Multi-dynamic image technique

Multi-dynamic image technique is a name given by its Canadian creator Christopher Chapman (January 24, 1927 - October 24, 2015) to a film innovation which shows several images shifting simultaneously on panes, with some panes containing a single image and others forming part of an image completed by other panes. The process was first used in his film A Place to Stand, produced for the Ontario pavilion at Expo 67, held in Montreal.

The 1956 Associated British-Pathe fantasy/science-fiction release The Door in the Wall (dir. Glenn Alvey, screenplay by Alvey and H.G. Wells) can be seen as a primitive forerunner of Chapman's technique. Using what it announced as “The Dynamic Frame - in which the shape and size of the picture change according to the dramatic needs of the story", the film displayed, however, neither movement of image panels nor multiplicity or division of images. Chapman felt “it was clear that its failure was creative, not technical” and decided against advice to employ this matting technique when making a film for the Telephone Association Pavilion at Expo 67.

Chapman initially had great difficulties with the technical aspects of his expanded concept for A Place to Stand and almost gave up on the idea as a result; in his own words, he "had nothing to read about how to do it." Working from 350 pages of notes, he was limited to editing on a two-picture-head moviola, so that only two images could be viewed simultaneously; he “could never 'see' the film develop.”

Shots were viewed “with an eye to vertical frames and horizontal frames, odd frames, small frames and large frames.” It was important to also shoot material that would be of limited interest, so as not to confuse the viewer with too many visual stimuli. Editing required close attention to where the various images would direct the viewer's gaze.

The technique as employed in A Place to Stand displayed as many as 15 images at a time. In this way, the under-18-minute film contained an actual hour-and-a-half of footage. The dimensions of the original screen used were 66 feet or 20.12 m (wide) by 30 feet or 9.14 m (high). Unlike other multi-image films, it did not require special equipment or a special theatre.

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