John Whitney "Catalog" 1961

John Whitney's demo reel of work created with his analog computer/film camera magic machine he built from a WWII anti-aircraft gun sight. Also Whitney and the techniques he developed with this machine were what inspired Douglas Trumbull (special fx wizard) to use the slit scan technique on 2001: A Space Odyssey

• Category

  Film & Animation

[rainfeed]

even in this digital age I still find it stunning

[JonasPlanck]

Wrong. The optical line printing technology was a decade old, sometimes called dynamation, It involved the overlay of dozens of transparencies printed on plastic cells, which were often used as a primitive version of bluescreen rotoscoping in old films. What you see here is entirely optical, done with simple analog tricks over a light box using techniques like multiple exposure, slit-scan, kaliedoscopic mirroring, and careful frame by frame editing.

[Mike Johnson]

trippy 

[Kraig Grady]

prophetic and sincere



[Miriam Anaid Rivera González]

Hacia el fin de los años 50, John Whitney se construyó una máquina de animación a partir de componentes reciclados procedentes de excedentes de la industria militar, un aparato analógico y mecánico propio aún de un estadio de bricolaje artesanal, pero en definitiva un aparato preciso y lleno de posibilidades, como se puede comprobar en su film Catalog (1961) —concebido como una especie de “bobina de demostración”—, o aún más en el extraordinario Lapis (1963-66) de su hermano James.

[jone4s]

wow thats so flashy and atmospheric.. better than cgi...

[Bianca Pollio]

all my appreciation for this beautiful work!

[Viz731]

My God. It's full of Stars..

[WestminsterIceTea]

_..,,--~~♥♥★★✿✿ THUMBS UP FOR BDiF !!!! ✿✿★★♥♥~~--,,.._

[Jack Stewart]

yea, no. Hippies didnt exist till about 1968 or 1969 at least where I lived

[filmsofrob]

The slit scan process wasn't used in this film. Based on what I've read in Whitney's book "Digital Harmony" slit scan was used on Doris Day's "Glass Bottom Boat" to get the titles to look like they were shot through water. However, his slit scan is tame compared to Trumbull's. Whitney didn't use camera zooms to get the exaggerated perspective, which is really where the magic is in slit scan. It seems like slit scan was just another move his camera could do--among all the hundreds of other.

[Robert Logan]

Does anyone know what portion of the movie is specifically made using slit scan?