Hannah+Schaible

= Hannah Schaible = Year: Senior Major: Communications


 * Assignment #1**

Discussion post about //Tales from the Public Domain: Bound By Law? Trapped in a Struggle She Didn't Understand//

This comic was very informative, as the topic of fair use, copy right, and appropriation in the context of art is foreign to me. I also loved that this information was presented in a comic rather that a dull textbook reading students are used to suffering through. While I was a fan of this comic, the topic does not seem completely cleared up. Fair use is a great idea because like the comic said if everything was controlled and copy righted, then creativity could not exist.

Personally, I have a pretty pessimistic view of corporate intuitions, I worry that what some see as fair use they will make a case against that artist. Then you are at the will of what a judge deems fair or not. I don’t have much confidence that the little guy will be dealt justice when fighting these corporate monsters. The story that comes to mind about a person taking on a major corporation was a couple of years ago when the comedian Nathan Fielder opened “Dumb Starbucks” as a part of his television show //Nathan for You//. This story got a lot of buzz because people did not know if this attack on a brand that most people are aware about was in violation of copyright or under parody law. Luckily there was not legal action taken because this was considered a parody but Starbuck did consider looking into its own copyright to protect their brand from future insistences like this. This small comedy central show changed how a major company thought about protecting its name.

With an increase of art being posted online, there are positives and negatives to this new platform. This digital art can be seen by a much larger audience that if it was in a stagnate place to be viewed. However, with more people being about to see the art, there is a chance that it could be stolen. With the internet, in just a couple of clicks, people can remake your original idea or completely steal in the form of piracy. Trying to eliminate piracy is something I am really big on, and it is so frustrating when I hear my friends talk about the new movie they saw on their laptop before it has even come out in theaters. As a film studies minor I was thinking mainly with film in mind but there are all kinds of art that can be stolen off the internet. My cousin actual had a picture of hers ‘stolen’ from her social media account that a local news station used in one of their stories. I am sure this station legally obtained this picture through the terms and conditions of the social media site but still they were able to take the work of someone else, not give the original person credit, and imply that they owned the picture.

One of my favorite parts about watching a film is when you see references in the scenes or form from a different film. Seth MacFarlane’s //Family Guy// is notorious for referencing other pieces of art in the half an hour episodes. Just the other night I was watching an episode where they were referencing the Hitchcock classic, //North by Northwest//. They even portrayed the iconic plane running down Roger Thornhill, with Peter Griffin being run down. Many of this shows episodes are not just inspired by other movies and television but they directly reference where they are getting this parody content. Some of //Family Guy//’s most famous episodes involve their spin on fanboy’s favorite films //Star Wars//.

All in all, the idea of fair use still concerns me due to my personal pessimism, but I appreciate the concept and understand the importance and necessity.

Exercise 1











Project 1 Surrealist Composite

(1/6) Original Pieces



(2/6) The babies have an added background of sheet metal to give it a more robotic look.



(3/6) The woman holding a child is marching her band of mechanical babies toward some goal. I like the idea of these babies marching across a desert. A symbol of a loss of humanity.

(4/6) I put in a hut to seem that the woman is marching the creepy babies to ransack this building. Shadows, town and eye/moon were added to this piece.



(5/6) The hoard of babies were increased to make it a true army and the figures shadows were changed to spread out the longer the shadow grew. The town was not working as it left the canvas bare, so the story was changed. The woman with a mother complex is guiding her "children" toward a promised better life. The Bliss Bus Stop will take the trek across the desert to where happiness is claimed to be found. Unfortunately, this wasteland does not have good transportation and that is why the van is busted. The windows are not original, they are masked in because the original picture had intact windows when I wanted the van to look more run down. The woman's arm was altered with puppet warp, and boots were added because the original feet were messed up and not clean. The billboards/signs use clone stamping, painting, text edit, and masking. The mountain in the sky or the floating island, is there to add more depth in the piece. Accomplished by masking, and putting multiple mountain scapes together.



(6/6) Shadow was added behind the van and the signs were made bigger. The signs are so large becuase they need to be seen from across the desert. I took out the floating island because I felt that it didn't add anything to the piece anymore.

Final



Writing Assignment

After Effects, or the Velvet Revolution Response  My generation as an interesting and unique perspective on the Velvet Revolution, we were born and grew up in this time period. With this placement there is an interesting parallel between always having digital images integrated into our media culture and appreciating the growth of this craft. I have grown up in a time where when a film maker who uses film verses digital, it is special and praised as digital has become the norm. There is still a high appreciation for “old school” affects, but it is not what is normally done because visual effects can be easier to change, and less damaging to the budget. Though many have an appreciation for film, this article informs generations Z and so on the magnitude which After Effects has changed the editing game. Personalized computers can use this software and with the right instructions almost anyone can create. Understanding how the past was helps people appreciate the present a little more than before.

 This article used a lot of examples that were music videos, and this makes sense for visually experimental concepts. Music videos are pretty powerful forms of art as they combined vocals, mixing, and visual talents into one piece. They are also a place for more experimental visualizations of the songs. It can be more difficult for visual artists to create a video that utilizes visual effects uncommon to mainstream and have a positive review but when accompanied by music there seems to be more of an acceptance of the art. During the period of the Velvet Revolution, music videos were more widespread as they reached a larger audience with the popularization of MTV. MTV even had a whole award show for music videos. Not a large portion of the population are typically going to film festivals to see the changes in visual artistry. There are many people that look up their favorite band’s latest music video and can value the new visuals before them.

 The highly stylizes aesthetics of feature films or television shows are more common than the more experimental examples of music videos. This concept reminds me of the auteur theory in film that a film reflects a director’s personal creative vision through lighting, camerawork, staging and editing. When thinking of some auteur directors like Wes Anderson, Zack Snyder or Tim Burton, their style and look of their films connect to each other as you can see the similarities.

 The concept of creating in “real time” verses not knowing what the final product will look like until it is snapped together is difficult to grasp in a digital world. Changes can be made easily to a film to correct or improve the picture in the eye of the editor or director thanks to the composition window in After Effects. Movies like Sin City or The Matrix would not have been the same if it wasn’t for the visual effects added to the shots after filming was finished. The digital effects added but also the screen or filter that gives off the iconic color palette for these movies, are incredibly important to the design of the film. Though this can improve a picture it can also hinder it. Most notorious is the special edition releases of the Star Wars. There is tons of documentation dissecting each change and how it was wrong. My point is that sometimes this freedom to change can hurt the artistic image. When there is a constant opportunity to alter the image, the alternations might not be in the best interest of the end story.

Gif Assignment



AR Project

I created two Aurasmas, that uncover two views of this university. The first one was created because I was thinking of how I always hear students commenting on how expensive GW is and their frustrations behind that. The second aurasma shows the different benefits athletes get from the school, creating a much more positive image of the university. These are two contrasting pieces one shows the negative view of GW through a filter of having to spend money all the time, while the other takes a view that is less critical. The first AR uses GW logo on the GWorld that transforms into a money hungry monster, that you must feed to make happy again. The trigger image as the GWorld works with this idea because it is tool students use to pay for almost everything. I wanted to have a trigger image that every student at GW has and could have access to my AR easily. The other AR trigger image uses a GW basketball court board. This second AR shows the lighter side of GW with athletic benefits such as gear, textbooks, scholarship, and equipment. While the other AR is commentary on how students view GW as a money hungry establishment, this one highlights GW as a place of opportunity.

The GW Student sequence goes:
 * GW letter turn into snake monster
 * A bust of George yells "Show me the money!!"
 * GW Snake bites at an opening wallet
 * The wallet continues to feed the snake
 * The money disappears and GW snake turns back into the GW letters

The GW Athletic sequence goes:
 * GW athletic logo kicks a basketball and forms into a basket which the basketball scores and "WIN' flashes
 * Clicking on that image will start a montage of benefits. Gear, textbooks, shoes, and money.
 * Clicking on that image will start a video of sports George yelling "RAISE HIGH"
 * Clicking on that image will start a gif of words "scholarship, accepted, degree" These are things that athletes do not have to worry about like normal students. Once they get a scholarship they are accepted into the school they want and get a degree.

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Final Product Run Through