L’illusion de Joseph

Virtual reality, 360-degree videos, social networks, video games that look like movies and movies that resemble video games:
I think that most of the entertainment`s world nowadays has become monstrous and it is no longer just eyes` illusion, but often illusion of the mind.
I do not know about you but personally, among all these innovation`s turbines, I find myself still attracted by ancient methods and tools which continue to fascinate me. Some time ago I came across a phenakistoscope (also spelled as phenakistiscope or phenakitiscope or phantasmascope or phantascope), an antique optical instrument that displays animated images (practically current animated gif) invented in 1832 by Joseph Plateau. I then found some scans of these circles on the Internet and I began to digitally animate them. After a few attempts, I started to combine these animations trying to create something original and unpublished. Eventually, in order to stay on, I created a stop motion with paper toys from nineteenth-century that open and close the video. The music was carefully crafted by Al-Maranca.
The result of all this work is called “L’illusion de Joseph” in honour of Joseph Plateau, inventor of phenakistoscope.
Enjoy

Created and Directed by Pasquale D’Amico

Music by Al-Maranca in “Il ballo della coccinella sul panno bianco” (A.Maranca)

OFFICIAL SELECTION

• Monstra International Super Shorts Competition (Lisbon, Portugal,2017)

• Animarte (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2017) – Honorable Mention

• Euroshorts Film Competition (Cracovia, Poland, 2016)

• Moving Image Arts (Toronto, Canada, 2017)

• IFFC (India, 2017)

• Multivision (Russia 2017) – Special mention for modern adaptation of antique technologies

• Vimeo Staff pick (2016)

• Une nuit sur toile Blanche (France 2017)

• 9th Lahore International Children’s Film Festival (Pakistan 2017)

• Caostica 15 (Spain 2017)

• VAFI – International Children and Youth Animation Festival (Croatia 2017)

• Moving_Image_Arts International Short Film Festival (Canada 2017)

• Andorra Kids’Film Festival (Spain 2016)

• The James Museum (Florida 2016)