MOVING IMAGES workshop

You need clean exposed film 16mm, a 16mm film projector and permanent color markers

Students can examine carefully the film, and understand how frames are placed on it. They can see and understand how film "runs" throught the projector and how the shutter opens and closes to project one frame at a time. It is a suitable exercise for even little children to understand how a sequence of pictures can produce motion.

We spread the film over the tables or the wall and attach it with tape, so as to be stable. We have to be very carefull not to fold the film at any point, because we will have problems in the projector.

Each student works on a certain area, about 3 meters of clean film.

We need to use a guide with drawn frames in the right size,because on a clean, exposed film there are no frames. You can print this sample to use as a guide.

Students paint on film frames with permanent markers.
They have to learn to count duration counting the frames. 24 frames make up a second.

They should try to draw shapes, dots and lines inside each frame, trying to give them at least 2 or 3 seconds duration.
They can also paint long lines and color forms that exceed frames all over the film length.

When they draw a straight line, it will look like it is not moving, because each frame has a part of this line in the same position. But when they draw a diagonal line or curves, the lines will be "dancing" during the projection.

When the work is finished , we roll up the film and project it. We can play some music during the projection, in order to choose a rhythm that goes well with the rhythm of our animation .