PSA Reflection

When I learned that we were going to be doing a project on a mock Ad council public service announcement I was pretty excited to be able to do a project on an important subject that related to me. When looking on the Ad Council website I immediately knew that I wanted to do a project on “Youth Reckless Driving”. It was a subject that I could relate to, as I know a lot of people who drive in such a manner, and one of my friends from middle school was killed on Highway 84 last year while out on a drive in his dads BMW. The text only ad was pretty easy for me. I immediately knew that I wanted to make a fake speed limit sign with “kills” in replace of the “limit” and the actual number of deaths instead of “65”. And for the other three pictures I knew I could have some fun with them. For the first picture I drive down to the Burlingame Police Department and asked the sergeant on duty if I could take a picture of myself pulled over in my own car, with his car and lights going in the background. He, being a Serra graduate, was extremely willing and helpful. This was by far my favorite picture, as I think the emotion is right on, and I’ve even had several people think that it was actually real. For my next picture I took a shot of the gauge cluster for a 2011 BMW M3. It’s a very aggressive, technical dash so I wrote the text, “Tempted? … Take it to the Track.” And for my last photo I just had a little fun kicking up some dust in my 1986 Mustang GT; while probably driving a little too recklessly myself.

Youth Reckless Driving Prevention PSA

Youth Reckless Driving Copy

Throughout our nation’s late history, reckless driving has been the number one killer of teens. Since the 1950s Hollywood has been glorifying the acts of aggressive driving and racing. And, despite unprecedented attempts to stop reckless driving among our nation’s youth, it still kills over 5,000 teens every year. More and more states are now making teens go through graduated driver’s licenses which force more rigorous driver training and education, and getting a learners permit’s where they must drive with their parents for the first six months, as well as not being allowed to transport any of their friends for their first year of licensure. Many states, like Michigan and South Carolina have reported deaths among teens drop by over 25 percent. Although, we still need to take more and more drastic efforts to eliminate reckless driving, specifically among teens.

Photoshop Reflection

When I found out that we going to be doing an assignment on Photoshop I wasn’t too worried because I knew I had played with Photoshop before. The first few things we did like cutting out an image and pasting it into another image, playing with selective color along with trying to make a regular image look like a fisheye was nothing, I’ve been able to do that with no problem for years. Then we moved on to experimenting with adding different textures and gradient maps the photos. I got lost a couple of times here, but still had no real issues. But when we moved on to the changing the threshold of part of an image was difficult for me. I had no problems taking the object out from the rest of the image, then adding ten layers, and adjusting all of their threshold amounts. Yet, after that I was completely lost. I was able to complete the image in class, but the process never really stuck with me. I think that became apparent on our Photoshop quiz, where I was able the create all ten layers and alter their threshold, yet was lost after that step. Overall I felt competent in doing any of the real life adjustments that I would actually use on any of my photos. I feel completely capable in changing the location of an object in a frame, selective color, copying and pasting into another image, fisheye, along with changing color, white balance, contrast, and doing minor things like adding a slight vignette in the corners or dodging and burning any unwanted spots in the frame.

Andy Warhol Notes

· Real name is Andrew Warhola (8/6/28-2/22/87) (Became Warhol after a misprint)

o Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Parents from Czechoslovakia (does not exist anymore)

o Father worked in a coal mine

· In High School, kicked out of art club because he was “too good”

· Graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (Bachelor of Fine Arts)

· Graduated with degree for pictorial design & wanted to become a commercial illustrator

· Designed advertisements for women’s shoes

· Used Polaroid camera

· Fear of hospitals and doctors, hypochondriac

· Favorite print making technique was silk screening

· Friends & family described him as a workaholic

· His sexuality was speculated upon and how this influenced his relationship to art is “a major subject of scholarship on the artist”

· First solo expedition in 1952

· Coined the term “15 minutes of fame”

· 1960s: iconic American products (pop art)

· Created The Factory, his NYC studio from 1962-1968

· Celebrity portraits developed into one of the most important aspects of his career

· Made films (first one called Sleep – 6 hours of a man sleeping) (1963)

· 1965 said he was retiring from painting

o 1972 returned to painting

· Designed cover for the Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers (cover made out of real jean material)

· Produced Velvet Underground’s first album

· Started a magazine called Interview, worked for Glamour Magazine, Vogue

· Shot by Valerie Solanas 3 times for being abusive and “too controlling” (6/3/68)

o Solanas authored the S.C.U.M. Manifesto, a separatist feminist document

o "Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like watching television – you don't feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it's all television."

· Marilyn Monroe = favorite model (not painted until after death)

· Wore silver wigs until he dyed his hair silver

· Practicing Ruthenian Rite Catholic who described himself as a religious person

· Died of a heart attack brought on by a gall bladder surgery and water intoxication

· $100,000,000 for one of his paintings (highest amount paid) (“Eight Elvises”)

· Referred to as the “Prince of Pop”

Andy Warhol Photos

Little Toy