24 March 2007

time frames and film

The eres article “time frames” was a nice change from the normal readings we do for this class. For me, it was much easier to read and understand the reading in the form of a comic strip. I think it made me slow down and actually process the information instead of just skimming over it and not remembering it. I liked the discussion about time and motion in the panels. I think that even though we see the images as a still moment in time, we fill in the gaps (the motion) with our imaginations. It is pretty much like the way film works, on a much slower scale. In film, there are tons of still images flashed by so fast that your brain sees only motion because it can’t process all the pictures. The cartoon panels are comparable. Although they aren’t moving, they still seem to signal motion from one panel to the next because time is passing, so our brains still fill in the motion that should be there. I mean, we don’t actually SEE the movement like with movies, but we know that it is supposed to happen and it goes through our minds while we look from panel to panel.

Also on a random note, I thought the power point pamphlet was great. I never realized just how little information was conveyed by those things. I have had so many professors and teachers over the years that have used them, and I’ve written more than my share, too. It just interested me to see it in a new light, from a different point of view. I never really thought about the bad side of the program, so it was good to take a look at it.

1 comment:

Gabi D. said...

Using a comic strip to explain the complexity of making a comic strip and the thought that goes into it was an amazing idea. I agree that it was alot easier to read, because it taught you to look more carefully at things that you take for granted. Though I can't say i've had too much experience with comics (don't you just love sundays with Garfield) i can really understand this breaking down of comics. Last year I read my first manga, it took me about 1 page to realize i was reading it backwards, 2 pages to realize I needed to read not only the book, but the comics from right to left, 3 pages to see that i really missed actually seeing the actions, and 4 pages to finally figure out in which order to read each frame. With that experience I shall say that, yes, i have realized that the size and absence of the frames matter, but it was nice to read more into it.