Missing Pages Movie

March 12, 2006 2:08 PM

Missing Pages. This is a 24 minute short shot entirely with a digital still camera. The first seven minutes are available online (quicktime link). It was derived from 40,000 digital still images by Jerome Oliver in a method (that looks cool) that he calls fotomation.
posted by filmgeek (29 comments total)

I think 'wow' is a terrible understatement in this case. Very cool post, filmgeek.
posted by CRM114 at 2:27 PM on March 12, 2006

Oh, man. I want to see the whole thing!

I guess there are three chances to do so at the moment: "The experimental sci-fi thriller "Missing Pages (amended version)" is part of the official selection for the 44th Ann Arbour Film Festival, The Palm Beach International Film Festival and the Cosmos International Film and Video Game Festival. The 44th AAFF takes place March 21 to 26, the PBIFF on April 20 to 28 and the CIFF on April 20 to 22. These three venues are a great chance to catch "Missing Pages (amended version)" on the big screen. Don't miss it!"
posted by ewagoner at 2:29 PM on March 12, 2006

The Kid Stays in the Picture used a similar cutout technique to bring old photos to life, as it were.
posted by O9scar at 3:03 PM on March 12, 2006

Fantastic. I expected some cruddy flickering film type thinsg. That was awesome.
posted by lemonfridge at 3:13 PM on March 12, 2006

Man, that sucked me in. I kind of had to shake my head when it was done to get back to reality. Definitely wow.
posted by octothorpe at 3:15 PM on March 12, 2006

Neat. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride was shot entirely with digital still cameras too.
posted by nevercalm at 3:18 PM on March 12, 2006

(not to be snarky...i'm more impressed with how digital still cameras are influencing cinema....great post)
posted by nevercalm at 3:19 PM on March 12, 2006

Wow is right. Thanks.
posted by arse_hat at 3:26 PM on March 12, 2006

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride was shot entirely with digital still cameras too.

Gory details on camera selection criteria, among other technical things, here.
posted by NewBornHippy at 3:39 PM on March 12, 2006

So he runs a red light? on purpose?

I love the cinematography, but I dont get the motivation of the lead actor.
posted by subaruwrx at 3:57 PM on March 12, 2006

Wonderful! I have a project where I want to use essentially this technique. Now I can show this to people instead of struggling to explain it! Beautifully done.
posted by brundlefly at 3:57 PM on March 12, 2006

I think the red-light running was a flashback, and he was going back in time to prevent the death of his son. I'm not 100% sure, though.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 4:17 PM on March 12, 2006

Le Jetee, the film 12 Monkeys is based on, is composed entirely of photographs, which speed up as the film wind to its consclusion to the point that it's almost a movie.

Superfly has a very interesting sequence in its middle made up of a photo essay following a shipment of cocaine to its various users.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:57 PM on March 12, 2006

Le Jetee, the film 12 Monkeys is based on, is composed entirely of photographs

Not entirely. There's a single full-motion shot, isn't there?
posted by brundlefly at 5:03 PM on March 12, 2006

Very, very cool. I'm hoping that in the second half it is revealed that the protagonist has actually come from the future and Spock is his father, otherwise I need an explanation for those ears.
posted by tula at 5:30 PM on March 12, 2006

This is something I had been thinking about recently, as well. What if you did a "La Jetee" using modern, low-budget tech such as Photoshop and After Effects? Well, you'd get something like this.

The plot-line looks like pretty standard sci-fi, so far, but hell, I'm watching. He certainly used some pretty hi-end photography here. And nice bandwidth! I don't think I've ever seen a website offer such a huge movie for download, with no lag time.
posted by fungible at 6:28 PM on March 12, 2006

This reminded me of Jefferton Alive, except I didn't enjoy watching it.
posted by Citizen Premier at 6:43 PM on March 12, 2006

Just awesome... freakin'awesome...
posted by Debaser626 at 6:48 PM on March 12, 2006

That sucks that the rest isn't online... that was really, really cool.
posted by ph00dz at 6:53 PM on March 12, 2006

this was great. reminds me of this, although that uses more animated and drawn material. what floored me most though was the sense of composition and coloring in the piece. really phenomenal. definitely gonna keep an ear and eye out for this. thanks a ton for this.

oh, and debaser: Tom Goes to the Mayor is an unwatchable piece of tripe. Take that back.
posted by shmegegge at 8:18 PM on March 12, 2006

Awesome technique. On a similar note, I'm helping my kid brother shoot and edit a movie for his highschool video production class. The only crap dv camera not checked out got broken, so we've improvised.

I recently bought a 7.2 megapoopie Sony digital still camera, (the DSC-W7 for all you digicam geeks out there) and it happens to have a video mode. Set to "fine quality," this little crapper shoots pretty damned good looking 640x480 video at 30fps. You can get about 15 minutes worth on a 1gig memory stick.

The built in mic/audio is remarkably good as well, but I'm using a minidisc recorder and a decent shotgun mic for audio. The video upscales to 720 x 480 quite nicely, has excellent color reproduction, and looks nice as hell thanks to the better than average zeiss optics of the camera.

We just shoot, sync up the video from the memorystick and the audio from the md and we rockin!

The best part is, these still cameras have the a/v cable out for grandpa to show everyone his boring holiday photos - instant video assist tap!!!

I'd prefer a little lilliput lcd, but I've got a 5" color rca monitor, that works nicely for framing.

Aaaaaannnnd... the cool thing about doing video with this stuff is these cameras are tiny as hell

I've got this one mounted to a mic boom as a miniature crane!

The kind of camera moves you could do with a little jobbie like this if you got real creative boggles the mind. And at $300 street, you could drop one from a building or whatever if you needed to.

Have I mentioned interchangeable lenses for like < $50? an underwater housing for $80? i think small digital devices like this will open the doors to some b>really cool indie filmmaking.
posted by stenseng at 8:25 PM on March 12, 2006

Refering to Tom Goes to the Mayor as a piece of tripe doesn't offend someone who eats vietnamese food a lot. What is really unwatchable is the "tired scientist thinks of his family" cliche.
posted by Citizen Premier at 8:29 PM on March 12, 2006

Very cool. Thank you.
posted by ParisParamus at 8:36 PM on March 12, 2006

I can't wait to see that. Great technique, great concept. Great clothing!
posted by ParisParamus at 8:46 PM on March 12, 2006

.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:52 PM on March 12, 2006

awww, metafilter bandwith overload. bad metafilter.
posted by craven_morhead at 11:03 PM on March 12, 2006

Le Jetee, the film 12 Monkeys is based on, is composed entirely of photographs

Not entirely. There's a single full-motion shot, isn't there?
posted by brundlefly at 8:03 PM EST on March 12 [!]

When she opens her eyes. It's one of the most beautiful moments in cinema, in my opinion.
posted by tweak at 11:35 PM on March 12, 2006

This one is pretty cool too. (Haven't watched Missing Pages yet, as the site still has it taken down awaiting more bandwidth.)
posted by FlunkedFlank at 12:35 AM on March 13, 2006

...but damn, is that the coolest bandwidth exceeded page ever.
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:40 AM on March 13, 2006