The GIF as a cinematic moment
Animated GIFs were the coolest thing you could add to web pages when I
learned HTML. Geocities was full of under-construction gifs and fire
(oh how people loved flames). Over the years these came to symbolize
amateur hour, a youth long outgrown. Myspace resurrected wild,
distracting GIFs but most viewed them with disdain; no self-respecting
person would put them on their site. To many, GIFs are the equivalent
of those cell phone cases with nine different zebra-striped colors and
a quarter-pound of rhinestones and fake diamonds glued on.
I find these fun to look at. They're like the newspaper photos in Harry Potter, but don't require magic. I want to look back at moving moments years from now, and the GIF is perfect.
It's simply a matter of making them easy to capture, and that's where Picflick comes in.
I'll be posting to the Picflick blog if you want to see some samples.
