Thanks for the Memories

Dear Classmates:

To bring to conclusion my Class Blog assignment, I wanted to write a few words about the class experience. Wow! You guys really kicked my butt--both fellow students and instructors. Thank you for a challenging and often intimidating classroom experience. I never wanted to come to class unprepared or, at least, without a damn good effort. Getting good feedback was always a hard won effort. This class reminded me that design can be fun, can be collaborative, and can be meaningful. I appreciate getting to know all of you and hope to have you as fellow conspirators in many classes to come!

My Anniversary is just around the corner, so why not post anothr fun shot!

Our Hero in Trouble!

Okay, now I'm getting worried.
Will I finish...Will I get this printed!
Tune in tommorow at 9:30 on Saturday for the exciting conclusion!

In the Lab: Printer Not Working

Why are we smiling?
I don't know...Dave is not picking up his cellphone.
Its Friday..we are the survivors.
We will survive Words and Images.

Class Perv

Um, when did this become official?

How to make an 8 Step Process into 10 Steps --in only 6 Steps!

ONE
Panic and Call Dave Patchke
Its Friday and you are at work. You have never made a booklet. Your pages are in spreads in InDesign. Google Dave and find his number on the UBalt website. Explain to Dave who you are. Dave will tell you about the InBooklet feature. Thank Dave and plan to give him a hug at school tommorow.

TWO
InBooklet Feature
Use the feature and print.

THREE
Asssemble Booklet and Panic Again
Notice you have blank pages. Notice you can't get your pages in the right order. Notice this whole situation of figuring which page should go with which takes way to much brain power.

FOUR
Go to the Graphics Lab
Run into Jill Blum at the Lab who tells you that your pages need to in multiples of four.

FIVE
Final Panic
You will need to redesign 2 pages and writie copy very fast.

SIX
Print your Booklet
With 10 pages, your booklet has all the right pages. Proceed home to cut, spray and staple. Plan to make major revisions for Phase Four.

Hollywood Snarky

Bert Bender’s
How to Open a Summer Blockbuster Film in 8 Easy Steps:

ONE
Source Material
Find out what’s hot in the book clubs. Don’t underestimate the blue hairs when choosing suitable material. Try the New York Times bestseller list although tricky--steer clear of material considered elitist, or too intellectual for a big tub of popcorn family. Scour the canon of classic children’s books. Bite-size plots and instant audience recognition make these gems an easy sell. Old movies, ripe for a remake, are a goldmine. Many old B&W’s and are in desperate need of COLOR and CG to bring them to a hyper PlayStation generation. Once you select your source material, securing the rights is a pure business transaction. Prepare a 2-3-sentence pitch and bring lots of cash.

TWO
Hire the Writers
Writing the screenplay is best done by committee. Do not make the mistake of hiring a single writer. Your movie is not an Oscar contender--you are not looking to challenge and/or inspire your audience with pithy prose. Committees cater to the lowest common denominator. They do not offer ”a vision”, or have grandiose ideas of artistic expression, and/or panic attacks. Committees are used to compromise and will reach their deadlines. A successful screenplay should include snappy one-liners for the trailer and the poster. The plot should move quickly and allow the bulk of the film to be told in explosions and sex.

THREE
Book the Talent
Laughingly referred to within the industry as “The Talent”, your director and actors are in fact tools--tools of the trade. When hiring a director, look for a hungry, young, up-and-comer. Pick someone who has cut his teeth on commercials and music videos and is desperate to break into the movies. Be sure to yank the chain a few times—make sure your ‘director’ knows who is really calling the shots. Hire actors with marquee value that you can get at a cut rate. “Just over the hill” or an eager “next hot thing” are often good bets. The combination of aging action hero, stud-ly comic buddy and hot young chickadee ready to get naked at the drop of a hat is a winning combination in any film formula.


FOUR
Marketing Campaign
Marketing is tasked with creating a need. That need is your film. And, like a great strip tease, the final product is best revealed in provocative, building increments. Start with the teaser trailer, sweepstakes emails, and a high on form, low on content “coming-soon” website. The best campaigns start at least one year before release date—plan ahead. Be sure to secure corporate partnerships. Tie-ins will make or break your picture in the marketplace. Saturate the field. Align your film with big-dog fast food chains, car companies, breakfast cereals etc. A thick, inescapable fog of coverage including TV, radio, print, and give-away chotkis should descend over your target audience beginning 6 weeks before release.


FIVE
Shoot The Film
Move quickly. All problems can be solved in post.
For more information refer to Bert Bender’s Bestselling Sequel, “How to Shoot a Summer Blockbuster in 3 Easy Steps”


SIX
The Preview Screening
The preview screening is like a good wash and press. This is where the final wrinkles and pesky subtitles still screwing with your picture will be ironed out. Assemble a preview audience using call-in radio give-aways that simultaneously build hype and excitement and promote your feature. Hire a local marketing firm to run the screening and poll the audience. Find out what is working: Is the music carrying the plot? Are buttons being pushed? Does the audience audibly cheer when the hero kicks enemy in the groin? Is it loud enough when the tanker rams the flaming gasoline factory?
Collect comment cards and edit film accordingly.

SEVEN
Intensify Marketing Campaign
The Nazis had a word for it – Blitzkrieg! Lightning Warfare. Attack the audience with your message. Hit ‘em hard and fast and with mind numbing repetition. A numb mind is a receptive mind. You should have a stash of one-liners to use in the copy of your posters, postcards, t-shirts, key chains, hats, coffee mugs etc. Begin booking your “hot” actors on morning, day and late night talk shows. Rehearse the talent to repeat the one-liners at will. Trailers, TV spots, radio, print, billboards, plastic figurines, and toilet paper. Make it so they can’t breath, think, ingest food or expel waste without clearing their schedules for your opening weekend.

EIGHT
Open Film
Sit, back and wait for the numbers! Watch your film open on multiple screens in every multi-plex, shopping mall, or strip mall theatre from sea to shining sea. Big numbers on opening weekend are the key to securing your film franchise for another two pictures, additional cross promotion including DVD and video game sales, and overseas box office success. Make quick “congratulatory” phone calls to director and actors. Ignore the reviews.

Process: The Movie Business

Bubbles in the Face

It just slipped out. This is stupid, so stupid. Wash your mouth out. Who does that? It’s like a medieval torture. Why not leaches or the rack, Mom? She can’t be serious. Forget it, I’m not doing it.

I’m old enough to say whatever I want. Ms. Langley deserved it. I was only trying to help. Mom grabbed my arm and shouted for me to be quiet. She wanted to know where I heard the word. I’m in fifth grade, stupid. Everybody says it and worse stuff too. I’ve even heard Mom say it. It’s not fair. Why doesn’t she come up here and wash hr mouth out. Cause it sucks, that’s why.

Peter forgot his homework, and I let him copy. So. No biggie. Ms. Langley made such a big deal. Why did she have to call Mom at work? I was trying to be the good guy. That’s a joke. I hate Peter. I hate Mom. I hate Ms. Langely,

Maybe if I just get the bar wet. Mom won’t know. What, is she gonna check my tongue? Probably. I’ve never seen her so mad. Who cares? Nobody cares about me, nobody. This is worse than Ms. Langely, a mouth full of bubbles fucking sucks.

Process: Huh?

Found this on Clinic of Cultural Collision site...in reaction to the every increasing restrictions of passenger rights on airplanes. Plus its kinda pervy.

Definition: Wash Your Mouth Out

How cool! When I published to the blog it turned my project this neutrogena orange. I love it! The hard copy is blue with blue bubble-but this looks much better--thanks blogspot.

Plus, thanks to fabulous Jill I was able to find measurements for the soap box recreate in InDesign. I was so proud of myself...

Phase Four: IMove...decisions

Phase four on my IMovie was tricky. I thought I had alot that was working, but it bothered me that the first image of the house looked unlived-in and even not quite built! So, I looked for another image of a suburban house in a cul de sac with spooky lighting--or at the very least at dawn. Hmmm, tall order. Plus, the house would ideally have ventian blinds, two bedroom windows, and an air conditiner in the window. AAAAAAAHHHHH!

Needless to say, I could't find an exact image--so. Here are the top running choices.
Picture one, is a prfect surburban house. The lighting is right. The windows are not quite right. But it had a great look and feel.
Picture two, the whole neightborhood of houses. This is interesting...I eliminate the need to duplicat the house directly. We dn't zoom into the bedroom window persay, and we get this great surburban zoombie cul-de-sac from aerial view.

Decisions, decisions...

Bang Art

Our group, after finally moving on from a particulary stupid idea involving a bathtub (oh, I think that was mine), landed on the story of a kid who blows a really BIG bubble, lifts off the ground, is attacked by a bird, and lands in a bubble puddle. I especially liked the the passing of time. The clouds would move across the page.

Still Image Narration with Style

The IMovie assignment--to say the least--has been challenging.
In preparation, my husband pointed out several effective montages in award-winning films which use sequences of still images, set to music, to tell a story. In particular the opening sequence in SOYLENT GREEN and the middle bridge in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID. Well, such great examples are something to strive for, anyway.

Official Citation

How does your garden grow?...with revisions

With a difference a clean sans serif makes.

Words I like from the list of 1001 frequently mispelled words A-H

apocalypse
avocado
calico
dandelion
chauffeur
carburetor
dipthong
galactic
gubernatorial
hippopotamus
filament
coyote
florescent

This past week I was caught up in performing my civic duty. Yes, a resident of Baltimore City is seemes that I called for jury duty every year. Despite the "hurry-up-and-wait" pace of the proceedings and graphic nature of the trial itself, this blogger must admit that the experience was a profound one. Forgive the cliche, but is an amazing system that invites 12 strangers to deliberate the fate of another. It was an adventure, which this weary student, hopes only comes along once-in-a lifetime.

Classification: The Language of Flowers

Flowers are the ultimate calling-card.

Delicate, fragment missives, flowers articulate the sweet and, sometimes less-than-sweet, sentiments of countless lovers with a broad and clear vocabulary. Wildly in vogue during the Victorian era, the language of flowers was silently spoken in parlor-rooms across Europe and America and its secrets were universally acknowledged through the best-selling folio, “Les Language of Flours,” first published in Paris in 1819. Its author, Charlotte de La Tour, meticulously recorded the flower vernacular and armed her readers with the tools to respond in kind. The bashful peony, the contented snapdragon, the reddest roses for passion.

Consider the elegance and potency of the language of flowers when choosing your next bouquet. Our abbreviated glossary of terms includes the appropriate posies for passion, gratitude, love, and sympathy.

Passion

1. Roses
The workhorse of Valentine’s Day, the red rose is a touchstone for passion, mutual attraction and sexual desire.

2. Orchids
An exotic and decadent flower, the orchid is a daring overture. To give an orchid is to allure your lover with the promise of an extravagant seduction.

Gratitude

1. Hydrangea
A perennial flower, hydrangea will thrive with hearty, colorful blooms in the most challenging climates. A symbol of lasting friendship and an expression of gratitude for understanding.

2. Gerber Daises
The roots and leaves of the daisy were used in the Middle Ages to treat illness and injury. To receive daisies is to know you are appreciated for your thoughtfulness, care and attention to detail.

Love

1. Stargazer Lilies
The lover who receives lilies can expect both tender affection and a commitment of fidelity. A valiant flower, its strong scent is a reminder of the lover’s fondness.

2. Tulips
A bold statement, Tulips say “You are my perfect lover”. A luxury item during the Victorian period, the tulip remains a symbol of social status and strength of commitment.

Sympathy

1. Calla Lilies
Symbols of purity and the return of happiness, Calla Lilies express a desire for renewed spirit and wellness.

2. Hyacinth
A flower named from Greek mythology, its petals were stained blue with the tears of Apollo. An assertive, elegant flower, the Hyacinth conveys remembrance and eternal love.

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else.
Georgia O’Keefe, Portrait of an Artist

Classification: Language of Flowers

Flowers express a wealth of feelings. Some flowers express love, others can express regret, passion, or remembrance.