Possible ideas

1. I was thinking maybe i could use my puppets somehow or in an animated sense, just monsters in general.

2. Similar to the Kid Stays in the Picture, I would like to use photo collage of old family photos that I have.

3. I also LOVE dealing with certain characters defined by their own costumes, ie. cowboys, indians, luchadores. I think it would be really fun dealing with these characters and their props. Also I enjoy using religious symbolism so i could integrate holiness with my characters.

Ken Burns Response

Its remarkable to think that so simple of an idea that we so widely see today emerged from one person, Ken Burns. After watching some of his Civil War movie, I was wondering what it was precisely I was supposed to be looking for. Then I watched an interview with him to figure it out. He came up with the simple idea of presenting still images within movies which were typically considered only live action. By using this principle, one can bring truth into their film by presenting images that came from a time when live action film footage did not exist. But instead of simply flashing them on the screen like a slide show, the camera pans from side to side, up to down, and in and out. Burns explains how you create a story by doing this. For example, the camera may move pan upward on a figure slowly revealing an expression on their face which says something different than if it were to be just plainly shown.

In the Realm of the Unknown Response

In this movie, biographic content of Henry Darger's life alternate with his make-believe story accompanied with his own illustrations. To add life to his characters, some become animated to go along with the narrative. In most cases, the movements are simple. Bodies are deconstructed and put back together allowing limbs and heads to move. Simple shapes like wheels are rotated around to look moving. In some cases, an object is resized like explosion smoke so that it appears to be expanding. Unlike the other movie, the characters come to life yet overall still appear 2-dimensional, probably because the images are already so flat. The background seems less doctored than the other movie and the camera angles and movements are less complex.

The Kid Stays in the Picture Response

This movie seems to be a biography presented as an autobiography. To build the visual content of Robert Evan's life, multiple sources were used. Obviously real footage of Robert was used along with scenes from his movies. There are also multiple interviews with Robert along with his voice over narration throughout the entire film. On top of all the live action footage, still photographs appear very often. Many times throughout the film, the still photos are slightly animated to add action that follows the narration.

There are many editing techniques used on the still photography used in the movie to add meaning and interest to the sparse content. In some cases, people are cut from their backgrounds and layered on top of one another to show their interaction. Sometimes, color is added to parts of black and white photos. Camera angles change and move around the stills including zoom-ins and panning. Many times also, the camera spirals into and out of photos as they overlap with new images. The film is full of dissolves to express a dream of Robert's past experiences.

At other times throughout the film News articles and photos are animated and come to life as text pops out of its block and scrolls across the page as photos pop from their flat surface and float.

In short, the technical aspects of the film involve taking a small amount of content material and adding interesting animation and overlapping to allow the visual information to be much more interesting.