FICTION ADAPTATION: Illusion of Movement

In the second part of today's lecture we looked further into experimental film making by exploring the illusion of movement.

Animation - the technique of photographing successive drawings or positions of puppets or models to create an illusion of movement when the film is shown as a sequence. 

Eadweard Muybridge

In 1878 Muybridge set out to discover whether a horse becomes fully airborne when it trots or gallops. Muybridge developed a way to take photos with an exposure lasting a fraction of a second and arrange 12 cameras along a track. As the horse galloped by, it tripped on wires connected to the cameras causing them to fire in rapid succession. Muybridge found that the horse does become completely airborne as well as discovering an early stop motion technique which was an early form of animation.
http://100photos.time.com/photos/eadweard-muybridge-horse-in-motion

Thaumatrope

A thaumatrope is a small disc held by strings on opposite sides of its shape. An image is drawn on each side. When the disc is spun, the two images appear to become superimposed. Although it does not produce animated scenes, it relies on the persistence of vision principles that other optical toys use to create illusions of motion.

A thaumatrope is a small disc, held on opposite sides of its circumference by pieces of string.  An image is drawn on each side of the disc, and is selected in such a way that when the disc is spun, the two images appear to become superimposed.  To spin the disc, one string is held in a hand, and the disc is rotated to wind the string.  Then, both strings are held, and the disc is allowed to rotate. Gently stretching the strings will ensure that they continue to unwind and rewind.  This motion causes the disc to rotate, first in one direction and then in the opposite.  The faster the disc rotates, the greater the clarity of the illusion.

'Persistence of vision is the eye's ability to retain an image for roughly 1/20 of a second after the object is gone. In this case, the eye continues to see the two images on either side of the thaumatrope shortly after each has disappeared.  As the thaumatrope spins, the series of quick flashes is interpreted as one continuous image.'

http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit06.htm

Flick Book

A flip book is a collection of combined pictures intended to be flipped over to give the illusion of movement and create an animated sequence from a simple small book without machine.

http://www.flipbook.info/history.php

Zoetrope

A zoetrope is a device that produces the illusion of motion from a rapid succession of static pictures.

The zoetrope consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. On the inner surface of the cylinder is a band with images from a set of sequenced pictures. As the cylinder spins, the user looks through the slits at the pictures across. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together, and the user sees a rapid succession of images, producing the illusion of motion.

http://zoetrope.org/zoetrope-history

Rotoscoping

Rotoscoping is the process of drawing animation over live-action film.
Max and Dave Fleischer invented the process in 1915 to animate Koko the Clown of their Out of the Inkwell series. Rotoscoping has been used lightly (to create realistic movements for otherwise stylized characters) and heavily (nearly tracing an entire actor's movements, form, and facial expressions).

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Rotoscoping

On top of this, we watched some short videos displaying the use of experimental techniques:

Taking inspiration from the final video, I decided to experiment with a stop motion contra zoom type of shot. I set up the camera to be eye level. I then took a photo of my subject Alex. After each photo I zoomed out a little and moved the camera forward a bit. I like the effect I achieved, however, I ran out of how far I could zoom out as I didn't zoom in all the way to begin with. I am keep to try this method again as I liked the effect it gave and seemed like a much simpler way to achieve a contra zoom effect that actually doing the contra zoom whilst filming live action.