To many, time-based media is simply applying a time line to still imagery. This could not be further from the truth. While there is some truth to the fact that a time line makes the images move forward (and is actually the original intent of what used to be referred to as “motion pictures”), a whole new sub-culture of psychological and cognitive research has arisen to study the impact ‘moving images’ has on communicating and learning.
My first comment to you is that if a picture is worth a thousand words, then the value of moving pictures is exponentially more.
Moving pictures has a rich history of inventions and mechanized devices that were invented simply to be able to present viewers with pictures that move.
Flip Books
Wikipedia has a pretty good introduction to the flip book, one of the first non-mechanical attempts to bring moving images to life:’http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_book. These were the first ideas folks had when dreaming up the idea of cartoons.
- Here is an example of a flip book: a fun and exemplary video:[one_third]…[/one_third][one_third] [/one_third][one_third_last]...[/one_third_last]
We have assembled some interesting site for you to visit to explore this interesting world of the history of film and video:
Kinetoscope
One of the earliest mechanized 'projectors' was the kinetoscope. Again, Wikipedia comes to the rescue to introduce us:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetoscope
Optical Toys
Here is a site specifically created to introduce you to some of the more interesting 'toys' that have been created over the years:
The toys found on the link below are the genesis of motion pictures. They are, in effect, single frame animations like a modern movie cartoon. A series of still images, each showing a slightly different phase of a movement or two images to be combined are presented to us in rapid succession with some kind of "shutter" effect between the images. The "shutter" can be a slot in a drum, a mirror surface, or images on different pages or sides of a the moving object.
Jack and Beverly's Optical Toys: http://brightbytes.com/collection/toys.html
Devices of Wonder Website:
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/devices/choice.html
Zoetrope/Kinestasis
Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoetrope
Ok, ok, we now go back in time to the zoetrope. I do this because the zoetrope is the precursor to the concept of 'kinestasis' using the psychological factor of persistence of vision that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. Kinestasis evolved into a whole new sub-culture of film making, first made famous by Chuck Braverman, who introduced America to the concept with his famous "American Time Capsule" presenting the history of the United States in 4 minutes (up to that time) that played on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour back in the early 1970s. Played to a single drum beat, this work creates an intriguing view of America that epitomizes the the anti-war sentiment during a tumultuous time in our recent history:
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Braverman's work inspired many others to follow. In particular is Jeff Schur who made several videos using the kinestasis effect. Note that the pictures do not even have to be related to create the sense of movement. This video is merely a collection of miscellaneous images that xxx collected throughout his life and which he imposed in the background to create a wonderful a story about his life. This video is called interestingly enough, "Milk of Amnesia"
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Please pay attention to this information of kinestasis filming. Your first video project will be to create one of your on using photos/clip art you create in Photoshop.
Not to discourage you or anything but I wanted to show you an amazing video created by one of my former students. This was his first video project ever. I had asked my students to produce a video of current events. The video needed to contain at least 30 seconds of kinestasis. This student took it to heart and did a powerful production about the 9/11 attack. Note that every one of the newspaper headlines was from a totally different newspaper!
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Digging Deeper
- Time Based Media Resource Site
- Frames per second: How fast/slow does the framing have to proceed in order to appear like the still images are 'moving'? (hint: anything over 15 frames per second seems to work.. but 24 (for color slides) is the stated minimum)
Animation Fun
Animation has evolved into much more than simple Flip books.. it can be interactive. Here is a short video found on You Tube that demonstrates an animated music score:
Segue: Importance of Storyboards
So where is all of this leading to? You guessed it.. storyboards! Ok, ok this is giant leap. But seriously, one of the things you need to be aware of is that you cannot create a good video or animation without designing them. Many students tend to treat this part of the assignment as something they do not like to do and complete the storyboard AFTER the video is completed. Kind of like doing your outline after you've written your term paper.. or as they say in the military... READY-SHOOT-AIM
In other words, you can do a great project by either getting lucky or having a plan. Frankly, I prefer the latter. So we need to go into this part of the process later on during the term. Your job, then, is look at all of this with the hope that it will help you with that lesson on story boarding. The great thing about all of this is that we can actually utilize what we learned in Photoshop to help us create the storyboards. In that lesson we will cover the use of still imagery as our basic slide show. You do not have to be an artist to create the visuals. But the process of organizing your thoughts is critical to creating a great video... onward!