Gif Cinema

Telling a story through Gifs was an interesting approach to narrative. It forced me to really think about the key points of the story and how I might represent them simply and concisely. When I approach narrative normally, I include great amounts of visual detail to really flesh it out. However, by telling a story only through a few specific moving images, it requires a lot of my typical detail to be cut out. The Gif cinema allowed a little more freedom than only still images, but also complicated it. I not only had to choose the most important story points, but also the ones that lent themselves most to the looped, repetitive nature of the gif. Creating a narrative in this way was challenging, but instructive.
Gifs were created in 1978, However they in recent years have increased in popularity immensely. They have become the new and trendy way of self-expression and creativity. In some ways, they can be considered a modern form of art. In a keynote presentation my James Bridle, entitled “Waving at Machines,” he discusses the way in which digital media has informed art and vice-versa. He gives several examples such as pixilated patterns on pillows or shoes, google earth inspired paintings, and even cathedral stain glass painted in all the colors strictly found in a digital format. In the example of pixilated style, he attributes its origin to Minecraft and games like it that are characterized with that look. Gifs, in the same way have made it in to other forms of art and expression and they themselves are inspired by it. Trendy t-shirts sport popular gifs and many gifs add tag-lines to famous artworks or films.
Working with Gifs as a storytelling medium allows one to marry visual with narrative in a simpler way than film does. Gifs have a unique circular nature that encourages creativity by delivering poignant, direct clips that are designed to catch the eye and hold it. Using this medium to tell this story allowed me to pull on both traditional conventions of film and gifs and create something visually unique. The format permits visual representation, but also allows the audience to add in connections and interpretations by not giving every detail. And now I present to you, the Two Boys and the Eggs;

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