GIF of shower head from Psycho
After wrapping this week’s Family Pictures Podcast MBS mentioned a GIF project he did back in 2013 titled “Mother Oh God Mother.” It takes each of the 54 shots from Alfred Hitchcock’s infamous shower scene in Psycho (1960) and converts them into GIFs. Every post describes the type of shot and details the action. It’s remarkable just how much the GIF slows down the action and allows you to both dissect and study the art of cinema.
Your eyes won’t believe it
For example, look at the way the camera twists and then zooms out from Janet Leigh’s eye as she lays lifeless on the floor. There’s so much happening in just that one bit of motion that’s hard to see without isolating and putting it on repeat. His old, forgotten Tumblr project is kind of like a mini film school resource, I love it so much.
Update: It’s the mother of all GIF sites (I couldn’t resist).
Just fixed up the theme so the archive link is a backup and now it’s back to full size viewable glory. I used to make GIFs, once. ONCE.
You are my very favorite GIF artist, I hope they become cool again, or maybe we can make them cool as an adjunct to our podcast? Think of the possibilities. GIFs as interpretation, we can walk the walk.