One Screen Two Screen, Red Screen Blue Screen! (Don't Forget Green Screen)

Throughout the history of film, many artists have discovered different ways to "key out" or make a matte in their films:

Today, with the common use of the green screen, it it always a little interesting to 

see where the technique originated from.

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The Magician's Medium:

Q: What was the magician's medium and how did it work?

We can all thank this Melies guy for going through
this process in the name of ART.
(And illusions. Mostly illusions)

A: The magician's medium was one of the first matting techniques used in film, 

allowing the filmmakers to expose certain parts of the film at a time and 

expose each to a new image separately upon re-filming. This was achieved 

with the use of black paint on each separate square of film. Other methods 
using painting included the tactic of painting over a pane of glass in front 
of the camera to create the fake scenery. While long and monotonous, this 
process was one of the first steps towards the fancy green

screen technologies we all know today in our weather forecasts and movies.

(Or even movies about weather forecasts, if that strikes your fancy)

Q: If they couldn't use green screens in black and white films, what did they use?

A: Black screens! Since the black and white films didn't have to worry

 about colors and the subtle contrasts involved with those, they could rely

 solely on lightness contrast to key out their subjects. The dark black of

 the screen would easily contrast with any lighter colors on there parson or

 object involved  making for a much more efficient method than 

painting over frames one by one!

Q: Did they only use black screens in Back and white films?

A: No, in fact, they began using the blue screen, or Dunning Process, in 

black and white films around the time when the mighty King Kong arrived on

 the big screens. Similar to the black screen, the blue screen helped create 

contrast in the subject, but instead of simply laying out black and white 

contrast, they brought out the differences between blue and yellow. However,

this technique would not be transferable to color film since to gain the correct 

contrast, the actors were lit in a bright yellow light.

Q: What did they do when they switched to color?

A: Well, this was not the case for any company but Disney, but the 

Yellow screen (Developed by Vlahos in the 50's) came into use in the films 

The Parent Trap, Marry Poppins, and more. With similar techniques to that of 

the previous screens, the Yellow screen was keyed out with a special 

prism camera. 

(Owned exclusively by Disney, of course)

This method was used by Disney for 40 years.

Q: What about everyone else? 

A: They used the Blue screen to chroma key their subjects out!

As shown by the graphic above, it took a lot of keying to get the subject 

out from a blue screen, but without the use of Disney's exclusive yellow 

screen and prism camera, they had to make do.

Q: So, if they had that, why do we only hear about green screens today?

A: Well, green screens came into use due to their cheaper nature, greater

obscurity in most outfits, and they've even made cameras that are more

sensitive to the green light. That doesn't mean the other colors have 

fallen into oblivion, however. The blues and yellows are still used today for

various needs and purposes.

(Information gathered from here)

Mirroring Styles

In the Footsteps of Saul Bass

Minimalist Poster Design

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When it comes to movie posters, there is a beauty in a non-cluttered, simple design. One man who had this style down to a T was Saul Bass: the creator of many Interesting posters. In honor of his accomplishments, We were tasked with making a poster of a movie from recent years (2010 or later, to be exact) in his style. 

The first step was defining his style: we narrowed it down to minimal color, two to three key elements, and a paper-cutout style rather than using actual images. (I cheated slightly on this style by using a gradient)

The first element I chose to include from my chosen movie, Super 8, was an alien hand reaching out, shadowed. To make this part, I simply created the outline with the pen tool in illustrator.

Point by point, I got a shape that looked enough like a hand to be recognized as one, but off-model enough to clearly be something not of earth, or alien to us, at least.

Additionally, I used a gradient throughout the poster to mimic the feel of dusk or a heavy fog, giving the poster and unsettling mood to it that mirrors the mood in the film: unsettling and unsure.

A second element I used was the likeness of a train. The train is a key plot point in the movie Super 8, and with the chance to make the train also have resemblance to a reel of film in keeping with the symbolism of the camera, it turned out to work well at the bottom as a kind of lower border. In hindsight, I would have removed the gradient form the train windows and left it a flat white.

The large central camera integrated with the title '8' was the finishing touch to tie all of the elements together, with more foggy gradient in the background to complete the mood. And with this last bit, I had my poster. There are surely things I would change looking back at it, but you can't just continuously correct everything. Sometimes you have to let something fall short to learn from it.

Value Poster

CONSUMPTION:

Not the eating kind, we're talking about the marketplace, here.

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When you think of What you personally value, what comes to mind? Friends? Family? The rain on a warm spring day? Well, regardless of what you thought of, it's likely you're not quite sure how these values affect you and your choices.

Below is a poster I made in InDesign on ten things that I personally value. The picture may not be quite big enough to read, so I will summarize somewhat in a moment. The things you value and like directly affect what interests you and what you will and will not purchase within the context of the market. This is important for those on a branding team to understand, for if their appeal to the masses can't relate to their own personal values, then it will not sell as it would if it connected the consumer to something they already know they like.

To put this into context, imagine you're in a store looking for a new sports drink to try:

On the shelf are two brands of sports drink: one is in a generic plastic bottle labeled "Superdrink" in red letters, while the other is in a similar bottle, but with a label entitled "Ener-life" and a picture of a woman throwing a frisbee for her dog on it. If you are someone who likes to be active and likes pets, then the second drink will probably appeal more to you, causing you to choose Ener-life over the poor Superdrink whose design team obviously was not well trained.

When I sat down to think about it, I decided that things that were important to me consisted of many creative outlets, technology, comfort, and family. This indicates that someone like me would be more driven to buy things that have been designed to appeal to those values more than one that does not. Many people like vastly many different things, which makes appealing to them difficult if your product does not have a set age group or demographic in mind.

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Miniature Typography Lesson

Can't just babble about marketing, let's throw in some design as well

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To be able to make an aesthetically appealing poster, it was important to learn about typography, and how to properly pair up fonts. A well paired set of fonts can bring desirable contrast to your graphic, and add to it's overall tone. On my poster, I went with a basic Helvetica font for the sake of readability. It's a nice, balanced font with many different weights to work with, creating contrast within itself. To oppose the helvetica, I chose a straight, serifed font similar to Charlemagne, but with small caps instead of all caps. It sits nicely on the heading, and sticks out as it should in a sea of sans-sarif fonts.

It's possible to put more than two fonts in a piece, but you must be careful not to add too many, or the relative contrast of one font is decreased by the presence of contrast everywhere. If the entire piece is scattered with different style, one style can no longer stick out, so it's important to minimize your fonts accordingly. 

Plausible impossible

My examples of Plausible impossible:

In this frame, Gus goose's neck is shaped like a tall sandwich. This is impossible, because swallowing something that large would both cause you to choke, and not change your neck's shape in such a way. But, it is plausible because he did just eat a large sandwich, and it hasn't been swallowed yet. his long neck just kind of has it sitting in there before he swallows it, therefore showing an outline.

In this frame, Gus Goose is eating spaghetti, unraveling it from the sock shape he knitted it into. This is plausible because noodles have the shape of string, and it wouldn't be too far fetched to be able to knit them. it is still impossible, though, for the noodles would break apart, and it wouldn't hold together. But in this situation, it makes sense for them to unravel nicely.

In this scene, Mickey is leading a procession of playing cards. This is impossible, since playing cards cannot walk. In this context, however, it is plausible because they are given arms and legs, and along with many other inanimate objects in the room, have human qualities to them. In cartoons, this is accepted as okay.

In this scene, dopey is hiccuping bubbles.  This is plausible because he has just swallowed a bar of soap. However, it is impossible, because even if you did eat a bar of soap, bubbles wouldn't form and come back up your throat. It is anatomically impossible.

In this scene, Dopey is swallowing soup. When he swallows the soup, it makes a sound like water draining down a pipe drain. This is plausible because he is drinking the soup fast, and it is draining into his stomach like it would in a drain. This is impossible because the sound of water on metal would not really happen in real life when you drank soup. But in cartoons, this sound effect gives you the same feel as to what is happening.

Google logo

The Google logo, one of the more famous of the logos, has an interesting story to it.

Based on the Catull typeface, this logo came a long way to where it has come to be now.

One of the earlier versions makes me chuckle a little:

(look at those 1990's graphics aha)

The original idea behind the colors was to stick to primary colors, but they turned the 'L' green as to show a kind of freedom from the rules, a kind of abstraction that Google can represent. Like they think 'Outside of the box'.

They chose 'Google' as a misspelling of 'Googol' (A number containing around 100 Zeros) to give the feel of their great number or resources and data speed.

The Google logo seems to also represent creativity in it's google doodles, where the simple logo is taken to new mediums with animations and celebratory designs.