Feature Hierarchy

This is a movie poster for Walt Disney Pictures’ “The Little Mermaid,” which debuted in theaters in 1998.  At first, my eyes are drawn to the bright yellow color of the movie title on the bottom of the poster.  Color is the first level of the preattentive feature hierarchy that my eyes are drawn to.  My eyes are also drawn to the center of the poster.  Ariel, the main character of the movie, is placed in the center of the poster, right above the title of the movie.  She is almost in a silhouette form, though I can see shades of red in her hair and green in her mermaid tail.  My eyes are constantly going back and forth between the mermaid figure and the movie title because those are the features of the poster that stand out when my eyes first see this poster.  Spatial grouping is also an important preattentive feature.  I like how this poster is simple and only shows the main character in an almost silhouette portrayal.  I have seen other movie posters for this specific movie and most of them are to busy-looking:  many include all of the characters in the movie packed onto the poster that it looks to clumped and clustered.  This poster is simple to look at and helps your eyes to only focus on the important things, like the character and the movie title.

Picture Works Cited:

http://disneyanimation.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=131310243

Top-Down Visual Processing

Every time I visit Disneyland or Disney World, I walk through the park entrance and find these vintage ride posters.  They are plastered throughout the tunnels guiding you towards Main Street.  This particular poster is for the Alice in Wonderland ride in Fantasyland.  At first, your eyes are fixated, trying to look at all of the images on the poster.  Once you realize that all of the images are connected, the information your eyes take in travels to your brain and you begin to connect the images with things you may see while in the ride.  These longer fixations allow your brain to connect the images and the words, and then put them together.  The path your eyes follow is known as a scan path or eye path.  Your eyes go back and forth between all of the images on the poster, and the words compliment the images because they give more information about the ride and what you will be experiencing.  Your eyes make sure you see all of the images, since they are telling you the story behind the Alice in Wonderland ride (there’s the Cheshire Cat, Caterpillar, White Rabbit, etc.).  This process is goal-directed because your eyes are constantly scanning the poster and linking the images with actual concepts in the ride.  The overall process is known as Top-Down Visual Processing, goal-biased attentional looking.  This poster grabs your attention through its images, which your eyes take in and send to your brain to deliver the message.

Picture Works Cited:

http://lisamakes.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/the-wonderful-world-of-disneyland-posters/

Blog Exercise: Success/Failure of Syntactical Guidelines

This is a vintage Disneyland ride poster, depicting the Matterhorn Bobsleds ride.  This piece of graphic art is a great example of the correct usage of the Syntactical Guidelines.  First, the equilibrium of this poster is perfect: everything is centered and balanced.  The ride vehicles are centered on the page (they are the main focus of the ride).  Even though the vehicles are tilted, the design of the poster as a whole is balanced.  Second, this poster shows a lot of stress incorporated in it.  The curves of the ride track and the ride vehicles themselves are perfectly even (the vehicles are curved in a way that flows with the track).  There are also many “triangles” on this poster  (in the lecture, there was a lot of emphasis put on stress, triangles, and angles).  Third, sharpening in this poster is greatly defined.  The ride vehicles are in color, while the background and Matterhorn Mountain are in shades of blues and grays.  With the ride vehicles in color, our eyes are focused on them rather than the background.  Lastly, our eyes are attracted to the vehicles, which is the main point of the ride.

Picture Works Cited:

http://thehalfhouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/inspiration-vintage-disneyland-ride.html

This is a movie poster for the Disney film, “John Carter.”  I chose this poster as a failed attempt at including the Syntactical Guidelines.  As a viewer, this poster does not impress me.  One guideline that this poster did not emphasis was sharpening.  The font color does not allow the title of the movie to shine.  The title blends into the background, making it hard to see the letters.  One thing that this poster did well was sharpening the main character of the movie, but the title should’ve been sharpened more because that is what the audience will read.  Another reason why I do not like this poster is the outline or curved line of a planet or the sun (I am not sure what it is supposed to be).   This line makes the poster look unbalanced.  I am not a fan of this poster. 

Picture Works Cited:

http://www.theinsider.com/movies/50701_Failed_Movie_Franchises/

Blog Exercise: Visual vs Symbolic Language

This is a picture most likely taken at a meeting of war veterans and active duty members.  On the wall, there is an American flag hanging.  In the forefront of the picture, two war veterans are hugging.  One veteran is older and the other is younger.  The older veteran looks like he is crying as he is embracing the younger veteran.  The younger veteran has also lost his arm due to the war and has a prosthetic.  Behind these two gentlemen are a group of people including another younger veteran and another older veteran.  All of the veterans pictured are in their respective military uniforms.

Responses or Feelings:

-thankful

-respect

-American

-heroes

-amputees

-veterans

-men and women serving our country

-medals/decoration

-American flag

-emotional

-happy

-safe and sound

Symbols:

-American flag: symbol of America, freedom

-military uniform: symbol of the military

-medals: symbol of military service and sacrifice

-decoration: symbol of military service

Underlying Compositional Structure:

The compositional structure greatly contributes to the listed responses and feelings that I have posted above.  The way the people in the picture were positioned, with the older veteran and younger veteran in the front, is very powerful.  You are able to see the emotion between the two gentlemen through their embrace and their facial expressions.  This is obviously a special moment and the emotion shines through in this photograph.

Picture Works Cited:

http://hearmesaythis.org/the-benefits-to-being-a-veteran/

Blog Exercise - Meaning 2: Interactions Between the 3 Levels of Meaning

This is a picture of a vintage Disneyland ride poster.  Posters like this one are found near the entrance of Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom in DisneyWorld.  

Representational: 

This poster represents the Jungle Cruise ride at Disneyland/DisneyWorld.  There are four different elements in this picture that viewers instantly recognize from the ride itself.  We see an elephant, a hippopotamus, the jungle, and the boat.  This poster is expressive and informational because it gives viewers clues as to what the ride will actually be like.  Viewers recognize the boat vehicles form the ride in this poster, as well as the animals and jungle scenery.  This ride includes scenes from a jungle that you might actually see if you were in a real jungle; this is what the poster displays.  The representation of this poster relates to the abstract and symbolic levels because of the way the elements are positioned on the poster itself.  

Abstract:

The elements and pictures in this poster definitely make it abstract.  First, the elephant is clearly taller than the jungle brush and scenery.  In real life, elephants are not that large/tall.  Second, if you look closely at the people in the boat, you can see emotions such as fear and curiosity: one person has a gun pointed at the hippopotamus.  This does happen in the ride itself, but it is obviously a fake gun.  The abstract level functions as the underlying visual structure of any visual information and contributes impact and emotional response.  This poster allows viewers to realize what they will be going through when they board their boat.  The abstract elements of this poster relate to the representational and symbolic forms because it provides the emotional responses.

Symbolic:

The symbols in this poster communicate familiar ideas in our minds.  This poster includes animals, transportation vehicles and scenery to communicate to us that this ride takes a through a jungle, where guests will be abel to see animal life and be introduced to the dangers and wonders of the jungle.  The symbol of the gun in the hand of one of the passengers symbolizes danger.  The elephant and hippopotamus symbolize the wildlife.  The boat symbolizes the type of vehicle you will be riding in.  The symbols in this poster relate to the representational and abstract levels because they are some of the most iconic figures from this ride displayed on this poster.  The symbols represent what you will be seeing on the ride.  The symbols are designed and placed in a way that is abstract and not normal in everyday life (for example: the giant elephant).  

Picture Works Cited:
http://thehalfhouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/inspiration-vintage-disneyland-ride.html

Blog Exercise - Meaning 1

Representation:

This is a picture of the Tree of Life, located in the Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World.  The Tree of Life is representational in many different ways.  First, this tree carries large amount of details.  I know this is not an up-close picture, but the entire trunk of the tree is very interesting: there are hundreds of animals carved into the trunk.  This tree represents life, both human and animal.  Second, the Tree of Life alters and shifts the inescapable role of interpretation.  People who come to see this tree interpret it in their own way.  I know whenever I visit Animal Kingdom, I always take a picture of the tree and wonder why the Disney Imagineers chose the animals they carved into the trunk.  The tree has different meanings for different people, it is the Tree of Life.

Abstract:

This is an abstract picture of a flower on fire.  I think that this picture follows the second of the two paths that Abstract art can be viewed: abstraction toward symbolism with meaning attached.  I think that this is so because everyone who views this picture will have a different interpretation of it than someone else.  This picture is intense and distilled and uses pure, elemental visual forces.  The fire seems to engulf the flower, from the petals to the stem.  The different ways in which people interpret this picture involves "abstract thought," generalizing from the specific instance to a general class.  For some, a flower on fire can mean something earthly and to others, it could be interpreted as destruction of nature.

Symbol:

Take a look at this symbol.  It is iconic and well-known all over the world.  This is the symbol for Mickey Mouse.  The definition of a symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that denotes something else by association, resemblance, or convention.  This symbol resembles the features of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: a large head and two ears.  This symbol is known all over the world, and it is known by people of all ages.  You don't have to visit a Disney park to know what this symbol means.  When I see this symbol, I know it has something to do with Disney.  When little kids see this symbol, they say "Mickey Mouse."  Each person has their own interpretation of this iconic symbol, whether they've seen it once on a piece of paper or they visit a Disney Park every year.  This symbol is simple and precise, making it easy to remember and recreate.

Picture Works Cited:

http://disneydose.com/tree-of-life-in-animal-kingdom-loses-limb/#axzz26IB6VRT4

http://1ms.net/abstract-flower-best-199135.html

http://www.etsy.com/listing/54027132/mickey-mouse-silhouette-digitized