Finding the Frame in an Animation

Since my video clip differs from my classmates for the fact that it is an animation, one with ambiguous spacial definition at that, I have decided to analyze the perceived camera change in one apparently static condition in the scene, studying the necessary changes in the set to comply with the characters' paths.

Autism and Film

I heard this report on PRI and found this video by MSNBC on an experiment using special cameras to track and compare the focal point of persons with autism and persons without during a scene from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf". I think this can be interesting when considering the interactions between viewer/cinematographer/storyline which we are studying in project 2.




Here is the PRI Report and the mp3 of the program

New York Times article on the subject

My Video of Choice

So to begin on project 2, here I chose a portion of the Richard Williams' animated film, The Thief and the Cobbler. I bought the video of this movie around 1995, my sister dug it back out recently and we've both become mesmerized once again by the great animation and Escher-esque tricks. Out of curiosity I checked out wikipedia to see if I could find out the reason it was not as big a hit as it should have been considering the quality of the animation. Apparently it took close to thirty years to finish, edit, and release it, changing voices, songs, and patrons until the final commercial versions (Miramax's is the most popular) lost quite a bit of William's initial intentions. Check out the history of it here, it's almost as interesting as the film itself.

In this scene the thief has stolen Princess Yum Yum's golden backscratcher and shoe. Tac, the cobbler, chases the thief because he has to finish his work on the shoe and feels obligated to save the belongings of the beautiful princess he's become infatuated with.