Production Design for The Life Aquatic

  Mark Friedberg was the Production Designer for the Life Aquatic.  Reading some of his interviews online, I discovered he has a great appreciation for detail which is why he understandably works well with Director Wes Anderson who is known for creating a very specific look and feel with his movies.

It’s not always about graphic representation,” he said at one point, noting that good production design includes “the ballpoint pens in the drawer of the desk that won’t even make it on camera.” Holding up the cap of his bottled water, he said that “this could be as important in a film as a whole cathedral you build,” illustrating how “design for film is not sitting in a room and coming up with grand ideas, like you’re in The Fountainhead—you can’t just leave the details to chance.” And, in keeping with that, “for the directors I want to work with, visual language is as important as the dialogue, or the music, or anything else going on, to tell the story.”

-Mark Friedberg, http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/culture/2012/03/5568823/production-designer-mark-friedberg-shares-secrets-making-cinematic-w


  Part of the visual design includes a very coherent color-scheme, an example of which is apparent in the frames above and below, and exists throughout the entire film.

  Notice the dull blues, contrasting with the red/orange of the hat and the apple.  This use of color makes items 'pop' within the scene, almost makes them more real in a sense.

  The sequence we've selected has a number of unique properties, including the use of stop-motion animation that is intended to give a surreal, almost fable-like atmosphere to the world created in this movie.  Not shown in our sequence, but used throughout the whole film almost as a character is the boat used by Captain Steve Zissou and his crew.  An elaborate cutaway was made as part of  Friedberg's and Anderson's vision, shown below.

   The actual ship used was a renovated WWII minesweeper.  All of these production choices help achieve a certain look and feel when it comes time begin shooting, and were specifically sought after by  Anderson.  Friedberg made the vision come to life, and continued to work with Wes Anderson on his subsequent films like the Darjeeling Limited.   The filmmakers had stated they were going for a Cousteauvian feel, and I think they maintained that.  What I love is that the set design and production design add to the narrative side of the film.  In this film, the main character played by Bill Murray is a washed-up oceanographer at the tail end of his career, and experiencing all the typical mid-life crisis emotions.  The set and props used are also are made to look outdated and worn.  In this way I think the production design of this particular film worked really well.

Axioms of Web Design

www.newrepublic.com


Business/Communication Objectives - In my opinion this site communicates it's objectives in a semi-clear way.  With this particular content it becomes difficult because the content itself is so broad.  However it is clear to me right off the bat that this site regards politics/current events.  After a bit of exploration it becomes more clear where this website stands and what it's specific communication objectives are.

Strong Grid - I think this site has a well laid-out grid.  I like the abundance of negative space, I like the positioning of the text and pictures.  It isn't too busy, but I wouldn't mind seeing some stronger lines.

Lower Right - I thought it was clever from a business standpoint to put the 'sign up' box in the lower right on this page.  Right below that they have an advertisement for the magazine that this site is collateral for.

Continuity - This site isn't designed with a lot of continuity, although it stays true to the subject matter throughout.  It isn't designed to be visually stunning, it puts more emphasis in the content rather than the  aesthetic look.

Intuitiveness - This site doesn't require much intuitiveness.  It's already clear what the links and different sections will display.  The text boxes below each category give a good preview of what each category contains.

Affordance - The environment created by this site doesn't center around affordance.  There isn't anything to do but to click on links and read.  It is less about entertainment and more about information and opinions.

Contrast - This is where this website fails.  It is very biased and specifically designed to be a channel for a very clearly defined political stance.  There isn't much contrast in the visual components of the site itself, as well as the content and information communicated.

Good Looking Means Easy - I think that this webpage does well in this category.  It is easy to read, easy to navigate, visually simple.  There isn't any distractions, there isn't even any ads crowding the gutters.  Its very clean-cut and straightforward and I like that aspect.

Converts - This site is specifically designed to be viewed on a variety of devices, including tablets and phones.  In fact, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes redesigned the website recently with specifically the conversion to aspect ratios in mind.  http://www.npr.org/2013/01/29/170523571/facebook-co-founder-chris-hughes-redesigns-new-republic

Website Design

http://www.milwaukeepolicenews.com/#menu=home-page

This is the landing page for the Milwaukee Police Department.  I thought it was an impressive website for a police department as well as having a good aesthetic and coherent design.  It doesn't however format for a smaller screen, and much of the text is too small to be read on a phone or tablet.

http://www.newrepublic.com/

This website is great and communicating it's objective.  It's easy to navigate and follow and the spacing and design work great in my opinion.  This one is a little simpler than the one above, the images and headlines don't slideshow, everything stays in place.  It's not a very unique design but all together it works for me.

Good and Bad Design in Packaging

  These Duracell AAA battery packs caught my attention, and I think it is very clever packaging.  The immediate grab is the connection to pop culture in a unique and witty way.  I would imagine a large majority of the US population would recognize at least one of the characters on first sight, and they even pander to a younger demographic by including Daft Punk.  The design is very simple, but it works for me in a number of ways.  There's a very nice symmetrical balance vertically, and for the most part they are all one solid color.  The text is easily readable and I appreciate the fact that it's not at all difficult to discern what the packaging contains, they're clearly rechargeable batteries.  Being that they're batteries, and that all of the characters are at least somewhat robotic or electronic in nature, I think gives this packaging coherence and harmony.  Again, there's many people who will have a very emotional response to these images.  In my opinion, this is good packaging design.  

   These are not batteries, they are salt and pepper shakers.  While I can appreciate the uniqueness of this idea, I would never buy these.  At first sight one immediately thinks ''batteries.''  After a closer look its clear they are salt and pepper shakers.  If there are actual batteries located somewhere in my house, they would be in a drawer or cupboard.  I hate the idea of having these located on the dining room table or the stove or wherever, because it would look like I have trash or clutter there on first glance.  It would bug me.  I also don't like the fact that the text reads vertically,  I don't want to have to to slightly tilt my head.  The graphic design on the sides seems cluttered and busy, there's too much going on.  Also the color doesn't feel harmonious to me.  Teal or turquoise doesn't seem like a color that pairs very often with basic red.  These are kind of a cool idea but to me specifically, it doesn't work.  

Balance, Harmony, and Contrast

   This is the statue of Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  I chose this photograph because the contrast stood out to me.  The lighting causes a silhouette that contrasts the blue sky and clouds behind it.  I was also drawn to the symmetrical balance that is obvious, with the exception of the tree you could almost fold it in half.  I feel like this picture contains harmony, it is pleasing to the eye.  The body language of the statue contributes to the feeling of harmony, the way his hands are outstretched leads to kind of a welcoming feeling, kind of an elegance.  Whether one is religious or not, the peaceful feeling is prevalent.  

     It's also important to consider the real life context.  This statue has very significant religious meaning to christians in Brazil and all over the world.  The people standing at the bottom of the statue are  a clue to this contextual significance.  To someone with religious convictions, this photo has even more of a visceral impact.  

Visceral Response

   Part of the visceral response I get from looking at this image I imagine comes from the similarities between these two chimps and humans.  The way the chimp on the left is folding it's arms, the way the smaller and probably younger chimp on the right is clinging to the other.  The body language is relatable on a human level.   I get a sense of relaxation and contentment from these two animals, I'm guessing they're probably asleep.  I also like the lines in this photo, the way the one tree branch wraps around the other, similar to the way the younger ape is wrapped around the other, and the folded arms of the ape on the left.  It brings a sense of coherence within the image as a whole.   I like the texture of the branches, the wrinkles and wear of the wood is clearly visible.