Paul Costen Dot Com

Sundays Blue Box Tanning

admin — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:25:21 +0000

A web spot put together for Sundays Blue Box Tanning. Used Cinema 4d, Boujou and After Effects

Virginia Aquarium Soak it Up

admin — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 01:23:28 +0000

A recent television spot I created for the Virginia Aquarium. This spot was created using mostly After Effects. Enjoy!

Matt Muñoz, AIGA Hampton Roads January 2013

admin — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 21:55:28 +0000

Matt Muñoz of New Kind spoke at AIGA Hampton Roads’ January 2013 event.

Check out the AIGA at hamptonroads.aiga.org

Thanksgiving 2012

admin — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:32:50 +0000

It was my first thanksgiving at home in years. It was worth documenting.

Headshot Packages

admin — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 21:40:08 +0000

Great actors need great headshots. If you need an updated headshot to accommodate your new look or to reflect expanded range, new headshots are a great way to show that.

My philosophy when it comes to headshot portraiture is this: you should look like you on a great day.

Hyper-real retouched portraits are great for impressing your mom on facebook, but a headshot should be a true portrait, reflecting your unique personality and energy.

I shoot mostly in natural light, but indoor locations are no problem. Shooting sessions take about 1-3 hours from start to finish depending on how many looks/essences you choose. I shoot both commercial and theatrical.

Here’s a breakdown of a typical package:

Two marketing looks / four essences (up to 3 hours)
Commercial and theatrical
Unlimited exposures edited to 80-100 final images
Online proof sheets emailed in two business days
CD with low-RES 4×6 proofs for machine prints
3 High-res images, corrected and edited
Limited release to print, display and distribute these images as you see fit.

Student and custom packages are available.

To schedule a consultation or a shoot contact me here

Hire Me

admin — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 21:37:37 +0000

In addition to motion design and photography, I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve…

Web Design

I’m proficient in:

HTML/CSS
PHP
WordPress
A working knowledge of Actionscript
jQuery

Do you need help translating a design from Photoshop/Illustrator to a full-blown standards-compliant web site? I’ve heard I’m pretty good at that, too.

Graphic Design

Yes I do web and motion, but I can also design identity packages, logos, brochures, and all the rest.

Mac Support

Believe it or not, Macs don’t run perfectly all the time. If your Mac is giving you trouble I’m qualified to fix it. I have a system administrator level knowledge of OS X as well as hardware knowledge.

I’m available for:

Consulting
Network Support
OS Troubleshooting
Creative Suite Problems
Getting your Mac to play nice with a Windows environment, and vice versa.

Voice-Over Work

If you need an announcer, narrator, singer, or just someone to hum a tune, I can meet your needs.

Other Skills

Windows support, actor, singer, and I make a mean cup of coffee…

The New Taboos

admin — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:49:24 +0000

Every year brings change and this is no different. Why should it be? While we all deal with our personal issues, it’s important to put them into context of our society at large. Why? Well, put into context, issues seem both easier to deal with and easier to understand. So much of our interactions are a product of current technology. Communities have always been defined by the scope of interaction. In smaller tribes, certain values were important because of how they propped up and promoted the given society. The structure of online interactions are the same. We seek community, and in order to do so, certain rules must be constructed. We are a product of our time and place, just as much a product of the eternal and seemingly transcendant nature of interpersonal relationships on both and intimate and casual scale. The rules, because they arise more or less organically, are maleable. The phrases LOL, OKK, pwned, and countless others were, sadly, not decided on by committee. And the idea of casual sex has gone from something we don’t speak about. ever. to something often discussed on sitcoms.

Lets re-hash the Hegelian Dialectical Model: Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis. In culture the thesis (status quo) is always challenged (antithesis) and after discussion or cultural natural selection, the synthesis is reached.

Taboo, those things forbidden or frowned upon by any given society, definitely has its place. It warns us away of potential danger although It’s less germaine in the post-modern age. We are creatures of judgement, and emotion, while instrumental in making decisions, often pushes us to incorrect judgement based on our initial reaction to the unfamiliar.

Modern society has many taboos, but because we live in interesting times, they seem to have squarely switched places with the old ones. The infamous taboos dealt with race and public appearance. It was bad form to have tattoos; people with body art were relegated to circus freakshows or the wandering lifestyle of the nomad (e.g. the sailor). If you were of mixed race or a minority you were kept segregated from mainstream culture and society. As these judgements were made by those in authority they became dogma.

Thanks to postmodern standards of truth, we realize that judgements based on arbitrary characteristics need to be re-examined, and while there are always those that try to cling to the old ways for dear life, we are quickly—and quickly is a relative term—and rightfully purging them from society.

Science has shown us: sexual preference is not just a mere preference, race is only cosmetic, mental illness has chemical origins, addiction is a disease. Postmodern truth helps temper emotion, not replace it, so now our judgements address long standing taboos instead of creating them left and right. Easier said than done, but the tools are thankfully there.

Our propensity for questioning everything has given us the tools to turn taboo on its head, and the longer an idea hangs around it transmutes from the antithesis, to the new thesis. Our propensity for the new gives us the impulse to push the envelope and redefine standards of beauty, draw on old traditions to create new ones. From body modification to smartphone etiquette, we’re all just trying to feel it out based on…a feeling. While evidence helps us cut through some of the clutter, it provides little direction for forward progress.

The danger is in permitting everything, even those things in poor taste. But I’ll be willing to accept the word ‘totes’ if it means that two people, regardless of race or sexual orientation, can have their relationship properly recognized.

The Soul in the Postmodern Era

admin — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 03:53:46 +0000

We live in curious times. With the progress that has come to symbolize western capitalism—from the 6 month product release cycle of electronics to the pervasive starburst containing the words NEW! and IMPROVED!—the most important things are principles we have always held dear, or rather things we look to for their permanence and lasting qualities. Values, instead of being invented have been honed and refined. Look to the bible for examples of evolving morality. There are those that claim it has an unchanging nature, but look to Deuteronomy for rules on how to treat your slaves and you’ll find it differs radically from the majority of governments today. One of the best examples of a western moral innovation is the importance of diversity, at least in principle. Perhaps tolerance has supplanted modesty in the paragon of values.
I’m thankful we live in country—and if you do you should be, too—where people of all faiths and creeds can coexist, for the most part peaceably. I suppose it’s finding common ground.
The great balancing act we as humans do every day consists of incorporating the new but still holding on to the old or what we view as enduring (and I’m not talking about iPhone battery life.) In the face of new science and our ever changing perspective of our place in the universe how do we define things like what it is to be human? For a while I struggled with certain principles that I had always held dear in the face of my newfound atheism.
For the first time I felt comfortable with my belief system, and proud of the fact that I had come across it on my own. I’m a huge fan of science and reason, and am glad I live in a time where we have the tools to turn magic into explainable, observable, and repeatable phenomena.
There are, however, some things outside the realm of science. Science deals with empiricism. That is its purview. The fact that it doesn’t have an explanation for everything is no failing of science, just as your average Volkswagen makes a pretty poor omelet. Concepts like ‘good’ cannot be measured, they’re subjective but still part of the human experience.
I believe that the human experience is made up of two parts. Pretty simple, I know, to attempt to boil down humanity into two simple ingredients but it deals with different kinds of experience. The mind experiences the world around us and makes logical sense of it. It helps us calculate the concrete details of our lives. So what is the soul? We cannot measure it, but it still exists. The same way we know that good exists.
The soul is the lens through which we interpret our world, but it is also a world into itself. Every time you see a piece of art, you internalize your sensory experience and make a value judgement. Even formalists interpret art. Art is never pure form, otherwise is has no meaning to us. We add things to the art based on our past and point of view, we call to mind past episodes and experiences, thus invoking feelings of sentimentality, nostalgia, distaste, etc.
We don’t understand the world except through this lens, there can be no pure sensory experience with humans. A dog can eat something (that you told him not to. Your shoe lets say) but has no knowledge that it’s eating. All it can perceive is sensory input. Our skill as human beings is that we, without intent, think about our experiences as we experience them. Experience. If you take a moment to think of the colossal feat of evolution to enable you to say “Man, this is a great burger. It’s a shame I can’t have one like this every day.”
The preceding sentence requires language, recognition of a thing called a burger, knowledge that there are other distinct burgers that are not this exact one, realize the health and financial ramifications of buying and consuming said burger every day, recognition of your ability to do so, the presence of a choice, knowledge of food, and so many others. The amount of prerequisites to actually experience something is staggering.
This world that we create, the soul, is not corporeal, not physically real, it’s within. Because of that, I think, there’s a need to create things without. Your mind and soul work together to reconcile the differences between the real and percieved, and by doing so create a reverse effect. Your world view, your wants and desires need to be made real to satisfy your soul’s need for reconciliation. In creating things, whether it be art, politics, a business venture, travel, architecture, its’ an expression of the soul to complete the reality/perception circle.
This impulse within us is a combination our dreams, wants, desires, plans, taste, likes and dislikes, but it is also more than the sum of its parts. This to me is the soul and it also explains in part the creative impulse. The soul combined with the mind make a whole person, and only by developing both can we become complete.

Oh, Comic Sans

admin — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 02:42:52 +0000

It’s no secret that designers do not like this font, and it seems to be a bit of an internet joke to show pictures of it being used inappropriately in things like term papers, informational signage, and warnings of harm to life and limb. There have been countless articles written on why it’s so bad, or bemoaning its widespread use, but as the Paul McCartney song says “here I go again…”

I seem to have such an unnatural distaste for Comic Sans that sometimes I wonder if disliking it is almost as egregious as using it. Wouldn’t it be better to dismiss it out of hand, rather than to reward it with this extreme loathing? Well, would that I could, but it raises my hackles every time.

So why do I hate Comic Sans so much? I came to design rather late in the game, and while my design skills still need to be honed as well as my work habits, I have always appreciated the beauty and intellectual strength of good design. Much like art, graphic design, when done well, seems natural, obvious, and easy. The dedication and time consumed working on a design, animation, typeface, etc. from concept to execution is directly proportional to its accessibility. Typography has a special place in my heart. I love words and, moreover, I love the look of words, how sentences flow, constructed with both letter forms, punctuation, and the coloring of the page as a whole. To really study a great typeface is to marvel at the complexity of things like kerning pairs, letterform contrast, and precision of thought.

Even if you don’t like type as much as I do, there’s always something nice about seeing a job well done. Which brings me to the-font-who-must-not-be-named. The designer of that font, Vincent Connare, has a standard argument that goes something like this: “We were working on a piece of software and using Times New Roman in one of the dialog boxes didn’t feel right, so I whipped this baby up”. That’s like saying “This limousine was way too formal for a road trip, so we built a car out of sticks and chewing gum!” Slapdash should never be an alternative to inappropriate. There is a whole vocabulary built around type and this monster completely ignores the entire dictionary.

Releasing this file on a mass scale has to be the greatest sin here. You can find this lovely file on every Windows installation as old as 15 years, and since Microsoft makes Office for the Mac, you’ll be able to find it on those beautifully designed machines as well. It’s a travesty, really.

With design being so popular as of late, the concept itself being a kind of currency that buys respect and excitement (see the advertisements of Target, Dyson, Kolher, Apple, and terms bandied about by the business world such as ‘Design Thinking’) one would think that its use would be on the decline. So who keeps using Comic Sans? People that don’t care. People that don’t care to research alternatives, people that don’t care how unprofessional their email signature looks in pink Comic Sans, people that don’t care they’re sacrificing their message for the sake of ‘being friendly.’ The beauty of technology is that now, one can do pretty much anything. Libraries of the world, pictures of exotic locales, weighty philosophical ideas are now at peoples fingertips. The downfall of technology is that now, one can do pretty much anything.

It doesn’t mean that you should.

I’ll leave you with this interview from Michael Beirut talking about real typography and its history. Enjoy.

The Truth & Reality

admin — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 07:41:14 +0000

Once upon a time in the 90s I used to collect hockey cards. The brand we were into at the time was Topps, but in the game of one-upmanship that is retail, an upstart card company called The Upper Deck came out with better designed card stock photographs. They were glossier, and while they didn’t come with flavorless dried up gum, you’d find a hologram card in the odd pack. The first holograms seemed to be nothing more than proof of concept as they had no identifying text on the front and no statistics on the back. They were simply pictures. Cool pictures. Here we were and it was the 90′s and we had hockey cards that were holograms, dammit. We were enamored of other things that emulated real life or strove for mimesis. DVDs were closer to the movie experience, video on the computer was a revelation, video game systems were getting better and better. We were so obsessed with technology that would bring an experience closer to real life. Which was right outside our door.

Now in the age of the internet where we have proven that we can do it, we seem to be a little less interested in it. Sure, we have video chatting on our phones and 18 megapixel cameras, but it has become noise; technological means. In application, it’s not longer a glorified tech demo. It throws into stark contrast what is true and what is real.

What do I mean when I make this distinction? I’m involved in theater-albeit not as much as I’d like. Putting on a production is a big deal. You’ve got the actors, the lines, the technical aspects of the show, the rehearsals and the paradigm of the marketplace transaction which is the theatre going experience. This is no secret. But it’s also not the truth.

The truth is happening on stage, for when you laugh or cry or feel some other genuine emotion then the actors have done their job. The truth is in how they treat the material and what mood they successfully convey. I’ve been to plenty of productions where the truth is not told, even though the story is well produced.

Images are no different. The word “photoshop” has slipped into common parlance as a verb, sometimes as a pejorative — “Is that real, or photoshopped?” “Can you photoshop me?” “The photoshop pokes fun at the Senator“. I sometimes see photo galleries on the internet that brag “no photoshopping done here!”. Photoshop and other image editing software, however, is merely a piece of technology, such as theater lighting, paints and easels, and sculpting materials. If the technology serves the vision of the art, then I see no problem heavily editing the photos.

The big irony today is that photoshop is often used to make images seem as if they were produced on older technology. The clear crisp buttery images that todays digital cameras make are great for snapshots and certainly glossy photographs helping to sell some product or another. Most of my favorite images have a certain colour cast, vignetting, grain, etc. These are things that camera engineers strive to eliminate, and here we are putting them back in.

The good news is that these simple edits serve to drive home the mood of the images, the spirit, and the emotion in the content. Claiming that an image was ‘completely untouched’ is a bit of a misnomer. The image is processed in-camera to a very large degree. What’s different about the more artistic images is that the processing is squarely in the hands of the artist, not a committee of scientists before the assembly line even starts up. So own the truth, and don’t confuse it with reality. Photoshop away, good people.