This is the music video I made for my culminating project in my media arts project :) 

It was so much fun to make! Can’t wait to make another one just for fun!

I also want to give credit to Florence and the Machine for using their awesome song ”Cosmic Love”

My favourite by Shel… I have this hanging on my bedroom doorknob on a little blue spongy sign :) 

A short cutout animation film I made for my media class. Lots of fun, lots of work! Its called The Test. It displays a combination of my frustrations this past week :P

Culture Jamming - 5 Gum

It’s everybody’s favourite gum of course, and chewing one piece is not going to kill you but the fact that aspartame is becoming a regular sugar substitute in most chewing gums is unhealthy. Long term exposure to this man-made amino acid can cause damage such as; hearing loss, epilepsy, alzheimer’s, parkinson’s, etc.. This ad is not just for the gum chewer’s awareness, but for the manufacturer’s as well. Even though aspartame means less calories, would you still want to risk your health, especially if you are a frequent gum chewer?  And it’s not just 5 Gum, its most gum brands that you would find in a convenient store. Aspartame is not the only sugar substitute and I don’t think it should be used so frequently when there are so many negatives about it.

For my ad, I used one of the 5 Gum advertisement for their flavour called Pulse. I decided on this specific type because your pulse, in some cases, is what can be effected through large intakes of aspartame. Then I changed there slogan from STIMULATE YOUR SENSES to OVER STIMULATE YOUR NEURAL CELLS because the way aspartame effects you is that it basically over stimulates your neural cells to death. Then I changed the SUGAR FREE label on the gum package to ASPARTAME FILLED, because that is what allows the gum to be calorie free. Lastly I placed the skull over the face of the ad, but faded the picture so that you can still see the face behind it. This symbolizes the skull and cross bones/ danger symbol, representing the side effects and worst case scenario, death.

Thanks to these two sites for the 5 Gum ad and the skull.

This ad is representing our generation as seniors, still on the couch playing video games. It subverts all video game companies by showing the two older men eating junk food in front of the T.V., playing on their video game console. The harsher looking text (ambiences) was pasted on to the original ad, as well as the picture to represent the idea of creating our own world in technology (the men are all dressed up to play in their life, inside the television). The texture in the ad reveals creativity but then the picture suggest a different kind of creativity, less productive. The target audience would be the newest generations, warning them how these consoles might soon consume their lives. I think the message is fairly clear, but they could have made the background help convey the main subject in the ad a bit better.

This advertisement subverts oil companies, and other companies that you oil to make wasteful materials, such as plastic utensils (as referenced). The image of a spoon is used in this ad to stress the use of plastic utensils being just the lazy way out of doing the dishes. The font in this ad makes the text very effective, the big bold obvious letters tell us what we already know but choose to ignore. Then the fine print at the bottom, is the common sense that most people refuse to believe is true. The layout is very effective because the design is very easy to read, and the text leads the eye down the page. Then you realize you should have known this all along. The contrast between the colours used makes the ad very noticeable and obvious, just like the issue. Also, the harsh lines in the advertisement separate the statements, making them more powerful and informative. This ad is targeting everybody because people of all ages are guilty of buying wasteful dishes and utensils. I think this ad makes it clear that really we are all just too lazy to do our own dishes and will resort to buying disposable cutlery. This ad makes you realize the simple act of going out and buying plastic cups for a party is in fact extremely wasteful in the long run, making it very effective. This ad could maybe be even more effective if it showed the costs in making the product to the cost of buying it, and they could include the amount of pollution created to import and create the products. But overall I would agree that this ad is very upfront and in informative, making it very successful. 

So I am satisfied with the final result of my collage representing myself. I tried to include most of the main things about myself using mostly photographs I found on Flicker. 

Basically I have this thing for inspirational quotes, every time I come across one that I like I have to write it down somewhere, anywhere, because I have a terrible memory. I also love photography, and I have a strange fedish with drawing flowers. I decided to make the flower as though it was the sun because, the colours made me think of a sunset.

I want to go to school for interior design, which is why I chose to place the couch in my collage. I have created an atmosphere that i would love to live in. Setting up space is very interesting to me.

As for the little bug man in the centre… it made me think of children’s stories based on the way it was sketched. One thing people always tell me is never forget what its like to be young. 

Also, Birds are very inspirational to me. They have a very gracefull form about them and together they can shape the sky anyway that satisfies them. And the ability to fly on your own would be incedible. I wish I had wings sometimes.

Then there’s me… looking through the camera at this world I’ve created. These are only some of my favourite aspects about life. 

But most importantly in my collage, is the fact that time does not exsist. The clock is out of order, because that is the one thing in life that truely stresses me out. I feel like I always have to compete with the clock. Someday I hope to befriend time but as for now I prefer not to think about it too much.

So I just want to say thank you to all the photographers from Flicker that took these beautiful photographs that I was able to use in my collage:

Background by  rubyblossom

Bug Man by tgiff76

Quote by imacgyv0r

Clock by Michael Cory

Out of order sign by Rubin 110

Couch by rogue-designs

Flower by colbalt123

Here’s my montage for media arts :) I chose the colour blue as my main focus. This assignment was very simple and fun to make. I think I may use a similar idea in the future for some wall art in my room! 

1. While watching the film Ryan, I was initially freaked out by the grotesque features about the characters. But as I watched, the reason behind the features were explained, which made more sense and in fact made the film more interesting since you could tell how everyone was feeling. I found that to be an interesting quality for the film, were you could see the emotions. The film had a very heavy feeling toward the subject. I did not really like the scenes were there was no actual background. It seemed like the characters were just left floating because there wasn’t enough time to come up with a setting. I did not really mind the video game like animation, but in the most part I thought it suited the film.

2. I noticed there were a lot of angles were the view point was angled either down or from a distance or both. This made the characters in those particular scenes seem trapped or of a lower status, which I guess helped Landreth to portray the sadness and depression of some of the characters. Other view points that I particularly liked were those that showed a closer or more personal view of the characters. For example, when the camera was focused on Ryan’s hand that is all twisted and distorted, or when you can see through Ryan’s eyes when he drinks from his mug. These shots make the characters, and in particular for Ryan, more memorable because you get to feel how the character is feeling and see them upclose. 

3. This film is about Landreth’s experience with Ryan and his point of view on this meeting with Ryan and their discussion about Ryan’s life.

4. This film was made in 2004.

5. I think that the film was successful because it did very well at the National Film Board of Ontario. It was recognized as a great tribute to a very well known artist form the National Film Board who had created inspiration for many artist after him.

6. The only thing I would change about this film would be in certain scenes were there was no background, such as when Felicity is speaking. She could have stayed placed at the table with Landreth and Larkin, with the same background instead of just the grey.