Author Archives: Lisa

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Trajan: A Second, Third, Fourth, etc. Look

I found this short video online and thought it was a interesting way to tie in some of the previous font discussions we’ve had- especially since it’s specific to movies. (And horror movies get special mention 🙂 )

http://blip.tv/file/538349

And I totally agree…but why do they all use the same font?  Maybe there’s some kind of psychological reasoning behind it….like we’re more apt to pick up or go to see movies with that font, or we associate that font with a good movie?

Last year, I took an intro graphic design course at Baruch which focused on typography and layout, the two basics of graphic design.  The main premise of the class was that certain fonts and the way they are placed can evoke certain emotions and convey particular messages.  For example, italics can give us a feeling of being rushed or pressured if placed in straight line, or put us in a dreamy state if placed in a non-linear fashion.

So what really confuses me is why designers would use the same font for thrillers, drama, and romance, sci-fi, etc.  Anybody have any ideas?

ps- side note- Notice the background music when he talks about maybe it’s time to try new fonts…It’s the “movie music!”  I found that hilarious!

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Obamaism- taking away our freedoms

After Thursday’s class discussion, I got thinking about socialism and Obama.  Being politically conservative myself (dare I publish that?), I heard all the talk about Obama being a socialist and turning this country into a Communist state.  I won’t say that there is zero truth in that, but I do recognize it as typical conservative anti-Obama propaganda (aka Obama trash talk).

I decided to do a couple of Google searches on “Obama” and “socialist”, expecting quite a number of wacky websites to pop up…which it did.  On one of them ( http://obamaism.blogspot.com/ if you’re interested) I found a couple of videos which eventually led me to this:

Interestingly, this video was not made for the McCain campaign.  It was made before anyone even knew who Obama was…in fact, before he was even born.  It was made in 1948 by Harding College, a conservative Christian college in Arkansas.  In 1948, they saw the spreading Communism as a threat to the “American way” and the values we share.  They responded by creating this captivating cartoon to convince the American people to think critically about the way of life they have now and how it can change for the worse with the introduction of Communism.

(As an interesting sidenote, one of the main proofs they use as an American capitalistic success is the thriving automobile industry in the US that has created many jobs and boosted the economy at large.  60 years later, the US government had to save the ailing industry and until today it’s seen as a main drag on the economy.)

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First Impressions

First to post….quite daunting….as is the task of figuring out HOW to post when you’ve never blogged before….here it goes nonetheless….

Before this class, I’ve never heard of film noir, nor have I seen any.  So I decided to read the notes about film noir prior to watching DOA.  I was surprised to find that not many of the recurring techniques outlined in the reading were used in DOA.

First off, for a film noir, the movie set was pretty light.  Most of the movie took place during the day as he was doing his detective work.  There was no rain nor any wet streets.  And the movie followed a simple chronological order.

In line with the reading, the movie employed compositional tension rather than violence.  As the main character was (interestingly) solving his own murder, the  tension was definitely felt.    But is that enough to make it a film noir?

As a ps though, what I did find in the movie was a lot of irony.  The man solving his own murder case, standing by “Life” magazine right after the doctors pronounced him dying,…