Contextual references English Plus Film

In week 1 & 2 we we be exploring video and animation techniques in a fine art context.

Below are some examples of animations film and video art I would like you to think about as you begin create your own video or animations.
Look at early forms of animation like Eadweard Muybridge below, our visit to Watch Me Move: The Animation Show - Barbican Art Gallery will be a great opportunity to see lots of different types of animation. Think about the connections between the Muybridge Animations and current techniques like those used in the Matrix see - What is Bullet Time?

By Photos made by Eadweard Muybridge Animation 1878 by User Waugsberg [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. Photographs of humans and animals in motion – human locomotion and animal locomotion, Eadweard Muybridge animations of fast motion were achieved using a series of 12 stereoscopic cameras with trip wires.

Animation timeline

From as early as cave paintings you can see the visualisation of movement using sequences of drawings. Early devises of animation, Flip books and machines for viewing animations such as Kinetograph.

Zoetrope - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.Photograph by Andrew Dunn

Taumatropio – Two discs in rotation - see image below Need help with this pronunciation (http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=thaumatrope)

Early pioneers -

Eadweard Muybridge - animations of fast motion were achieved using a series of 12 stereoscopic cameras with trip wires. Photographs of humans and animals in motion – human locomotion and animal locomotion.

Étienne-Jules Marey - different system of cameras - 12 consecutive frames a second, with all the frames recorded on the same picture - Image http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flatternder_Reiher_1886.jpg also see Thomas Eakins for human movement.

The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic projection before the advent of video:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetoscope

See also:
Georges Méliès - A Trip to the Moon / Le Voyage dans la lune - 1902 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JDaOOw0MEE

Stuart Blackton - Humorous phases of funny faces 1906 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGh6maN4l2I

Emile Cohl - Fantasmagorie 1908

Winsor Mccay - 1911-Little Nemo - Early colour animation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seOGEwx0NfQ

All above traditional cell animation

See This section surveys the main animation techniques, briefly describing them and giving some background to explain the role they have played in the history of filmmaking at the NFB. - National Film Board of Canada -  http://www3.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/techniques/index.php

One of my Favorite films from the animation show, Zbigniew Rybczynski, Tango, 1980:

And this by Norman Mclaren - Neighbours 1952

Other notable films that stood out for me are: Lumiere Brothers Sepertine Dance (11) 1897 - 99

Nathalie Djurberg
Putting down the prey 2008

Jiri Trnka - The hand 1965

Harun Farocki
Serious Games 111 - Immersion 2009

Martin Arnold - Alone life wates Hardy 1998

Ryan Trecartin
Tommy - Chat just emailed me - 2006