Project #2: How to Skateboard

 Though it may not be for everyone, those who want to learn how to skateboard sometimes find it difficult to perform the basics needed to advance in trick ability. Being one of my favorite time killers, I've noticed that there are a wide range of teaching styles on how to perform certain maneuvers on a skateboard. For me I've found it easier to learn by skating with friends and having them demonstrate the trick, and then critique me while attempting the particular trick. In most cases coordinating friends and allotting time may be hard to do if you're an older skater, or you're the only kid on your block with this interest. The three text that I'm using for my project are:

1. Skater Aron L.'s  Youtube channel, which has a variety of videos consisting of various tricks, which he breaks down into easy to follow steps. 

2. Another text is located on about.com called how to skate. This has both visual/auditory, as well as textual text. 

3. How2skate is another text I will be referencing to in creating my page on how to skate. 

  What all three text have in common are demonstrations using visual, gestural, and spatial text modes. These modes are key in this instance because skateboarding is a visual gestural sport, and having these to modes is essential. Though the How2skate demonstrations lack in aural mode, which makes deciphering what is being done to perform the trick difficult. My favorite text-mode would be Aron L.'s(which I've referenced to plenty of times) because not only does he perform the trick, he explains aural gestures, as well as gestures placement of feet and what to do in order to perform the trick in the visual tutorial.  About.com's how to skate page had a visual text and still image portion which I found semi-useful in the sense that it's sometimes difficult to transition words to action, and the still image doesn't really help to visually explain the instruction. 

ix Exploration of: Alignment, Contrast, Emphasis, Organization, & Proximity

ALIGNMENT:
   I feel that the choice in aligning the word "murmuring" at the top an jumbled attracted the viewers attention in trying to decipher what it reads. Once the letters fall into place we are able to read the word, and it disappears and the word "Insect" appears to its immediate right and then vanishes. This process is repeated along with the ambient sounds of frogs and insects murmuring. Having a short visibility, I feel that the emphasis on the words are minimal, though are aided by the alignment of the downward color gradient of the background.


2 EARTH: In this scene the pair of angled jet streams (or clouds) and the crescent shape remain in a central alignment. Much like the murmuring insects, the earth scenes alignment remains the same. This repetitive alignment helps to bridge the differing scenes together. My focus is mainly on the texts, since they are the only moving objects in the scene. 


3 AIR: Earth and air have differing alignments, in that the earth scene as text with ambient background noise. Where as in the air scene, we have lines appearing with an accompanying line of poetry. Looking at earth's scene, the texts seem to align right and in close proximity to the crescent shape (which may represent earth.). For the air scene, the alignment is left, and the text originates by the jet-stream, geese and drops down toward the crescent shape. This produces the essence of air, as the geese fly around the top of the scene. 


4 WATER: Water's scene, the background image is of an eye, and the lines of text are referring to swelling tears. Having the text aligned with the curvature of the eye we get this sense that the authors texts are swelling out of the eye, providing the viewer with a sort of visual interpretation. 


5 NO-ALIGNMENT:Lack of alignment between the text: earth, air, and water tells the viewer that all three have equal importance. The randomness of the alignment can be presumed as the viewers choice in viewing either scene in any random order. Though I did find that the text seemed to be aligned with their corresponding image/level. Air is located at the top next to the jet-stream, earth is located near the center but above the crescent shape, and water is located at the bottom of the scene below the crescent shape. What this alignment means may be some subconscious organization of the text and the accompanying scenes.


CONTRAST:
1(0:22-0:32):Microsoft Mary is the first noticeable element of contrast, along with the gray dialogue box and medium white text. Change in voice created a contrast from the Microsoft Sam dialogue in which she sounded more like an instructor providing the viewer with JUMP's mission statement. Having a gray screen over the running cartoon broke the attention away from the animation while retaining the forward flow of the cartoon. This backdrop help contrast the text from the ongoing background animations, yet maintained the tempo by having scrolling text while the narrator spoke. If the contrast were to be removed, JUMP's mission statement would become lost within the cartoon and probably be glanced over from the various distractions. 
2 (0:55-1:08):  Having white text against a black background is a classic contrast form. Along with the voice of Microsoft Mary, (when these textual excerpts pop up narrator switches from Micro Sam to Mary). Though this time around the omission of the cartoon was necessary to emphasize the instructional text. With the black background, the contrast is heightens the importance of the text, which is the rubric of what is required for the JUMP program.    
3 JUMP FLYER: For my flyer I would use a 60's cartoon image that relates to, or defines, the JUMP mission statement(0:45). This image would be in the cartoons original color, and take up about 2/3's of the flyer space. For the top 1/3 of the flyer,the background would be an extension of the cartoons gray background. Using white and black text the title would be in large and block bold type, with a smaller black print of further information details. The image would contrast the text in providing the viewer a visual depiction of THE JUMP mission. Having a large image would attract passing viewers, and bring them in closer which will focus in the bold text. With a linear alignment, the viewer could read top to bottom of what THE JUMP is and how they can learn more about it. 




EMPHASIS:
1: Within this text, the attention is drawn to the blank notepad. We visually see this cluttered desk producing a lot of visual noise, as our eyes move around we're attracted to this blank notepad page near the center of the mess. Creating a chaotic background helps to emphasize the clean empty space of the notepad, which is essential since it is the location of the scenes title. This clip, to some degree, works as a title page, where it hinders is the size and legibility of the title text. (Though I feel this may actually emphasize the title requiring the viewer to focus more on the text on the pad). 
2: During the stop-motion animation, our attention is drawn to the woman and here movements on the notepad. We are able to see what she is writing, but it is absorbed in fragments as the shakiness of the scene emphasizes the title segments being written. Once the woman is out of the frame, and is still on the title. we're able to view the complete title in one chunk and connect the context of the film.Having this period of stillness emphasizes the importance of what was written and that the author wants the viewers to read what was written/drawn. Though the jumpy movements of the stop-motion helps to emphasize the movement of the woman, and the creation of text she is putting onto the notepad. All-in-all I feel that this is an effective method in emphasizing particular points of a scene. 
3: The soundtrack to this clip has this dramatic enforcement tone to it. I didn't feel that it emphasized any particular moment because it was a repeated beat, plus the sounds didn't match up with any of the visual actions. 


ORGANIZATION:
IMAGES: 1- "Fist & American Flag", this image signifies our determination as a nation, and our voice in maintaining the American dream. 2-"woman painting" depicting a middle-aged woman painting an explosively colorful image, with text saying 'We ___ can dream', which is part of the American ideology of achieving your dreams. 3- "Modern Barn" represents the past American ideology which has been lost/buried in the snow of capitalism. Our dream of opportunity has been lost in the snow and frozen in the past. 4-"Feet with Bar-code", we have been branded consumers and by-products of modern American capitalism. 5-"Wedding Cake  Topper", much like the American dream, the concept of marriage has evolved over the years. Modern marriage as a laundry list of benefits and qualifications which may prevent some from this dream.
2- When rearranging the images, I was able to create an opposing argument to the one created. Moving bar-code to first position, woman painting to second, modern barn still a third, fist & flag fourth, and wedding cake topper last. I feel that I would have to choose a few different images to make a coherent argument.
3- Text would strongly reinforce my slide show argument. It would bring clarity to the context of the image order and argument. Adding music will hinder on which argument I go with. the music would have to be more of an ambient application to in order to retain focus on the argument. 


PROXIMITY: 
1- For my book cover, I placed the two seagull images centered, the title and subscript close together, with former on top and latter on bottom. At the bottom of the title page I placed the title page. 
2- The book title is the most important information on the cover. To emphasize this, I chose a large size and nautical looking typeface to convey this is as an academic book. My covers layout textually and visually relays information about the context of the book.  I feel the organization as enough information, while at the same time is not to cluttered. 
3- Some of the limitations I ran into in designing this cover (with the default items) is shading, transparency of text or images, and variety of text available. There really isn't any other way I would organize the information on a book cover, that I can think of at the moment.