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Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (1957) [video]

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Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (1957) [video]

#11

Post by Stratoscope »

fermienrico wrote: post #5

Old instructional videos so much more informative than today’s. They’re so simple. Clear narration, simple animations, music is appropriate and minimal. They don’t overload our senses in the way modern videography does. It seems to me that everything today is optimized for the highest cognitive load - sort of similar to the “loudness war” in music, but for videos. Popular videos on YT are optimized for clicks and lik…

If you like old instructional videos and documentaries, the Internet Archive has a bunch of them, particularly in the Prelinger Archives.

Here are a few favorites...

Private Life of a Cat (silent): https://archive.org/details/PrivateL1947

Back of the Mike: https://archive.org/details/Backofth1938

How a Watch Works: https://archive.org/details/HowaWatc1949

Using the Bank: https://archive.org/details/Usingthe1947

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (1957) [video]

#12

Post by peterkelly »

Stratoscope wrote: post #11
fermienrico wrote: post #5

Old instructional videos so much more informative than today’s. They’re so simple. Clear narration, simple animations, music is appropriate and minimal. They don’t overload our senses in the way modern videography does. It seems to me that everything today is optimized for the highest cognitive load - sort of similar to the “loudness war” in music, but for videos. Popular videos on YT are optimized for clicks and lik…

If you like old instructional videos and documentaries, the Internet Archive has a bunch of them, particularly in the Prelinger Archives. Here are a few favorites... Private Life of a Cat (silent): https://archive.org/details/PrivateL1947 Back of the Mike: https://archive.org/details/Backofth1938 How a Watch Works: https://archive.org/details/HowaWatc1949 Using the Bank: https://archive.org/details/Usingthe1947

One of my favourites is this 1953 explanation of the workings of mechanical analog computers used by the US Navy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1i-dnAH9Y4

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (1957) [video]

#14

Post by TeMPOraL »

fermienrico wrote: post #5

Old instructional videos so much more informative than today’s. They’re so simple. Clear narration, simple animations, music is appropriate and minimal. They don’t overload our senses in the way modern videography does. It seems to me that everything today is optimized for the highest cognitive load - sort of similar to the “loudness war” in music, but for videos. Popular videos on YT are optimized for clicks and lik…

Watching such videos makes me wish for a modern explanatory videos done in the same old style, content-rich and distraction-minimizing. Sounds like a niche nobody is willing to cover for some reason.

Related, I have similar feelings for textbooks. When I was still in school, my grandfather used to give me books for learning English and German that were from somewhere around 60s - 80s. I vastly preferred them to modern books we used in school. The old books were content-rich and created to support learning, including self-learning. The modern ones waste space with pictures, and seem purposefully designed to not allow for self-learning, and instead requiring a teacher (with a companion book).

Both old instructional videos and language textbooks are my go-to example of how market pressures can lead to destruction of actual value in the process of maximizing sales.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (1957) [video]

#16

Post by mosselman »

This is technology that has a clear benefit over the old. The effect that is shown from Bambi is a huge leap forward. Current 3D movie technology has not been as big a leap for me. Whenever I watch a 3D movie I always think that it would have been mostly the same in 2D and it would have been more comfortable to watch the movie without the glasses/headset. The effect of the multiplane camera however lifts the scene to a completely new level without the comfort disadvantages.

Also, this might be one of the best informational videos I have seen in a long time. The ease with which the issues and solutions are explained shows us that the producers of this video understand the domain very well.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (1957) [video]

#17

Post by argestes »

fermienrico wrote: post #5

Old instructional videos so much more informative than today’s. They’re so simple. Clear narration, simple animations, music is appropriate and minimal. They don’t overload our senses in the way modern videography does. It seems to me that everything today is optimized for the highest cognitive load - sort of similar to the “loudness war” in music, but for videos. Popular videos on YT are optimized for clicks and lik…

I agree with your observations. Even though we also have to consider that this video and the text for it was probably written or edited or at least administered by Walt Disney himself. You can see that Mickey is kind of communicating with Walt Disney on the video. That means the cartoon on the video was made just to show this piece of technology. I think we can say that this video is a way to show the technology of Disney at that time. It's kind of an advertisement for a big coporation.

On the other hand Youtube videos are made by people trying to make a living through those videos. None of these Youtubers can have the resources and motivation compared to Walt Disney himself to shoot a scene which can be watched and enjoyed even after 71 years later because your videos has to be produced quickly.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (1957) [video]

#18

Post by exodust »

avian wrote: post #13

Interesting how none of the workers in the video use gloves to handle cels and glass plates. I would be afraid of leaving visible fingerprints.

I noticed that too, but then figured the area being photographed is well and truly inset from the edges, allowing by design the handling of the glass.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (1957) [video]

#19

Post by flyingcircus3 »

fermienrico wrote: post #5

Old instructional videos so much more informative than today’s. They’re so simple. Clear narration, simple animations, music is appropriate and minimal. They don’t overload our senses in the way modern videography does. It seems to me that everything today is optimized for the highest cognitive load - sort of similar to the “loudness war” in music, but for videos. Popular videos on YT are optimized for clicks and lik…

As a second order to this effect, I've noticed a general "clumping", so to speak, of timeless machines and designs in general, that seem to originate in the late 1940s, and the 1950s, likely due to the unprecedented rise in the United States overall fortunes, after WWII. It's almost like John Kennedy "tricked" us to thinking that he initiated the US involvement in the space race, instead of the natural IP transfer that occurred from Germany to both the US and Soviet Union as the spoils of victory.

Mid Century Design is even an acknowledgement of this concept, in my opinion.

Transistor - 1947 (William Shockley)

Helical structure of DNA - 1953

Maser, precursor to the Laser - 1953

Polio Vaccine - 1955

Fairchild (William Shockley) loses control of the Fairchildren, and many of the definitive titans of the tech industry pull off the first silicon valley disruption - 1957

The wealth, and easing of human suffering that were precipitated by these 5 events, over 10 years are seemingly peerless in human history.

A formidable contender would be Special relativity, airplanes, radio, and Ford's assembly line all came out of the first decade of the 20th century.

Re: Walt Disney's MultiPlane Camera (1957) [video]

#20

Post by exodust »

This makes me fonder of the parallax website effects. By that I mean those done for creative purposes suitable to the website content, such as a game or digital art. I don't mean the needless visual distraction of everyday websites trying to look impressive.

I particularly like the side-scrolling forest in this film. Computer generated 3D forests can look great, sure, but missing from the aesthetic of CGI forests is that painterly illustrated look which adds warmth and atmosphere.

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