Author Archives: Jessica Polanco

Final Project

1 Reply

A Women’s Power Tool: High Heel

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/05/weekinreview/a-woman-s-power-tool-high-heels.html

For my final project I wanted to pick a topic I connected to personally and like you said “Something that I would be proud to put in my portfolio.” For my first idea I want to take a pair of heels and shoot them on an all black background on plexiglass. A spot light will give the feeling of power and importance to the subject. I want the shoes to give the message of power and maybe even a weapon. I will give this idea a try with a different pairs of heels.

For my second idea I want to use a young lady model in heels, posing in powerful positions while still making the heels the point of focus. I still want to stick with a black back drop and try different lighting. I want dramatic and maybe even a sexy feel. There can be a shot where the model is stepping on a males hand. Feminism is the message and the heel is the key.

 

See The Glass Half Full

Leave a reply

See The Glass Half Full or Empty? by Margie Warrell was a very motivational read. Staying optimist in life is very important and it brings you a better life over all. From these seven tips Margie gave to us I want to have a well lit set. A bright defused photograph is needed to get the message of optimism across. Maybe trying to use more than one glass to show a difference and demonstrate  a relationship between the two objects. The angle of the camera also play a role in creating the imagery to this article. I am excited to play around and see what turns out best.

Poetry

Leave a reply

Poems “she being brand” by E.E Cummings and Coming Home, Detroit, 1968″ by Phillip Levine both use driving metaphors to get there message across.

Cummings is describing taking the virginity of a girl while using car parts to describe it. It has a very rough tone with a lot of visual details for example “…i touched the accelerator and gave her the juice. I was thinking of using a dim spot light on the car to give it a serious but romantic feel.

Levine uses a car to walk him through his story mainly to enhance the manufacturing of cars in Detroit where this horrible situation has taking place. He sees everything that is happening while driving through the city and there is nothing he can do about what is going on. “Near the freeway you stop and wonder what came off” this is an example of him being indifferent to the situation and understanding you have to keep going. My idea for a photograph to get the message of this story across is setting a serious light fix and having the car stare into a black backdrop.

 

Beats and Bose

1 Reply

Beats “Hear What You Want” and Bose’s “Noise Canceling” campaign show two completely difference approaches to advertising headphones. Beat’s is a more fashion forward product expressing a message of ownership on what you choose to hear. Bose focuses more on the quality of hearing in their product rather than how fashionable they are. Bose’s intended message in this campaign is being able to cancel the noise you do not want to hear for example construction work on the street.

Both brands have very different audiences. Beats is targeting mainly African Americans, people into celebrities and followers of specific genres like hip-hop. Mostly targeting a younger audience. Where as Bose is targeting a more suburban lifestyle, middle aged caucasian group of people.

The style of photography just another whole difference in these campaigns. Beats uses profile portraits in a serious tone that really helps support the message. Bose uses landscape photograph showing volume with the things people don’t like to hear. It was a very creative idea that supported its intended meaning and hit their target audience.

These two campaigns different approach on how to advertise their product were powerful in the sense of their intended audience.

Foursquare and Yelp

Leave a reply

Foursquare and Yelp are competitors and both take a humorous route for there campaigns. Foursquare has a more realistic stereo type tone and Yelp takes the same concept but makes it out of the ordinary. Foursquare is targeting a technology using, more serious well rounded audience. Yelp took there campaign to those who appreciate exaggerated humor, again to a wide tech friendly audience. Foursquare’s photography is extremely realistic and natural and Yelp’s campaign is a video with designed scenes that fulfill the over exaggerated jokes. It goes to show you comedy is a great way to catch the attention of ones audience.

Shaving Ads

1 Reply

Schick and Gillette both use portrait photography for their campaigns. Schick uses more of the upper body for the ad compared to Gillette where a headshot is used. Schick’s photograph taken by Troy Goodall uses broad light giving a nice light to the part of the face that is being focused on. Gillette’s photograph by Tim Tadder uses short lighting giving an overall even light to the face.

Schick’s campaign overall has a very urban feel, targeting a specific audience. They are embracing the male facial hair while comparing it to parts of nature. It was a very unique way to sell their product and most definitely takes the attention of anyone who walks by it. The little use of text lets the photography speak to the viewer in a way that asks for the viewers imagination to play a part.

Gillette’s campaign uses a more classic form of advertisement. They use a large shot of the product with type and a male face. Gillette was very specific with their target audience using football to engage the viewer. It catches the attention of manly men into sports. They use of bright colors is also a attention grabber. Gillette focused on a clean shaved look compared to Schick.

Both campaigns work effectively to their audience of choice. The use of portraits is showed in two completely different ways and allows us to see how they can be used.

Dance Photography in Advertising

Leave a reply

Ads Raymond Weil shot by Lois Greenfield and Pantone shot by Sarah Silver both use dancers for advertisement. Greenfield shot of the dancers creates a vivid expression of motion. It shows contrast to the extreme with choosing to go black and white, there are very light area and very dark areas that take control of the eye. The sense of movement is the concept of the ad and using dancers gave it the sense of real movement.

On the other hand Pantone shot by Sliver expresses painting with light rather than using the dancers as a main focus the dancers here were also used as models. Sliver used the lights to communicate the message of “make it brilliant”. It is a very abstract piece that takes full engagement of the viewer with its unique shapes, colors and shadows. The shadows were a powerful visual element, it adds depth, gives the piece more shapes and delivers the brands identity.

In the Raymond Weil Ads the dancers stand out vs the Pantone ad where the dancers become one with the light and shapes. I personally favor the Pantone’s Ads due to the amount of change happening within the the whole composition it feels alive. It feels as if it were a dance between the light and environment.

Both ads take a different approach and are successful with passing along the message of the brand.