Capturing Movement

Etienne Jules Marey:

Etienne Jules Marey was a French physiologist (a scientist who studies the functions of the body), who was inspired by Muybridge's work to think of new ways of studying movement through photography. He had the same problem as Muybridge, though - the glass plates used for taking photographs at this point could not be changed quickly, so fast movements could not be captured easily.

Marey came up with two solutions. The first was to take multiple images on the same plate, so that all the movement could be analysed on the same print. This worked well for images with a movement along the plate, but less well for more static images. You can see that here: the man jumping over the chair shows the movement well, but the picture of the fencer is less easy to break 

down into the different movements of the subject.

Marey was the forerunner for capturing movement within photography. He discovered ways in which 

to record several phases of movement within one image.

Chronophotographe:

Marey's chronophotographe gun was created in 1882 and was used to effectively capture movement within one image. The gun had the capabilities to capture 12 consecutive frames per second, with all of the frames being recorded upon one picture. This result of this is shown above in which the movement of the man jumping over the chair seems slow motion.

The visual effect that is created via this use of photography interests me and I feel it is extremely successful in capturing the eye of the viewer. It would be interesting to try and incorporate this technique of movement into an animation as I feel the trail of movement would look slightly ghostly and eerie within an animation rather than on a still print. 

Ideas. Use stop motion photography to capture the movement of...

The journey of a free runner, leaping from building to building/ wall to wall. 

The trail of domino's or a another object consecutively falling over. Possibly chasing a running animated character who is fleeing a scene ? (Slightly Hollywood but could be exciting).

How people react to a physical space- Routine of someone waking up, getting out of bed, making the bed, getting ready, looking in mirror etc. (Would be more interesting if the figure was invisible and you just saw everything in the room moving/ coming to life). Think Toy Story.

A subject in their room/cafe interacting with a range of different media all at the same time. Which media takes priority, how the media objects react to being ignored/given attention. I feel this is an interesting idea, as with todays society a range of different media is constantly being produced/ updated, which causes the user to dump his old equipment and replace with the new, best, coolest product. I feel it could be interesting to personify the objects and give them 'emotions' that differ depending on the attention/ lack of attention they are given or what features they have to show off and highlight in order to gain attention from their user. Toy Story is also a good example of this idea, in how the protagonists toys are personified and react differently to one another depending on the attention they receive from their owner.