Video Reponses

The Kid Stays in the Picture: My first thought about this film was that it was not like any ordinary documentary you see on the History channel or in any of your history classes from high school. The pictures had been cut out and put back together again to mimic a depth of field that kept movement through out the film. The still images worked well with the narrator's voice and to me made me feel as if we were seeing his memories through his mind as he spoke his story. One scene that stood out was when he was with Ally and his dance seem which seemed almost dream like as he talks about their night dancing, and the lights that swirled around behind them. Scenes from his movie merged with pictures of the director and other actors on set, which were still photography taken at the time. Pictures faded and moved across the shots, and newspaper articles merge into the screen and became animated. I found the effects interesting and more entertaining than watching a normal documentary.

In the Realms of the Unreal: A movie, story, history of an old man no one knew until he died. Henry Darger's life came to life when he was alone and in his private space. He painted, wrote, and imagined his own world like no one else could imagine. In the movie, his illustrations became animated. He wrote his story about children, which were based off his own childhood. He seemed to imagine a life that he was unable to live but based on the life he did live. He taught himself how to draw and paint, using pictures he found in newspapers and books. In his illustrations, children's arms and heads moved, some even fluttered across with butterfly wings opening and closing. Pictures were painted in some sceens, some drawn in process as they talked about his paintings. The effects where simple and 2d, but went really great with the story. Henry's imagination came to life in his artwork.

Ken Burns: Ken Burns uses the technique of panning and zooming over still photographs in movies. A simple technique use to make old photographs and images come to life. He stated in his interview that motion pictures were still just images at 24 frames per second, but they are still 24 pictures. Following some of the film, the music, and subject, I was able to understand how the slow movement of the camera kept a steady pace through out the film. For some reason i'm reminded of a graphic artist, who took pictures of pictures to create different effects.