WS-Slideshow
http://www.ws-slideshow.com/
I've heard of this program before. Its a free program that does an incredible job presenting pictures in clean galleries. This makes it really a no brainer to download, why not try it out if it doesn't even cost you a penny! What also really invites people is the fact that it has a very simple interface...and everyone likes that. You can even go into a fullscreen mode and it works like a slideshow so the user can just sit back and enjoy. I would recommend this for any website designer as a quick and cheap way to effectively display your pictures.
Polaroid Gallery
http://www.no3dfx.com/polaroid/
Polarid Gallery is great because it is very interactive. You can take polaroids and just throw them around and mess with them on a table. Again, very simple interface and very visually pleasing. It is also free and has a great amount of work put into it. You can lay out everything that you want and mess with it. I will definitely do that in my free time if I download this :P
If these two are free, I can only imagine how great ones that cost money are! I want to use something like these in a portfolio or something if I can implement them. I just learned how to do lightboxes so I'm leaning towards that, but theyre similar to the polarid concept.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Week 6 Stuff
YOUTUBE
I think a great example of an effective website is without question, Youtube. Other than google, Youtube is probably the most accessed website available today. It is currently one of the biggest successes in internet history. There is not another user video website that even comes close to touching Youtube.
You get a very interesting package with youtube. It is there for music and entertainment, but also for learning and research. I've looked on the site for academic-oriented purposes and entertainment-oriented purposes. It's available in so many ways and people sometimes remake videos just to get another laugh or two out of it.
The one thing everyone loves about Youtube is the simplicity, there are a few adds here and there, but mostly you see what you need/want. Since the site is simple, it makes the website very organized as well. All one needs to do is type in whatever it may be they are looking for and boom...its there and in a neat fashion. Also when you search for something we see a great example of the F-Shapped Pattern. You can see that most of the items closely resemble the letter F. This is a great technique to keep users on the information and keep them from straying off. Also on the homepage, there are categories of videos. This is nice for a user looking to go on just to waste some time learning about a topic that interests them, maybe science, or modern technology.
It also really helps there there isn't too much text. This keeps the user focused on whatever they're looking for. You can see from the screen shot that the text is actually no where near overwhelming. This site is so clean looking.
I think many people, including myself can learn from Youtube. Their simplicity keeps users focused yet interested. The one thing I've learned (and seen) the most this semester is simplicity. Theres not too much information on the site and it looks so clean and attractive, its no wonder this is one of the biggest sites on the internet today.
I think a great example of an effective website is without question, Youtube. Other than google, Youtube is probably the most accessed website available today. It is currently one of the biggest successes in internet history. There is not another user video website that even comes close to touching Youtube.
You get a very interesting package with youtube. It is there for music and entertainment, but also for learning and research. I've looked on the site for academic-oriented purposes and entertainment-oriented purposes. It's available in so many ways and people sometimes remake videos just to get another laugh or two out of it.
The one thing everyone loves about Youtube is the simplicity, there are a few adds here and there, but mostly you see what you need/want. Since the site is simple, it makes the website very organized as well. All one needs to do is type in whatever it may be they are looking for and boom...its there and in a neat fashion. Also when you search for something we see a great example of the F-Shapped Pattern. You can see that most of the items closely resemble the letter F. This is a great technique to keep users on the information and keep them from straying off. Also on the homepage, there are categories of videos. This is nice for a user looking to go on just to waste some time learning about a topic that interests them, maybe science, or modern technology.
It also really helps there there isn't too much text. This keeps the user focused on whatever they're looking for. You can see from the screen shot that the text is actually no where near overwhelming. This site is so clean looking.
I think many people, including myself can learn from Youtube. Their simplicity keeps users focused yet interested. The one thing I've learned (and seen) the most this semester is simplicity. Theres not too much information on the site and it looks so clean and attractive, its no wonder this is one of the biggest sites on the internet today.
Week 5 Stuff
Immediacy
An example I found of immediacy was the movie "Fight Club". You can't really replicate a movie like "Fight Club". I feel that the film draws in media and people because it literally is one of a kind. No one was expecting a movie like this, this is because of the huge twist towards the end of the movie. The process of this movie was obviously just filming it, but the film makers did a great job, there are many great camera angles in the film, some that make you want to rewind just to see again.
Hyper immediacy
A great example of hyper immediacy is the Marc Ecko Website, marcecko.com. The website looks so interesting at first, but theres just too much to look at. It leaves the user almost dumbfounded, not knowing what to click on first. I didn't find myself, "getting into", the website mentally, I was kind of bored actually and uninterested. The process of the website must have taken a while to complete. I think its a very impressive website in terms of skill, but there is simply too much content. I don't think the site works at all.
Remediation
My remediation idea was to use Grand Theft Auto. If you dont know anything about it, you can find it on my site, http://mywebspace.quinnipiac.edu/zpfreed/projects/250/gta/gta.html. The game is a fantastic form of remediation. It has roots from The Godfather movie series and many other books and media forms. Each game has a unique storyline and each world is based on real places. The most current game, GTA4 is based heavily on a New York City that Rockstar Games created.
Refashioning
There are so many characters that are remade and reused from time to time. Vampires are huge. The Blade series, Teenage Vampire, Nosferatu, all different recreations of vampires. There are so many other references in cartoons, food (Count Chocula, for one), books, and many other forms of media. Underworld uses them as well. Another thing that is reused is the "superhero" model. What I mean is, the freak accident that leads to someone becoming a superhero. Now, the freak accident isn't always a near death experience. Superman was a freak, from another world, while Spiderman was a normal boy that got bit by a mutant spider and almost died. The Fantastic Four were in a space accident and Kick Ass, from the self-titled movie, was just a kid that got bullied a lot.
An example I found of immediacy was the movie "Fight Club". You can't really replicate a movie like "Fight Club". I feel that the film draws in media and people because it literally is one of a kind. No one was expecting a movie like this, this is because of the huge twist towards the end of the movie. The process of this movie was obviously just filming it, but the film makers did a great job, there are many great camera angles in the film, some that make you want to rewind just to see again.
Hyper immediacy
A great example of hyper immediacy is the Marc Ecko Website, marcecko.com. The website looks so interesting at first, but theres just too much to look at. It leaves the user almost dumbfounded, not knowing what to click on first. I didn't find myself, "getting into", the website mentally, I was kind of bored actually and uninterested. The process of the website must have taken a while to complete. I think its a very impressive website in terms of skill, but there is simply too much content. I don't think the site works at all.
Remediation
My remediation idea was to use Grand Theft Auto. If you dont know anything about it, you can find it on my site, http://mywebspace.quinnipiac.edu/zpfreed/projects/250/gta/gta.html. The game is a fantastic form of remediation. It has roots from The Godfather movie series and many other books and media forms. Each game has a unique storyline and each world is based on real places. The most current game, GTA4 is based heavily on a New York City that Rockstar Games created.
Refashioning
There are so many characters that are remade and reused from time to time. Vampires are huge. The Blade series, Teenage Vampire, Nosferatu, all different recreations of vampires. There are so many other references in cartoons, food (Count Chocula, for one), books, and many other forms of media. Underworld uses them as well. Another thing that is reused is the "superhero" model. What I mean is, the freak accident that leads to someone becoming a superhero. Now, the freak accident isn't always a near death experience. Superman was a freak, from another world, while Spiderman was a normal boy that got bit by a mutant spider and almost died. The Fantastic Four were in a space accident and Kick Ass, from the self-titled movie, was just a kid that got bullied a lot.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Module 2
I love this narrative. "Writer's Block" is an amazing narrative and creative piece. It's like a perfect video to describe what really happens when people start a project from scratch. There's not really much to say...the video pretty much sums it up. Every project starts with deliberation, Then goes to confusion. Then you start something. You fix it, then remake it. Then you add too it, and finish it up. There are so many steps inbetween; little tweaks and changes.
Born Magazine is also a really interesting website. I like really simple colors and simple layouts and this one is very very simple. To me, the homepage is kind of like an old styled newspaper. The intro is also great, where the words open the screen and they keep changing. "Born is ____". I also like that the website essentially has a screensaver where it replays the intro screen until you perform an action on the site. The amount of content is also huge. All of the different videos are awesome. It can give a lot of inspiration to people looking through to find some interesting items. I didn't even know and of the content on the site. They are all essentially narratvie pieces, following a story.
Snowbound was also a great piece. I loved the layout of it, very simple concept but done incredibly well. I love the style that it uses. Every scene is kind of like making a statement. It's also like a wheel of scenes, where one will end and then the screen will rotate to the next one. The background fits each statement well and the imagery they use to accompany it is great as well. They way they seem to write each word and vary the size each time is cool, and most of the time there is a transparency on the text which creates a great contrast. Scenes seem to develop each time you view them, not just flash onto the screen. Overall it's just plain awesome.
http://lot23.com/play/writersblock/
http://www.bornmagazine.org/projects/snowbound/
Born Magazine is also a really interesting website. I like really simple colors and simple layouts and this one is very very simple. To me, the homepage is kind of like an old styled newspaper. The intro is also great, where the words open the screen and they keep changing. "Born is ____". I also like that the website essentially has a screensaver where it replays the intro screen until you perform an action on the site. The amount of content is also huge. All of the different videos are awesome. It can give a lot of inspiration to people looking through to find some interesting items. I didn't even know and of the content on the site. They are all essentially narratvie pieces, following a story.
Snowbound was also a great piece. I loved the layout of it, very simple concept but done incredibly well. I love the style that it uses. Every scene is kind of like making a statement. It's also like a wheel of scenes, where one will end and then the screen will rotate to the next one. The background fits each statement well and the imagery they use to accompany it is great as well. They way they seem to write each word and vary the size each time is cool, and most of the time there is a transparency on the text which creates a great contrast. Scenes seem to develop each time you view them, not just flash onto the screen. Overall it's just plain awesome.
http://lot23.com/play/writersblock/
http://www.bornmagazine.org/projects/snowbound/
Friday, September 10, 2010
DISTRIBUTIVE NARRATIVES are like episodic pieces of a story. The whole story isn't unveiled at that moment. The characters and plot tell stories and form a puzzle; where in each episode the puzzle is put together. Some very common versions of distributive narratives are comic books, tv shows, and things that are put together in a series. Movies can also be considered distributive narratives. Things like the Star Wars and Star Trek sagas tell different pieces of the story over different times. 
One of my personal favorite tv series that I think really fits the profile of a distributive narrative is Dexter. Dexter is one of the more unique shows on Showtime. It features a man who goes through his daily life as a forensic specialist at a police department. What the show also reveals is moments of his past, present, and foreshadows things of the future that he is missing in his memory. He works for the police by day: catching murderers and killers; and then becomes a murderer by night. The show reveals his feelings and his lack of feelings toward things in his life. He kills people in a very ritualistic manner and is so good at it that he can hide his evidence and cover his tracks. Each season brings a new set of challenges for him and leads him in new directions of who, what, when, etc, to kill. He lives by a code that was given to him by his adopted father and he strives to understand it and keep that part of his life a secret from everyone close to him. 
Talking about animated series that also grips me, there was a cartoon several years ago called Samurai Jack that aired for a few years and won awards. It was about a wayward samurai that lost his way amongst time. He is moved into a world ruled by an evil sorcerer and he is the only one that can stand up to him. His journeys lead him everywhere through time and everywhere around the planet. His adventures were always action-packed and many times left on a cliffhanger.Both shows pretty much always left you on a cliff hanger and left you wanting more. Most of the time after watching Dexter we could sit there and just talk about what we wanted to happen or what could happen, etc. With Samurai Jack it was always about leaving something out of the story and wondering where he would end up next. They're great techniques that I really appreciated and that's why I think they are good examples of Distributive Narratives.
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