My Experience with Cinemagrpahs
A cinemagraph is a short clip of video footage that gets looped infinitely to look like a gif. When done correctly there is a seamless transition from end to start and can be an effective way to draw and hold the audience’s eye. I found the task of creating a cinemagraph challenging as I feel out of my depth when it comes to the moving image and editing video footage.
The cinemagraph of faux champagne (made from apple juice and soda water) is my first ever attempt at a cinemagraph and is, in my opinion, a very successful cinemagraph because the loop point isn’t particularly obvious. However, I think the photographic side of the composition is lacking. The background is not particularly interesting, and the footage is a bit on the underexposed side.
This cinemagraph I found hard to create because I wanted the subject to be interesting, but also simple so it would be easier when attempting to turn it into an endlessly looping gif for the first time. Now that I understand the process better, I want to try to create something a little bit more visually or conceptually interesting.
The next cinemagraph here is of a penguin snow-globe that my partner got for me. The original conceptual idea behind this cinemagraph was to have a close crop to make it look less like a snow globe and more like a penguin in a snowstorm. I struggled with this as I completely forgot that filming should be done on manual focus, so while I was on manual mode in-camera, the lens had not been switched over. The loop was also difficult to create as snow-globes slow down quite quickly once they’ve been put down, so the snow moves really fast at the start of the gif and quickly settles.
The final cinemagraph is following a cult series I was creating with still images. I used the mask and props I had previously made and tried to create a cinemagraph following the same conceptual idea. This was closer to a seamless loop than the snow-globe, but you can still see the jump.
In hindsight, the reason the cinemagraphs are failing to loop well is possibly because the length of footage I’m using is too long and the image changes too much in that time. In the future I could be more successful by shortening the length of the clips I’m using, use manual focus instead of auto focus, and having more lighting. I also want to do more moving image works so I can practise exporting files so they are better quality but smaller in file size.
In hindsight, the reason the cinemagraphs are failing to loop well is possibly because the length of footage I’m using is too long and the image changes too much in that time. In the future I could be more successful by shortening the length of the clips I’m using, use manual focus instead of auto focus, and having more lighting. I also want to do more moving image works so I can practise exporting files so they are better quality but smaller in file size.
Link to a 'Cultists' work - https://www.instagram.com/p/COu3T8tjHBu/
