Category: General

Pilates is huge. Not in the cultural sense. Pilates was somehow everywhere before most people had even heard of it. Nor do I mean financially, that phase seems to have peaked. No, the hugeness I refer to is that of the system itself. A lot of folks might not realize how big the total body of the work is. Or, that the different routines inter-relate to support each other. Six different machines plus the mat, three to five Levels and Lengths of routine each, the volume of choreography and information is equal to a Black Belt in a respectable Martial Art. Good nutrition is probably the single most important factor in determining health that why we need help with nutritionist Northern Beaches.

Consider also, that the work evolved over decades to support consistent ideals. Meaning to say, if you are struggling with an intermediate or advanced mat exercise, there will very likely be a reformer or Cadillac exercise designed specifically to help you. The system is so wide that there are multiple directions one could take one’s study of Pilates. And, it can be confusing. Navigating the hugeness means having a goal, a relevant goal, maybe a series of relevant goals. Knowing where you want to go is as important as starting at the beginning.

Pilates, like any worthwhile pursuit, has layered goals. What one strives to “master” today may be no more than a prerequisite for next week’s study. Some goals we transition past and never look back. When was the last time you practiced your times tables? Other types of goal are never met, simple at first but progressively more difficult to maintain. “Keep your hands up.” is hardly news in the first seconds of a boxing match, but it turns into Rocket Science as the rounds progress. Without that basic skill firmly in place… other skills will lose their relevance. The Boxer becomes vulnerable.

Pilates has a similar vulnerability. The more advanced moves are as tempting as they are complicated. We tend to want to notch our belts as we did on the earlier moves. But those moves were simpler, and the incorporation of good breath goals are stressed quite clearly. The very structure of many basic Pilates movements helps to show the need for breath as a tool, and not merely a metronome. “Spine Stretch” and “Roll up” are both good examples of this for different reasons.

“Spine stretch” is obscure and a simple “inhale when you do this/exhale when you do that” will not help you find the always subtle, and initially distant, sensation of the Nuchal Ligament. However, if you demand that both inhale and exhale display classical hallmarks of intentional breathing as, or before, the outward movement begins, then you will at least have a direction for your efforts even if they aren’t immediately rewarded with a clear feeling. The exercise itself helps us focus on the mechanics of breath.

Look at “Roll up”. For most of us, this exercise is just hard enough that we can only do it if our breath really helps. Saying your exhale at just the right time, like a line on cue, is not going to get your torso up off the deck. An actual redistribution of body weight is needed for most of us, and until we stop “trying harder” and let the breath lead, we are doomed to flop and arch like a fish (Well I did, and I’m pretty strong.). A Perfect Basic Exercise because success, and ohh, let’s call it “pre-success” are self evident. If the Client/Practitioner is striving or tensing in a possible injurious way, then that will also quickly reveal itself. Again, Seemly the definition of a Basic Exercise.

The Vulnerability I spoke of lies in the more advanced moves. As the complexity and difficulty increase, the self corrective aspects decrease. Its the standard ” ’nuff-rope-to-hang-yourself problem “. Please examine “Arabesques” in the Advanced Reformer. There is potential for repetitive stress damage to the hip, lumbar, and shoulder. These damages could take months to show themselves, and you would have been enjoying your workout the whole time. Problems of this nature ought to be solved by Breath. Using the inhale or exhale to align the skeleton before movement lends protection from as well as sensitivity to distortion. The original sensations of proper skeletal alignment are stored within a focused, almost ritual Breath.

Retaining these sensations is the best way to protect yourself as you progress, and the breath is always there to provide guidance. Without that guidance, you cannot know if you are safe or even correct. It is a layered goal. Don’t leave home without it.

Now, all of this presupposes that somewhere along the line you were taught an ideal breath to create alignment and activate your core. That you practiced enough for it to morph from choreography to sensation. That you own it at a deeper than verbal level. This is super important because your verbal learning parts are always busy at Pilates Class.

The necessary relationship between core and alignment need not be re-proven. It is how these two triangulate with the breath that needs to be more closely observed. The core is forever linked to breath by a simple fact. A person’s “Core” is like Big-foot, it cannot be photographed. It doesn’t exist in stillness, there are no muscles you could lock into place to display it. Your “Core” is more of an event than a collection of anatomy. It only manifests during motion like climbing or running or jumping or, best of all, breathing. The essential support for the essential movement. The “flow” (a Pilates buzz word) or counter-tension in the low frontal torso is a response to breath.

The primary muscle of inspiration is, of course, the diaphragm. Neither the core (a list of muscles and tendons) nor the “Core” (a holistic event) respond to the Diaphragm. The Diaphragm exerts no upward force and does not expand or contract the Ribcage. Those functions are served by the secondary muscles of inspiration and these are the muscles that trigger core response. Furthermore, the greater the total percentage of secondary inspiration muscles activated, the greater the total percentage of core muscles activated.

Whole careers (mine included) are based on describing this phenomenon. My favorite visual metaphor is of a mushroom cloud, an omnidirectional expanding plume driven ever higher by an arcane column of force, oh yeah, that’s the stuff. In reality, its kind of the opposite. Your Ribcage is cleverly anchored to your Spine, Shoulders, and Head and the secondary muscles of inspiration pull it multi-directionally away from the Diaphragm’s tug. This enhances the basic function of the Diaphragm and creates more expansion in the Ribcage. It also serves to counter the downward pull so you don’t slump. Because expansion and contraction of the Ribcage are necessarily linked to the Ribcage traveling up and down the Spine, even a rudimentary study of improving Ribcage volume (not total breath volume) will enhance Spinal alignment. Simply put, you could stifle this monorail-esque traveling up and down the Spine of your Ribcage, but then you could never reach or improve your Ribcage Volume potential. The up/down is structurally built into the expand/contract of the Ribcage. The longer and straighter your Spine, the further up your ribs can go, the further up, the more they can expand. So, it follows that breath and alignment are permanently linked, but it goes deeper than that. A well studied breath can create significant therapeutic effects in and of itself. Consider that the maximally expanded Ribcage shows the least imprint of tension, stress pattern, or injury. An exhale begun from this point has the best chance of ending in an optimal contraction. A well studied exhale can reset the scapula and neck, lessening the unwanted imprint. Even the Diaphragm itself, as it resets during the exhale, gives direction to the Spine if not actual support.

A complete list of the secondary muscles of inspiration would invite tepid debate and violate the spirit I’m trying to create. Namely, that you should/ought/must spend some shirtless time in front of a mirror isolating, recognizing, and recreating the effect until some measure of clarity and confidence develop. Ya’ know, practice.

My description shall be inexact and imperfect, try to have fun with it. Get all skins to the waist in front of a good, well lit mirror. Since we are studying the inhale first, we’ll need to finish a pretty good exhale as a jumping point. For our purposes, a good exhale is one that vents air without losing any height. Not as easy as it sounds. The mirror reveals that our exhale tends to slightly lessen bearing, bust, and stature. Just keeping your full height as the air flows completely out is a good challenge. All tall and empty, your inhales should begin as I describe. If it doesn’t, one possible reason might be that having pursued your exhale into unknown territory, your inhale is coming with awkward suddenness. A bit of practice will help find the difference between a complete exhale and an intense one. At the beginning, your pre-contracted ribs will seek to expand due to stored potential energy. Allowing them to do so helps start the process which we hope to enhance. The low belly will draw inward and upward, keeping pace with the rising Ribcage. This effect will persist for less than half the total inhale, and may be staccato or intermittent. More practice will smooth this out until each studied inhale has a gut-in and a gut-out phase, with the first phase ending as the ribs stop expanding. The directionality of the guts during the gut-in phase is “Core”. Elongating this core active, gut-in phase is the main benefit of Pilates, and also the key to progressing in it as well. It may feel goofy at first but, you can increase your personal quotient of Ribcage expansion.

The mirror is vital at the outset when the sensations of progress are unfamiliar. Seeing breath happen real-time aids in rooting out unnecessary tension patterns (Hulk Smash!) normally present during exertion. Various muscle groups may need to relax against habit so you can see/feel the Ribcage expand or the “Core” manifest. In other words, an extra big Ribcage does not require shoulders like football pads. Use that mirror!

You’ve already absorbed the key aspect of a good exhale, so I’ll just elaborate a bit. The further your exhale progresses without a loss of height, the more correctly you have contracted your Ribcage. Begun well, the pattern is easy to follow. The mirror should report greater release of Trapezius and most other neck area muscles. What the mirror might not reveal is the upward resetting of the Diaphragm, although its productive effects may be visible elsewhere in the Spine.

Good inhales beget good exhales, but it will take focus time to modulate the intensity and chain these events into a series we Scholars call breathing. Until this goal is achieved, its wise to avoid the complicated or dangerous exercises because the whole point of the advanced work is to retain the benefits of proper breathing through the more distracting or difficult challenges.

Breath is the goal that keeps on giving, and the reason why I never accept money from anyone for their first Pilates session. I want to change their view of Life, the Thoracic Universe, and Exercise. I don’t want to talk about skinniness or sturdiness or serenity or even layered goals, I just want to talk about breath.

Eric Schimel, co-author of Pilatez Comix The Basic Mat, is a Kung Fu Black Belt and Pilates Instructor currently based out of Austin Texas. A gifted poet/playwrite, he completed his Pilates Training with Wendy LeBlanc Arbuckle, founder of the Pilates Center of Austin, in 2000 and has since taught both throughout the USA, and internationally at Espace Pilates, a prestigious studio in Boulogne, France as well as in the Philippines. Sought after by both beginners and professional pilates instructors alike for more extensive study, Eric has a unique approach to pilates philosophy he coins Pilatez. Pilatez Comix The Basic Mat is available in both Hard Copy and Digital Download editions. Want to find more articles, blogs, and podcasts please click here. [http://pilatezcomix.com].

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Eric_Schimel/398720

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What does a Storyboard Artist do? Where does a Storyboard Artist Work? ACR takes a look:
About Storyboard Artists

Storyboard artists draw storyboards for animated features, films, television commercials and other ad campaigns, music videos, and video games. The storyboard artist begins creating the storyboard after a concept or script has been written. The storyboard presents the “action” in a series of scenes (panel by panel), which allows filmmakers, advertisers, and producers to evaluate the project before beginning production. Storyboards are also used to provide direction during production.

Storyboard Artist Jobs

Storyboard artists draw scenes by hand or computer. They might sketch in black and white or they may produce full color storyboards manually or by computer. Also called “storyboarders,” storyboard artists work with producers, directors, and film crew from start to finish by sketching scenes during initial meetings, and editing or eliminating scenes as the project progresses. Storyboard artists may work in a film or other production studio, in an office setting, or even a home studio.

Storyboard Artist Salaries

Storyboard artist salaries vary greatly based on experience, benefits, the size and type of company, industry, geographic location, and other factors. For example, according to Indeed, storyboard artists in Burbank, California—the “Media Capital of the World,” average $86,000 per year. Head east to New York—considered the “Capital of the Modern World,” and storyboard artists average $105,000 per year, according to Indeed.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not report salary and employment information for storyboard artists as a single group, so another way to get an idea of what storyboard artists earn is to review earnings for illustrators. According to the Bureau, the average salary for illustrators is $44,850 per year. The highest earning illustrators average $91,200 per year and the lowest earners average $18,450 per year. Some story board artists are self-employed, so they may earn quite a bit more or less than the average salaries listed.

Becoming a Storyboard Artist

While formal education is not required for all storyboard artist jobs, many employer’s prefer to hire artists with a bachelor’s or master’s degree in art, fine arts, illustration, digital art or other related area. Experience is preferred as well. Aspiring storyboard artists may obtain valuable experience through an internship or entry-level position. Some storyboard artists with exceptional talent, but little formal training may qualify for some entry-level positons.

Job Trends for Storyboard Artists

Employment of fine artists such as illustrators is projected to grow four percent for the 2012-2022 decade. This means, the talent pool will increase from 28,800 in 2012 to 29,900 by 2022. Projected growth for this occupation is slower than the average for all occupations. However, according to the Bureau, “demand for illustrators who work on a computer will increase, as media companies use more detailed images and backgrounds in their designs.” Further, “new opportunities are expected to arise, as the number of electronic magazines, Internet-based publications, and video games grows.”

Awesome Animation Fact: When it comes to creating likable characters, sometimes it’s best to go back to the drawing board until you get it right. According to Yahoo!7, one of the world’s most loved animated characters, Woody from Toy Story, was originally written to be a type of ‘sarcastic jerk’ who frequently insulted other toys throughout the film. Fortunately, Disney deemed this character totally unwatchable and halted film production until a more appealing personality for Woody was developed. Find out the best team for your storyboard project.

Packed tightly into rickety, old open-top carriages those aboard the small train departed the embarkation point. Their eyes were screwed tight as they fought to re-gain focus as the bright sun gave way, albeit briefly, to what seemed like infinite darkness. Storyboard artist work closely with the Director and, possibly, with the scriptwriter, Producer, client or Storyboard Supervisor, to visualise and tell the story.

The cool, damp air of the cave hung in the air. The exact same scent likely to have adorned the nostrils of previous occupants many millennia before.

Then, through the dim light, came what appeared to be faint line drawn by hand. Then another, but this time positioned at approximately 45 degrees to the first.

Little by little, creatures began to reveal themselves until a full montage was visible through the flickering electric lights, hung like fairy lights along the length of the cave.

A little boy, sat agape as the train continued to trundle slowly and ever deeper into the cave. All concept of time lost, the little boy’s attention was fully surrendered to the scene laid out before him. It appeared to tell a story, a story of brave hunters and wild animals slain in the name of sustenance and warmth.

That was 1979, the place a small town called Rouffignac in heart of the France’s Dordogne Vezere valley. A third of a century later, the vividness of those distant memories still lives on.

That day marked one of my earliest enduring memories of visual storytelling.

Taking inspiration from these memories, I’ll be looking to uncover some of the secrets behind the power of visual story-telling and its enduring value as we shift across channels, from adorning cave-walls, to man-made forms such as architectural, print, digital and whole load of other channels besides.

Winding back the clock

So, let’s start by imagining that, through the medium of time-travel you’ve been transported some 12,000 years back in time.

You’re now one of a small band of six to maybe eight men and women who’ve crawled into a shallow cave to take cover from an impending storm. Only you and those in your group will ever know the exact reasons behind the pictures you painted in that cave over the course of that day or days.

Was it to leave an account of your lives and provide a point of learning for others in your community? Or, did you even have a reason beyond the pure art of creating a rich picture of the key aspects of your daily existence for further generations to refer to and learn from?

What’s certain is that you weren’t the first and certainly not the last to follow this path. Travelling back a further 5,000 years will transport you back to the most famous cave ‘art’ of all, at Lascaux, situated some 200 kilometres to the east of Rouffignac.

Luckily, today, we don’t have to look quite so hard.

Great feats of visual storytelling appear all around us; church windows, the pyramids, Bayeux tapestry and the published sketch books of Leonardo Di Vinci. The list simply runs on and on.

Even comic books, a central feature of so many of our childhoods (and even adulthood) practice those noble art with great aplomb.

Excerpt from Scott McCloud’s ‘Understanding Comics’. Scott’s book describes the visual and representational techniques and language used in comics to convey a story. Told in comic form this is nothing short of genius.

What’s more, one can only guess at our ignorance of how many items lie as yet undiscovered, unknown to us at this present moment in time.

So, for me, all this begs the question…

If story-telling is the new black, did its visual form ever truly go away?

And, therefore, what’s driving this renaissance in storytelling?

With the plethora of visual media around us today, there’s a strong body of evidence pointing us towards the conclusion that the visual articulation of the ‘art of story-telling’ never really went away.

Ironically, it’s more likely that the sheer ubiquitousness of visual story-telling in our daily lives has actually contributed to dulling our senses and lessening of our awareness of its very existence.

After all, at least until now, it seems that our focus on ‘story-telling’ has been wedded to a concept of the written and spoken word, rather than in recognition of story-telling in its visual form.

With posed question answered, what makes visual story-telling so powerful?

To answer this next question there appears to be a number of factors at play. These I’ve attempted to loosely distil down into a set of three guiding principles:

• Convenience & ease;
• Humanisation of the message;
• Aesthetic engagement & meaning.

Let’s take a look at each one of these and what the mean in a little more detail.

1.Convenience & ease

Convenience and ease relates to the comparative facility with which visual storytelling can be consumed and meaningfully interpreted by its intended audience.

In centuries gone by this was born out of necessity. Low levels of literacy meant that visual story-telling was practically the only way of getting your message across to its widest possible audience.

Take a trip to your local church and let your eyes wander across its stained glass windows. It’s a pretty safe bet that you’re being told a story. It’s also the reason why we have the most archetypal of vernacular art forms-the humble pub sign.

(Thought that would grab your attention!)

With adult illiteracy rates in the UK reputed to be running at around 5%, or conversely literacy rates running at around 95%, today it’s clearly more down to patience and tolerance.

As a static graphic form, visual-story telling frequently makes use of representation techniques commonly associated with spatial design and architecture.

The visual example below uses axonometric presentation. This allows the publisher to render a visual story in a spatially efficient three-dimensional form and easily allows for meaningful connections to be made between the elements represented within it.

Example of axonometric projection, courtesy of Francesco Franchi

In researching for this article, I came across Francesco Franchi, an Italian ‘graphic analyst’ and Art Director at the monthly magazine ‘Il Sole 24 Ore’ in Milan. Franchi uses beautifully rendered and detailed visual narratives too.

We commonly refer to works of this nature as infographics, however the level of fidelity and content effectively conveys appears to take this to a new level. In my own opinion, Franchi’s infographics are works of art in their own right.

And, if you need any more convincing, the stats around the success of visual story telling tell their own story.

‘A message containing a visual element will yield as many as 94% more views than those without.’

2.Humanisation of the message; (authenticity, trust and sincerity)

The second principle I’m referring to as the ‘humanisation of the message’.

This comes from the fact that visual story telling can readily engender feelings of trust and authenticity or sincerity, at least two of which are primarily positive character traits associated with us as human-beings.

News Cred & Getty in their paper entitled the ‘Power of Visual Storytelling’ refer to the importance of ‘authenticity’ as one of the four key principles of successful visual story-telling.

Authenticity lies at the heart of enabling true feelings and emotions to be conveyed. It’s the very reason why user generated content forms the bedrock of so many leading brands’ interactions with their target audiences today.

This candid nature of delivering a credible message through the usage of powerful visual imagery helps create that greater sense of understanding and ‘proximity’ to those the message seeks to reach out to. It is this audience proximity which allows for deeper, emotionally-based, connections to form.

As highly marketing literate consumers of today, the desire and necessity for brands to win back our trust has become increasingly paramount. It’s visual story-telling which appears to offer a fast-track way for such brands to penetrate more deeply into the consumer’s emotional psyche and create the meaningful emotional attachment all brands crave. It’s this attachment which is ultimately the hallmark of all great enduring brands.

The fact that the target audience itself becomes an integral part of this overall brand trust eco-system, via the medium of user generated content can but only add to the potency of authentic, visual-story-telling.

3.Aesthetic engagement & meaning

The third and final point ‘aesthetic engagement and meaning’ relates to the quality and engagement of the message afforded by the visual design elements of the story as it is represented.

Whilst there are a number of obvious similarities with the first point regarding the way information is presented, I’ve consciously kept this point separate. This is to reflect the fact that great conceptual ideas, poorly executed, will never realise their full potential.

Aesthetic engagement is essentially what draws us to a visual story. It then works closely with the other two elements described above to retain our interest and attention once we’ve been attracted to it.

The ‘meaning’ aspect in this element comes through the way in which the design aesthetics relate to the context of the story and the message they are seeking to communicate.

Appropriately enough, the producers of our archetypal story-tellers, book publishers, are classic exponents of this technique.

Independent author, Joanna Penn, talks about the significance of cover art and design and the effect this can have on conveying an appropriate message to potential readers on the nature of the story contained within its covers.

In one of her recent blog postings she quotes leading independent author, HM Ward, who says,

‘COVERS ARE STOP SIGNS. They should quickly reveal as much info about your book to the reader as possible and this did not. As soon as I changed the covers to the current version, sales shot up …’

That sounds like an open and shut case for the power of aesthetic engagement and meaning.

Closing comments

During this blog I’ve attempted to distil down the essence of what makes a good visual story into a handful of primary elements. These, I’m confident, will help provide a firm basis upon which to undertake further investigation and research. As a result I certainly won’t be ruling out further elaborations on one or more of the elements so far discussed.

With this in mind your presence in the next chapter through the narrative which is visual story-telling would be greatly appreciated.

Until the next time, many thanks taking the time to read this.