The Inspiration
@cogdog (Alan Levine) inspired me this morning with his I Can Read Series: Eye of the Beholder children’s book cover, and upon quick reflection, it seemed to be a just perfect assignment to do for poor Henry Bemis in Time Enough at Last. The labelling of this book as a shared reading book makes it all the more poignant for poor, all-on-his-lonesome Henry.
The Process
I gathered my I Can Read series banner from a basically white-covered book Pete the Cat, which made it easier to isolate the banner using the Magic Wand Tool and there by erase the rest of the cover using the Eraser tool. In the end, I removed the existing drop shadow from the banner (also using the same process) as it was somewhat pixel-ly and distracting.
I toyed around with a few different fonts for the title, before settling on a simple, kid-friendly sans-serif Trebuchet MS at 47 pt for the title and 11 pt for the “authors.” I just eyeballed the font sizes with the slider to get something that seemed to look good.
Although I had originally planned on using an image of Burgess Meredith with the broken glasses, it was bit too difficult to get a tall enough book-propotioned crop that also showed books in the background, and so I moved ahead a number of frames to where the camera pulled back and it was easier to select a more vertical image.
I considered titles like “Henry Bemis,” “Poor Mr. Bemis,” before deciding that for a children’s book (and especially a shared reading book!) there needed to be a very clear connection between the topic of the book (the man is sad) and the title, hence “Mr. Bemis is Sad.”
The why of his sadness is our inside joke, as viewers of the episode. And including the book in the I Can Read series is just the icing on the cake.
Submitted, for your consideration, as a candidate for Design Assignment 55: I Can Read Movies (where an episode, is like a movie, in The Twilight Zone ….)
Andy,
This makes me so sad. Mr. Bemis is a tragic figure. I do not want to read about him, even though I can read.
Overall, you are the King of the Zone. I’m inspired.
GNA
Yes, Henry Bemis is a tragic figure. I think that children would actually “get” why he is sad, were this done up as a picture book or early reading book.
It was the combination of Alan’s I Can Read: Eye of the Beholder post this morning, juxtaposed with Jim’s choice of the 3 episodes for the week that had me thinking of Henry and “Time Enough at Last” in the context of an I Can Read book. Once that connection sparked, the rest was pretty much done.
ds106 is just like that. That’s what makes it so wonderful.
HA, this is hilarious! Not only did you hit the mood of the beginning reader series typically grazed by Biscuit the Dog or Amelia Bedelia, but the title is worth a couple of good laughs! I’m thinking that perhaps some of us K-12 people are rubbing off on the rest of you higher-ed guys with this last string of “I Can Read” creates. You really nailed this one, awesome!
Thanks, Ben. This was a case of idea, then have-to-do-it. The “I Can Read” right above poor, sad Mr. Bemis was just too ironic to pass up.
This is fantastic! I’m working on an “I can read movies” (tv?!) for this episode, which is much more abstract art-y. I love your take here with Alan’s original idea of the “I can read” series. Excellent!