Beau.

A wise woman once said, "If they put as much attention to detail into making a movie as they do into marketing a movie, we wouldn't see so much crap coming out of Hollywood."

The statement is pretty spot-on when one considers how much attention is given to every single microscopic detail in the world of movie marketing. Those who are in charge of making sure a movie makes money looks at timing, exposure, press appearances, reviews, and particularly the trailers that get people excited about movies all in an effort to fill theaters for as long as possible.

The most attention is given to perfecting the trailer and setting it for distribution, but a close second is the "visual collateral" associated with a film. The posters, in-theater displays, and DVD box art are all meticulously planned and designed to touch people on the right emotional level. They all must say just enough and not a word more. They have to compel, inspire, and excite the potential viewers in ways that will have them in the theaters, buying the DVDs or digital downloads, or streaming them to their homes.

It's a complicated endeavor, but one that can prove to be very rewarding to the studios and distributors.

This infographic by Colour Lovers examines the artwork behind the top 10 blockbuster designs of 2011. Click to enlarge.

Et un autre infographique? sur le poster design, cette fois-ci pour les blockbusters américains.

Les recettes du nouveau design d'affiche de film.

Lemarchand sees a human as the ultimate complex system - embedded in other systems (relationships with others, nature, etc) - and designers are challenged to build games that reflect this complexity. In this regard he acknowledges the limits of authored narratives in games like the Uncharted series, but he and his team are always striving to do better. 

Lemarchand cited the development of Chapter 16, "Where Am I?" in Uncharted 2 as an example of Naughty Dog's efforts to provoke an empathetic response in the player. This interactive explorative sequence asks the player to follow a Nepalese man named Tenzen through his village, engaging its residents. The player is prevented from running, climbing, or performing combat moves while in the village. Several members of the design team expressed reservations about this sequence, but Lemarchand felt certain it would work because he had experienced its effectiveness in another game.

Chapter 16 in Uncharted 2 was inspired by an indie game: Tale of Tale's The Graveyard. Lemarchand admired the way this game "created space for reflection," and he tried to offer a parallel experience in Uncharted 2. The 'punch' command, for example, was replaced by a handshake animation. An interaction with children results in Drake getting hit by a soccer ball. "Most players never saw these exchanges," Lemarchand noted, because they aren't accustomed to looking for such possibilities. Such experiential sequences will be a big part of the forthcoming Uncharted 3. 

La raison d'être d'un de mes passages préférés dans Uncharted 2. L'article au complet est très intéressant et résume la conférence de Lemarchand intitulée : "Beauty and Risk: Why I Love Indie Games."

Je suis surpris de voir qu'Osamu Tezuka (créateur d'Astroboy et parrain du manga) appréciait Carl Barks (créateur de la famille des Duck). Astroboy et Donald Duck, deux monuments de la bande dessinée.

Il m'arrive parfois de lire de replonger en enfance et lire les aventures des canards dessinées par Carl Barks ou celle reprises par le grand Don Rosa.

Total

Joy Division & New Order (Rhino, 2011)

“I realised this was a record that would be sold in supermarkets and advertised on television. So the cover has a ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ aesthetic. As you open it out, it says ‘Total’, but folded up you just see the ‘O’s. It says, ‘From Joy Division to New Order’. I couldn’t bear the words ‘Best of’. It’s a long way from the independent record shop to Tesco, almost 33 years. At Factory, I had a freedom that was unprecedented in communications design. We lived out an ideal, without business calling the shots. It was a phenomenon”

Ma wishlist Amazon grossit de plus en plus..

I tell you all of this to make this point: I have put a lot of energy into becoming an exceptional bankruptcy attorney and establishing my good name nationally. If you had Googled Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, you would have found me. No one else. Mark S. Zuckerberg, bankruptcy attorney. If you had repeated the search two years later, you wouldn't have found me at all. Now my name isn't mine any more. The website HowManyofMe.com claims that only 1 Mark Zuckerberg exists in the entire United States. Which one do you think they're counting?

Great collection of fake but honest logos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/hertzen/sets/72157626308238830/

"An idea for a series with honest logos, revealing the actual content of the company, what they really should be called. Some are cheap, some might be a bit funny, some will maybe be brilliant. I don't know." - Viktor Hertz

"What’s going to be missing is the unconscious peer pressure that guides people into different forms of taste. What it’s gonna be replaced by is lifestyle marketing and taste engines, which scares the crap out of me.” ~ James Murphy

J'aime marcher le long de Sherbrooke pour rentrer à la maison après le travail. Ça me détend.

Encore plus effrayant quand je réalise qu'il y a exactement quatre mois j'étais à Kamakura au bord de la plage au sud de Tokyo.

Mon coeur est avec le peuple japonais.

"Zuckerberg's totally wrong on anonymity being total cowardice. Anonymity is authenticity. It allows you to share in a completely unvarnished, raw way," Poole said, adding that the internet allows people to "reinvent themselves" as if they were moving home or starting a new job.

"The cost of failure is really high when you're contributing as yourself," he said.