Title of Article: Why Faux Flowers Are Really Chic?  By LINDSEY TAYLOR:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303910404579487743912647378

1. I feel like the mood in this article is, cheerful, and fun. It is making you see something in a different way. Making the use of “tacky” faux flowers, into beautiful and stylish.
2. My audience are stylist, crafty people. People who like home decor, or decor in general.
3. My approach is literal. Showing people that it is now “stylish” to use faux flowers instead of real flowers.
4. Still life photography is right for my idea.
5. If I did use a model, it would have to be a female.
6. Faux flowers, vases, candles, books, (make it have home decor vibe)
7. I would like to use bright light. Maybe a 2 to 1 lighting ratio.
8. I would like something bright, to sense that the flowers are in a home, next to a window.

http://www.5gyres.org/plastic-bags/

For my final project I chose the topic of recycling of plastic bags. Since my major is advertising I would like to make a campaign which will exposes the problem and drives to an action. It will include hashtag #plasticfree, The 5 Gyres Institute logo, website link.

Summary:

1. The mood of the text is serious, shocking and it pushes to an action.
2. My audience is men and women, age range 18-60.
3. The approach is literal.
4. I am thinking of including photo of people for one idea and using still life for other.
5. Male and female models
6.  Ideas will include plastic bags for first photo shoot and reusable bags for second one.
7. 2:1 or 4:1 lightning ratio

Results:

For my final project I had 3 photo shoots with different ideas. First photo shoot and the following  included still-life  and the goal was to “set up” the problem of recycling plastic bags. I used a small globe and plastic bags for showing a ratio of the problem. First two visual solutions have dramatic light set up and minimum Photoshop manipulations. Second two visual solutions have smaller light ratio and photos are not that dominant in the final campaign. I blended original photos with a plastic texture and it gave a filling of a polluted ocean’s bed. Also I added a few simple silhouettes of plastic bags for enhancing the filling. In my opinion this two visual solutions best articulate the problem.

Last photo shoot was meant to “set up” a possible positive solution. In my version of the solution I am pushing people towards not using plastic bags and instead start using reusable bags. Portraits look light and happy.

Tetiana Baranovska COMD3530

Health Benefits of Playing Tennis
By Michael Cramton

A tennis match requires players to move side to side, up and back and at differing speeds to test a variety of muscles in your legs. And the inherent movements in a typical match help to improve forearm strength, back muscles and core development.
Tactical – Brain Development
Tennis is based on geometry and physics, and can help develop tactical thinking similar to playing a game of chess. Since a large proponent of playing tennis involves alertness and tactical thinking to develop shot patterns, the sport helps to generate new connections between nerves in the brain. Played over the course of many years, tennis can help improve or maintain brain development, keeping you alert and sharp well into your golden years.
Coordination
The more you play tennis, the more you develop the fine motor skills required in ball striking, gauging distance and personal coordination.
Tennis tests your balance, speed, footwork and hand-eye coordination through a variety of techniques and movements. The better you become on the courts, you can also expect these attributes improve other aspects of your life.
Self-Esteem
In a recent study performed at Southern Connecticut State University, which tested the psychological benefits of several sports and among non-athletes, tennis players scored higher in self-esteem, vigor and optimism, while scoring lower for factors such as confusion, tension, anxiety and depression.
Regularly playing tennis can help keep you motivated on your professional path, as well as help you overcome obstacles that you may encounter in your personal life.
Other sports may provide differing levels of health benefits—swimming for upper body, running for leg strength and soccer for tactical reasoning—but none of them combine them in such an efficient package as the sport of tennis.
All of these health benefits make tennis one of the most beneficial sports you can play, physically, mentally and emotionally.

Project brief
“ Health Benefits of Playing Tennis”
By Michael Cramton
1)Scientists and physicians around the world view tennis as the most healthful activity in which you can participate. There may be other sports that can provide excellent health benefits and some which can provide mental and emotional growth.  But no sport other than tennis has ever been acclaimed from all disciplines as one that develops great benefits physically, mentally and emotionally. Cheerful text makes you start play tennis and take care of your health, keep you in a good shape.
2)It’s not too late for adults and seniors to play tennis.  The human system can be trained and improved at any stage of life.
3)My literal approach to get people to play tennis to show beauty of the rackets, to get people be healthier.
4)My images should include for 1 idea people (playing tennis, happy and healthy), 2 idea still life photography (show beauty and power of sport by showing on image racket and ball for tennis).
5)My models will be strong healthy looking people in a good shape.
6)Rackets and balls for tennis
7)I would use side lighting. This is arguably my favorite kind of light. Side light is light coming from the left or right of the subject. Or back lighting back lighting happens when the light source is behind the subject.
8)I would use side lighting natural colors, maybe bright to make photo look heathy, I would use high depth of field, to focus more on objects.

Summary: Human trafficking is not only a problem of other countries. In America over 300,000 women, children and men are pulled in sex industry. The number is shocking! After escaping the sex industry people experiencing heavy  PTSD syndrome which makes the adaptation to the normal life is very difficult.

Communication Problem: The problem of human trafficking is a big issue. The problem should be expose to all people. Images should be dramatic and should push to an action which can help resolve the problem.

Image Ideas: 1. Group portraits of young people with high light ratio. Someone covers his face with hands. 2. Broken toy in woman’s hands like a symbol of children trafficking.

Results: My final approach is slight different from the  article. I chose children trafficking as my primary topic. All three images has the same style: dark background, high light ratio and the same stuffing animal. I found that UNICEF has special program named “End Trafficking”  and I decided to use it for my headline.

Summary: In the article Human Trafficking In Our Own Backyard, Mullaly  gives the description of those who are victim of human especially sex trafficking – slim and obese, tall and short, strikingly beautiful and very plain, black, Asia, and white – literally the girl next door. An estimated 300,000 women, children and even men are trafficked for sexual purposes, not in Africa, Southeast Asia or the Middle East but right here in our own backyard. Prostitution is a lucrative business and earns more than drug dealing. This business consists of residents that have been on the streets since 14 and have been abused sexually. A pimp oversee the dealings of the victims.

Communication Problem: To show the impact of human trafficking on individuals

Image Ideas: dark images that show someone tie up with a sadden countenance.

Summary:Human trafficking is thought to be one of the fastest-growing activities of trans-national criminal organizations. Human trafficking is condemned as a violation of human rights by international conventions. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Almost every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims.

Communication Problem: If the public can’t see the problem, it’s difficult to mobilise financial and political support to solve it.Trafficking,should not be confused with a similar albeit different crime all together.

Images:should be dark, sad, I would use dark red background and hands tied up

Summary:
The article talks about human trafficking as a serious social issue in our own backyard. According to the article, there are about 300,000 victims of human trafficking in the United States alone. This includes women, children and also men. Prostitution is big business and the ringleaders are often millionaires. The article mentions the trauma that victims of trafficking experience, and how most of them have been through child sexual abuse at home.

Communication Problem:
The images should communicate something very dark, serious and dramatic. According to the article, victims of human trafficking doesn’t know how to trust someone – because they’ve been through hell. I think the images should communicate lack of trust, lack of security.

Image Ideas:
The lighting should be dark, and should encompass emotions such as fear, anger, self hatred, lack of self worth. I would want to try out taking photos of someone with their face buried in their hands, maybe wearing a hoodie, sitting on the floor in a dark room. Another idea is someone having their hands or neck tied. Or a close up of someone with (fake) blood on their hands. The photos should not show a face of a person.

Results: Coming

Summary:
she being Brand by E.E. Cummings is a poem that on the surface looks like it’s about breaking in a new car, while it is really a metaphor for having sex with someone who is inexperienced/a virgin.

Coming Home, Detroit, 1968 by Phillip Levine talks about the bad situation in Detroit in 1968. It was a time with lots of racial tensions. The poems talks about how the city is dirty from the factories, all the pollution.

Communication Problem:
One of the challenges is making the same toy car look very different in the two different photos. she being Brand should capture something raw and sensual, while Coming Home, Detroit should capture something more gritty and dark.

Image ideas:
For she being Brand an idea could be for the car to be on an angle, it’s the first time and it’s not straight forward and symbolizing the ride not being smooth; inspiration from this line “cranked her up, slipped the clutch (and then somehow got into reverse she kicked what the hell)”.  It should have a light, pink/red/warm lighting.

For Coming Home, Detroit my idea is to shoot the car from the front and for the back of the car to be in the light, while the front of the car is in the dark. You’re coming home, but coming home to a city that’s in a bad state. Another idea could be to show the car going up in smoke, or in a fire like the last line of the poem “we burn this city every day”.

Results: I shot this at home with clamp lights and filters. It was a challenge setting up the lights right for this, but I think I got some good results in the end. I was able to follow the image ideas that I had from before, holding the car up with tape to get it on an angle. Coming Home, Detroit was more challenging – originally I wanted to shoot the car from the front with the background being light and the foreground being dark but I realized that it was easier to do the opposite – so now the car is seen from the back driving into the dark city.

she being Brand
Coming Home, Detroit

Some other tries:
Photo 1
Photo 2

Summary: In the article, “Human Trafficking in Our Own Backyards,” Leith Merrow Mullaly discusses one of America’s worst current social issues. The article gets straight to the point by stating that sex-trafficked individuals come in all shapes and sizes. In other words, they can be, “Literally the girls who live next door.” Probably what’s most surprising about this article is the fact that it’s a topic based in America, out of all places. We usually associate sex trafficking with other countries. The article is eyebrow-raising indeed!

Communication Problem: My image needs to send across a very dramatic message. The image must be tense, emotional, and controversial.

Image Ideas: Considering this social issue is based in America, I’d like to have the American flag somewhere in the shot. My idea is two have an image of one hand grabbing the arm of another person. The strong grip of the dominant hand grabbing the other person’s arm should represent the idea of a dangerous individual pulling the victim somewhere.  Faces aren’t necessary for the shoot.

Results: I chose to photograph the topic of hands instead.

Summary:  

Human sex trafficking has always been an issue with no spotlight nor media coverage in the United States, as to most people, it mainly goes on overseas. The United States has had issues on human trafficking for years, as according to the article, it states that “it is estimated that there are almost 300,000 women, children and even men who are trafficked for sexual purposes in our own country.” For the boss, the pimp, it fills his pockets, “a single pimp can earn more than $1.5 million every six months with 6 women or children in their “stable”. An underground hustle that can earn more than the average drug dealer on the corner, by just selling sex in the dark nights is detrimental to somebody’s physical health, but mostly mental health.

Communication Problem:

The problem is to shoot and make images to spread the word on the human trafficking issues around our local communities.

Image Ideas:

A model with the right props can give the right feel for an image for the article, like money, signs, handcuffs, rope, or even a wig. When editing the photos, a darker tone, more gloomy look would create a more meaningful message for the images.