Intro: Experiment in Democracy
360x270 version [1:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (40) 640x480 MP4 [1:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (50)First, playback advice. The 640×480 version is a lot easier on the eyes.
Now, here’s what this is:
In 2002 and 2003 I worked with local historian Jean Reynolds on this project for the Arizona Historical Society Museum at Papago Park. It’s part of a permanent exhibition called Desert Cities, which chronicles the development of the Phoenix metro area from the end of World War II to the present.
In its final form, the project exists as two separate videos stored on a media server at the museum, and presented on a flat screen built into a section of the museum exhibition. This piece, the intro piece, repeats on a loop to attract museum visitors over, let them know there is a video available, and give them a reason to watch it. If interested, visitors can press a button to make the main video play.
I’ll tell you more about the project in tomorrow’s post, but in case you’re curious about the appearance of the introduction:
- it’s a way to present some facts that had to be left out of the video to bring the running time down
- the colors and fonts match surrounding exhibition graphics
- there is no “old film” effect in use - all the footage is from 16mm news reels
November 20th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Sadly, other than the life expectancy, not much has changed since 1968.
November 20th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Very true, David. The life expectancy is better. Here in Arizona, farm laborers are no longer exempted from child labor law protection. And there are stricter laws about pesticide exposure, though I’m not entirely certain they’re enforced. Other than that almost nothing has changed in the last 40 years.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
very moving…..