Research

Initial Questions to explore:

• Why is the Philippines poor?
• Has the Philippines always been poor? When (decade) did it begin?
• Factors that may contribute to why Philippines’ economy is not improving
• How do we define “wealth”? Who is the “poor”?
• How many OFWs/caregivers worldwide? Where? How much income/remittance? Pros and cons?
• Socio-economic traps: marginalization in the Philippines? Why are the rich becoming richer and poor, poorer?
• How corrupt is the Philippines?
• Globalization and its effects to Philippines’ poverty

Stats

Some additional research:

http://www.poea.gov.ph/stats/2008_stats.pdf

http://www.adb.org/Documents/ERD/Working_Papers/Wp112.pdf

http://www3.pids.gov.ph/ris/dps/pidsdps0040.pdf

http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2002/01/07/000094946_01121904064580/Rendered/PDF/multi0page.pdf

http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/10951172131mrp50.pdf

http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/16553/1/MPRA_paper_16553.pdf

Confusing Information with Form

By Maya.

Research Links

Poverty in the Philippines: Income, Assets, and Access
Asian Development Bank. January 2005.
http://www.adb.org/documents/books/Poverty-in-the-Philippines/default.asp

Celso and Cora
Kildea, Gary. VHS, 109 min. 1983.
http://icarusfilms.com/cat97/a-e/celso_an.html

Causes of Poverty
Shah, Anup. 22 Mar 2009.
http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-of-poverty

When 1+1=3

So, perhaps it is about time that I put blogging’s addictive quality to good use. This former Timebased haven is now also a home to my other areas of studies this year: Prof. Aspects, Info 2, Contemporary Problems in Design, and Design Workshop. My reasons include the following: (1) that I may have my notes digitally accessible (anywhere, anytime with a laptop), (2) that I may keep track of my progress, and (3) that I may force myself to have some sort of weekly, hopefully daily, development—nicely articulated in blog format.

Info 2

“Not enough info is no good, Too much info is too bad.” -Albert Ng

He showed us this diagram (see img below) that attempts to illustrate what info design is (or the essential stages anyway): data → info → knowledge → wisdom. Then the rest of the class was pretty much a review of Info 1 (color values, typography, designing for an audience, etc.)

Course Outline
Term Project
Notes (Class 1 and 2)

Term Project: Info Design for Advocacy

Info 2 for this year is only comprised of one big project: a folded printed piece of info des, that serves “to inform” and “engage a selected audience” on a relevant social issue. Options include: conflicts in Africa, Causes of Poverty, Arms Trade as a major cause of suffering, genetically engineered food, mainstream and ethnic community media.

I picked Causes of Poverty as my topic, and decided to narrow it down further to Causes of Poverty in the Philippines. (I felt the need to focus on something that hits closer to home.)

Topic: Causes of Poverty in the Philippines
Target Audience: Filipino communities around the world
Purpose: To inform, to engage, to educate, to instigate a change (e.g. what can people do to help minimize the problem?)
POV: Will be from North American perspective

The Screwtape Letters – rough cut

Creative Brief can also be accessed from the sidebar under Projects / Book Trailer →

P2: Screwtape test 1

Showreels

I have been watching a bunch of show reels lately as part of research/learning how to make mine. Here are some that I found really cool:

This one (is not really a reel but is cool because it) uses elements of the music to create kaleidoscopic patterns. A friend was telling me the other day that music is key to making a good reel. It’s something that could make/break it.

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This one is meant to showcase interactive work.

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Beginning is cool!

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Found out that there are different kinds of reels (i.e. design reel, 3D artist reel, filmmaker reel, director reel, composer reel). I’m still a little bit confused as to how design reels would stand out in an industry with animators, 3D artists, filmmakers who seem to know so much more about motion, or at least the technical parts of it. I’m curious to know what people actually look for in a reel: is it your technical skills? pacing/framing? your way of thinking, and how do they do this with a fragmented collection of your work in less than 2 minutes?

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This one has interactive too.

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Love the intro countdown for this one. I also liked the coffee stain work (1:23) and the yellow-ish something-to-do-with-anatomy looking piece they have near the ending. I am not sure about their selection of music though.

Whereas this one uses music to its advantage:

(This guy really knows how to match up the right mood! Impressive. 1:09 ish seems a pretty interesting aesthetic for Screwtape)

…and some whose music overpower their work:

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This one’s by SPARKLE, post-production firm.

P2: Schedule (revised)

Pre-production

April 10 (Friday)
√ research about the book and the author
√ re-read the book
√ initial brainstorming of concepts

April 17 (Friday)
√ book summary and breakdown of themes
√ preliminary moodboard
√ finding inspiration
√ researching various AE techniques

April 24 (Friday)
- storyboard done
√ reiteration of approach in blog format
- content/scripting finalized
√ research existing book trailers / title sequence

Production

May 1 (Friday)
√ sound done
- animatic done
- video sketches done (of initial captures, or AE explorations regarding new techniques learned)

May 8 (Friday)
- rough cut to show for critique

Post-production

May 15 (Friday)
- editing and compositing of footage
- refinement of cuts

May 20 (Thursday)
- packaging and presentation

May 21 (Friday)
- submission date

P2: Approach

The primary message I want to convey with this piece is the idea of interruptions, such that of devils in people’s lives. I envision something that seems to (or is designed to) happen smoothly, but jerks off path due to the devil’s influences.

Secondly is the idea of this upside down universe, where right is wrong and wrong is right. Ideas of morality is reversed. This opposite nature can also be reflected in a black-and-white/negative-positive/yin-yang kind of way as metaphorically illustrated in this excerpt:

Letter 4, pg. 25 “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things in their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.”

Third is dialogue, the back and forth conversation between Screwtape and Wormwood. We only see one side of it but the other is implied. It is key because it is the medium where the whole story is laid.

Rainy Day Recess by Impactist. I was particularly inspired by this video with its combination of hi and lo-fidelity imagery, and the emphasis on form, simplicity of color palette. I also like the overlaying of basic shapes on top of the dramaticly lit shots (effective contrast).

Again, I do not want the interpretation to be too literal, as it says in the book that it shouldn’t be:

Letter 7, pg. 40 “If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.”

Meanwhile, I wanted to include a bit of randomness to the piece by including things that seem to be disconnected. This adds to the element of satire.

Letter 2, pg. 15-16 “When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face…Your patient, thanks to Our Father below, is a fool. Provided that any of those neighbours sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous.”

Letter 8, pg. 44 “Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal.”