After watching the three assigned movies, it is apparent that each film utilized the past, present and future to explain the design process. Helvetica shows how the invention of a typeface has changed the face of American consumerism today. Everything is Illuminated portray a young Jewish American, who is on the search for an elderly woman who helped his grandfather in WWII. Wall-E shows the design of the future.
The movie Helvetica expresses how the fonts originally were not cohesive and simplistic; they incorporated a variety of different elements, creating confusion for users. Through the creation of three simple letter designs (h, o, and p), topographers in Switzerland at the Haas Type Foundry were able to compose a cohesively designed streamline font. Alfred Hoffman now possesses the original prints and cuts of Helvetica at the Haas Typer Foundry. In the 1950’s, companies opted to use Helvetica to create more steam lined professional billboards instead of busy random images that incorporated words as well. Today on computers the default font setting is Helvetica, again creating streamlined words and unity. Not only is Helvetica easy to read, but it is professional and consistent. Helvetica is seen everywhere today. Day in and day out companies opt to use the font on billboards, internet, pamphlets, advertisements and labels. However, some designers believe that Helvetica is so overused that it is starting to look dull. Helvetica will continue to grow and develop in visual and graphic communication to catch the public’s attention.
In Everything is Illuminated, a young Jewish boy named Jonathan travels to the Ukraine to find the woman he suspects to have helped his grandfather during WWII during Nazi Germany. His journey begins when he hops off the train for the first time, only to be greeted by Alex, a bad translator. Alex’s grandfather to take him on his exploration. While adventuring to the woman’s home, Alex, Jonathan and grandfather come across a field with old wartime machinery. This scene is followed by a flashback to Nazis shooting the Jewish people standing in the a line, showing the past relating to the present and Jonathan’s need to find the woman that helped his grandfather during a similar wartime scene. Shortly after, the grandfather is driving through a sunflower field when they arrive upon a house with a frail woman in front of it, who is in Jonathan’s picture. Jonathan immediately asks her where Trachimbord is and the woman states that her name is Lista and the woman in the photo is her sister. She pulls out a box with a wedding ring, which belonged to Augustine. Jonathan finds out that Augustine had been shot by a Nazi, because her father wouldn’t split on the Torah. Lista proceeds to give Jonathan the wedding ring and box. At the end of the film, Alex opens the bathroom door to find grandfather dead in a bloody bathtub. Through the combination of scenes from the past and present, the movie director portrays fluidity and interconnection of events. Events from the past can be used as teaching mechanism for similar events that may occur in the future.
The movie Wall-E starts out with Wall-E alone on planet earth. He only has one friend, the cockroach. Wall-E’s mission is to clean up earth from the disaster made by humans. One day another robot named Eve comes into his life. He falls in love immediately, but Eve continues to ignore him. Eve is on a mission of her own to find one source of life to bring to space. She finds Wall-E’s plant and takes it back with her. Wall-E decides to go back to space with Eve. In space, there are hover chairs, no walking involved, and is a place where everything is done for you. She loses the plant then realized it could save humanity. Wall-E finds the plant and returns it to the ship. The ship campaign watches a video of what earth was and realizes he needs to go back to Earth to experience the planting and singing. People have to get off their hover chairs and walk because the machine on the ship is shut down. At the end of the movie there is the one plant in a soil filled boot and symbolizes a turn back to what Earth once was.
All three movies utilized landscape to create a certain feeling or message and tell a story. Helvetica utilizes the landscape as part of the design process. The images of Switzerland go along with the process of designing the font as the two parallel each other in time. Similarly to Helvetica, Everything is Illuminated uses landscape as a way to play into history. Instead of looking towards the future, Everything is Illuminated is designed in terms of the past. The car, the costumes, the interiors and the actions of the actors all contribute to the overall feeling of hope that can be seen in Everything is Illuminated. Wall-E uses landscapes, but to emphasize the contrast between brown landscapes and white landscapes as well as the colors of various objects.
After watching all three movies, it made me realize how much goes into making a film. I was able to look further into the processes behind design instead of what is on the screen. These three movies are definitely movies I would love to watch again. I feel that if I kept re-watching any movie with the design process in mind, I would be able to pick up on more and more details that I never took notice to before!
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