In Barrett Jones latest video, Shadow Carousel, he does not tell a story. Instead, he prepares the audience to properly see the story. The one-and-a-half minute video is an introduction to Banished? Productions' latest creation - a glass and gear magic lantern that relates the life of the DC lot-turned-garden on whose walls it casts its shadow. Although the machine is marvelous, one wonders whether the internet generation will appreciate a story told by a few one-bit images projected as shadows on a cracked outdoor wall. Jones demonstrates sensitivity to this question as he subtly slants that anachronism into mystique. He begins with shots of the machine itself, in motion, spinning to a sympathetic auditory pattern. Close-ups of chains, smudged glass, inverted images engage the mind as we piece together the physics of this surreal world. A few shots into the film and we've seen barely a hint of the shadow play itself. We aren't ready. Instead, Jones intersperses images of the mundane, yet unnoticed negative-images that surround us: shadows cast by others on the scene, a silhouette (the cousin of the shadow) of people talking in the street. Maybe these are familiar images, but as illuminated by the lantern's aura, they seem to be more meaningful, intriguing, beguiling - we want the details, but the photons are not willing.
[As an aside, this video builds up from machine, to light, to shadow - like solid, liquid, glass - or corporeal, aethereal, imaginary. Again, Jones is leading us gently from our comfortable world of solid objects and facts to a world of fantasy and possibility. (Even further aside, you may be interested to know that shadows can move faster than the speed of light.)]
And then, wazoo, the undertone kicks in and the shadows raster their story across the wall, out of, in to, out of focus. Bent backs, a lone child, a bird on the ground. We want it to slow down, to explain itself. But it's over. I've got to get out and see this.
3 comments:
That was cool, although I would not want to be alone outside as long as that music was playing. AWESOME...I really enjoyed it.
Thank you!!!!
In Barrett Jones latest video, Shadow Carousel, he does not tell a story. Instead, he prepares the audience to properly see the story. The one-and-a-half minute video is an introduction to Banished? Productions' latest creation - a glass and gear magic lantern that relates the life of the DC lot-turned-garden on whose walls it casts its shadow. Although the machine is marvelous, one wonders whether the internet generation will appreciate a story told by a few one-bit images projected as shadows on a cracked outdoor wall. Jones demonstrates sensitivity to this question as he subtly slants that anachronism into mystique. He begins with shots of the machine itself, in motion, spinning to a sympathetic auditory pattern. Close-ups of chains, smudged glass, inverted images engage the mind as we piece together the physics of this surreal world. A few shots into the film and we've seen barely a hint of the shadow play itself. We aren't ready. Instead, Jones intersperses images of the mundane, yet unnoticed negative-images that surround us: shadows cast by others on the scene, a silhouette (the cousin of the shadow) of people talking in the street. Maybe these are familiar images, but as illuminated by the lantern's aura, they seem to be more meaningful, intriguing, beguiling - we want the details, but the photons are not willing.
[As an aside, this video builds up from machine, to light, to shadow - like solid, liquid, glass - or corporeal, aethereal, imaginary. Again, Jones is leading us gently from our comfortable world of solid objects and facts to a world of fantasy and possibility. (Even further aside, you may be interested to know that shadows can move faster than the speed of light.)]
And then, wazoo, the undertone kicks in and the shadows raster their story across the wall, out of, in to, out of focus. Bent backs, a lone child, a bird on the ground. We want it to slow down, to explain itself. But it's over. I've got to get out and see this.
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