There is also added music which sounds very Asian inspired. My eyes for the Earth scene focus on the words at the bottom which aligns the phrase "in the weeds" up just under and symmetrical on either side of the crescent shape. The words would not have been as effective if they weren't aligned with the moon-shape, but the contrails perhaps would be able to have been placed anywhere, but then the image may or may not have felt balanced out.
3. Now watch the "Air" scene, paying attention to the lines of poetry and the audio tracks. The poem doesn't settle on the same horizontal axis as the other scenes do, and the two phrases in the audio track are aligned (synced) to appear with each line of poetry. Why do you think the alignments of the words are different between the Earth and Air scenes? What is the significance of the audio track's content in relation to that difference?
+ Between the alignment of the Earth and Air words, it makes sense for Earth to be right aligned than the Air words. The Earth words end up lining up just under the moon-shape, making it seem more of a rising/setting sun with the red/green gradient. While Air's words fall from the sky and overlap the with the moon shape, giving it an overall different atmosphere. The audio track's gives more significance to the poetry because it imitates someone speaking the words, and it also gives a somber tone to the message of the poem as the audio talks about "freedom" which relates to the bird images.
4. Now watch the "Water" scene. How does the curvature of the words, aligning with the background image of an eye, relate to what the man in the audio track is saying?
+ The curve of the words with the background image represents the piece of the poem when it references tears, imitating the shape of the eye so that the words look like the person in the background is crying. While the audio snippet of America the Beautiful gives context to the words "tears like dew".
5. Based on the alignment (or lack of alignment) between elements in a scene and across scenes, why are the three menu options ("Air," "Earth," and "Water") on the main screen of this text not aligned? What does this lack of alignment tell you about the emphasis, sequence, and purpose of this text?
+ The fact that the three options aren't aligned gives a balanced feeling between the three words. Air is highest and Water lowest, which is how one might draw out a lake or body of water in a picture. Earth sits in between them and is left-aligned where the contrails thick end are closest. The movement of the eye begins - for me - at Air, then down to Earth, and then finally to Water. Which makes me think that the purpose of the text is to sandwich (or begin) with the Earth option because it is in between the two but on the left side of the screen.
Contrast
1. Watch 0:22-0:36 of The JUMP's "Call for Papers." Notice the words, the gray box, the cartoon background, and the sound. Do you think any of these elements contrast? If so, which ones and how so (specifically, what makes them different from one another)? What effects do you think this use of contrast has on the audience and the purpose? Consider how the text's effectiveness might change if these elements did not contrast.
+ The contrasting elements of the main character in the beginning to the town gives emphasis on where the eye is going to focus in on. While the sound of the background music and voice are contrasted against the silliness of a cartoon, which makes the sound stand out even more. The text-scroll is effective when placed on top of the moving cartoon, making the audience be sucked into the monotone voice even though there is movement in the background. If there was no text of what the speaker was saying then the video would definitely have a hard time being effective to the viewer.
2. Watch 0:55-1:08 of The JUMP's "Call for Papers." Notice how this is similar to the clip from question 1, yet the background no longer includes the cartoon. First, describe what elements are contrasting. Next, explain why you think the cartoon background was deleted from this section. What happens to the contrast now that the background is black? Which element is now the most emphasized, and how do you think this helps convey the purpose of the text?
+ The element of the cartoon contrasts with the blank background with text on it. I think the reasoning for taking out the cartoon background, when it starts to talk about the rules of writing the paper, is that the imagery of the family can be distracting to what the point of the video is. The stark black background with white text becomes a emphasized contrast between two colors making the text the most emphasized through out the video since it gets the audience to think about what is being said a little more than blindly watching the cartoon.
3. Imagine you've been asked to design a flyer to post around your campus advertising The JUMP. What would the flyer look like? Which element(s) would contrast and to what effect?
+ If making a flyer I would probably use the main man character when he is using the wheel-barrel and collecting his items. But using the text's use of dark background and white letters in some sort of speech bubble to advertise The JUMP.
Emphasis
1. Describe where your attention is visually drawn in this text. What strategies does the author use to emphasize this element? Given that this text is essentially a title page for a larger project, does this emphasis seem effective to you? Why or why not?
+ My eye is immediately drawn to the girl's hand and the notepad she is writing on. The author uses stop motion to show that she is writing but to make it seem choppy to the audience knows that she is using a certain filming/visual technique. Stop motion alone puts emphasis on the entire film, so attempting it at all is very effective if you want your audience to look in a certain area. It can be boring if the thing moving in each image isn't interesting, but stop motion - when done right - is very effective.
2. Between composing the two different pages ("Digital Rights Management/Digital Robbing Maniacs" and "Criminal") the woman disappears from the screen and the jumpy stop-motion effect ceases. Describe how this moment of stillness can be understood as "emphasis" and explain if it seems like an effective strategy? What is emphasized by stopping the movement?
+ When the girl disappears from the screen and gives the finished written idea its own pause, there is extra emphasis because now it isn't all about the motion the girl is making. The moment she gives the image its own moment to the effect of the image for the audience it to really understand what the image means in terms of context and what the purpose might be.
3. Consider the role sound plays in emphasis. How does the soundtrack to this clip help to (a) emphasize certain moments in the clip, and (b) place a particular emotional emphasis on the meaning of the clip?
+ The soundtrack to the clip has a very serious tone, and sharp beats that go along with the stop motion beats. Each sharp beat is particularly effective, especially when she writes out "Digital Robbing Maniacs" which begins with a sharp beat that gives the idea of "Robbing" and "Maniacs" an extra thrill of fear or worry.
Organization
1. Choose 5 of the 15 images to drag into the empty timeline. Make a note about each of the 5 photos to explain what each one signifies, and how one leads to another. How does your organization convey your purpose?
+ The images I chose were (in order) the wedding topper, the guy in a crowd, the fist, the feet, and the window with the people. I wanted it to be about people and that starting from either end of the list it would lead you to the middle which is the fist in a sign of power. The guy in the crowd and the feet are very skin colored oriented, while the wedding topper and the window both have people as part of the focus with a stark background that gives it contrast.
2. Are there different arguments that you could have made by organizing your 5 photos in different ways?
+ Yes, I could have surrounded the fist with all of the black and white photos making it a sense of American Pride, or I could have listed by doing a left-to-right or right-to-left least important to important. There could be many different interpretations even to the list of 5 photos that I used.
3. Are there other elements you could add to make your argument stronger—for example, playing music with the slide show or adding text?
+ I think if I were to add more elements then I would have text, or just a title for the list of images saying something like, "the human condition" or something about humans in general. The slideshow wouldn't make sense since the middle is the focus. The music I would use would have to also be about humans in the way that makes sense for the images.
Proximity
1. Did you group certain categories of information together? How did you group them—typographically, by placing them closer together, or in some other way?
+ I grouped the title of the book with the subtitle on what the book is about together and at the top. I put the name of the author closer to the image of the seagull down near the bottom. "The Seagull" typography I used was the big curvy font with the subtitle in a surf font that was much smaller. While the name of the author was in an italicized, larger font than the subtitle.
2. What do you think is the most important piece of information on your cover? What choices did you make about typeface or size to convey that sense of importance? How does the layout of your book cover reflect your sense of how the information should be organized?
+ I think the image is the most important piece of information because it is immediately eye catching due to the colors of the picture. But the main title also is a very large font at the top of the page making the eye also start there. I chose the largest size because the title is what some audience members are going to want to know first, and the subtitle is just under that because it is apart of the title. The author is important but is closer to the bird so the viewer doesn't have to search for the authors name.
3. What are some limitations you've encountered in laying out visual elements in a traditional way? What are some other ways you might want to organize the information on a book cover that might work better in a non-traditional format?
+ The visual elements are all reading left-to-right when they could be vertical, either top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top, or just spelled out vertically. The font also can not be shaped a certain way to make it overall neither horizontal or vertical on the page. Different positioning and structure (other than font) can give a book a very interesting concept that is non-traditional and appealing to the audience.
- Julie Harrison
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