A still image film, also called a picture movie, is a film that consists primarily or entirely of still images rather than consecutive still images in succession, forgoing the illusion of motion either for aesthetic or practical reasons. These films usually include a standard soundtrack, similar to what is found in typical sound films, complete with music, sound effects, dialogue or narration. They may also use various editing techniques found in traditional films, such as dissolves, zooms, and panning.[1]
History
This filmmaking technique is more common in historical documentaries, where old photographs may provide the best documentation of certain events. Ken Burns is well known for having used it repeatedly in his films in the last decades.[2]
But it was also common before as highlighted in a 1961 letter to The New York Times, where Louis Clyde Stoumen surveyed earlier uses of the technique by him and other documentary filmmakers. Stoumen mentions the German Curt Oertel and his ‘Michelangelo’(1938) (later re-edited into Robert Flaherty’s ‘The Titan’ around 1949); the Belgians Henri Storck and his lyric ‘World of Paul Delvaux’ (1947) and Paul Haesaerts and his ‘Rubens’(1948); the Americans Paul Falkenberg & Lewis Jacobs and their ‘Lincoln Speaks at Gettysburg’(1950) made entirely out of nineteenth-century engravings; the also Americans Berg & Block and their documentary ‘Goya’ (1954) made out of paintings and prints. Stoumen said to have been developing this form for more than a decade.
Filmmakers working with still images may do so out of necessity, such as when resources are limited and they are only able to shoot still photographs, rather than moving pictures. However, it is also sometimes chosen for stylistic reasons, and can allow the filmmakers to do things that would be impossible with traditional moving pictures. In Chafed Elbows, for example, the filmmakers had the freedom to improvise their lines during post-production. Additionally, the use of still images made possible a scene in which one character appears to throw another out of a high window, while the actors remained safe. Additionally, in Year of the Nail, the director pieced together unstaged photographs from his real life and was able to build a fictional story from these. Furthermore, still image films may decrease the filmmakers' limitations, as dialogue and sound effects need not be synchronized with moving images.
As most audiences are unaccustomed to still image films, many viewers are initially turned off by them, but one study has shown that people adjust to the style after about seven minutes, as long as the story is engaging.[17] There is some debate about whether or not still image films should in fact be considered as genuine motion pictures, since they do not in fact employ the illusion of motion, with some considering them more akin to the slideshow.
The terms photomontage and collage have also been used to describe still image films, although those words actually refers to entirely different things.
^Kennedy, Randy (2006-10-19). "The Still-Life Mentor to a Filmmaking Generation". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-11. In fact, spend any time watching the films of Ken Burns, or those of the legions of documentary makers he has inspired, and you will see Mr. Liebling's work, in a sense, even if you have never laid eyes on one of his photographs.