Beside this film's focus on rising environmental damage from our use of fossil fuels, its novel production method intrigues.
Created by Toronto Star Photographer Lucas Oleniuk from more than 20,000 still digital images, Airsick serves as an example of an emerging form: digital movies from still images.
Of course Ken Burns popularized the TV form of documentary using still historic images in his PBS film the Civil War and others, but this new form using digital images to produce time sequences is different.
Modern digital cameras can shoot many frames a second and store hundreds of images on one memory card. This use of time-lapse opens up a new arena of visual communication where images are sequenced in timeline-based digital movie editing programs (iMovie or Final Cut e.g.) The action is not as smooth as from video cameras with their 24 or 30 frames per second, since most still cameras shoot fewer than 10 frames a second. But the sense of motion comes across regardless, in an often halting, sometimes erratic way that forces your continual attention.
This method of using digital still cameras for creating movies is not the same approach as shooting the often-discussed HD video with the newer still cameras (Canon 7D and 5D Mark II e.g.) These movies are coming from still image time-lapse sequences, shot specifically to present as a time sequence.
A few years ago Ed Kashi and Brian Storm at Mediastorm produced a still image "flipbook" movie of similar feel from Kurdistan that came from still photography he shot for National Geographic in 2005.
This new film "Airsick" takes the technique further. More frames shot per scene, smoother movement, photographed specifically with a movie in mind.
Movies without video, if you will. A distinctive, memorable look. Quite impressive.
"Airsick" is harbinger of an emerging form of animated visuals, and a compelling visualization of our world's most pressing environmental conundrum.
From MediaStorm: "In Airsick: An Industrial Devolution Toronto Star Photographer Lucas Oleniuk tackles the global issue of climate change through a local approach. With the exception of two images, all 20,000 photographs were shot in Ontario, Canada. But they illustrate a global problem. With a haunting original score by Randy Risling and evocative quotes, Airsick plays out like an unsettling dream.
"We're addicted to fossil fuels and our infrastructure reflects that," says Oleniuk. "My hope is that one day this film will be seen as the way we used to do things."
(This article was originally posted June 8, 2010 at Eyes On Earth, a personal blog that predated this platform.)