Design for Society
Assignment Title : Support a cause/Community/Charity
This module is about developing communication skills by telling stories through still and moving images that help others make lifestyle decisions. The module was split into a 6 separate assignments. I was required to choose three assignments from those provided. Below are the ones are completed:Use photography and type to produce a poster campaign for two awareness campaigns. Again a number of choices were provided. I chose to produce a poster for the Samaritans and Amnesty International.
SamaritansThe brief for this project is to produce a poster campaign that encourages people with suicidal thoughts to call the Samaritans for help. The strapline for the campaign is ‘Try us first, please!’.
My thought process for this project was that it needed a theme that was ‘hard hitting’ and would really grab a person’s attention. I was aware that it could be controversial and there was a possibility that it could be upsetting in nature. There have been advertising campaigns in the past that have had controversial themes and have damaged brands for example Benetton ran a campaign with pictures of a baby covered in blood and real human hearts to demonstrate ‘United Colours of Benetton’. These adverts damaged the brand in certain countries with sales being hit, however overall awareness of the brand rose, but arguably not in a positive way.
With this in mind I decided to use photographs of methods of suicide before the act took place. For example my first picture was of a hot running bath with a knife next to it. My second picture was of a bedside cabinet with alcohol and pills on it. Only one poster was required to meet the brief but I also had other ideas such as a hosepipe and car exhaust and a person’s legs dangling from a high building.
Whilst the theme of the poster campaign is ‘hard hitting’ it isn’t gory in the same way it could be argued the Benetton adverts were and I don’t believe they would damage the Samaritans brand but reinforce the message ‘Try us first, please!’.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a campaigning organisation. Its purpose is to protect people wherever justice, fairness, freedom and truth are denied. For this poster I decided to focus on a person being incarcerated. There are many people around the world that have been imprisoned unfairly and without trial. Amnesty International looks to campaign for the release of these people. I decided to take a photograph of a person’s hands holding onto bars. Underneath the image I placed silhouettes of the head and shoulders of people which represent the many people that are unfairly prisoned but are often unknown to the outside world. In my opinion it’s a simple but effective idea.
The next assignment I chose was entitled ‘Empathy’
The brief was to use a range of media to produce a 1-2min music driven message that works to support the promotion or eradication of a global, national or local issue. It is aimed to work on a global stage so no words or language was to be used. My planning for this assignment began in November and my idea came from the poppy appeal. I decided to base my empathy film on war, particularly Afghanistan as there are troops fighting there at the moment. The music I chose for the piece was ‘Adagio for strings’ by Samuel Barber. This is a particularly powerful piece of music that I first saw used in the film ‘Platoon’ and I thought it worked particularly well in that genre as it is a very emotional piece. Here is a link to the film. I found the pictures on the internet, I think there are some terrific images there. I didn’t want the images to be too gory as I wished to keep my target audience fairly wide and too include children if possible. I also wanted to strike a balance between both sides of the war without appearing to favour one particular side. I decided to tie this in with the Poppy Appeal and also 90 years of the British Legion. Here is a link to the film http://youtu.be/X7FMzkXQCr8Documentary
Gemma from our group did some voluntary work for the North Clywd Animal Rescue Centre. She thought it would be a good idea to film a documentary about the centre as they’re always looking to raise awareness. After contacting them they agreed we could spend the day filming there. When we arrived we were given a guided tour of the centre. The centre is a registered charity that was founded in 1978 by Anne Owen and has cares for over 1000 animals (dogs, cats and rabbits) a year.It was great fun filming at the centre and very rewarding knowing that we were helping out a registered charity and good cause. I was really pleased with the end result and it was worth the effort we put in. A link to the film will be posted shortly.
The Message
The next module was entitled ‘The Message’ and is all about persuasion for example changing a way of thinking or encouraging a person to buy a particular product (i.e. advertising).
For this module we were asked to complete all of the assignments. These are listed below:
1) Percussive Rhythm – The brief was to capture live action images that contain distinctive sounds (excluding musical instruments) and form a ‘visual soundtrack’. The imagery had to be based on a particular theme, use a multi-screen approach and consider the film having a commercial message. For this particular project I decided to use ‘Sounds of the Kitchen’. I therefore filmed several different sounds from my kitchen. The filming often took place whilst I was cooking dinner so the sounds and images are authentic. I enjoyed this project as it helped improve my editing skills and it was also great working with sound. However, it was more challenging than I initially thought, particularly trying to put the different sounds together to make a rhythm. I think I succeeded though, here is the film.
2) Time lapse/Compression – For this assignment we were asked to create a series of sequences that when speeded up compress time in an interesting and creative way. For this project I decided to film myself painting a picture. Again we had to think of a way this could be used as a commercial perspective. I therefore decided to paint a picture of the New York skyline. It was taken from a photograph I took on a visit to New York a few years ago. I interspersed this with images of clouds and a clock to show the passage of time. I don’t get time to paint very often so it was nice to be able to dust off my brushes and paints for this project. Here's a link to the film http://youtu.be/xCQY3ufeXOM
3) Green screen – It was agreed that we could work as a group to deliver this project. I teamed up with Gemma she had an idea based on an animal rescue theme. A man is surfing the internet looking at a dog skateboarding when his alter-ego pays him a visit from inside the computer to tell him to stop wasting his time viewing silly videos and spend some worthwhile time looking at the NCAR website. Here's a link to the film http://youtu.be/XfjI-lTCRII
4) Photography – This assignment was originally given to us to complete during the summer break. The brief provided us with an opportunity to practice some new camera techniques.
Technique A: The locked off camera. This requires a tripod and a very slow shutter speed so that anything not moving within the frame will remain sock solid and anything else will be blurred. I was lucky enough to go to Las Vegas for my birthday this year and I took this photo (below) of a car travelling along the highway. I like this photo as it looks like the car is floating.
The photo below was taken of a friends daughter as she played in the garden with a kite.
Technique B: The panning camera. This requires a slightly faster shutter speed and the image should produce a reasonably sharp subject against a blurry background. It is a good technique to demonstrate speed and movement. I took this photo at a British Carriage Driving event
From the photos submitted I had to choose one from each category, an appropriate product, words and typography to create a sales campaign for the product. From the panning camera category I chose another photo from the horse trials and the sales campaign was based around promoting the London 2012 Olympics and ticket sales. For my second sales campaign I chose another photo I took whilst in Las Vegas. This was a locked of shot with a long exposure and is of the Paris Hotel on the Las Vegas Boulevard.
Illustrating a feature
The brief for this assignment was to choose either a food or fashion magazine and produce a image for 4 categories. I chose the food magazine and the categories I had to choose from were as follows:
i) Fantastic Fruit – The idea for this photo came from a food magazine. It was November and close to bonfire night so toffee apples were my chosen subject (thanks to Delicious Magazine for the recipe).
ii) Vegetable Visions – I based this photo on an idea I had for the London 2012 Olympics. My thinking was around encouraging people to eat their ‘5 a day’. With the New Year approaching and 2012 being an Olympic year people’s minds are inevitably focussing on shaking off the excesses of Christmas and becoming fitter and healthier.
iii) Pass the Pasta – I decided on another Olympic theme for this feature with a relay baton being replaced with a packet of spaghetti. Pasta is a healthy food and I though this tied in really well with the athletics theme.
iv) Vine and Dine – I came up with several different ideas for this feature all based around food and wine
I enjoyed working on these modules. The work was challenging but varied and interesting. I feel I've learnt a lot of new skills which will be of great value to me in the future.
