Sitemap

Leandro Sitemap
www.beard.dialnsa.edu/leandro
Department of Communication, Master of Arts in Media Studies
New School University
12-01-05

1 Resume
1.1 Biography
1.2 Education
1.3 Work Experience
1.4 Skills
1.5 Awards
1.6 References
1.7 Travels

2 Photography
2.1 Subway Series
2.2 Faceless Portrait
2.3 Roscoe

3 Films
3.1 Short Narrative
3.2 Aesop’s Fable
3.3 Editing Exercise
3.3.1 Video Variation
3.3.2 Director’s cut
3.3.3 Saturday FMD Unleased
3.4 Other Projects
3.5 Work in Progress

4 Presentation
4.1 Philip Morris
4.2 Photography Exhibition Review
4.3 Critical Theme in Media Studies
4.4 Editing Scene Analysis

5 Media Log
5.1 Sketches
5.2 Notes

6 Links

7 Contact

Sitemap
Focus Features.com

1 Now Playing

1.1 The Ice harvest
1.1.1 View Media
1.1.2 Visit Official Site
1.2 Pride & Prejudice
1.2.1 View Media
1.2.2 Visit Official Site
1.3 The Constant Gardener
1.3.1 View Media
1.3.2 Visit Official Site
1.4 Broken Flowers
1.4.1 View Media
1.4.2 Visit Official Media

2 Coming Soon

2.1 Brokeback Mountain
2.1.1 View Media
2.1.2 Visit Official Site
2.2 Something New
2.2.1 View Media
2.2.2 Visit Official Site
2.3 Brick
2.3.1 View Media
2.3.2 Visit Official Site
2.4 On a Clear Day
2.4.1 View Media
2.4.2 Visit Official Site
2.5 Untitled George Reeves Project
2.5.1 View Media
2.5.2 Visit Official Site

3 Vault

3.1 My Summer of Love
3.1.1 Visit Official site
3.1.2 Synopsis
3.1.3 Credits

3.2 Rory O’Shea Was Here
3.2.1 Visit Official site
3.2.2 Synopsis
3.2.3 Credits

3.3 The Motorcycle Diaries
3.3.1 Visit Official site
3.3.2 Synopsis
3.3.3 Credits

3.4 Vanity Fair
3.4.1 Visit Official site
3.4.2 Synopsis
3.4.3 Credits

3.5 The Door in the Floor
3.5.1 Visit Official site
3.5.2 Synopsis
3.5.3 Credits

3.6 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3.6.1 Visit Official site
3.6.2 Synopsis
3.6.3 Credits

4 About Focus

5 Awards

5.1 Brokeback Mountain
5.2 Pride & Prejudice
5.3 The Constant Gardener
5.4 Broken Flowers
5.5 My Summer of love
5.6 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
5.7 Rory O’Shea Was Here

6 Media

6.1 Brick
6.1.1 Trailer
6.2 Brokeback Mountain
6.2.1 Trailer
6.3 The Ice Harvest
6.3.1 Trailer
6.4 Pride & Prejudice
6.4.1 Trailer
6.5 Broken Flowers
6.5.1 Trailer
6.6 The Constant Gardener
6.6.1 Trailer

7 Register

8 Rogue

Benchmarking analysis

www.hbo.com
www.docurama.com
www.mightypics.tv
www.focusfeatures.com
www.cinematropical.com


I looked at the web sites of documentary production companies such as HBO.com, focusfeatures.com, mightypics.tv and two distribution companies such as docurama.com and cinematropical.com. All of them are easy to navigate and they also seem to anticipate possible requests by the potential users. However, there are clear differences among them. HBO is the most dense website of the abovementioned with all the information very well grouped on the left side and the titles of those groups also appearing along the width of the top side of the site, so you don’t need to scroll down the web to get to what you are looking for. However, that amount of information can be also visually distracting because in the center and right side of the site you have a lot of information about shows, coming shows, interviews and schedule. Everything you need is there but altogether. When you surf the website you find that every page you go is like a whole new site, but simpler than the main page.

On the other end you have cinematropical.com, the dimension of both company can easily explain why the latter is simpler and easier to navigate than the former. This web site organizes its titles that lead you to different parts of the site in the same fashion as the HBO one but it doesn’t have the information grouped on the left side. Therefore, you click on the titles to find out what is in it. In the center of the site you find notes with the most recent events.

Some of them as focusfeatures.com have sound when you open the site and for being movie companies or distribution companies the have links to movie or documentary trailers. All of them but cinematropical.com have a searching window that allows the users to shortcut theirs searchings.

I understand that these are corporate websites but I expected a little more of creativity from these kinds of companies since they are or pretend to be art-related companies.


www.focusfeatures.com

Effectiveness of navigation

It is easy to navigate and pretty straightforward. You can find everything you need in a very simply manner. When you pose the mouse on the link this change color becoming brighter than the others. That allows you to know that you are on the right link.

Information architecture

The titles to navigate the site are organized from left to right on the top and below the name of the company and a banner, which advertises coming attractions and events.
All the links in each sub page are on the left side with its explanation on the right side. The architecture leads you to every part of the site very easily by using simple titles that concentrate the major information.

Quality of design and presentation

I like the design, but I would make same changes to the color blue it is used. It opens with the new of the company fading in and the shows the main movies now playing or coming soon. Everything is framed and centered in a windows which contains almost all the information and differs from the rest of the page by the intensity of the color blue.

Substantive textual, visual, audio, media content

As a company, which deals with music and movies, this part is its best feature. It is very well developed. You have access to all the trails and the site also shows the users what kind of program the need in order to see the trailers. In every page of the site on the bottom right side outside the centered-framed window you can see Flash, Quicktime and Window Media.

Mastering Wabi-Sabi

I read the book about Wabi-Sabi. I liked it. It was a little difficult to get to understand what Wabi-sabi meant, but I guess that it is normal since my friends from Japan couldn’t explain it to me. The closest to a definition I was was “elegant simplicity”. I understand the idea of the arts in the details and the beauty of the ugliness because I believe in that. It doesn’t catch my attention big piece of arts or well-advertised exhibitions. I couple of years ago, I famous Argentine artist broke a glass in TV and said that that was art. I wonder if she wasn’t the Wabi-Sabi master of Argentina.
I have been concerned about my projects for class since I have never deal with any creative activity. Economics is much simple and predictable. However, Wabi-Sabi is part of my philosophy so you can understand why I couldn’t continue working with numbers. I remember when my boss fired me and rehired me 15 days after. He asked why I was working so efficiently after he had fired me and I answered that I was happy to leave the company. He wanted me to stay and I said that the only way I would stay was if he could make me happy. I stayed but he failed to make me happy so I quit, finished my school and came to New York.
At the end of December I will be in Buenos Aires and I may visit him. If he asks me what happened, I will answer:” Wabi-Sabi man, nothing else”.

When I first saw Rumble Fish by Francis Ford Coppola (1983) I was too young to realize the talent and importance of the director, but I was mesmerized by the blue fish in a black and white picture. Considered by some of the critics one of his best picture ever, the movie has a good story, and it is so well done. The poetic ending is one of the most remarkable endings I have ever seen. The movie unrolls in extreme perfection, providing a great experience.
Now that I spend hours try to do small effect with more advanced software I appreciate that effect more. For those who have not seen it I can only suggest watching it. I tried to recreate the blue fish in black and white image, but it is really hard to reproduce the same quality. It is not only the blue fish effect but also the light and bright of the film. It is as something has been done in order to highlight the contrast with the fish.
The use of black and white and the contrast with the color of the fish has a poetic and aesthetic meaning and the black and with itself has a meaning since the movie changes to color when the mean character experience also a change.
There have been other movies before and after with special effects. Some of them are only special effects, I mean the reason of the movie is the special effect itself while others need the special effects to the purpose of the narrative such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind. However, in the Rumble Fish the use of special effect is basically limited to the color of the fish with the black and with background which makes it more powerful since it is not lost in a number of special effects.

Assignment5 first draft

Settings:

-MoMa.
-NYC Street: around MoMa, Houston St., and Jersey City.
-My House.

Characters:

-Myself




Time:

-Present
-All daylong

Logline:

I try to play a role as Woody Allen from the 70’s. I am sorry.

Plot:

Trying to do my assignment for my class of Media Design I start my day at MoMa, The class and the assignment aren’t easy for me. I need to find Zettl and Barthes’ principles of photography and setting in the photos I will look at.
To help myself in such a task I drink vodka with my breakfast. However, this doesn’t have any effect. I continue drinking along the day. I wander in the city, meet some friends and keep trying to write my essay.
At night I returned to my house. I am drunk; go out again and then I wake up the next morning with someone in my bed who is not Barthes or Zettl.


Scenes:

1) My house: I wake up and prepare myself for the day. I add vodka to my coffee and take some more with me.
2) MoMa outside: I buy more coffee and add the rest of my vodka. I need to relax and open my mind to new perceptions other than number and finance.
3) MoMa: I stat to feel the vodka. See the exhibition, but I am still not able to write the essay. I need to visit the sanitary installation. Before I leave the restroom I comb my hair.
4) Houston Street: It is about 4 pm and I wander around Soho, in the meanwhile, I keep drinking and talking to myself about why I can not see nothing.
5) Back Home: I sit down in front of my computer. My mind is blank. I need to go out for fresh air.
6) Next morning I wake up with someone I don’t know next to me. He is not Barthes or Zettl.

It is Thursday morning. I wake up early because I want to be at MoMa as soon as it is opened, so that I will avoid the crowd. But MoMa is not very crowdy on weekday, otherwise. I feel strange trying to study photos and understanding Barthes’ approach to photography. My rational-organized approach to everything deprives me from seeing anything that is not oblivious. Therefore, I think I need some help to put down my defenses and let myself observe photos from another perspective. Some vodka with my coffee will not hurt anyone. See the Russian, they have been around for hundreds of years and they don’t even drink it with coffee. Just a little bit. It tastes good.

I am at the MoMa on a beautiful day. I don’t see things different, blue is still blue. I may need some extra help. Fortunately, I brought the rest of the vodka, just in case. I have to buy more coffee.

Here I am in the Moma. I start to feel dizzy. I see the exhibition and cannot write a word about Barthes and Zettl. I check the restroom looking for them. Oh, I didn’t comb my hair.

I leave the MoMa. I walk around Soho and have a Martini, well two. I cannot find Barthes and Zettl, but everything seems funny to me. I am in a very good mood except for the shaky sidewalk.

A little bit later I am at home. I sit down in front of my computer. I have the title for the assignment, but nothing else. I should finish the bottle of vodka if not the alcohol will evaporate.
I definitely need some fresh air.

Next morning I wake up with someone next to me. I found something but not Barthes or Zettl.

Assignemnt4

I want to dedicate this first draft and approach to Photoshop to my dear computer, which was not helpful at all. After the class held on October 1st., I experienced so many problems with the computer (a brand famous for being so "friendly" with everybody except me) and the program. Many of the things, for not saying all, I did were absolutely by chance. I have the feeling that this is not the best I can do with the program so that I promise to post new and better-done photos.
That was not the end because I had new obstacles ahead. One of those was the format. I thought that changing the name of the file from psd to jpg would change the format, but not. Unfortunately it took me another week I could have spent using the photoshop to upload the pictures I had done. I know this is not the end. More obstacles are waiting for me.

Assignment 3

Assignment 3

A travel through the past.



That was my feeling while visiting the photography exhibit at The Edward Steicher Photography Galleries at MOMA. Immediately after entering the room, one gets transported into the past. The incessant desire of the man for registering history is present at the exhibition from the very beginning. It is true that Timothy O’Sullivan, Watkins, Rusell or Emerson could not play with light as well as others. Yet it is thank to these pioneers who adventured into the new technique that those who came after mastered the art.
This part of the exhibition with pictures taken before the twenty century is mostly landscapes. Therefore, the work is more representational/ naturalistic than abstract. There are a couple of pictures that will capture the attention of the visitors such as “Entrance to Black Canyon” (O’Sullivan) in which the photographer uses the environment and scale to establish the object size. The man in it is very small and is at the very bottom of the frame whereas the nature is infinite and covers the rest. One of the photos by Peter Emerson portrayed a worker cutting grass (here the man is the center of the picture), but what will capture the attention of the visitor is the size of his hand. It is a beautifully composed photo, yet the punctum here is his big and strong hands. The scale of the picture plays a fundamental role on “Arbutrus” (Watkins) because it emphasizes the size of the tree that fills the whole picture, the tree is the figure and the sky and land are the ground. What characterize this part of the exhibition, printed on silver print, is that the photographer photographed landscapes and workers in the countryside.
In the next section of the exhibit, this shifts from the landscape of the countryside to small towns in the countryside as well as changes century. One of the most interesting pictures is “Woman” (1836) by Walk Evans. It is a portray of a rural woman during the 30s. It is only her face with flat lighting, but Evans skillfully exposes her inner side, the side that can talk about the hardship she has been going through, the flat lighting eliminates everything from her faces except the absence of hope or happiness. He also captures the decadence of the plantation splendor with “Breakfast room at belle grove plantation” in which the setting of the light (tactile orientation) allows the viewer to see the erosion on the old elegant walls. Between these two photos, there is a powerful and eloquent picture “Sharecropper’s family” (1836). This photo shows the poverty of the rural America during the 30s along with the filthy life conditions. However, the puctum here is what it seems to be a brassiere hidden under the bed in the only room of the house. The family clearly set the room for the picture, but forgot the piece of female underwear. The present of some portrays of people on the subway affects the cohesion of this section. Conversely, it will perfectly link with the next part of the exhibit. The present of the subway pictures reminds me of some pictures that I myself took on the subway trying to capture the ubiquitous elements of the subway in New York City. The use of the light is different because my photos are of objects at certain distance. Compare to the rest of the exhibit, I don’t use black and white as in the photos displayed at MOMA.
At the end of the exhibit, the viewer will meet Diane Arbus’s work. A new shift takes place, this time, from small towns to urban people. One of here most astonishing photos in displayed at MOMA is “Girl sitting on her bed with shirt off” (1968). Then again, the studium of the photo will tell the viewer about style, physical appearance, though, her hair is going to capture the eyes’ visitor. It may not be intentional, but it will take your vision away from the rest of the photo.
The pictures are perfectly displayed in traditional sized manner and printed silver or gelatin. For the exhibition, black frame are used. Hence, the photos will draw the visitor’s eyes.
The exhibition is very cohesive within each section; they are part of certain theme, yet there are some pictures that don’t match with the rest of the section or the exhibition as a whole. That can be confusing.
It is really interesting witnessing how photography has changed throughout the years not only technically, but also thematically. Moreover, what is really fascinating is to be able to be transported to so many periods, and observe and question how, why, where or what.

Assignment 2

The first approach to Zettl was a hard task. I had seen many photographic exhibitions, but I never read the pictures. The artist can easily guides the eye of the viewer. I liked them or, in other words, felt them or not. I understood that lights, camera setting and composition played a center role, yet I was unable to identify the different elements and settings.
For the first assignment I had to read each type or classification before selecting the appropriated one. Therefore, I looked for a very specific picture as if it could only be cast shadow, but not cast shadow and inner orientation space.
After reading the second set of chapters, I was able to take the pictures without the book. Those chapters reinforced and clarified concepts. Despite the fact that they are not great pictures, I easily recognized the different elements and settings.