Thank you Glen for sending me this little treasure which I found in my in-tray this morning – for that you are a prince among men.
I’ve also uploaded the first two pages of one of the many fabulous example storyboards that the book includes in glossy colour. It’s called ‘Laura’s Seventh Birthday’, and it’s all about making the cake with Mother, playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and having girlish chit-chat. In a very pretty frock.
Going beyond the frocks – Kodak teaches us that in home movies the ‘in-between’ quotidian spaces and practices of everyday life are interesting and camera-worthy. But at the same time, the aesthetics of home movies are to be distinguished from professional movie-and television production; and the home-movie maker is not to aspire to those.
There’s a lot here I can use in my ‘history’ chapter on amateur creativity, new technology and the construction/teaching of new media literacy.
Current thesis word count: 20,724
2 responses to “‘more than a mere assemblage of moviemaking information’”
I like that little book. Don’t you think that the ‘in between’ moments and the actions of daily life are the most interesting parts for audiences watching old home movies now? Who hasn’t done that – looked at old photo albums and, instead of thinking about all of the things the people in the photo imagined you would look at, and which people at the time probably noticed (is my dress sitting straight, is my hair sticking up) you are noticing the little things. The make of the car in the background, the classic 60s style of the dress, the old-fashioned can opener on the table, the fridge, the silly shorts that boys wore. Things that have dissapeared into history. Its very hard to look at images of the past without getting stuck on those details. But that’s just what I think. 🙂
yeah, absolutely.