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Flipbook Animation Video: Noir Movie Posters
Here is a time lapse video review of a favorite items from my bookshelf. The Art of Noir: The Posters And Graphics From The Classic Era Of Film Noir is by San Francisco’s “Czar of Noir” author Eddie Muller. This large format book rightly provides a cinematic experience. The reproductions are stunning. Unlike many books that sit on the shelf forever untouched after they are read, I constantly revisit The Art of Noir for use as a movie guide or just to appreciate a film I have seen illustrated in poster form.
Since I do shoot with digital (and film) cameras, I won’t say anything about the advertising of Hollywood’s current films being as digitally manipulated as the movies they are selling. It would be refreshing to see some newer movies illustrated in pen and ink again instead of PhotoShop.
Yes this might hurt a few photographers and most likely many digital retouchers. However this change could inspire new poster collectors, create new income for hired artists, and provide additional revenue to studios through poster sales. All they have to do is hire the right artists to make some killer pieces. Photographers will still get hired for pre production needs. Coincidentally the modern day movie trailer should be exterminated! Many great movies are now unfortunately packaged with horrible trailers. I would show up late, but I prefer to get a good seat. At home, I hit fast forward. By the way, white cheddar popcorn from Trader Joe’s is highly addictive!
Song: “I Can’t Hardly Stand It” by The Cramps. R.I.P. Lux Interior
Time Lapse Video Specs
• Camera set on 6 frames per second for two minute intervals.
• 720 images captured for the final video (and with each attempt)
• 509 images were used in the final video
• video = 1 min 29 seconds
• It took 5 attempts over 2 days to get the motion correct in both camera and in image editing
• 1.5 bags of popcorn were consumed
• 4 pots of coffee and too many hours were spent testing Quicktime compression options.
• Over 3,600 images were shot for this little project.
Very cool Jay. That’s the kinda patience and effort that puts folks like you ahead of the game and folks like me scratching their heads.
jw…this is bad ass. i love it. make more. NOW!
ps…keep them greasy fingers off that fine book.
cheers from b-more.
You surely have the patience of “Jay.” You forgot to mention how many “all-nighters” it also took.
Great job I must say, I must say!
This rocks, Jay! Love that book you shared…and the production details.
I’m a little hungry now.
The results are definitely worth the effort. I hope you didn’t get any popcorn stains on the book, it looks fantastic! What video program did you use to put all the stills together? – JR
Thanks for all the positive response everyone. Always appreciated and as I told Larry and John – it helps to make up for the lack of sleep.
Joe – The first rough attempts were built in PhotoShop CS3 Extended version. It actually works well and you can even add basic transitions like fade in and fade out. Once I got the hang of things I moved over to Quicktime Pro. After I shot the final version, I rebuilt the whole piece in QT Pro from scratch because it offered better short cuts. The audio transition was built in iMovie, then pasted into QT Pro. One cool thing about QT Pro over Final Cut Pro, it really allows you to experiment with different formats and aspect ratios specific to video. Just learning that in FCP is a slow process. Plus QT Pro is only $30!
-Jay
Nice job, Jay. Excellent selection of music as well. Clearly, filmnoir is even more addictive than popcorn. Now that you have the technical specs nailed down, the next one will be a breeze. Right?
wow, that is awesome.