PHOTOBOOTHS IN MOVIES & TV

Photobooth

A commercial for PBS

Produced by Errol Morris for Fallon, Aired 2000, USA

Morris, the Academy Award-winning director of some of the most interesting and thought-provoking non-fiction films of the last thirty years, directed a series of six advertisements for PBS to launch their new slogan, "Stay Curious," in 2000. This particular commercial, called "Photo Booth," won an Emmy Award in 2001 for Fallon, the ad agency for which it was produced.

The advertisement features perhaps the most clever use of a photo booth in any media: as a tool to produce a flip-book to accompany an opera recording. We see a man taking pictures of himself in a photo booth, making a range of facial expressions, and when we return home with him, we watch as he cuts out and re-orders the photos to make a flip-book which then plays flawlessly along with the music coming out of his record player. It's a brilliant ad, and you can watch it in its entirety on the Fallon site or on Morris's personal site.

Contributed by Brian

As the sound of flash bulbs fills the soundtrack, the iris expands to show a photo booth in action.

The flash goes off as the subject holds his hand up to the lens.
Cut to the delivery slot, and we see a crazy variety of expressions on the man inside.
The photos come out of the booth in much less time than even the advertised 2 1/2 minutes.
He's really getting into it.
The camera moves inside, looking over the man's shoulder as he acts for the camera.
A few more poses.
Then we cut to the man at home, putting on an old record.
He begins assembling his flip book, mounting the images on longer sheets of paper.
With the score of the piece at hand, he snips the photo strips into individual images, creating a pile of expressions to work from.
We watch as the photos begin to animate as he flips through them.
He flips through his flip-book proudly.
The camera closes in as the piece ends triumphantly, and we watch the animated images as he mouths along to the music.
Another iris to close the commercial.