9/11 Newsuem Visit

Allison Friedman

Newsuem Exhibit

9/11 Exhibits

            The picture that I chose to reflect upon was a picture from the 9/11 exhibit of a person jumping out the window of their office on 9/11.  Most news articles and newspapers chose not to have this picture represent 9/11 because this day was already looked upon as one of the most horrifying days of the century.  But I think the picture of the people who were on fire jumping out the windows of their office bring to play a bigger picture at hand.  The camera angle is an extreme long shot so that the people who are jumping out their windows look like ants and don’t mean much to the naked eye.  But looking closer at the image you realize what is actually going on and it makes you take the image into second consideration. 

            The fact that the person jumping out their window is so blurry and so small represent s the insignificance of their death compared to the devastation of 9/11 as a whole.  Since I am from New York and just about 30 minutes outside the city, this event will forever hold meaning inside me.  I remember watching the news that day and watching the people jump out the window that were on fire because they didn’t want to deal with the horrible death that was about to be brought over them.  But looking at a photo of the same exact image, it holds much more meaning to me.  Now, many years after the tragedy struck, the image of people jumping out the windows of the building mean so much more to me then when I was a mere 4^th grader. 

            The techniques that the photographer used were very little.  The photographer had no chance to explain what was going on in front of him in a different way then how he saw it, so he documented it exactly how it was.  Therefore I think that the image is a lot stronger because it holds many truths to the actual events of the day.             

            The picture however was out of focus, which made the viewer look twice at the falling victim.  This out of focus range brought many more viewers to the problem at large because they had to really pay attention to the victim and what was going on in the world around them. 

            On a personal note and someone who experienced 9/11 at first hand I felt that this photo stuck out most to me and that’s why I chose it.  Not many people can tell me stuff about 9/11 that I already didn’t know; just in my friends I had parents who died when the building crashed and parents or relatives who are suffering now form helping the victims of 9/11.  There is truly nothing I would improve about this photo because it says so much just by being out of focus and making the viewer have to look twice at it to understand it. 

            Of course what attracted me to the piece was the personal connection and what I love about the picture is that you can’t get everything by just looking at the photo.  The viewer has to research why people are jumping out windows and really put themselves in their shoes and understand the pain that they are going through to cause this action of instant death.   

Art To Life

Group Project

Art To Life
Tomato Soup

      This project could have gone a lot more smoothly.  As a group we were a little shaky in pre production and truly couldn't decide what picture to do.  We all decided on Andy Warhol as the artist but we couldn't all decide a picture that we all liked.  We decided to settle for the Soup Can picture because logically it was the easiest to do in such short notice.  I wasn't thrilled about this because I thought that we could push our boundaries and comfort zone by doing a more challenging picture.
     Unfortunately the day of the filming, I had come down with strep throat.  Therefore I wasn't so much apart of the filming and pre production process.  There was no story board directly made, just a list of shots, which made it difficult in the post production process to decipher the time sequence because the shots were shot out of order.  To add onto this the story wasn't well thought through and the original plot line was virtually impossible to get from the scenes.
    From my understandings Ian did most of the filming considering he is a film major, and Alex, Molly and Jaclyn did the acting.  There was also a problem when it came to the acting because the actions weren't thought out prior and therefore scattered and confusing when going to shoot.  I edited the project with the help of Jaclyn to make sure things were in the right sequence.
    Editing went quite smoothly because although this was not my first encounter with Final Cut Pro, this was my first encounter where I was able to do everything by myself without getting help.  This is very important to me to take away from this project because I am a film major and editing is a big and expected part, and to be able to have a good grip on how to do everything on final cut pro without the help of others is a big deal.
   In the end although the pre production was a little sloppy causing there to be some bumps down the road, we were able to get our project done in time and with good quality.  We worked on match up action a lot, shooting the same scene multiple times from different angles so that the viewer could get the total perspective on what was going on.  We also used things like close ups and reaction shots to help further our point of the fight over the soup without saying words.  Overall this project came out good, and I would work with this group again.

Group Project Discussion

My group was well organized and everyone pulled their part.  Our word was indifference, which was difficult at first.  The word indifference itself means “lack of interest or concern.”  The firs thing my group did was focus on examples of what we thought indifferent meant to us, and where we could find it in everyday society.  We came up with some examples like, walking past a homeless person and not acknowledging them or pollution washed up on the shore of a beach.  Once we though of these examples we decided how we were going to do the project.  We decided to all work separate and all take 10 photos.  Although we worked apart, we united as a group and were able to pick the strongest photos. 

Ian went to Georgeortown where he stood on a corer documenting all the people walking by this homeless man that was simply asking for money.  He contributed a lot by going out shooting for about an hour.  Alex went away that weekend and took photos of liter on beaches.  Last Jaclyn took photos of people throwing trashcan next to the garbage instead of taking the extra step and putting it in the garbage.  These were all great examples of indifference.

Then came my contribution to the project and I didn’t have to travel far.  Walking around Tenley Town, it was overwhelming the amount of indifference that was taking place.  There were newspaper stands knocked over, beer cans thrown on the ground in a residential area, but what shocked me the most was the plastic bottles thrown in the trashcan.  American University prides itself on being a green campus and clearly most people in Tenley Town are American University students.  Therefore when there are recyclable bottles thrown in the trashcan, it defies our green statement. 

When taking the picture of the bottles in the garbage I decided to use an angle of high to low.  This was to show that the viewer can literally look down into the trashcan and realize that they are better than this because the angle they are at is higher.  When shooting I took many different angled shots and I even tried making it from the prospective of the poor bottles in the trashcan but I felt that to get in touch with my audience I needed to make them feel that they were better than this.  That’s why I chose the angle that I did, and hopefully the message was clear.  

Biz Card

Contact Sheet for Photoshop Basics

Product Placement

Chapter 6

2/15/11

Product Placement

            To me product placement is the most efficient and the biggest success.  There’s nothing I love more in a movie or a television show than a good product placement.  Considering I want to and plan on going into the film industry, I know and understand that product placement is a major part of it.  I think that the biggest product placement of all times and the one that truly set the bar was the Reeces Pieces in E.T.  But not all product placements are up front like that, they can be hidden in the background so your mind registars it but you don’t pick up on it right away. 

            I think that product placement is also the safest and most clever way to promote a product.  While the company whose product is being promoted is fronting money to pay to have their product in the film, they gain sales but the real win is for the film.  With these products placed into the frames, it makes the situations look more lifelike and therefore it allows the viewers to relate to what they are watching more.
Therefore I feel strongest about product placement because it is a win win for both parties, the production crew and the product.  Product placement doesn't say buy my product or give you a 2 min speech on how it is the best product in the world.  They simply stick the product into the scene with an influential actor/actress and you immediately associate them with the product and decide for yourself whether you think that the product is worth buying or not.  Inevitably it is up to the viewer to decide what you want to think about the product, unlike the Benetton ads that forced their own opinion on you. Benetton had very strong views and either you fully liked it or fully hated it, there was no in between and therefore was a very tricky campaign.  With product placement, there is no forced idea, you can put the product in the good guys hand, but it is ultimately up to the viewer to decide.