Introduction

Greetings, fellow film and television enthusiasts! Welcome to Media Aesthetics. Here we blog about all those aspects of video recordings designed to create a seamless, aesthetically pleasing product for the audience. Directors and cinematographers today are so skilled at--and we as viewers so accustomed to--aesthetic techniques that quite often, the work goes almost unnoticed.

This blog will open your eyes. 

If you love TV and film and want to uncover the tricks of the trade, how and why things are done the way they are, read on. We'll post topic discussions breaking down all the major components of aesthetics within media, and allow you to comment and participate in the process. Please Me Aesthetically, our video series, will help further analyze the topics, using a sense of humor and visual aids--this is a blog about video, after all!

(SPOILER ALERT: If you'd prefer to remain oblivious to the elements of media aesthetics, we suggest you visit another URL. Like now. Go, enjoy your sitcoms and period pieces in ignorant bliss.)

Now, back to business. There are countless examples one could cite when explaining the aesthetics used in film and television. But for our purposes of a basic introduction to studying media, we think it's best to choose a single, simple example. We've selected a public service announcement from the Ad Council about unplanned pregnancy:


We'll apply the main categories within media aesthetics to the attributes of this commercial, to help you recognize the deliberate choices made by its creators, and understand the reasons behind those choices.

We hope you enjoy our blog. Feel free to comment and tell us what you think!