Some Kind of Stressed Goddess

barflyMy first contribution to #noir106 on a lazy and rainy Friday in in SuperBowl saturated Arizona. I hardly ever got good at showing my work. Pretty lame. But I will here for a moment.

I make gifs the old fashioned way. Or I think I do. Seems like there are tools out there that let you pick a section of a movie and Gifitize it? The ol Make-A- Gifilator is one? I find a video on the web and then screen shot some of the frames and add them as layers in Ye Ol Photoshop. That is all I know.

first

In this case I took a shot of the screen each second in the video till I had 8 layers. I used the animation pane and activated the desired layer to each of the frames. I then make it loop forever and ever.

photoshop

The deep breath and long exhale of smoke at 0:17 is so full of melancholy and despair. I like that all the glasses get raised by other customers. Makes them all seem like they all feel the same way. It is beautifully expressive of the nightmarish barstool of alcoholism and that bar right down the street from my house and your house. We know people who are there. Stuck in that time called repetition and addiction. It is a heavenly glass globe that people swim in and go round and round and round and round till something reaches in an pulls them out and wrings them out and dries them out and with any luck the never sit on the stool again and have to repeat the performance.

It is a noir dance that rarely ends well for anyone.

Here is the full clip.

7 comments

  1. I think the old school way served you well and isn’t as old school as you make it out to be. The gifator tools are nice for fast, down and dirty communication or things that will be short lived.
    When creating “art” – knowing the full process is much better and gets you more in touch with what you are actually trying to say.
    Great job – I can smell the smoke all the way to my desk!

    1. Kathy,

      if you want a domain and web hosting for free for the next year let me know. We would love to hook you up. Your commenting on student work is awesome.

  2. šŸ™‚ Todd, how quaint! Gifs one screenshot at a time…I love it! you can pick exact moments that way. I never thought to make them that way! I don’t use generators but download movie clip and work from there. Hmmm…

    The gif has balance and moodiness! I too like the dance of the glasses mixed in the smoke.

    1. And the dialogue is great! Written by the third of the three guys sitting together at the bar. He looks the the scene feels šŸ™‚ Charles Bukowski was one noir dude.

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