Some more notes on pictures, Torchwood-style

[tencrush]

First off, let me clarify the point I was trying to make in my last post (apart from the LOVEME! pic, that's just a picture I was mocking HARD.)

These icons (I don't know these two people, and I don't think I've ever ventured near their fic) tell me something:



What they tell me is that the people they belong to don't give a toss about aspect ratio. Or clarity. Or legibility. It tells me these people pay precious little attention to finer details and aesthetics. And as such, they put me off reading those users' fics. Because I assume that they also pay no attention to detail in their fic, don't care much for spelling or punctuation or characterisation. Care more about quickly and dirtily getting a basic point across and don't really put much thought into honing that point so that we can all share in its wonderfulness. I judge people on their icons. And yes, that probably makes me a bitch, but it comes back to that basic Nice thing we're all supposed to do when we say to ourselves "Aww, poor diddums, they probably put a lot of work into that icon, we should leave them be." No. Just because you've put a lot of work in, doesn't mean it's not shit. And the same goes for fanfiction. It's one of the reasons I hate lengthy author's notes. I don't want to know what your inspiration was, or how long it took you or how many beta readers you had who still managed to ignore basic grammar mistakes, I just care about the finished product. If it's good, it's good, if it's shit, it's shit. End of story.

ANYWAY...

THIS PROMO PICTURE:



A few things. Gwen's in the middle because the other two are significantly taller. Putting Jack in the middle would require raising both Ianto and Gwen up to a higher level to balance out the picture, and I think they probably tried it, but the end result would more than likely have caused anyone looking at it to remark "Why is Jack a midget?". Or they would have had to put Jack higher than the other two, resulting in midget Ianto. Why Gwen is waving two guns IN THEIR FAYCES, I do not know. But from a design point of view, the picture makes sense to me, and I don't think it's part of AN AGENDA of any kind. Having said that, it looks like it was a leftover from a novel shoot, and the smokey effects are cheap and nasty and yet again, it's a pathetic excuse for promotional material, I don't think there actually IS a design person working on Torchwood, I think it's something they got an apprentice in for or something, their pics are uniformly awful. In fact, the misty photoshop filters on this one tell me that the person doing Torchwood's promotional material is probably also the person who made this:



And if any of you reading don't know what the bottom half of that manip looks like, then you should count yourselves very lucky indeed. I was thinking of cropping it in such a way that left just a wee bit of cock poking up into the bottom of the frame, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. But look, the style's very similar. As is the level of talent. Enough said.

Comments

[tencrush]

Gareth is mocking you. Eve's had a stroke.

[clarrisani.livejournal.com]

Only John looks normal. I swear, that man is physically perfect. Eve and Gareth... I think you're on the money there.

[nikki4noo.livejournal.com]

It just goes to show that Barrowman is balanced in his face on both sides, while Gareth almost is, but Eve isn't (like most normal people)

rofl at your observations btw.