HOLLYN-wood (Norman, that is)

Still Photos Make A Film

27 10 2007

Last year there were a slew of films up on YouTube in which people took a picture of themselves in more or less the same position for a year or more and strung them together in a film. The first one that I was aware of was from Noah Kalina, but a slew of them (both serious and parodies) started cropping up soon aterwards.

Here is an interesting variation on this version of the old Eadweard Muybridge using, gasp, stills. It’s called The Arrow of Time and it is pretty haunting in a way that Kalina’s never was.

What is it about the simple arrangement of still photos in sequential time that causes an effect on us? I am convinced that this is at the very heart of cinema.