Art of the Legacy Effects Exhibit

Hollywood’s Gnomon Gallery hosted a small exhibit on The Art of Legacy Effects, with an opening reception on May 28th, 2011 from 7pm-11pm. The Gnomo Gallery is located on 1015 N. Cahuenga Blvd, Hollywood, CA 90038. There is an inside look at the work of the talented artists from Legacy Effects, including Scott Patton, Ian Joyner and Simon Webber. Legacy Effects is an award-winning character design, makeup, specialty prop and animatronic studio. They are a very experienced in visual effects. The exhibit featured large scaled images, maquettes and previously unseen props from movies. Some of the films featured were: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Avatar, Iron Man, Thor, I Am Number Four, Cowboys and Aliens, The Avengers, and John Carter of Mars. 


Upon entrance, guests were greeted and served with Charles Shaw white or red wine, beer, soda, or water. There were choices of appetizers such as fruit platters and a cheese platters. Disappointingly, the exhibit was quite small. One could view the entire exhibit in less than 15minutes. As an attendee of the opening reception, I was really excited but the excitement deteriorated after realizing how small the space was. I was hoping for a more expansive exhibit with a lot more to see. However, I did captured photos of pretty much all of the work that was present at the exhibit. 

Restaurant Review: "Octopus" Japanese Restaurant

 227 E. Palm Ave. Burbank, CA 91502(818) 556-6622

Octopus is a Japanese restaurant specializing in mainly sushi and other specialty seafood fusion dishes. Open daily, every day of the week. Monday through Thursday from 11:30am till 10:30pm, Friday and Saturday till 11pm, and Sunday from 12pm till 10pm. The ambiance is impressive. Location is a bit hard to spot. It stands right at the corner that’s a bit dark and easy to miss if you drive by to fast. Parking is quite easy. There is underground garage parking right besides the restaurant and best thing yet… it is free.

Nights seem to be quite busy. Most of the tables and booths are occupied with service already. There are pretty leather booths and comforting mood lighting surrounding the interior. Their choice of music is quite random and not all that suitable for the ambiance and feel of the restaurant. But chances are, you are too engaged in the satisfying meal that you won’t be bothered too much by it. Service is excellent. The waiters were exceptionally polite and friendly. Quick to respond and comes around to check up on our meal and if we needed any more assistance. It’s nice to have chefs, waitresses and waiters who are attentive to you.

The food is delicious and is worth what you’ve paid for. Prices are decent and each roll of sushi stands within the average range of what a typical sushi roll of eight pieces would be: between approximate $7-$10. Sashimi slices and sushi rolls are always generous and the fish is always fresh. The sashimi salad is exceptional. They truly weren't being cheap with their fish, giving a more than decent portion of fish slices. Some favorites are: the spider roll, the rainbow roll, the volcano roll, shrimp or vegetable tempura roll, and the tiger roll. Some other quite amazing fusion dishes that's a must try upon your visit is: the monkey fry which is deep fried spicy tuna in a japanese mint leaf, the salmon tempura which is unique because it isn't just your ordinary vegetable or shrimp tempura, and even their dynamite appetizer is amazing, which is baked scallop sauteed with mushroom and onion in a slightly sweet and creamy sauce. It definitely was hard to decide what to order. The other great aspect of this restaurant is the fact that they offer two happy hours with discounted alcohol as well as some of their sushi. The first happy hour is between 3-6pm and the second happy hour is from 8pm to closing.

If you want affordable sushi in generous portions and of course, along with great service, Octopus is definitely a recommended Japanese sushi restaurant for you. The flavors and experiences of the dishes will be worth your buck!

Panel: Roberta Morris

• Integrity of a story is important
• Tell a story without exploiting people
• It is key to feel empathy for your subject. You don't have to agree with them technically but without empathy, grasping the feel of the story will be more difficult. It also would be hard to feel for the subject or even care for the persona. You want to grasp the moment and get the humanity of the story from their perspective.
• To whom you interview for a documentary is important. Be aware because you do not want to ask questions to someone who is un-knowledgeable of the topic, facts, or story.
• It isn't always the best idea to put someone on the spot to where they have no way of responding.
• If there is a silence in the interview after a question is being posed, wait seven seconds. The interviewee could be processing the question still and you don't want to interrupt their thought or cause frustration to the degree that they no longer want to go through with the interview

• Acknowledge someone's right to say "no"
• Allow for someone's input, and respect the subject. 
• You are holding their story, you are carrying their story, therefore, respect their story.

• Visual graphics such as animation works great as a filler. It fills interest to the viewer and is entertaining; keeping the audience awake and interested.
• Perception of interactivity: the users get to choose/add input and their response is heard. There are possible different anticipations and reactions to a story but all aspects in angles of the story have already been preconceived.
• People prefer some sort of control and power. Restrictions aren’t all that favorable. Having the power in the decision making aspect makes something interactive successful.

Extra things to think about:

• Pay attention to the differences in sexes opinions/views: different sexism exists.
• Sometimes it is a shame to take someone' story and not be able to put it out there for others to be able to feel for the story and hear the words and perspectives of that persona.

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My opinion, in reference to today’s debate about interactivity:I feel that you can still grab and maintain one's attention without interactivity. However, you cannot do that if there is a lack of story, structure, and substance. It is important to have imagination, new media skills and integration, + storytelling skills.

Journalism Standards

"Verification" / Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel

1. Never add anything that was not there
2. Never deceive the audience
3. Be as transparent as possible about your methods/motives
4. Reply on your own original reporting
5. Exercise humility

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"The 10 Commandments of News" / John Maxwell Hamilton & George A. Krimsky

Thou shalt not:

1. Lie or intentionally alter the truth
2. Lie to or threaten a source
3. Report rumors or other unverified information
4. Suppress or omit opinion with which one disagrees
5. Show favoritism/personal bias in one's reporting/writing
6. Misrepresent oneself or use deception to get a story
7. Plagiarize words or ideas
8. Tap or tape telephone conversations without permission
9. Use one's position for personal gain
10. Do anything that may be construed as a conflict of interest

As a response to the other standards on the handout, I believe that respecting other people's privacy and using sensitivity when working with children and people is super important. This goes along with what Roberta was mentioning about respecting another's voice. As a journalist, one must be cautious, respectful, and to not abuse their power because whatever they write, WILL be permanent. You can't take back what you written or said. 

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Week 8, Vocabulary:
a. Libel - defamation (the act of ruining one's reputation; slander) by written or printed words, pictures, spoken words/gestures
b. Shield Laws - laws protecting journalists from forced disclosure of confidential sources of information
c. Prior Restraint - a court order banning publication of unpublished material
d. Fair use - the conditions under which you can use material that is copyrighted by someone else without paying royalties

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Textbook website response: "Section 18: The Law of Defamation"
- The defamation law is also known as libel
- Defamation material is any material that discredits a person. It tends to lower them in the estimation of others and causes them to be shunned/avoided, or while being exposed to hatred, ridicule, or contempt. Also refers to, "to lower in the estimation of right-thinking people."
- Any person or company has the right to sue for damage of their reputation caused by material published to a third party (this includes materials published online). They can sue as long as they are reasonably identifiable from whatever material is defamatory of them.  


http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/page/guidelines-law-defamation

Walton Ford: a Satiricial Emphasis on Hyracania

Walton Ford, in his workspace where he executes the most amazing work

Walton Ford’s art has a look and feel inspired by the early 18^th century – early 19^th century nature paintings. He unceasingly admired the beauty in the art within that era. Growing up, he was always exposed to that style of art in his home, which later assisted him in his conceptualization for his pieces. His naturalist illustrations are an inspirational resemblance to John James Audubon, who similarly achieves very well painted nature art as well.  Ford utilizes a mix of watercolor, gouache, graphite, ink and pencil to blend depictions of natural history through his art. Ford prefers to paint on a large scale though his format is paper. In an interview, July of 2008 by Ajay Kurian, Ford mentioned, “I do like to make the animals life-size because a lot of the early Naturalists did that. It also allows me to take a tiny piece of ephemera, or a piece of some obscure bit of knowledge and enlarge it, in a real physical way – like take the research and make it as large as life.”

Hyracania, 2007. Watercolor, gouache, pencil, and ink on paper. 60 x 119 1/2 inch.

  There are secrets in every painting. Ford paints with commentary and satire, leaving symbolic hints and evident clues that when dissected, it reveals his bold statement or joke. Ford is quite erudite in colonial literature and folktales also and often makes many references to it in his painting.  His animal portraits usually portray a sense of entrapment, curiosity, or trouble and these depictions are actually very complex and symbolic. Mysteriousness lurks in the characters of whatever subject he is painting.

The piece called Hyrcania, the tiger is holding on to a glass ball and he seems quite disturbed. After researching, I realize that it is based on a 13^th Century European bestiary. Hyrcania is a location, which became Persia and is now Iran. In that country, if one wants to steal a tiger cub from its mother, there is a process that involves those glass balls, similar to the one that the tiger in the painting is gripping on. One would go to the lair, grab the cub and flee on a horse. When the female tiger is chasing you, you throw these reflective glass balls over your shoulder. The mother tiger will see her reflection in the balls, and think it’s her cub. She’ll stop, and start to nurse or cuddle it. Then she’ll realize that she’s been fooled, but you’ll have gained enough distance to get away. Without knowing the truthful story of how tiger cubs are lured away by their mothers, one would not understand the piece of artwork.

The importance of the text on the painting, which also is the title to his piece aids in giving a clue to dissecting the story behind the artwork. He mentions in the 2008 interview, “I always felt like I wanted to use the text in a way that revealed something that was completely not in the image. I do the same with titles. It would open a door to research if possible, if you wanted to figure out what was going on in the picture. And also it would add another layer of meaning to the image that wasn’t visually there.” He truly wants the viewers to expand the text on their own rather than letting himself suffocates us with the meaning of the picture immediately. As it is a journey for him to create the piece, Ford wants it to be a journey for us to understand the piece .

Learning to love the new media!

                   There is a dysfunction in the modern press. "Media is doing a worse job than they use to."This was mentioned a lot in the article. It's been really hard for the country and society to try to understand the world and what's really going on. Making decisions and developing ideas has all been manipulated by media. Media and advertisement has been spreading trends, gossips, and ideas that fundamentally isn't what citizens should be knowing. We should be getting the real news and information of what's going on around the world, but instead people rather watch a comedy show, reality show, or celebrity news rather than international news or war, politics, cultural analysis, and the "truth." Every magazine I've seen on the shelf lately has been about celebrity gossips, scandals, weightless/diet, and trends. What good does this information do for the knowledge of the individual?                  Fallows, the writer of this article stated, "We are no longer a national audience receiving news from a handful of trusted gatekeepers; we're now a million or more clusters of consumers, harvesting information from like-minded providers," and he is right. We really can't trust our sources now but how often do people question their sources? It is so easy to create a blog and spread information. It is as simple as uploading a blog piece of false news. Anyone can upload and write nowadays and everyone can read. As the prologue  of the article states, there is "a decline in journalistic substance, seriousness, and sense of proportion." It's even true that journalism, newspaper, magazines, and the internet sources are all profit-driven businesses now. Where have the real substance and information gone?                  The substance in media, and news has been giving people what they want opposed to what they should really know. "One by one, the buffers between what people want and what the media can afford to deliver have been stripped away," as quoted in the article and I absolutely agree with this. I feel that the media delivers to the viewer what they want to know just to obtain the most hits and views. The news will only cover so much information or only certain events solely because they don't want to spark anymore fear in society than what could already possible be there. This is a theory that I've had about the news and media. There is a purpose in hiding information. Not spilling every single details or the exact truth of all stories and not mentioning what's really going on, ALL is for a purpose and that purpose is to simply hide the truth. Hiding the truth is to minimize fear because with fear, there is questioning and with questioning there is corruption. This leaves a lot of power within the news and media in manipulation and control.          
                   As I read on, I truly found a lot of interesting quotes and references made in this article. "The destruction of the bundled business model for newspaper... the rise of increasingly targeted and niche-ified information sources and advertising vehicles." People can get more of what they want and less of what someone else thinks they should have. Denton mentioned in the article that you get an idea of what's going to be big and what's not, which usually can be predicted. What's going to be a big hit will be the topic that most writers or journalists will shoot for.
                   I also found interesting what they quoted about journalism. "The job of journalism is to provide surprise." It also mentioned the idea of "a rounded personality" meaning that it gives the viewer options of different emotions: outraged, amusement, diverted, inspired, and surprised. I do feel that journalism must spark interests to viewers and it should attract readers. In writing the headline, Brian Moylan stated, "It's almost as if you've got to get the whole story in the headline but leave out enough that people will want to click. You can kill a story by using a too-clever of a headline." This is absolutely true. I feel that if the headline had too intelligent of a word and sounded a bit too complicated or metaphoric for the average reader, it simply just won't make sense and why would you want to click on something to read that doesn't even make much sense to you? I also feel like he is right about the headline. Giving a bit but not the complete idea or story will cause curiosity in the viewer or reader and curiosity will make someone want to dig deeper and read on. This is true because based on personal experience, I abide by this idea as well. I feel like it's a natural instinct.
                   As a reader. I try to find valid sources nowadays. The sources of information being spread could be a fraud and everything that an individual is absorbing can be a lie. The truth is hard to find when everything that's being talked about isn't exactly what society needs to know. The fact that news and journalism has been profit-driven is an irreversible and destructive thing. News and journalism is no longer what it use to be and the truthful essence of what news and journalism is suppose to be is deteriorating fast.




Fallow, James. "Learning to Love the New Media." (2011 April): pages 34-49. Print.

"Red Neck, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer"