There were three parts to our narrative two project. We had the actual narrative to do--which including designing a book jacket for our chosen perspective from English. We played around with the first, second, and third person to create three versions of the same story and to build character to what they were thinking and feeling. It was to practice building dimensions to the character to make it more interesting. To make the book jacket cover, I used InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. We practiced taking headshots with speedlights and used the biography and fake quotes to finish it. We used Aftereffects to animate the same perspective we chose, using a three dimensional animation program.
The second part was the surrealist unit. We experimented with HDR photography--shooting the same object, but with different shutter speeds and combined them to create a surrealist looking image. We then had to make a larger composition, including several HDR shots into one. In English, we playing around with surrealist games, involving several people to compose a piece. You'll see some examples later.
And lastly, the Blink unit. We meditated to be in a "zen" mode and responded to a prompt shortly after that. We were given ten minutes to complete it and then began drawing, using lines and patterns to reflect our unconcious for three days.
I felt very stressed during the blink unit because I had to redo three pieces of art and had failed doing it right three times. I was under a huge time crunch between Psychology AP testing, looking for jobs, summer plans, college housing, getting ready for my mom's birthday and mothers day, and trying to spend time with family before going away.
The last time he saw his daughter was six months ago. She had not written him or called since she went off to college. Maybe she had a man, maybe she was busy, maybe she was doing fine. Whatever the circumstance was, he couldn’t reach her. The only way he could get a hold of her was to pop into her work. It had been too long.
As soon as he parked in front of Jamba Juice, he defaulted to his phone to check the Giant’s score to calm down. He felt that walking into her workplace was bittersweet. He felt ashamed for letting it get this far, but still had an ounce of hope that maybe they could reconnect. He stopped in the middle of the store. She was on register.
“Hi. How may I help you?”
He came up closer and cleared his throat. I’d like a Strawberries Gone Wild.
“Okay, anything else?”
“No.”
“So... what brings you here Dad?”
“I just wanted to see how you were doing since we haven’t talked in awhile.”
“...I was wondering if you wanted to come home to watch the Superbowl with the family.”
“...I’m sorry for whatever I did to make you distant from us.”
“...You didn’t take me seriously when I told you I wanted to major in art…”
‘“Because I wouldn’t be “successful”’
He drew back. “...Anyways, I’ll make your smoothie.”
“It’s short.”
“Oh..yeah. Just a second.” She shovels in two more cups of strawberries, hoping it will fill up the 3 ounces left. It comes out just right.
“Here you go…”
“Thank you.”
“So...will we see you later?
“Yeah...I’ll be there.”
Kalisa peeps up from the dishwasher to the entryway of Jamba Juice. She drops the blenders quickly, noticing people standing outside and walks briskly towards the cash register as she hastily dabs her bubbly forearms and wet hands. As soon as she gets to the cash register and swipes her cashier card, she’s caught off guard. She mutters solemnly to the 40-year old man dressed in a full tux “How may I help you?”
He simpers at her.
“I’d like a Mango-A-Go-Go.”
She’s at a loss for words. Usually she would recite the order as she entered it, but she remained quiet. Her mind started to race. The amount of upsetting questions popping in her mind impaired her work ethic. She stood frozen for a few seconds, speechless.
“W-would you like anything else?” Her eyes dash back and forth, getting nervous about incoming people in line. “...Do you want a wrap, sandwich, pretzel…?”
He steps back retrospectively, remembering fondly how he taught her to be a saleswoman. “Oh...no. That’d be it.”
“Okay, 4.19 is your change.”
Kalisa groans as she looks over her shoulder. Everyone else was in the back. She can feel her dad’s eyes on her. She knows exactly how he’s standing--hands in his pockets, with a slight lean with his foot in front, and a hint of resentment.
Her co-worker, Reyna steps out to take the next customer. Kalisa shuffles, filling the blender to the specified amount, dumping cups-full of fruits, and scooping up sherbert. She looks up to get a glance of her dad, seeing if he’s watching her carefully or not as she scoops up ice and blends it on three.
“How have you been lately, Kali?”
“Oh--I’ve been good.”
“How’s Jamba?”
Kalisa looks at him quizzically. “It’s good.”
Her dad steps back and tilts his head. “M-kay. I just wanted to see how you’re doing.”
“Do you want to come to the superbowl party this afternoon?”
“Maybe.”
“When do you get off?”
“2:30 pm.”
“It starts at 3.”
“O-kay, I’ll come.”
I became light-headed with a slight migraine. I could feel my cheeks getting hot after looking at the stacks of blenders. A whole soccer team had just come by and it finally cleared out.
Who names a smoothie Five Foot Frenzy? Why is Peanut Butter Moo’d Moo’d Peanut Butter on the register? How will I stay in this job? I sigh loudly. My dad just came from church. With more gusto, I walk over calmly to get my dad’s order.
Why is he here? Didn’t he understand that I didn’t want to see him? His slight simper caused me to shake. I stopped shaking abruptly, knowing that I should treat him like any other customer.
“Hi. What would you like?”
“Mm..I’d like a Mango-A-Go-Go.”
I swiped my register card to put in his order. I scratched my head, getting annoyed with the register options. Where was it?
“Okay, would that be it?”
“..Do you want a snack with that? A pretzel--?”
“No, that’d be it.”
“..but would you like to donate to the American Heart Association?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. That’s $4.19.”
“Here’s your change.”
I turn rapidly towards the dipbox station. I grab the blender hostilely and pace quickly over to the Passion-mango juice kraftco. To make sure that I am going along with a sense of urgency I aggressively scoop up two cups of mango. I can feel his eyes following me as I dunk two pineapple sherbert scoops into the blender with some ice. I blend it on three, itching for it to time out. I wanted him to leave as soon as possible, but he advanced towards me. He cleared his throat and asked me how I was doing. Of course I just simplified it to “I’m okay.”
He nodded gently, acknowledging that we weren’t very close anymore. His voice became mulky.
“We miss seeing you, Kali.”
He looked sad, but had an ounce of hope in his eyes. It was superbowl sunday today.
“Do you want to come and watch the superbowl with us?”
I hesitated. It was never really peaceful there.
“I’m planning on getting alot of food. AND your sister and brother are there! Maybe angry bird will stay too.”
I shook my head in disbelief. I had cut ties with my family for six months. It sounded ridiculous to cave into my dad’s offer, but maybe I could reconnect with my family.
In Design we made a book jacket and a surrealist pice. We created a narrative in English and designed the book coer. The narrative is about:
Kalisa, a college-bound student and her dad had a quarrel before she left. He urged her to major in anything besides art to make enough dough. Dismayed, she decided that she’d have to go her own route to fund her own college. Jamba Juice was the ideal place she always wanted to work; it was a healthy and tasty smoothie place with friendly co-workers. This job wouldn’t make much money for her, but at least she’d be enjoying herself there. She still had two years to rack up money to pay off the rest of her education. After a long time of no contact, the dad decides to step in. He decides to visit her during work and invites her to come home to watch the Superbowl.
For the surrealist piece, decided to make an illusion of a garden arch for my piece by putting together a sunflower seed for the stem and leaves that served as the petal to make the flower. I enlarged it because I wanted the flower to work with with the blue gloomy sky and the “cliff”. The cliff was made out of a tree root. The whole of the composition reminds me a lot of Lemony Snicket’s house from the Lemony Snicket movie. To do this, I used Photoshop to do HDR photography and a mixed brush tool to mix the cliff with the flower.I took on a RGB color scheme
I used the mix brush tool in photoshop to attach the sunflower seed to the leaves. The sky was the last touch to set the tone.This piece symbolizes the importance in nurturing others and your environment. When you don’t nurture your environment, the environment in turn doesn’t nurture you. It is a lesson in reciprocity--what you give comes right back.
Creating the bookjacket was easy since we practiced using InDesign in the Documentary unit during my junior year. We used speedlights to take the headshots, just like we did in the profile unit. It was hard for me to think of fake quotes that complemented my book to make it look interesting though. I didn't know what to put for my biography either and summary for the inside flaps.
Making the surrealist piece was difficult for me. I kept messing up the leaves and the sunflower and had to do the black and white in a different program, which messed up some of the filter changes I wanted to do. I spent time selecting parts because I had a hard time putting the composition into the way I liked. I duplicated then replaced some files, making it harder to go back and correct any issue I was having.
enlargen this, use alot of fancyBox^
Web
Did you present your Animatic? How well did you explain how the Animatic fits in the workflow between writing columns and the final animation? Did you include the paper prototypes and explain them? (use photogallery and captions)
