CommunARTy

“The cultural effects of the print medium were rationality and social fragmentation; audiovisual mass media, by contrast, provided a continuous and instantaneous stream of information from an enormous variety of sources” (Murphie & Potts, 2003).

This means that now people are more aware of the world as a ‘village’ community, in which there is a globalised flow of information and the linearity and rationality of printed print-dominated cultures was left apart. 

I wanted to start with that quote because those thoughts were the starting point for what we can call now an “online community”. Through time, people started to feel more fascinated by exposing their own content, which could be know for many others just by having access to the Internet. As a result, they started shaping their own preferences, which led to the creation of specialised communities for all tastes, destroying in that way language and cultural barriers. 

Personally, I wanted to belong somewhere where I could share my knowledge, thoughts and most importantly, my art work (Finding a community). That is why I searched my ‘Big Five’ art sites and found Art DepartMENTAL’s Facebook community.

“THIS GROUP IS TO UNITE MEMBERS OF THE ART DEPT FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD WORKING IN FILM & TV TODAY, CREATING AN ART DEPARTMENT HUB FILLED WITH EDUCATION, INFORMATION, INSPIRATION, AND MOTIVATION“. 

This description called my attention immediately. But before posting something I felt like I had to do a more intimate approximation, so I sent an inbox with a petition form. The group’s manager answered me immediately and told me that she had already signed it and they where going to make a post about that. Now it was time to post in the community.

It was strange because in spite of the group’s description, people used it for sales or art questions (how to do). In consequence, my post was out of tone in comparison with previous ones but I felt that I had found the correct platform (better than Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest) because this community had 6283 members and was much more active than the others. Then, I understood that I had posted something for thousands of art directors (specific audience) and as 3 days passed, I received a very motivating response form another art director: “Good job ..I wish you well with your future career”. Besides, I got a ‘like’ from another art director who added my as a friend.

As I only made one contribution, I consider it wasn’t that successful; that’s something you achieve by participating a lot. However, after my post, people actually started to show more of their work. I was impressed by the difference before my post and after it. Although people didn’t ‘like’ or ‘comment’ the posts, that’s the path the community has to follow in order to achieve its objective.  

In conclusion, I know my community has the right audience and platform, what is left now is encouraging people to participate more and understand that each member can be a “Socialeader sharing emotionally charged social currency for the benefit of others” (Oatway, 2012, pg. 107). An what better than learning about art with such a huge community! 

Bibliography

Andrew Murphie and John Potts, Culture and Technology. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Print. 11-38

Oatway, Jay, Apr 26, 2012, Mastering Story, Community and Influence : How to Use Social Media to Become a Socialeader Wiley, Hoboken. 97-109. 

Community, art, community

Through the past weeks I’ve been very interested about online communities. I consider these one of the tools for success nowadays whatever your occupation is.

In fact, as I told you before in a previous post I entered to the Facebook community of Art departMENTAL (closed group). At the beginning I was not convinced about posting anything, like…I saw the previous posts and I just saw art material sails, questions about how to do this or that and just one person showing the work he had done as an art director.

I had nothing to loose, so I posted a picture with one of my art works. At the same time, I wrote a phrase that maybe could call people’s attention and now I had to wait…

So here’s the picture I shared. It was a tv show in which the aim was to do a tribute to The Beatles! I created all the concept, however, my team did an awesome contribution for the execution.

Finding a community

A couple of weeks ago I posted some sites that could be useful for us, art directors. What I never imagined was that there existed such a huge community in one of those sites. Art departMENTAL, which I have name in many of my posts, has this big community through out numerous social sites that not only allows art directors to know each other, but to share content, questions, knowledge and their experiences.

The element that I would like to explore is how does that community receives me as a participant of it. That’s why I decided to get in the Facebook community and post some of my work. What I have to wait now is the response!!

During this process, I have found some interesting material that I want to share with you. Because I think an art director should not only be known by the “voice to voice” of the people, but for their valuable contributions in social media. That’s why I recommend a segment of the book Mastering Story, Community and Influence : How to Use Social Media to Become a Socialeader, written by Jay Oatway. In this book the author emphasizes in where to start looking for a community, what to do when you find it, hoy to build bridges, and other few advises.

I encourage you to take a look to the book and to the communities of the sites I posted before! 🙂

My Top 5 Art sites

During all my career as an art director, I have encountered some interesting internet sites that are worth checking out if you’re interested in art direction and production design. I chose these 5 sites because I consider they offer valuable tips, information and most of all, numerous images that inspire other artists.

1. Art DepartMENTAL 

This blog is very interactive and has many resources such as books, web sites & blogs, magazines, publications, directories & data bases, a glossary with very useful terms for an art director and interviews with successful people in the industry; to mention a few. Besides these resources, you are also able to participate by commenting posts, sharing tweets or joining to the community through its social media.

2. Production Designers Collective 

This site has a monthly design review about read books and articles, photos glanced and exhibitions visited. Besides that, you can also read independent interviews done to different production designers.

3. The Production Designer is In 

This blog let us know why the art director is important and what is its function. What I like the most is that this blog is very visual, so they have lots of images and videos!  

4. Production Design Inspiration 

This blog, as the previous one is very visual but what I like about it is that it’s a tool for getting inspired as an art director or production designer. If you what to be a good one, you need previous inspiration in order to create a good art concept. 

5. Production Design for Films

This blog shows the behind the scenes of the movies. This is really important because it’s now only important to create a concept but how to execute it. 

 

The Art of blogging

At the beginning of this blogging journey, I was astonished at how useful this kind of media was. I had never had a blog before except for other university tasks, but now I had the opportunity to write about what I liked: Art Direction. Although it’s not an easy job not expressing yourself in your mother tongue, this excited me in such a way that I couldn’t stop thinking about my art work being exposed and helping other people to do the same. As soon as I realized this, like Miles (2006)  says, I was be able to develop multiliteracies that allowed me to participate as a creator, rather than as a passive consumer. In consequence, I suddenly understood that my blog would offer me opportunities that other forms of writing didn’t before. For example,  to develop my online  art portfolio creating categories for my individual posts around topics such as music, short films and production design. Additionally, I think, as Miles (2006)  mentions, the use of my blog has allowed me to explore my online identity in such a way that as I write, I have been finding my own style and more importantly, I have realized that receiving a comment (which is a form of hypertextuality)  or views from other people, makes me more socially recognized on the Internet, which nowadays is essential for anyone.

Moreover, networked literacy, as Miles (2007) names it, made me understand that the way of writing had changed and now I am immersed in a social process in which anyone is able to read what I write and I’m also able to read other’s creations. In fact, this has made me enjoy this experience because I have been able to find other amazing art blogs, such as Art DepartMENTAL and then when I get enough experience, my blog is going to be read by lots of people all over the world. Thus, what excites me about this new literacy is that I contribute my content to others and at the same time publicize the importance of the art director, like I do it in my post ART is in the AIR, because  I think there is not a lot of information about this role and my mission is to bring some change with this blog.

Finally, I consider hipertextuality has became an essential element of networked literacy. This is how I could understand that a text is not only a set of written words; it can be an image, a video…even a link; as I wrote in my Hypermedia Experience. I believe now that my research, communication and arts skills have improved by the fact that I have been able to browse through numerous blogs and websites which have enriched my knowledge and my blog. Now, my goal is to create an amazing experience to my future followers and provide them a world of interactivity applied in my posts.

 

Bibliography: 

• Miles, Adrian. Blogs in Media Education: A Beginning [online]. Screen Education, No. 43, 2006: 66-69. Availability:<http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=374037672250272;res=IELAPA&gt; ISSN: 1449-857X. [cited 11 Apr 16].
• Miles, Adrian. Network Literacy: The New Path to Knowledge [online]. Screen Education, No. 45, 2007: 24-30. Availability:<http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/documentSummary;dn=805521387210748;res=IELAPA&gt; ISSN: 1449-857X. [cited 11 Apr 16].
• https://equella.rmit.edu.au/rmit/file/5827c6cc-7cad-463e-8db2-182a30d8e642/1/130130_3_002.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hypermedia Experience

At first, I was reading an interesting article in Art DepartMENTAL  about an interview with the production designer Ethan Tobman, which designed all the art for the film ‘Room’. As I was reading, I really didn’t know much about Ethan, so I clicked in his name and that took me to IMDb  and I read his biography and some of the films in which he worked. Then, I went back to the article and continue reading and I saw that at the end of it was a video: in was the interview. As I saw it in Youtube, I started looking at the sidebar and clicked in a video called Production Design Course . I watched it for a while and then I looked at the video comments and saw that the full course was on the school’s web site (FilmSkills). Finally, I ended up reading about the school; its courses and instructors.

Secondly, also in Art DepartMENTAL I clicked a link on the blogroll of friends and supporters of the blog, which took me to the web site of David Beech, who is a production designer. I saw some of his work in numerous movies and then I ended clicking in ‘links’ on his menu. It was a list of links that were related to him. So I clicked in ‘Focus Films’ link and that took me to David’s biography.

These experiences made me think that the more options of hyperlinks and hypertexts, the more possibilities you have to end in a very different thing that the one you were before. However, in my case, everything had to do with the art direction topic.

Beyond film

Art directors are everywhere in an audiovisual production. What we search for during our entire career is personal style that gives us uniqueness and freedom to chose wisely all the elements of a scene. 

What I mean with this, is that as an art director one can work in such variety of projects, that is through those projects that you actually end with a personal signature in your art work. It doesn’t matter what industry are you working for, film, music, theatre, tv…all of them give you the opportunity to explore different things but at the end all what you have are experiences and knowledge…that’s what I love about being an art director. 

Besides, I consider it’s important to expose your work. For example, today I’m sharing one of my works in the music industry. It’s essential that you listen to people’s opinions about your work because that gives you the opportunity to improve always. 

Being part of this project was amazing. I feel the art it has totally characterizes my style and it’s great I have the option to share this with you. 

Finally, I would love to know what do you think about it, your feelings and emotions when you see the art and complement it with the music…awesome right? 

ART is in the AIR

I was thinking that before giving you out tips about what you should do as an Art Director, you should first know the importance of this role in a film or audiovisual project. For that reason, I would like to describe some few points that will help you decide if you want to get involved in such responsibility!

Generally, Art Directors:

• Create all the visuals of the film (with the help of the biggest production team: ART Department).
• Are responsible for the look and feel of the film.
• Manage wisely the budget. Economize and spend well money! It’s essential for a production.
• Are aware of their sub departments. This includes: make-up department, construction department, set decorator, set designer, etc.
• Are always aware of the continuity of the film. This is very important, because as there are cuts in the same scene, it is essential that the Art Director keeps continuity controlled.

In the image below you can observe the work we did with one of our actresses in “Héroe”, my first short film. She had to sit for hours in that chair and even though there were cuts and she stood up from the chair, we had to keep the ropes always the same, and besides that, we had to pay attention to her make-up as the scene gave much importance to his facial expressions.

Finally , I would like to recommend an article: “The Art of Production Design: Getting the Most out of Your Film’s Visuals”, which discusses in more depth the importance of the art director. In fact, it is one of my favorite blogs: ART DepartMENTAL , I personally think it has very interesting articles.

Héroe

Héroe was my first short film as an art director. From pre production to post-production I had to work with my other art direction partner to make the whole look and feel of the film represent the director’s idea.

The pictures below represent in a good way the effort we had to make in order to design the film’s main characters. Long hours of drawing and erasing, drawing and erasing until finally we gave life to “Captain Force” and “Drako”. The good and the bad would be facing in a battle that would be defining the world’s fate.

During my next posts, I will be glad to show you the whole process I had to pass through in order to achieve good results in the short film. Besides, I will be happy to share with you all the material I used as a base in the pre production, for you to have an idea of how to do it for your future films! 😊

 

Arts Law

This week found a very valuable information about the use of material that is owned by someone else on my blog. Currently, there is an information sheet  which shows legal issues for bloggers. I found this very important because my blog is about art direction in films, then I have to be very careful with copyright that may have some references that use.

How this affect my blog?

1. I have to have knowledge about the Copyright Act 1968 because it protects original works that I could one day use in my blog such as: artistic works, dramatic works and films.
   1. In consequence, it is strictly necessary to obtain the copyright owners permission! 
2. In the other side, creative commons would allow me to permit the use of my blog from other people. I consider this very important because, personally, I would like that many people get to know more about my works 🙂 That’s why I already got my Creative Commons Licence, which is placed on the blogroll.
3. An interesting link that I found really helpful for finding works with creative commons is here: https://search.creativecommons.org 

IMPORTANT: In order to use or share other’s content in your blog, you have to be sure that they don’t infringe copyright!

For further information you can visit Australian Copyright Council and the Arts Law website