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Life of Pi

Life of Pi, based on Yann Martel’s critically acclaimed novel, follows a shipwreck where a young man named Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) finds himself stranded on a lifeboat with another survivor, a fearsome Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. For those wondering how Richard found himself on a raft lost at sea, he and the other animals aboard are (or were up until the shipwreck) part of a zookeeper’s cargo. From there, Pi has to fend for his and Richard’s survival all while negotiating with the irritable and often hungry Bengal to improve their odds and make the most of their dire situation on a seemingly endless expanse of sea.

Roger Ebert writes, “Ang Lee’s Life of Pi is a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a landmark of visual mastery.” Lou Lumenick of the New York Post says, “It’s the best-looking film I’ve seen this year and possibly so far this century. It’s so hypnotically beautiful that people will be using it to calibrate their new TV monitors. HSX estimates that Life of Pi will open at around $27M.

Life of Pi, Bravo Design

To see more media from the movie, check out the official Life of Pi page.

Rating: PG // Genre: Adventure, Drama // Runtime: 2 hr. 7 min. // Starring: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan and Adil Hussain// Directed by: Ang Lee // Written by: David Magee and Yann Martel // Produced by: Fox 2000 Pictures, Haishang Films and Rhythm and Hues // Distributed by: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Fox 2000 Pictures

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For Your Consideration

While February 24th may seem light years away, the date will be here sooner than you know (or sooner than we know, perhaps) and with it brings the 85th Academy Awards. Once a year, each and every February (or March), the entertainment community and film enthusiasts from around the world tune in to watch actors, actresses, directors and a host of other film industry professionals descend onto Hollywood to see who will take home the highest honors in filmmaking. The month of November marks the beginning of “Oscar Season” where some of entertainment’s most eye-catching “For Your Consideration” advertising is put to print in various entertainment trades like Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and so on to drive awareness and position a film as a frontrunner in a specific nomination category or in several. From there, the Academy’s 6,000 voting members are responsible for selecting nominations in their respective fields, per Oscar.org: actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc., but all voting members are eligible to vote for best picture nominees. After these results are tallied and announced, final ballots are mailed out to members who are eligible to vote in all categories. The results are tabulated by PricewaterhouseCoopers and revealed five days later at the Dolby Theater.

Bravo Design, Inc. has worked on Academy Award campaign (“For Your Consideration) ads for about the last decade. Here are some we’ve done over the course of the last five years so, some in collaboration with WorksLAthe Refinery Creative and the Cimmaron Group. Click on an image to enlarge it and use your left and right arrow keys to navigate from slide to slide.

 

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Skyfall

Daniel Craig is back in his third performance as James Bond in the series’ 23rd Bond film 50 years after the franchise was launched with Dr. No in 1962. In Skyfall, Bond is tasked with investigating an attack on MI6, which turns out to be part of an assassination attempt on M (Judi Dench) by former MI6 operative, Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem). At this point, that’s pretty much all I have for you in terms of a synopsis. Just like with The Dark Knight Rises, I’ve held out on seeing trailers and have yet to hear the new theme song sung by the critically acclaimed Adele. What I do know is that the movie is going to be awesome.

Betsy Sharkey of The Los Angeles Times writes, “In Skyfall, Sam Mendes [the director] gives us a thrilling new chapter in a franchise, that by all rights should have been gasping for air, with a well-cast, smartly acted film that shows Bond’s inner turmoil and back story and keeps the action, style and mission solid and entertaining.”

Casino Royale opened at just under $41M, and Quantum of Solace opened at $67.5M. HSX predicts that the Skyfall will open to a modest $72M, but Fandango reports that the most recent spy flick is selling twice as many tickets as the most recent film, Quantum of Solace. In the two weeks it’s been out overseas, the film has already generated a whopping $289M $321M before opening in the US, so I’m taking the over and guessing that the buzz will help Skyfall earn anywhere between $85M-$100M in its debut weekend.

To download James Bond related media or find tickets for a theater near you, navigate to the official Skyfall website.

Skyfall, Bravo Design

Rating: PG-13 // Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime // Runtime: 2 hr. 23 min. // Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris// Directed by: Sam Mendes // Written by: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan // Produced by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Danjaq, Albert R. Broccoli’s Eon Productions, Sphere Studios// Distributed by: Columbia Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Edit 11/12/2012: According to Box Office Mojo, Skyfall earned $90M through the weekend in its opening release. “$72M.” Ha.

Edit 12/13/2012: Deadline.com reports that Skyfall has set a new record for Sony Pictures’ highest grossing movie ever beating Spiderman 3’s $890M, and it still hasn’t been released in China.

https://vimeo.com/bravodesignince

Content versus Design

Design, it’s totally and completely inescapable and impossible to overlook.

In publishing eras past, it was an afterthought. Content was first and foremost and appearance a secondary or tertiary concern. If you’re shaking your head thinking, “Content is still king,” I’ll touch on that in a moment. But over the course of the last century or so, there’s been a shift in focus between the two, and that much is evident in the changes we’ve seen with newspapers, and how front page formatting has evolved over time. There are a lot of reasons as to why this his happened, but I’d like to focus on how reader demographics have changed, as have their reading habits, without oversimplifying everything else. Because we consume information significantly differently than we did five, ten and fifteen years ago, organization has been changed to facilitate and streamline that process. The slideshow below shows how The Los Angeles Times has changed since its first edition from a paper crammed to the brim with information to something more cogent and palpable for readers.


“The Los Angeles Times” Headlines from Bravo Design, Inc.

Online, a website’s design is just as important as its content, if not more so, and can be the difference between a visit and a pass or a qualified lead versus an unacceptable bounce rate. To be clear, when I say web design, I’m not just referring to its aesthetics. I also mean its usability. Yes, content will drive traffic and have visitors coming back for repeat visits, but most guests won’t stick around initially if your page is difficult to navigate through or you’ve used GeoCities to build your business page. That’s not actually possible since the service is defunct. And yes, there are always exceptions to the rule, but you know what I’m getting at. There’s a direct correlation in increased conversion with a well crafted website, even if it has its shortcomings, and subpar metrics with one that’s poorly designed. This tidbit of advice isn’t esoteric. It’s money in the bank with real world application.

So what do you do? You build better. Sure, you can use your site but can your guests? If you paused for even the smallest of moments before answering that question, listed below are web design considerations you should mull over.

First and foremost, consider your goal(s). I can’t stress this point enough. What do you want from your website? Are you looking to increase readership for your fratire blog or are you selling <insert anything> or just schooling the general public on your service offerings? In Alice in Wonderland, there’s an exchange between Alice and the Cheshire Cat that’s paraphrased: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” The quote is all-applicable to life, love and, most of all, your website. Figure it out and then plan accordingly, then plan some more and then execute.

Who’s going to be using your site and how will they be using it? Web content and print content are totally and entirely not the same, so you’re going to have to tailor your writing style to the demographic you’re targeting with their browsing habits in mind. Remember, no one (including marketers) likes marketese so try not to write that way. Next, ask yourself if you’re being engaging? Good design and substantial content will draw users in, which makes them want to connect with you. Without personality, your visitors aren’t going to feel compelled to stay, and this can be detrimental to your conversion rates in the long run.

Manage attention and try to not squander user patience. Two points to think about are lowering barriers to pave the path of least resistance and not providing too many options. The less action that’s required for a visitor to access your site, the better. First-time users who want to read an article or peruse through your site probably aren’t going to want to fill out contact forms or register accounts, and are apt to bounce when confronted with the like, so don’t make them do that. Second, if you’re offering way too many choices, your average user is going to have a difficult time making up their mind. That’s the difference between going to a restaurant that has what seems like an endless menu with samplings from each and every continent and going to one that serves three different kinds of hot dogs.

Last but not least, simplify. This point, though seemingly intuitive, is often the hardest to apply. The best designs speak for themselves, and as Dieter Rams said once upon a time are “as little as possible.” With minimal or no instruction, a child should be able to use it. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. You just need to focus on the essential while pruning away everything else.

If you’re still shaking your head, when it comes to content versus design, I’ll cede that they’re equally important, but that’s all. You can leave a comment below if you fervently disagree. If you’re thinking about shopping around for web development assistance, we have a write up listed in our design blog, which might help out in your search. When I initially wrote the entry, I forgot to include that the expert you hire should be SEO savvy, but you already know that. Just remember that the best designers are translators who can turn a vision into something tangible and that our portfolio is also pretty groovy.

If you’d like to download this entry in Word format, click here: Content versus Design.

Photo Credit: Tactile Design Group