Animoto versions of Gustave Doré’s Saltimbanques

Maribeth – I’ve just been working with the copyright-free music provided by Animoto. There are only about a dozen classical selections. Do you know where I can find the piece you mention in a copyright-free form? I’m beginning to be very aware of the limits of the Animoto format.

Helen – I was trying to emphasize the Madonna/Goddess imagery in that one.

I love how you can subtly direct what you want someone to see/feel through the sequence of imagery and the music. In a sense you create the ‘theme’. In both versions, I really wanted to get in the role of the watchers in the background, who are too often ignored.

When I was young and living in London I had a small role in an independent film that portrayed an affair and the breakup of a marriage. It was shown on 7 or 8 reels, each telling a piece of the story from a different person’s view point and at a different stage of the story. Whenever the film was shown someone would draw lots from a hat to determine the order the reels were shown in. The result was that the sympathies of the audience would always end up with a different character (husband, wife, lover, therapist) and create a different scenario of what actually happened. I’ve always been intrigued by this idea. Something similar happens when choosing an order for an emphasizing the elements in a painting.