Moving Pictures!

The film documents the early experiences of a small group of special needs pupils and their educators at the Nya Stenkula school in Malmö, Sweden, during a series of lessons where they were given a "hands-on" introduction to the basics of animation.

These early sessions turned the clock back a century or so, and introduced the children to the visual delights of a pre-video age. "From a long time ago when there were no televisions."

These delights included the zoetrope - with an example built using a downloaded copy of a "cut-out-and-keep" version of the device from a (very) old American newspaper, and mounted on an easy-to-grip wooden turntable.

http://brightbytes.com/collection/zoetrope.pdf

As documented in the film, an illustrated paper strip is first placed around the inside of the zoetrope. When the zoetrope is spun rapidly, and viewed from the side at a slight downward angle, each of the narrow slits in its cylindrical construction allow the viewer a brief glimpse of the illustration directly opposite. This brings us suddenly much closer to something resembling film - a series of separate still images, viewed one after the other, in rapid succession, bringing with it the illusion of motion...

After each being given the chance to themselves spin the zoetrope, and have a first try at the awkward skill of viewing a picture strip through the narrow slits, from just the right angle, the children were each given a paper strip divided into a number of blank rectangles.

If they had seemed to enjoy viewing the ready-made picture strips that had been when introducing them to the zoetrope, this paled in comparison with the sight of the children viewing the strips they themselves subsequently produced... Their drawings had come alive before their eyes!

Category:

Education

Tags:

• classroom animation
• animation
• zoetrope
• zoetrop
• flippbok
• flip book
• animation i klassrummet
• enkel animation
• simple animation