Month: September 2018

Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing? What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?)

Bradley and Pablo from PRETTYBIRD

The title is Music Video | Silk City & Dua Lipa – Electricity although i have chosen to focus on the snippet that Dua Lipa posted on her Instagram account, as she is the main vocalist she was announcing the release of the new track.

With the photo or video you are examining when was it produced (date)?

The video published on Dua Lipa’s Instagram was published on the 6th of September however the actual music video was published to Youtube on the 5th of September.

How was the photo or video authored? For instance, with a photo, this would involve understanding the device used to record it and the technology used to prepare the image for publication. Included in this observation may be how the image was recorded (like in a mise-en-scene analysis).

The video itself although published on Dua Lipa’s account is not her work as it is a music video which she is the lead singer for. The authoring process is hard to locate due to a whole production company that worked on this high quality piece of video. In this specific post no credits are directly given to the producers, but when you read the caption you are instruction to go to Dua Lipa’s biography and click a link that takes you to the full music video published on youtube. From there we find in the description of the video, the company and individuals who worked on the video almost at the bottom.

PRETTYBIRD is a production company who has many ties top creatives and advertisement agencies. They produce high quality work which is seen just from perusing their company website. So you would only expect they use very high quality expensive equipment, such as cameras, lighting, editing software and so on.

How was the photo or video published? For example, with a photo, this would involve understanding the medium the photo was published in, like for instance – was it print media or the World Wide Web? Was the photo printed? If so how does this printing process affect the photographer’s practice?

When taking a look at Dua Lipa’s video post, it is a short extract from the full music video for her to promote on her page. Although I’m sure she has a team that works with her and i do not assume that she’s personally cropped the full music video to this shorter snippet. It was done to fit the restrictions of Instagram videos, which must be no longer than 60 seconds which was only increased from 15 seconds a couple years ago(Engadget, 2016).

How was the photo or video distributed? For instance, with a photo, this would involve understanding how the photo is distributed to multiple viewers. Like for instance, if the photo was printed in a periodical magazine – how is that magazine marketed and distributed to viewers?

This video was distributed through a number of channels including Dua Lipa’s Instagram page that at the time of writing this post has 18.1 million follows, which is quite a big reach. However the video itself on received just under 5 million views. Considering it was published only a week ago I’m sure that number will climb a little more. The full music video was published to Mark Ronson’s Youtube channel which received 12.5 million views who also collaborated on the song and he also does have a slight different audience but many crossover with Dua Lipa’s. So just from this one video we see a lot of sharing and a lot of pages featuring this video, not to mention all the other people who have shared it on their instagrams or other platforms for admiration and appreciation.

References:

Engadget. (2016). Instagram’s big bet on video doesn’t stop at 60 seconds. [online] Available at: https://www.engadget.com/2016/04/05/behind-instagram-video/ 

Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing? What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?)

The Instagram account i have chosen is https://www.instagram.com/rounddrop/. The person behind it is a good friend and a cinematographer Abdul Yusuf who is based in Melbourne.

With the photo or video you are examining when was it produced (date)?

The photo was published on the 28th May 2018 and can be found here.

How was the photo or video authored? For instance, with a photo, this would involve understanding the device used to record it and the technology used to prepare the image for publication. Included in this observation may be how the image was recorded (like in a mise-en-scene analysis).

Instagram’s standard formatting in a square crop however for this creator it is not suitable to showcase his work as a cinematographer. Therefore to accomodate for this, the creator has taken this wide shot and edited it to when he publishes it on Instagram so that he wont have to crop any of the original photo to fit the Instagram template. The photo was edited in great detail to achieve the aesthetic the creator desired. When looking at his Instagram page in full, this photo fits in seamlessly as a part of the portfolio as there is a consist style seen throughout each photo which makes his work unique and distinctive.

I interviewed the photographer to understand the process of authoring his photos on Instagram and below is a quick overview of the process.

“Instagram is a great tool for me to share my photos and share with the world.  Before I post my photos I usually correct and grade my photos to fit a moody aesthetic.

Once I select the photo, I then would take it into a program called Davinchi Resolve. This is a software I use to color correct and color grade all my photos. After I upload the photo into Adobe Photoshop to crop the size to a 16×9, I then create a white background behind the photo so that it blends into the Instagram white. This will allow me to use the 16×9 instead of the default size.  This will give it a consistent look throughout my Instagram feed.” – Abdul Yusuf 2018

How was the photo or video published? For example, with a photo, this would involve understanding the medium the photo was published in, like for instance – was it print media or the World Wide Web? Was the photo printed? If so how does this printing process affect the photographer’s practice?

The photo was published online to the webpage Instagram. Although there is a process to posting photos on the site through a phone app. Most users can just take a picture with their phone, the app automatically crops it to a square format and then prompts you to edit the photo by adding filters and making adjustments like brightness, contrast, saturation etc. Followed by adding a caption and publishing it to your followers. Interestingly the creator goes against some of these elements of the typical publishing process on Instagram. As mentioned earlier, the photos are taken with a DSLR camera to ensure high quality that a phone camera cannot capture. All the editing happens outside the website/phone application and majority of his photos do not contain captions.

How was the photo or video distributed? For instance, with a photo, this would involve understanding how the photo is distributed to multiple viewers. Like for instance, if the photo was printed in a periodical magazine – how is that magazine marketed and distributed to viewers?

The photo was published to Instagram for distribution to the creators followers. Currently the page has just under 4,000 followers however the photo has 1,464 likes. In terms of the reach it is one of the most liked photos on the page and Instagram is the only platform the photo was distributed through and it wasn’t shot for a client or brand. The Instagram page is of professional standard that allows for the creator to showcase his work in hopes of admiration or job opportunities. All the photos posted on this account are same in formatting therefore keeping it succinct and a clean cut look for a portfolio of work.

Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?)With the photo or video you are examining when was it produced (date)?

Nam June Paik practised from 1953 to 2006 when he passed. The work i have chosen is the Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii produced in 1995. Which can be seen in detail in this youtube video 

How was the photo or video authored? For instance, with a photo, this would involve understanding the device used to record it and the technology used to prepare the image for publication. Included in this observation may be how the image was recorded (like in a mise-en-scene analysis).

This piece of work is a installation in an art gallery that was constructed of 336 televisions, 50 DVD players, 3,750 feet of cable, and 575 feet of multicolored neon tubing. Paik used technology and video in a way no one had ever before in art and he manipulates the video that is being played on the screens by synthesisers to create unique eye capturing effects. “Nam June Paik is hailed as the father of video art and is credited with the first use of the term “electronic superhighway” in the 1970s.” (Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2018) He had a perspective like no other and that is what got him known. Also the use of television sets in combination with the manipulation of the content shown on the screens was the focus of his series of works at the time.

How was the photo or video published? For example, with a photo, this would involve understanding the medium the photo was published in, like for instance – was it print media or the World Wide Web? Was the photo printed? If so how does this printing process affect the photographer’s practice?

His work was published in the form of an exhibition in a gallery which could both limit or benefit his works, depending on the space he had available. This meant he could adapt his work to the space by having the main section of the “map of america” on one wall of the gallery and then “hawaii” section etc. on another wall nearby such as the youtube video above shows. Altering the layout of the piece can also give a different meaning, but not necessarily in this case as Paik was trying to showcase the USA as being influenced through how it is portrayed in TV and film and how that affects our perspective of it too.

How was the photo or video distributed? For instance, with a photo, this would involve understanding how the photo is distributed to multiple viewers. Like for instance, if the photo was printed in a periodical magazine – how is that magazine marketed and distributed to viewers?

Since this piece of work is an installation, it was available for viewing at a gallery. At this moment it is currently on show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and was a gift from the artist in 2002. The exhibition was on display in 2012 at the museum which is located in Washington DC and therefore gets a lot of traffic from day to day. The museum is very popular because of its location. I can only assume that a similar amount of traffic was attracted through all the previous museums it was showcases such as The Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, Florida which the piece premiered at. (Newmedia-art.org, 2018)

 

References:

Newmedia-art.org. (2018). Nam June Paik. [online] Available at: http://www.newmedia-art.org/cgi-bin/show-art.asp?LG=GBR&ID=9000000000066871&na=&pna=&DOC=expo

Smithsonian American Art Museum. (2018). Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii. [online] Available at: https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/electronic-superhighway-continental-us-alaska-hawaii-71478