The cinemagraph as a fairy tale narrative tool

Abstract

The idea behind this study was to find an alternative way in presenting a fairy tale through a technique named cinemagraph. The main focus was this cinemagraph technique which lately is becoming popular. The cinemagraph is somewhere between a photo, the still image and a video, the moving image: a piece of artwork that seeks to perfectly capture a brief moment in time. The aim of this project was to create a short film using cinemagraphs and present them online. The creation of a script, storyboard and filming sessions were necessary to the development of the narrative film sequence. Technical experts were consulted through semi-structured interviews to provide advice how to set it up. The images were edited and stitched together using suitable software, followed by feedback on how to improve the final product. The cinemagraphs presented on the website are arranged in such a manner as to still present a narrative sequence while allowing the viewer to peruse them at his leisure. These bite-sized chunks can catch the fancy of the spectator without being too cumbersome. The cinemagraph attracts the attention of the viewer for if one can still the image arbitrarily, something that is already there became infinitely more visible. Once the attention of the audiences is captured, the recognisability of the stories will help the viewers to recall childhood memories. They will easily empathise with the stories as they are set in the modem world while at the same time recalling the recurrent themes of the traditional fairy tales.