The Ottawa Public Library and the National Film Board recently collaborated on a unique, interactive project called GIFnTAKE at the OPL’s Main branch on Metcalfe Street.
Inspired by classic photo booths, the partners offered library patrons the opportunity to digitally insert themselves into sequences from NFB animated films.
The sequence could then be saved as a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) file, which preserves three to five seconds of silent video played on repeat.
These GIFs could then be sent to the participant via email.
The booth was set up in the library from Oct. 18 to Oct. 31 as part of the OPL’s annual Library Month, which celebrates the library’s role in helping communities come together and learn.
This year’s theme was discovery.
The booth represented the discovery of new technology, according to Dorothy Jeffreys, co-ordinator at the Main branch. “It allows people to do something new that they might not expect to do at the library.”
Anna Basile, manager of planning and board services at the OPL, echoed that idea.
“Historically, people have associated libraries simply with books and literacy in the purest of its sense. What this does…is that it actually helps us to expand people’s mindsets in terms of what literacy means and what the Ottawa Public Library and libraries in general mean.”
The film booth can be plugged in anywhere and even withstand most weather due to its wood frame.
The film booth has been on tour around Canada since October 2015, making an appearance at various museums and events such as the Calgary Stampede, the Festival du Voyageur in Winnipeg, and even Ottawa’s own Winterlude Festival.
The idea for the booth came from the NFB’s past collaboration with Roots Canada, said Cecilia Ramirez, the film board’s manager of partnership and special events.
In 2014, the NFB set up a green screen at the Roots Toronto location that customers could interact with and create GIFs as part of the NFB’s 75th anniversary.
The booth has been “very, very successful”, said Ramirez.
Twenty to 30 per cent of those who have used the booth to create a GIF subscribed to the NFB newsletter immediately afterward; another 10 per cent of participants watched the original film on the NFB’s website.
“That’s very important for the NFB to reach out to these collaborators and work together in order… to deliver engaging experiences to Canadians,” said Ramirez. “Because we don’t do these films for us (at the NFB), we do them for all of us (in Canada).”
The booth consists of a vertical wooden box with a doorway and no door. A ramp leads into the box, where participants can position themselves in front of a screen from which they can choose which category of film they would like to be inserted into. Above the screen is a camera that records for approximately five seconds. Users can then interact with what they see on screen. If they are unsatisfied with the recorded result, they can try again. The entire process takes approximately 2 to 3 minutes.
“I thought it was fun,” said library client Gerrit Jonker. “It was a nice little diversion.”
This reporter chose the category of love for her GIF. The computer automatically selected the film Heart Attack, directed by Sheldon Cohen. The GIF depicted a beating heart. On the screen, I could see myself standing in front of it.
Curious about the interactivity and depth of the Kinect technology (the same motion sensing technology used by the Xbox for various games), I simulated ripping the heart from my chest by extending my arms and stepping backwards. The heart became visible once I was behind. From there, I gasped, looked at the heart in awe, and then plunged it back in. Thus, my GIF was created.
The staff also had their turns. “We’ve been having a lot of laughs just in setting it up,” Jeffreys said during the project’s run. “We’ve had numerous people come over as we were setting it up because we were laughing so hard, wondering what it is.”