reinventing the wheel

Yesterday’s entry about Gym Dreams started me thinking further about using the 'language of cinema' in audio slideshows. Richard Koci-Hernandez mentions being influenced by movies on his new site multimediashooter, so I don’t feel alone in this approach.

As I noted yesterday, the remix trailer for 'Take the Lead' really inspired me to think differently about rhythm and pace within packages. Taking that a step further, I should disclose that my brother and his family got me a copy of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' for Christmas.

I can’t help listening to the commentary sections of movies because I never know what I might learn or find out. One time director Robert Rodriguez of El Mariachi fame recommended the book 'Art and Fear,' which I would second for any photographer, journalist or mojo to read. It is a wonderful, short book about the fear almost every artist faces in creating or capturing their work.

What I discovered watching 'Pirates' with the commentary on, is that the sound is cut back and I start to notice how cinematographers tell their stories. There was one sequence that pulled pulled back to reveal a central character and then because you focused on one action, when they pulled back from the detail shot to reveal a change in location, your mind filled in an entire series of events.

The reason I bring all of this up, is that I don’t think we have to reinvent the wheel in regard to audio visual shows. We just have to be open and borrow, or steal, techniques from Hollywood that work in our medium. We quite happily do the same thing within photography, we just have to now broaden our idea of what our field is and use techniques that work in other subsections and use them in multimedia.

I am sure I will continue this line of thinking and illustrating.