Reaction to Flipbook/Slideshow

The first flipbook I watched was "The Cardstacker" by Tom Fox of the Dallas Morning News. The images of the man stacking the cards appeared as a time lapse, where viewers could watch him create his card structures throughout the work day. Visually, I thought this was an appealing idea, although the stacking went on much longer than I thought. I understand why it was so long; the idea was to show all of "the cardmaker's" creations and then watch him tear them down, but I still felt it was too long. I also thought that the narration was interesting and succeeded in explaining the point of view of a man stacking cards. My favorite part was when he mentioned that his father would have to create boundaries where he could build or else he would build all over the living room. My only really complaint of the piece, besides its length, was that I had no idea where he was building his structures until the last few seconds. I got the impression he was in a museum and was confused when he tore everything down at the end. I feel a short title slide at the beginning of the slide could have cleared up all confusion.

I also read Brian Storm's article, "Why Photojournalists Should Gather Audio," which I felt that he included several important points. The most important comment involved how gathering audio helps fill in emotion where the pictures cannot say what the subject is thinking. "The cardmaker" flipbook that I just watched is an example of a piece that was enhanced by audio. Without the subject's narration, it would be interesting to start watching, but less compelling to keep watching without the verbal anecdotes. I also thought Storm brought up a worthwhile point when he said that audio can help give photos detailed captions. To be honest, this is not something I had considered prior to reading the article, but I believe he is right. This ties in with the above comment about the importance of explaining the emotion of a photo, which the caption can help do if no audio is present. As Storm says, this additional of audio can "unlock a new world of possibilties" to enhance the understanding of the visual elements of a story.