Words, words, words...and moving pictures!

January 9, 2009 12:22 PM

London-based videographer Jim Clark uses photographs and paintings to create wonderfully disturbing videos of celebrated poets posthumously reading their work.
posted by youarenothere (19 comments total)

he did an AMAZING job with these. It's artful, and the animation of the heads is suprisingly good. I hadn't expected the heads to subtly rotate in small ways, and the mouth movements are far better than I was expecting. really. kudos to this guy.
posted by shmegegge at 12:31 PM on January 9, 2009

A really cool idea, but the animation hardly syncs.
posted by Cyclopsis Raptor at 12:33 PM on January 9, 2009

Huh. I only watched a few, but I didn't think much of the lip-syncing. Granted, it's hard to do well, but it was too distracting for me.
posted by echo target at 12:33 PM on January 9, 2009

Ho wow this is cool. This one of a dead WWI soldier is right out of Blade Runner.
posted by stbalbach at 12:33 PM on January 9, 2009

Seeing Baudelaire "read", looking into my eyes, gave me a frisson.
posted by everichon at 12:34 PM on January 9, 2009

Next up: Pay us or we "leak" the video of your "confession".
posted by everichon at 12:36 PM on January 9, 2009

Video exists of Anne Sexton reading her poetry so that one was a bit of a waste of time, but these are entertaining. Reminds me of this disturb-fest.
posted by fire&wings at 12:41 PM on January 9, 2009

Emily Bronte had a throat sack. I didn't know that. I wonder if she spent warm summer evenings sounding out throaty mating calls across the moors.
posted by stavrogin at 12:41 PM on January 9, 2009 [1 favorite]

Surely these could be improved with the use of Microsoft Songsmith.
posted by Tube at 12:48 PM on January 9, 2009

Lodged firmly in the center of the uncanny valley. NOT SAFE FOR DRUGS
posted by tehloki at 12:50 PM on January 9, 2009 [2 favorites]

not crazy about them, to be honest. Stuff like the Emily Bronte throatsack spoil the effect.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 1:27 PM on January 9, 2009

I think he should make the copyright notice bigger; I could still see part of the video occasionally.
posted by ook at 1:28 PM on January 9, 2009 [8 favorites]

Seeing Baudelaire "read", looking into my eyes, gave me a frisson.

Yeah, like Baudelaire isn't disturbing enough.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:35 PM on January 9, 2009

Count me among the dissatisfied Bronte viewers. I appreciate the effort, but it just didn't work for me.
posted by owtytrof at 1:47 PM on January 9, 2009

okay.... scary.
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 2:10 PM on January 9, 2009

Okay, things to know:

1. Baudelaire looks like Bill Murray.
2. These animations are far too resonant of the first twinge of LSD hallucination, when you start noticing the edges of things pulse.
3. Absolutely scary, like walk down the hall and talk a little to yourself scary.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 4:24 PM on January 9, 2009

I watched the one of Lewis Carroll "reading Jabberwocky" yesterday and freaked out. I'm too scared to look at any others.
posted by droplet at 11:38 PM on January 9, 2009

I hadn't expected the heads to subtly rotate in small ways

You can use a 3D technique called camera projection to make 2D images into 3D.

Mouth and jaw animation could have been better. Good idea, though.
posted by jfrancis at 1:35 AM on January 10, 2009

Definitely don't watch the Sylvia Plath. Terrifying.
posted by munyeca at 9:23 PM on January 10, 2009