Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Post #5

Dove Campaign for Real Beauty by Sara:
First off, the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was probably my favorite of the three webtexts. Almost everything about the website I loved. The choice of color is probably the first aspect of the webtext that really jumps out at you. The bright blue color goes with the blue color of the font that is the Dove slogan/label. Not only are all the texts blue but there are blue borders on white text box. The blue and the white contrast really well and the blue writing stands out on the white background. Then the blue border really frames the white box and text well. The background of the whole page is a lovely mix of both blue and white. It is a clever pattern of birds, flowers and clouds. Overall the webtext has a womenly feel to it, which I am sure was the author's purpose because the Dove for Real Beauty Campaign targets women. There really was not anything that stood out to me that I disliked.

Life-Based Web Comics by Ariel:
The Life-Based Web Comics webtext by Ariel was very straight-forward. What I liked about the webtext was that it was all very well organized. It was very clear where everything was and there weren't any surprises. Even though I liked that it was all very well thought out and very organized, I think the page was a little boring to me. I really did not like color choice, it seemed a little more masculine and plain.

Credit Unions by Brandi:
The link for Credit Unions by Brandi was not found/not working.

The way I want to design my webtext is very simple. I want to have a bright and inviting color because for me that is what stands out, plain/masculine colored webtexts did not appeal to me. Although I do want a bright and inviting color like the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, I did like the simplicity of the layout of the Life-Based Web Comics webtext, so I will probably keep my webtext fairly simple. I only want to have what I need on my page, no extra fluff. I like the page to be centered and I also want to add some visuals by having some sort of image on the page.

Post #4

For Project #2: Multumodal Analysis Webtext, I decided to choose to look at six different Ads in the upcoming Presidential election. The election is between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney. I wanted to look at ads that are against Obama and ads that are against Romney. I feel like these particular ads add drama and really take into account the effects and modes that are used.

Ads against Obama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHPa_LZOM2s&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j79YA1rRiWM&feature=endscreen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI3XWNApnr8&feature=plcp

Ads against Romney:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/15/obama-mitt-romney-economy_n_1886148.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpZMOCuaB78
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60ziBFRKTnk





Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Post # 3 continued...

Alignment cont.:
Question 4: The curvature of the words, aligning with the background image of the eye relates the what the audio track is saying because the audio is talking about tears and the words fall from the eye, similar to tears.
Question 5: The lack of alignment tells us about the emphasis, sequence, and purpose of this text by showing that there is not a real connection between the three. That all three are going to be layed out differently.
Proximity:
Question 1: I placed certain categories of information closer together.
Question 2: I feel like the most important piece of information is the title and it was made in the largest font. It reflects how I think it should be arranged by having the most important being the focul point of the cover, largest font.
Question 3: Laying things out in a traditional way might come across as plain or uninteresting. A non-traditional format might be not having the title top center, but instead maybe on the bottom. By rearranging where things normally go, it may give it more orgininality.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Post #3

Emphasis:
Question 1: My attention is drawn to the pad and paper in the center of the video, where the women is writing out the text that we are meant to read. The strategies the author uses for this text is to put stress on the the words being written while having no speaking in the video and light music in the background only. I feel as though it is effective in the sense that my eye was drawn to what I think the author wanted the audience to be looking at but at the same time I have no idea what the point of the words on the paper meant.
Question 2: The moment of stillness can be understood as "emphasis" because the author is allowing the audience time to let the information sink in and it puts more of a focus on what we had just watched.
Question 3: Sound does play an important role. The soundtrack helps to emphasize certain moments in the clip by playing this more dramatic background music during the women writing on the pad of paper. I do not see how it puts an emotional emphasis on the meaning of the clip because the music actually distracts me personally from what is going on in the clip. I feel as though there is too much going on with the music, the way the clip is filmed and the writing/drawing on the pad.
Contrast:
Question 1: The words on the gray box contrast the cartoon in the background. For the most part of the video, your eyes tend to focus on the cartoon in the background and what is going on with that but when the author put the gray box up with the words that was what my eye was drawn to. I believe that was the purpose of having the gray box was so that the audience would be more likely to read the text.
Question 2: The elements that are contrasting are the words that are being written/said on the screen and the music in the background. I feel as though the cartoon background was deleted from this section because there was no real point to why there would be cartoons. In other sections with the cartoons, the cartoons pertained to what was being said during that time on the clip. While during the section I feel like it was more appropriate to just have a black background. The element that is most emphasized now is the text and the text that is being read aloud.
Question 3: If I was asked to created a poster, I would most likely use elements that were focused on in the video and not stray too far from that. Obviously I would not be able to have moving cartoons or sound but I would use some cartoons on the poster and put and emphasis on The JUMP, making it the focus of the flyer and then probably adding in a smaller blurb about what it is.
Organization:
Question 1: I chose the roses as the first picture to convey that the sequence of photos is going to be on the happier end of things. Then the next photo was the addition photo. I chose this thinking of it more as a photo that conveys the point of 'you can do anything if you practice/try' then the next photo was of the women painting the picture that says "we can dream". This photo I chose because of what the painting said. The next picture was the picture of the fist and the American flag. This kind of just shows power and the fight that people have to do something. Finally the last photo I chose was a crowd of people cheering and I chose this one because I wanted to end with a happy photo that wrapped up that hard work pays off and there is happiness in the end.
Question 2: I feel as though if I would have arranged my photos in a different way, it still would have conveyed generally the same feelings and arguements I made with the first arrangement of photos but it would have been more confusing. The same messgae of happiness, effort and triumph may not have come across as well.
Question 3: I feel as though playing music and adding texts in this case could definitely make this argument stronger because it would have made my point a lot easier to convey. Music could definitely be crucial in understanding.
Alignment:
Question 1: the alignment of the word murmuring, coming vertically on the screen made me focus more on it than when the word insects pops up way faster and horizontally. Murmuring, falls slower and that is what my attention is focused on.
Question 2: In the Earth scene, I still tend to focus on the lettering that comes in vertically. Although that is true, the music in the background catches most of my focus. I am not sure if all the elements in the scene would be effective if the didnt share alignment, I feel as though I would have to see it first hand in order to be the judge of that.
Question 3: I think that the alignments are different in the air and the earth scene because in the air scene there is a flock of birds at the top of the screen, so it made sense when the letters fell from the top. Also i liked the background music but the audio tracks I found to be very distracting and I dont know what the purpose of the audio track was.
Question 4: continued....