Factional Media - Conflicting Opinions in Lebanese News Reporting.

I was recently watching the new Al Jazeera channel on sky and I stumbled across a programme called 'The Listening Post'. The programme was a discussion of the weeks events in the media from across the globe. One report that grabbed my attention was a story about a Lebanese news reporter who was caught on a microphone gloating about the assassination of parlimentarian Whalid Eido. Sawsen Darwish of NBN TV was caught off camera saying:

"... what took them so long?"

What I found really interesting about this news report is the fact that the event involving the assassination of Whalid Eido was covered from several different perspectives (these perspectives varying between each channel).

Moussa Srour (Broadcaster, Arab News Network) agues that Lebanese media is incredibly biased and segregated; many religious and political groups have their own programmes and TV broadcasts. This event exposed the highly factionalized Lebanese media where major political players are allowed to verbally attack each other, usually through TV channels they control.

For example, the pro-government channel Future TV covered the assassination by claiming that a new name had been added to the list of the nation's martyrs and that Eido was a 'hero' in the 'new battle for independence'.

In contrast to this Syria Satellite Television reported Eido's death, condemned the killing of innocent people but thier focus was the absolute denial of Syria's involvement in the assassination.

Darwish's slip-up has been well documented an widely spread across the internet (e.g. Youtube). Habib Battah (Editor, Journal of Middle Eastern Broadcasters) claims that Youtube and other forms of new media are one of the reasons that the 'slip up' has become a major event. He also claims that there was a plan to destabalize Lebanese society then it has come into fruition with these 'off-the-cuff' remarks such as the Darwish incident.

The London based newspaper Asharq Alawsat wrote that this type of media (the coverage of the remark by Darwish) is:

"... not based on neutrality or a commitment to journalistic professionalism..." rather on "... bigotry and a commitment to a specific ideology and sect..." with their homeland being the least of their concerns

The newspaper Ya Libnan also wrote that dismissing Darwish,

"... does not solve the systematic problem... Darwish's sick perspective was not an isolated incident.... (could) very easily push Lebanon into civil war."

But what does this all have to do with Graphics and Visual Communication? Lebanon has a unique ethnic make-up and the media refelcts this. Due to the fact that the media is governed by politics, religious views and sectarian struggle the content will be heavily affected. Our perspectives on issues can be influenced greatly by what we see and hear, and what if the propagated media is designed to make us think a certain way? Do words like 'martyr' and 'hero' change our perception?

New Future Graphic

These images are from a GQ fashion spread. The photographs were supplied by GQ but New Future Graphic did the rest. I really like the 'scrapbook' look that has been achieved where images look as if they have been taped on, it delivers personality to the spread and enhances the concept present in the photography.

Sarah King... continued.

Here is another exampleof some of Sarah King's work with illustration and scanned images. These three images were produced as invitations to The School of Historical and Critical Studies' Degree show.

I really like King's use of the basic typographic shapes but then turning it on its head by only filling the elements in part creating unusual geometric shapes that the eye then interprets as the letter in the searh of meaning.

Sarah King of Evening Tweed

I was browsing the Evening Tweed website when I found this image called 'Scanned and illustrated hands' by Sarah King. I really love the combination of illustration with actual hands, it is not too subtle but creates a really beautiful image.

Etched Vinyl

I found this image on Black and Ginger's blog. It is a 7" vinyl for Gallows' 'Abandon ship' with some beautiful etched illustration over the top. I thought this was a great piece of embellishment and really works as a visual element. Below is the illustration for Gallows by Dan Mumford which was the basis for the etching.

Levi's: Freedom to Move (Viral Advert)

Here is an example of a fantasic viral advert for Levi's that has created a lot of attention. The creators of the viral, The Viral Factory, have created this viral and given it a sense of realism by releasing 14 different versions of the 'stunt'.

The viral shows a gaint marionette on the streets of Reykjavik being controlled by Helicopters, this would be impossible and is a hoax but becuase the virals were low quality video and the reaction of the civilians seems genuine it makes you want to believe it is actually happening. Also, The Viral Factory put in place seven groups of extras (ranging from couples to groups on a night out) to react as if the marionette were there and film the action on hand-held cameras, phones etc.

The marionette was filmed separetely on a greenscreen and then worked into the best of the Reykjavik footage in post-production using Flame.

Absolute were responsible for reworking the footage. The difficulty with the tracking and compositing of this particular viral was that the original footage was purposefully low quality and there were almost no tracking references to work from.

Dove Evolution (Viral Advert)

No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted.

This is the tag-line for the Dove Evolution viral to create awareness for their real beauty campaign. The viral is successful becuase it is almost commenting on the social structure and the way that media can affect perceptions. The viral shows the visual distortion (i.e. the 'doctoring' of an image) but the tag-line also refers to people's distorted perceptions of themselves - arguably distorted by the media and the use of imagery portraying perfect models (often touched up to achieve a naturally unobtainable result).

Wrapping Paper

After looking at the Design team's blog I decided to enter Tigerprint's web-based wrapping paper competition. Tigerprint were after something unusual and creative so I used some of my pattern work from last year to create a floral influenced theme with a retro feel to it.



You can enter the competition here.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006) Opening Sequence

Stranger Than Fiction Website

Stranger Than Fiction

As video streaming and broadband become more accessable websites can achieve much more than in previous years. A good example of this is the mini-site for the recent film Stranger Than Fiction.

The Flash site uses the concept of the film (a narrator telling the story of a supposedly fictional character) to enhance the experience of the audience. Video blogs are used as well to get an almost 'behind the scenes' look at the film.

One aspect of the website I really like is that as the intro to the site is loading you are introduced to the main character of the film (Harold) who acts as the loading bar. Also, as Harold loads the narrative voice from the film describes Harold's feelings (much like in the film) introducing sound to the site as well as strengthening the concept of the film.

'Audioslave - Revelations' dir. Danny Clinch

BAU-DA DESIGN LAB

www.bauda.com

After looking at the Audioslave video I discovered designer P.R. Brown and his company Bau-Da Design lab. The website is definately worth a look. It is really simple but the hand-rendered site really works and gives you an insight into the way the company may work.

I also had a look at some of the Graphic Design they had to offer and I found a book cover for Dita Von Teese's book. Because the book is in two parts Bau-da have utilized both the conventional front and back cover to create two front covers (so when the book is turned over it reveals the other cover).

The thing I like about the cover is its use of photography and composition to almost suggest a split personality. The colour schemes used on the respective covers have been carefully chosen. The Burlesque photograph portrays 'candy' colours that suggest a playfulness and an innocence whereas the Fetish cover portays a much darker scene.

'Jack Penate - Torn on the Platform' dir. Tim Pope

This video is a fantastic example of how, when done well, traditional methods of animation can work with new technology. In the video the head of the puppet has an almost stop-motion look to it which the rest of the video didn't have. I was completly confused as to how this was produced because the movements of the head looked too convincing to be super-imposed.

I was searching the internet earlier to try and find out how this technique was achieved when I found the Digital Arts website which had an online article about the video.

(http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=8050)

The person responsible for the head was post house Clear's Marcus Wood who used Flame to help pull-off the idea of traditional animation but with a modern twist.

Two sets were used and Jack had to keep his head still as possible whilst performing his song. This footage of Jack's face was frame-cut every five frames to create the stop-motion look. The footage was then motion tracked to the puppet's head (marked with a cross).

"... although the idea is simple, all that tracking makes it a time-consuming project," explained Marcus Wood (Clear's VFX artist).

'Audioslave - Original Fire' dir. P.R. Brown