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February 19, 2007

Movie: First Movements

Talia’s favorite part of this movie is how Felix flips off the viewer (or rather the photographer, me) right at the end. That is not my favorite part. My favorite part is how now, looking at him, I can somehow see those motions in the much more competent arm movements and finger gestures he makes. He seemed so formless when he was born, but later on I see that a lot of the personality, and likewise a lot of the physical character, was there already at the beginning.

Note the way he reacts to sound. I don’t think we ever got a film of him doing it, but he used to give a big “praise Jesus” gesture when startled. We tried not to startle him, even though we loved to see him throw his arms wide open like that.

One last point: you hear the sound of the lens trying to focus. This is because I had the camera set wrong and so it kept trying to refocus. Why did I make this mistake? Because I had never tried to make a movie of something so small before and thus had never been so close to my subject. He was really small at the beginning. Now, six months on, he is built like a tank.

Posted by talia at February 19, 2007 10:19 PM