Sketches.
Patricia Potestas z3218929
Sketches – Web
My study at UNSW has taught me how to work mostly with Flash, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.
My production work thus far has been very eclectic in style. Looking back on it I haven’t really adhered to a particular theme or used the same ideas or colours or anything like that. From what I can gather my works have been pretty minimalistic – I take a small, easy idea and try to make it great. For example all of my videos last semester revolved around one item like a keyboard or toy and I played around with the angles and editing to make it effective. Even with my essays, I’ve used simple ideas and milked them.
Something that will affect my style is photography. I recently bought my own dslr and have tried my hand at shooting at the Hunter Valley and other places. I also play around with editing so I will definitely use photographs for my website.
As for my personal style of practice, I develop ideas by just thinking of anything and then work out whether it will look good or not and whether it’s possible and within my ability. I never start with theory but think things through visually first and let ideas emerge from that. I work much better in the morning when my mind is fresh, even if I’ve only had a few hours sleep. I prefer short intense periods of work because I work well under pressure. Unfortunately, this means I find myself doing things very close to the due date, I admire how others can work on their projects over a period of time.
Websites I like:
This site has been around for a while but it’s still great. There are 99 different rooms and the objective is for the user to go through them all. The user uses their mouse to find the link to the next room.
There is minimal feedback when rolling over and clicking the links to the next room which I like because it makes it less demanding to go through all 99. I love each and every room. They are grungy places like warehouses with added mysterious characters and sick graffiti. It does a good job of blurring reality and surreality.
The sound in this website is also amazing. Every room has a different soundtrack which again, is very minimalistic so the user does not tire from listening to 99 different ones.
Vladimir Jones is a marketing and advertising agency in America and their website is an awesome example of what they’re capable of creating. It is totally flash based.
It has minimal text. They have a couple of quotes and the most text is in the ‘About Us’ section but if you’re too busy admiring the site to read it, you can click on ‘hear it’ and then a little head pops up and the voice reads it out to you.
And to make it easy to contact them they have a bar at the bottom which is always present.
Websites I don’t like:
I honestly can’t think of any websites I don’t like, because I don’t keep track of them. I googled “bad websites” and this one came up.
It is purposely made bad to illustrate what web pages shouldn’t look like. I had a good laugh after reading through it, it will come in handy when designing a fully functional website. It contains everything a website shouldn’t have like distracting music and rolling text and lack of links.
My Idea
I haven’t really delved into ‘lounge’ theory but I know what I want my site to look like. I want to use the same concept as 99 Rooms where the user is navigating from scene to scene with simple flash rollovers. So maybe the user starts in a lounge room. I also want it to have some sort of narrative (unlike 99 rooms) where the user ultimately returns to ‘the lounge.’
The focus will be on the actual scenes which will be photographed images heavily edited in Lightroom and Photoshop. I want minimal text and if possible no text at all besides the title. I want the site to be more of an artsy installation with the website acting as the medium.
I’ll be using a lot of flash. And I want to hire some sound folk to make sweet noises for me.
It’ still very undeveloped so feedback welcome and appreciated!
An introductory blog post.
Hey all,
I’m Patricia, much better known as ‘Pat.’ I’m in my third and final year (providing I don’t fail anything) of Media and Communications here at UNSW. Contrary to others I’m quite happy to be forced to set up a WordPress blog as I’ve been meaning to do so for a while!
So, here’s a little or a lot about me:
I’m currently work part-time for 33 Interactions. It is a relatively new digital marketing company where I am learning a hella lot and hope to eventually pursue a career with them after I graduate. 33 is very much focused on ‘social media marketing.’ I have helped create/develop websites and online communities using WordPress engine and we are even looking into Twitter for projects as well. Twitter is not only for procrastination, actually the limited messages mean not that much time is wasted on it anyway, but an amazing marketing tool for internet savvy consumers which is pretty much everyone these days. Check out how Dell uses Twitter.
I also work at Gloria Jeans and am quite the coffee connoisseur. Do yourself a big favour and drop by Campos, Toby’s Estate and Single Origin. Do it. I love latte art and am a proud geek who watches international barista competitions on youtube.
I have a new Youtube account which has nothing on it.
I have a neglected Flickr site where I have scanned in some of my film photography or Lomography. I will soon upload digital photos from my newly acquired DSLR, in the meantime there’s some on good old Facebook.
My Nikon D40 is named George-Michael. Not after the mediocre singer/songwriter (though I must admit Wham! was pretty cool) but George Michael Bluth of Arrested Development which is one of the most ingenious television series ever that never should have been axed and IMO should not be attempted to be turned into a film. There’s some wholesome TV shows out there but who the hell still watches them on prime time? I’m a frequent pirater, a leacher but not a seeder. So sue me.
My other interests include soccer (ARSENAL FC FTW), film which I’m majoring in, finding good food and eating it -particularly Japanese and music. I’m attempting to play the ukelele and I love concerts though my petty cafe pay and splurging habits (eBay <3) have prevented me from attending any recently. I think the Adobe suite is great but I’m nowhere near as competent with it as I’d like to be. I do fiddle around with PS when I have le time and I had a thing for FCP after doing video last semester. I’m doing Web this time around and sure hope DW is more entertaining than fricken’ coding html and css.
In regards to the current mediascape, everything is becoming digital fast and nothing is going to stop that. I spend more time in front of a computer with an internet connection than watching television, listening to the radio and reading printed material combined.
I think it’s remarkable that personalised ads appear in the side banners on Facebook. eg. ‘<your friend’s name> is a fan of Ernst and Young Careers.’ I mean, shouldn’t they get paid for that or something? Or is openly becoming a ‘Facebook fan’ of a person or service merely free promotion for them? Hmm.
After flicking through the Media Forms outline, I’m very much looking forward to tackling the theory even though the essays will kill me.
I’ve had doubts on doubts over my two years thus far of MDCM because of all the ahem, ‘noise’ in this degree. But apparently, there’s a financial crisis going on so “commerce students can suck it.” – Polly.
I hope to customise this blog real soon and share my thoughts whilst attempting to stick to the syllabus.
Thanks for the read!
Pat
1 comment