A quick thread about something I find interesting:
A specific visual aesthetic that is 100% lost to time.
It's just gone. Nobody cares about it. Nobody is replicating it for nostalgia. Most people don't even know how it was done.
Let's start with this video (via @stevesi)…
…and now, please watch a bit of this incredible classic.
If you don't know already:
How do you think these two videos were made?
Traditional cut-and-splice film editing? Cel animation or optical animation for the special effects? Something else entirely?
The answer…
…slide projectors.
Lots and lots and lots of slide projectors, containing lots and lots of carefully choreographed slides, all controlled by a computer, and the whole thing filmed at the end.
That's why every image seems to "cross-fade" — you had no choice as one bulb lit up while the other cooled down.
Want a zoom or glow on your logo? Layer it on top of the base logo slide!
Want to "animate" a person? Rapidly switch between a dozen still photography frames!
This fantastic video shows a multi-image slideshow in action: pay close attention to the bulbs on the projectors on the left and see how they're creating the "effects" on-screen.
Entire companies sprung up to serve this world — also used in museums and visitor centers and probably EPCOT — building specialized computers (like this EAGLE II) and programming languages (PROCALL!) to make it all happen.
And then… poof. Non-linear editing, VHS tapes, character generators, the Video Toaster, you name it, all rendered the whole technique obsolete.
Progress marches on, and slide projectors weren't part of our future.
At least I can tweet about it at the end of the year 2021!
Yes, I'm still thinking about multi-image slideshows.
Douglas Mesney, involved since day one, has a must-read presentation (despite the jokey slides) laying out the full history of the industry: incredibleimages.com/Shows_Keynote.…
The first shows were programmed with punched tape?!
Also, of COURSE there were "generic" shows you could buy, where they would drop in your logo and key photos.
PS: I'll be singing this song every time I go to the office
Finally, here's an absolutely incredible "programmer's view" of a complex Chevy Revolution slideshow.
Deeply mesmerizing. What a thing.
[Via "AV Archaeology" on YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UCdGRN…]
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