GIF CINEMA

One of the things that we are always taught as film students is that to create a successful story, the protagonist should undergo some change. This concept was an idea that we enjoyed toying with as we thought about the nature of GIFs. Since they are a constant loop, we wanted to make the story feel like each different gif could be repeated at some point along his transformation. Our first realization when dealing with such a unique form of narrative was that the story had to be as simplistic as possible. The idea of endless repetition forming into some kind of character transformation led to a relatable and simple retelling of the hero’s journey: defeat, hard work, and then hopeful success.

The inciting incident is the initial defeat of the protagonist. As his life crumbles in other facets around him, he sinks into a deep inner struggle: should I give up and accept my failure? Or should I use this defeat as a motivation to conquer my opponent and vicariously defeat my inner demons? He chooses the latter. As irony would have it, and by inspiration of the looping nature of gifs, he loses again -- winding up in the same position as when he started. In addition to that, at each point in the story, there is a constant reminder of the initial defeat. In a way, the story constantly loops back to the beginning; folding in on itself, yet always progressing. 

In James Bridle’s Ted Talk, Waving at the Machines, he encourages us to think about our relationship with modern technology, how it has formed over the past decades, and even how we can improve it. There’s no doubt that GIFs are a limiting medium. Constant looping and lack of sound inhibit ability in storytelling, yet this limitation encourages creativity. We found this out as we developed a possible story to tell in our GIF cinema project. We embraced this limited technology. The end of each GIF we used is also the beginning. Each event that hints toward the climax of the story can be repeated indefinitely until you get to the end of the story -- which is also a new beginning. 

One of my favorite quotes from Bridle is, “Technology just wants to be more like us. And in a way, we want to be more like it.” Although Brindle was referencing the advancements of artificial intelligence, and the lack of perfection that is inherent in humans, yet achievable in machines, we would argue that you can take it a step further. In our GIF cinema project, we embraced the limits of this technology, and adapted a story to be able to fit it. For better, or for worse, we faced the difficulty of a technology and adapted it to fit what we, as humans, love: storytelling.