Convergence in SoHo

This Friday, a friend and I had the opportunity to see one of my favorite actresses at the Apple Store in SoHo. Natalie Portman, the beautiful and talented Harvard graduate, has starred in the Star Wars Episodes I-III, Garden State, Mars Attacks, Paris Je T'aime and V for Vendetta. As part of the Tribeca Film Festival, Ms. Portman along with her colleague Christine Aylward launched a new interactive website to the audience of about 200 at the Apple Store on Prince Street.

Makingof.com was designed to be a centralized database of interviews, footage and insight that showcases and explores the "behind the scene" aspects of movie-making. Portman and Aylward, wanted to create a space where the unsung heroes--cinematographers, costume designers, camera men, screenwriters--could relate their talents and choices, both artistically and technically. According to the duet, the website is targeted toward anyone "who loves entertainment." With such specific details as what lens were used in particular scenes and the philosophy of costume design the information is accesible for students of film and viewers of film alike. The website is divided into a three categories, so that users can pursue particular artists, films of the past or what's "filming now." Aylward commented that as technology improves, she wanted to also "open things up" from behind the scenes. She commented on how the industry can be very closed off, inadvertently or not and how it's challenging to network in very much "family business."

For Ms. Portman this strikes a familiar chord. Acting on film from a very young age, the 28 year-old recently tackled directing two shorts for the upcoming "New York I love You" (a collection of small films ala Paris, Je T'aime) "I thought I knew so much," Ms. Portman conceded but as she had to communicate with the dozens of production workers, she realized she did not. Although Ms. Portman had connections from her career in the business, for the layman, struggling student or avid movie-goer this information was scattered and out-of-reach.

I couldn't help notice the overall-arching theme of convergence at this event. Obviously, convergence in the sense that the lines between movie maker and movie goer has been blurred (As Aylward noted in the "youtube generation"). Convergence in the sense that the line between mediums has been blurred- film information on a website. Personally, the most poignant point of convergence, if you will, had to do with Natalie herself. Crossing over from Actress to Director, might not be a new transition. Yet in this day and age the ability to understand both the facets of production as well as performance are as vital as ever. Through technology and websites like makingof.com, the worlds have collided.

Check out: www.makingof.com

Design I FLIP for...

In tackling this Design I Like blog, I wanted to consider both the aesthetic and functional aspects of design. In surveying my dorm room for an object that offered both things, I landed on my Puredigital Flip Video camera. This 6-inch by 2-inch slab of plastic can capture up to one hour of footage, in a sleek and intuitive design.

Aesthetically the flipvideo camera is very modern and sleek. Its white and orange casing lacks any of the extraneous buttons, logos and plugs that had hampered earlier designs. The orange plastic outlines the sides and lens of the camera, while the white casing slides open to hold the batteries. Small gray letter fill the bottom right hand corner with the “flip” logo. On the screening side of the camera, a small 1” x 1” screen fills the upper half of the camera, with a simple control panel beneath it. This interface has a gray background. The buttons are symmetrical in design with a central red button surrounded by two arrow buttons to the left and right, and “plus” and “minus “ buttons to the top and bottom. Approaching the camera as a composition, it is balanced in this nature; no one side is has a disproportional amount of buttons, logos or colors. Aesthetically I find the bright shiny white and orange colors stimulating and inviting. The design suggests ease, openness and comfortablity with its light color scheme and compact size.

The design of the controls and buttons of the flip camera extends these impressions to functional. Using the vocabulary of Donald Norman’s Guide to “POET” (the psychology of everyday things), each control button and option affords and constrains appropriately. The larger red button “affords” being pushed as do all others on the screen interface. To the bottom of the “sliding” lock function with three grips affords the “sliding” motion, as do the on and off slider on the upper left hand side and the “flipping” USB slider on the right hand side. There is no mistaking what these controls do. These buttons are constrained by very sleek and simple symbols. The “+” and “-“ signs constrain these buttons to either add or subtract. When recording they logically zoom in or out, when playing back a clip, they raise or lower the volume. The red center button indicates recording or stopping; the triangle button to the left constrains to playing and playback. To the left and right of the red record button the “arrow” signs constrain the function to scrolling between videos. All in all, the user intuitively figures out how each button works, and what their corresponding functions are.

The simple design and lack of fancy buttons coupled with compact size makes the Puredigital Flipcamera an inviting tool for young media makers. Its bright design, orange, white and gray color schemes say, “I’m open for business.” Its size says, “take me anywhere” and its lack of buttons say, “Grandma Myra could figure me out.”