(Click the image for the gif)
Here is a the story of a gif collaboration which found life on the DS106 Google + Community Sept. 26 after an initial ‘fun’ posting on the “I gif Therefore I Am” category by Ary Aranquiz inspired by Luis Bunuel’s ‘Un Chien Andalou”.
(Click image for gif)
The Google + Conversation (edited for brevity)
Janet: I like this one!
Cathleen: You got her eyes!
John: Best reason to gif!
Ary: Thanks everyone!
Janet: You know, a story could be written about what this gif conveys! What about writing stories that match the gif images we create?
Ary: It conveys so much, doesn’t it?! Actually Janet what I want to do, when I find the time, is create a digital story using GIFs. I think someone posted an article here that had a comic book made from GIFs. I would love to create something like that.
Janet: Wonderful idea!
Cathleen: Great idea, Ary!
Janet: I’m trying to decide what those eyes are telling me.
Christina: This is a fantastic gif, Ary! I agree it could be cool if just her eyes moved (or maybe all of her, because her breathing really adds to the emotion too!).
If anyone is interested, I have a blog post on how I made everything in a gif still except one part, in GIMP: http://ds-ina.tumblr.com/post/51221031142/tzgif2
Janet: I suggested using this film exclusively- for a start. It’s very rich in imagery. I’ve downloaded the film too (it’s about 15 min long). It’s a classic in film history- a very good springboard to start this kind of gif digital storytelling.
Mariana: It was a suggestion made by Janet; I like it as the aesthetics of the story will cohere and the film you chose has a lot of giffing potential I thought.
Janet: I was thinking of ‘sneaking’ +Talky Tina in now and again to tie into DS106 a bit. She’s black and white, a true friend and rather surreal herself!
Ary: I like that +janet webster ! +Talky Tina is our #truefriend. Would be funny if somehow we worked her into every storyline too!
Sandy: Okay, I’ll admit this is so full of over the top emotion and Hollywood noir drama that I had to laugh in admiring disbelief! Wow +janet webster!
Ary: I have been wanting to do something like this to narrate a digital story, using only GIFs, but I also think it would be great fun, if each of us GIF lovers here created a GIF to compose a collaborative GIF story. Anyone interested in playing along? One person creates a GIF to spark the storyline. The next person’s GIF elaborates the previous until the GIF story reaches an ending. We can add text or other elements as well if we want. Anyone want to play? Check out this example. http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2012/08/the-publishing-process-in-gif-form.html
Mariana: Yes, I am in. And stop it! no more wonderful resources, there is more to life than watching gifs, there is more to life than watching gifs, there is more to life than watching gifs…if you say something often enough, you will believe it I can create a category here with the title of the story so that we could thread it like the example you sent? and we have an audience to tell the story to +Sandy Brown Jensen who knows, by the time we get to the end, Sandy might write our conclusion. Thanks +Ary Aranguiz I love the resources you are finding for us all.
Ary: Eat, Sleep, GIF! Sounds perfect!
Janet: Ah yes! What a great clip it is, then! Sort of fits with Talky Tina, Twilight Zone slant on DS106. The trick is really in that first line to get it going! I assume the text for the story will be a line or two to accompany each gif?
Talky Tina: This will be a fun thing for Friends to do! Plus, it will be a great thing to do to make lots of GIFs!
Is there a rule about it having to be a GIF that somebody else made already, or is there a rule about making the GIF yourself? Plus, are there any other rules? What happens if you don’t follow the rules?
Janet: Hi there, true friend! I think we should make our own gifs to create the story. Good for gif making practice and improving our skills.
Michael:
This seems like a fun project count me in to play along! I think pairing a GIF with two lines of text per post sounds great. And from there hope for the best. As each person builds off the previous post, there will likely be coherent narratives but disruptions in the story as well. Let’s just see what happens and then modify/adapt as we go? I just created Giffi.us and the registration is open. It will default to subscriber, but I’ll promote everyone to admins. Feel free to rework the site as you see fit!
Sandy:
Consider using the hero’s journey as your organizing principle:call to adventure, helpers, road of trials, belly of the whale, meeting with the goddess, capturing the elixir if life, magic flight, master of two worlds.
It’s a clear and familiar trajectory that has a lot of flexibility. Just my 2 bits…
Michael: Look for the register link on the right sidebar on the homepage of giffi.us. or go to giffi.us/wp-admin and look for a link to register below the log-in.