Joy of Books

[charlene]

an amazing video - shot in TOronto
The Joy of Books - YouTube

[T.G.]

http://www.thespec.com/feature/article/653040--video-the-joy-of-books

Teri Pecoskie
Thu Jan 12 2012
JOY OF BOOKS

The books at Toronto’s Type Books star in the two-minute-long film, which imagines what happens after the bookstore closes. Since it was uploaded to YouTube Monday, it’s had more than 820,000 views.

A group of Mohawk students had a role in making a stop-motion video that’s gone viral online.

The books at Toronto’s Type Books star in the two-minute-long film, which imagines what happens after the bookstore closes. Since it was uploaded to YouTube Monday, it’s had more than 820,000 views.

The video was produced by Sean Ohlenkamp, an associate creative director at Toronto-based advertising agency Lowe Roche. Ohlenkamp recruited about a dozen Mohawk creative advertising students to help with the video’s production.

A clever and beautifully shot short piece, the video imagines what happens after the bookstore closes. With books dancing, reading each other and switching around in a domino-like effect, it’s a fun message about the tactile joy of enjoy a book.

“This hit a nerve. It really struck a chord,” said Type Books owner Joanne Saul of video, which as grabbed the attention of booksellers and lovers around the world. “The video is just so incredibly whimsical and magical. I think that is what Sean was getting at, that there is this secret life of book. People love books. That’s the kind of outpouring that we’re seeing.”

Stop-motion animation is painfully intensive, as everything is shot by frame-by-frame. Each change is its own scene. The actually shooting took place over four long nights in November. Ohlenkamp had help from about 25 volunteers - Mohawk advertising students and some of his colleagues.

“After doing a single bookcase, I had a pretty good idea what I was getting into, but I don’t think any of my volunteers did. The way it worked was we got in there at 6 p.m. when the store closed, with my small army of volunteers, and we worked until 10 a.m. the next day, shelving, reshelving, moving, animating, dancing books all night long.”

He estimates that each second of the piece uses approximately 10 frames, so in all the almost--two-minute work used about 1,200 frames, “but really, it felt like 30,000,” jokes Ohlenkamp.

[Lisa J]

As an avid reader of books, I found this to be an incredible video. What a great tribute to books. Thank you for the work you did to make this. And thanks, charlene, for sharing it with us.

[T.G.]

Yes I hope the paper versions stick around for awhile yet. I'm not one for these electronic gizmo books.