View MASTER

If you cross your eyes and make one image in the middle...

Oh Stanley, your adventurous spirit will not soon be forgotten. Actgeon maybe it's time you got out of your home.

I was introduced to Valdmaster shows last spring. I think they are wonderful, not only in content, but in the way the isolate and bring forward some very important aspects to film making. Pacing, sound and image relationships. It's like your grade school film strip on steroids. Like the pacing in "D'Est," Vladmaster shows envelope the sound of the audience in the viewing experience. All sound become show sounds.

I would like to say more about the show, but what more is there to say? It's funny to think that a simple little toy could result in such a sweet and engaging show experience. Yes, it was a little hard on the eyes to go through four sets, and yes it might be nice to own a set (or maybe four for a party). Otherwise though, there's not much to complain about. It's as if you held a living storyboard in your hands.

The question came up as to whether or not they could hold up as "normal" films. I don't really think that any of them would fail if they removed the bells and the images moved on their own. It seemed like maybe in class there was some sort of feeling that the pieces relied on the novelty of the transmission. I really don't think so (and I was really kind of sickened by the discussion about whether or not Disney [Pixar] would be interested in them). If they had been as lovingly crafted as traditional films as they were Viewmaster discs, I think the experience would have only been different, and not less.