747 Productions Logo

It was a bit of a daunting task: I had only been working at my internship for a few weeks when they asked if I could redesign the logo. I admit, I knew that it needed some serious work the first time I saw it, but I never really thought I was gonna do anything with it. Here's the original stacked up against mine:

The most glaring problem of the original logo was that the design couldn't exist anywhere but a white background. If you wanted to slap it on a poster or something, it would have to include an ugly white rectangle behind it to make it stand out. The easiest way to fix this was to put the contents into a shape so that it at least has some kind of unique form.

I wanted to keep the same basic color scheme, since it had to fit with the same website. I messed with the spacing in "747" to make it fit better in the circle, and wanted it to have that cool shiny web 2.0 button look. So I messed with these layer effects: Gradient Fill, Inner Shadow, Inner Glow, and Bevel/Emboss. I left the main text pretty much as is for it's simple elegance (the font is Monotype Corsiva). I gave the whole shape a slight gray to light-gray gradient, and a light blue outline to tie the colors together.

Rack Room Shoes :30 Ad

In my non-linear post production class, all are assignments are given to us with all the footage, and it is up to us to turn it into something useful. These projects are "tests" that are given to prospective editors to assess their skill level and creativity.

For this project we had to create a 30 second ad (which of course means 29 seconds and 29 frames - that last frame is used to signal the next commercial). The add could not be any longer or we would lose points (makes sense to me). We were only told to use 3 computer graphics: "Smart Shoes" "Dumb Boyfriend" and "Rack Room Shoes" (The shoe company for which the commercial was made for in the mid 90's)

The premise: a daughter invites her new boyfriend out to lunch with her parents at a diner. The father is skeptical of the new guy, and the mom is trying to play peace keeper and just have a nice family outing. Meanwhile, the new boyfriend (Judd) engages the girl in some good ol' fashioned footsie. She gets up and leaves (probably cause she was getting too excited...) and Judd realizes that he was just feeling up Dad.

The difficult part came from culling together the right "scenes" of the commercial from literally hundreds of takes. The project was headed by a first-time director, and he didn't quite know what he wanted. So there were no less than 20 takes of the boyfriend walking into frame. It's kinda nice not having to go out and shoot once in a while...but at the same time, it was super frustrating knowing that these shots could have very easily been gotten without all this hassle. There were also entire sequences and lines that would have been impossible to include in the 30 seconds.

I chose the Black Keys' tune "Howlin' For You" (off of their latest album, Brothers) because the commercial was intended for girls in the south. The southern-blues song has the right mix of sexy and playful moods and has a fun sing-songy chorus. I made the graphics in Photoshop because I thought it would be a good idea to manipulate a single image of text and the arrow instead of using Avid's title tool and then creating another arrow. I also grabbed the Rack Room logo (thanks Google) and threw a light glow around the .png. I thought it turned out pretty good.

Keep in mind...this was shot in the mid 90's...so don't go blaming me for non-HD and whatnot.

Eiffel Tower Power Lines

I always had this grand idea of taking power lines and super imposing the Eiffel Tower in place of each regular thingy. It just kinda reminded me of it - the metal structures holding up each line were just stripped-down, less Parisian version of the Tower itself.

It was done a few summers ago - before I fully refined all my Photoshop techniques. I wish I could say I took the original photograph, but it was actually the second image I found on Google (hope no one minds...) But I mostly used the Clone Tool to paint the sky over the original structures. I then placed a high-contrast image of the Eiffel Tower in each spot where it belongs. I shrunk and lowered the opacity for those that were further away to enhance the illusion of perspective. I also increased the contrast to get a slightly more dramatic sunset. It was just for fun, and was my desktop background for a while.

The Social Network: Movie Review

As Published in The Bradley Scout

When you start a movie off with a White Stripes song, it tends to get my attention and high expectations follow. (I won’t go into detail how Napoleon Dynamite fooled me with similar pretenses...)

Last Saturday, my date and I barely made it in our seats when “Ball and a Biscuit” began rumbling and the Columbia lady popped on the screen. The first scene immediately set the film’s tone and cleared up any confusion that may have occurred from watching the trailers.

Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook Founder/CEO) is a big fat jerk.

The opening scene has Zuckerberg narcissistically ranting about joining exclusive clubs at rapid fire pace at his then girlfriend, while demeaning her intelligence. He is mechanical, unrelenting, and completely self-absorbed and it leads to his girlfriend dumping him and calling him a…well…a big fat jerk (paraphrased).

Thus begins Zuckerberg’s maniacal quest to get recognition. He does it all with relative ease, and his genius never comes into question. After hacking into Harvard’s computer network to create a Hot-or-Not type website, he is approached by some fellow students to program a website that would connect every Harvard student with pictures and personal information. Zuckerberg agrees, and then doesn’t talk to those guys for a while.

In the meantime, he goes to his best (only) friend with an idea for a college social site. His best friend becomes part of the new company, and invests all the initial startup money. Later on down the line, Zuckerberg produces “The Facebook”, ignores that first project for Harvard students, and then leaves his partner and friend in the dust.

The movie weaves in and out of the chronological narrative of the startup of Facebook, and two separate trials of Zuckerberg’s former friends and business partners suing him.

The film artfully unfolds by telling the story from the perspectives of Zukerberg, his then-best friend, Eduardo, and the Harvard guys who asked for the original website. Jesse Eisenberg plays the prodigy-hacker Zuckerberg with the perfect mix of a little bit of vulnerability and a lot of social personality disorders. Sometimes I caught myself liking his “stick it to the man” attitude, but then I was quickly reminded that he’s not being rebellious for any good reason other than furthering his little computer empire. Eduardo, played by Andrew Garfield, offers the most dynamic performance as the once-loyal and only real friend of Zuckerberg. Justin Timberlake also excels as the charismatic and wild card personality of Sean Parker, founder of Napster. The film functions excellently as a character study of the strange habits, motivations and intricacies of friendships and business partners of our time.

The actual soundtrack differs from the widely distributed trailer featuring a choir covering Radiohead’s “Creep”, which has an awe-inspiring yet melancholy feel. It differs for good reason – Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails scored the movie with a characteristic industrial-noise background that adds a dark and foreboding undertone throughout the movie.

The fitting soundtrack aside, the whole movie feels wonderfully tense as it goes back and forth with accusations, lies, excuses, and leaves the audience grasping for truth. The message of the film is vague enough for you to do a double-take before you actually declare him a jealous and misunderstood tragic hero who just needed to belong.

I was only really disappointed with social commentary that was only hinted at with Timberlake’s character. Instead of examining how Facebook changed business, social networking, and the Internet itself – the zeitgeistal shift is overshadowed by a story of ambition and greed. While still valid topics, I still cannot get over how this particular big fat jerk conquered our culture to become the CEO of a $25 billion company. See the movie to understand the history of that little part of your life that you utilize every single day.

Grade: A-

The Bob Dylan Translator

I was in an audio-production class my sophomore year. It was a blast, and among other projects there were PSA's, music mixes, and even a DJ show. We had to make a few 30-60 second commercials with original content, and for this particular commercial, I directed two friends (you would think that they were actually PROFESSIONAL voiceworkers!), Andrew Stewart and Joe Olafsson - two overall cool guys.

I don't know where the idea for a Bob Dylan Translator came from...but I was just getting into his music at the time, so it was a great opportunity to utilize my new favorite artist. The commercial goes like this: two fellas are hangin out, and one laments that he cannot understand what Bob Dylan sings sometimes. The other, luckily, has the official Bob Dylan Translator that helps decipher his lyrical genius.

It's pretty silly, but I thought the humor was there. The robot-like translated part came from recording my Mac's built-in text-to speech capabilities. I wrote out the lyrics and then highlighted them and pressed the command key I set up (I'm not sure what the default is, but mine is option+s) You can learn how to use it here.

The volume is a little low, so you might have to turn up the speakers a bit to hear it properly. To view it on YouTube, check it out here.

Summer Albums That Didn't Suck: The Black Keys, Danger Mouse, and Devo

I spent my whole summer avoiding the radio with whatever kids are listening to thee days - the Beibers, Gagas, and Ke$has. Yeah, I may be a bit of a musical curmudgeon…but I know I’m not the only one uninterested in how many floosies come out of the state of california. (I’m talking to you Katy Perry! And the other five people it took to write that awful song!)

That being said, there was actually some great music released this summer. Here are my three favorite albums of the summer.

The Black Keys: Brothers

Release date: May 18th

Certainly the most accessible album on the list, a few tunes from the Black Keys sixth studio album have already gotten some serious attention. The first single, “Tighten Up” had an award-wining video that has gotten airplay on MTV, and can also be heard in the commercial for the new season of House.

The attention is well-earned, and this may be one of the best albums to date. Each song contributes well to the overall theme of the album, without being an actual “concept” album. It has all the great hooks you can expect on songs like “Tighten Up” and “Next Girl”. All the familiar Black Keys song elements and structures are there, and the album is truly cohesive in mood.

Everything is kinda dark, a little melancholy, and it all sounds comfortably fuzzy. It is a straight-forward and soulful tribute to the blues of old, but maintains its catchy rock riffs to make one real cool album.

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse: Dark Night of the Soul

Release date: July 12th

I could have potentially written about this album last year…but under very different circumstances. Auteur producer/Gnarles Barkley member Danger Mouse had an idea for a concept album some time ago. He got together some top-notch collaborators, like Julian Casablancas, Wayne Coyne, and Iggy Pop. Together, they created an album dedicated to celebrating the gritty human condition, with songs like “Daddy’s Gone”, “Revenge” and “Pain”. Most of the tracks deal with some pretty dark subject matter, but all are simply beautiful – due to Danger Mouse’s characteristic dreamy ambience.

Along with a book of photography by David Lynch (who also appears on two tracks) the super album was semi-released last summer. What does that mean? The CD contained was blank. Written on the disk was this: “For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will”. It was an interesting stunt, but still left many potential listeners out in the dark.

It was nice to see the album get fully released this summer, and any indie fan can appreciate its catchy hooks, R&B beats, and the absolute best ensemble of artists you could hope for.

Devo: Something For Everybody

Release date: June 15

I’m just as surprised as anybody to find that the first Devo album in 20 years is fantastic. I wasn’t exactly a Devo fan prior to the album, but like any fan of music, I thought 1980’s “Whip It” was awesome. My mom, knowing this, TiVo’d the band playing on Regis and Kelly over the summer. They played “Whip It” and their first new single, “Fresh”. I was blown away and got the album shortly after.

First of all, you gotta remember that Devo has been playing music since 1973…so these guys are old. But knowing that, you cannot help noticing how cool they are. These guys are playing synth-based satirical songs that rock harder than a lot of stuff out there now. When a song like “Don’t Shoot (I’m a Man)” has a repeated chorus of “Don’t taze me bro” it is hard not appreciating the charm of these hip 60-somethings.

The album is a blast to listen to, and I dare you not to fall in love with at least one track.