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Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1975 film)
Encyclopedia
Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a 1975 film by director Raúl daSilva
. It is a photoanimated-live action
visualization of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
's poem of the same name, featuring a direct reading given by renowned British actor Sir
Michael Redgrave
. DaSilva's film has won multiple awards and recognitions and has been said to effectively render the otherwise-difficult poem comprehensible by even the youngest of readers.
before becoming an actor) and with the additional use of sound and music
to enhance, support, and illustrate the poem's dramatic and often difficult language.
The Wikipedia article on photoanimation explains the technique used for this film. It is a time consuming,
arduous procedure that includes the analysis and breakdown of the entire sound track and the planning of frame to frame exposure of all visual elements. Using the Oxberry master series animation stand the process took six months. The film took two years of production to complete.
offering expressions of gratitude from English teachers. From that point it began to accumulate interest from the general public.
for a prime-time slot opposite CBS
’s popular news program, 60 Minutes
. The broadcast title for the film was The Strangest Voyage and included a short biography on the poem's author
, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
. The fact that local newspapers ran front page stories on the broadcast might have helped as it completely eclipsed 60 Minutes in viewer response. The then program manager reported that by the end of the broadcast the telephone switchboard
was flooded with calls from viewers expressing praise and gratitude for the broadcast. Similar reports came from the program’s sponsor, Columbia Banking, and according to their senior vice president marketing, hundreds of letters were received after the broadcast, many from people who said they planned on opening accounts at the bank.
since 1985 and starting in April 2007 on DVD
. The film was released to a responsive commercial market despite the fact that it has never been promoted or advertised.
A review in the April 1986 edition of Library Journal called it "a must for schools, and an excellent choice for public libraries."
It remains one of the most successful efforts in American filmmaking
and has been celebrated by a half dozen film festival
juries, and has enjoyed universal critical acclaim by both the media and consumers whose positive reactions can be found on the Internet
. daSilva plans to have the film circulated worldwide where it has thus far not been released, believing Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s intrinsic message about the sanctity of all life on Earth is just as important today as it has ever been.
Raúl daSilva
Raúl daSilva is a TV commercial producer, business documentary filmmaker, writer and an expert in the field of photoanimation.-Biography:Raúl daSilva began his film career in 1965 at the Jamison Handy Organization of Detroit, Michigan...
. It is a photoanimated-live action
Photoanimation
Photoanimation is a technique as old as the motion picture industry, in which still photos, artwork, or other objects are filmed with the use of an animation stand...
visualization of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
's poem of the same name, featuring a direct reading given by renowned British actor Sir
Sir
Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in many English speaking cultures...
Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...
. DaSilva's film has won multiple awards and recognitions and has been said to effectively render the otherwise-difficult poem comprehensible by even the youngest of readers.
Planning
Raúl daSilva's film introduces additional sensory perception elements to Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner by taking the poem, which was written in a faux-archaic (purportedly Elizabethan) form of English and visualizing it. This was accomplished with the help of Sir Michael Redgrave (who'd taught the epic poem as a young schoolmasterSchoolmaster
A schoolmaster, or simply master, once referred to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British public schools, but is generally obsolete elsewhere.The teacher in charge of a school is the headmaster...
before becoming an actor) and with the additional use of sound and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
to enhance, support, and illustrate the poem's dramatic and often difficult language.
The Wikipedia article on photoanimation explains the technique used for this film. It is a time consuming,
arduous procedure that includes the analysis and breakdown of the entire sound track and the planning of frame to frame exposure of all visual elements. Using the Oxberry master series animation stand the process took six months. The film took two years of production to complete.
International Film Festival Recognition
The film was entered into six international film festivals and won six prizes, five of which were in the first-place category.- Golden EagleGolden EagleThe Golden Eagle is one of the best known birds of prey in the Northern Hemisphere. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. Once widespread across the Holarctic, it has disappeared from many of the more heavily populated areas...
(first place) CINE: Washington, DC - Gold MedalGold MedalGold Medal is the sixth studio album by the American hard rock band The Donnas, released in 2004 on Atlantic Records. It was one of the first albums released in the DualDisc format, but was recalled due to a mastering error which resulted in the final track being partially omitted from the CD...
(first place) International Film & TV Festival of New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east... - GoldGoldGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
VenusVenusVenus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
(first place) Virgin IslandsVirgin IslandsThe Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...
Film Festival - CINDY Statuette (first place) (Information Film Producers Association), Hollywood, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
- CHRIS Statuette (first place) Columbus International Film Festival
- Certificate of Merit (general recognition of creativity) Chicago International Film FestivalChicago International Film FestivalThe Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America....
Application
Raúl daSilva used the film in his classes as a teaching aid. Not only did students enjoy it, but their overall comprehension rose from fifty to one-hundred percent. They found it easier to understand the poem’s timeless message, many going on to reread the poem with a much greater degree of understanding. In his efforts to study students’ reactions he also showed it to a number of student groups—some as young as third Grade—where it was equally enjoyed and understood. In the ensuing years Raúl received unanimous critical acclaim for his production, with letters coming from as far as AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
offering expressions of gratitude from English teachers. From that point it began to accumulate interest from the general public.
Television Broadcast History
On June 11, 1978 an ABC affiliate in Rochester, NY scheduled the one hour programTelevision program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
for a prime-time slot opposite CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
’s popular news program, 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
. The broadcast title for the film was The Strangest Voyage and included a short biography on the poem's author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
. The fact that local newspapers ran front page stories on the broadcast might have helped as it completely eclipsed 60 Minutes in viewer response. The then program manager reported that by the end of the broadcast the telephone switchboard
Telephone switchboard
A switchboard was a device used to connect a group of telephones manually to one another or to an outside connection, within and between telephone exchanges or private branch exchanges . The user was typically known as an operator...
was flooded with calls from viewers expressing praise and gratitude for the broadcast. Similar reports came from the program’s sponsor, Columbia Banking, and according to their senior vice president marketing, hundreds of letters were received after the broadcast, many from people who said they planned on opening accounts at the bank.
Current history
The film has been distributed on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
since 1985 and starting in April 2007 on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. The film was released to a responsive commercial market despite the fact that it has never been promoted or advertised.
A review in the April 1986 edition of Library Journal called it "a must for schools, and an excellent choice for public libraries."
It remains one of the most successful efforts in American filmmaking
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
and has been celebrated by a half dozen film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
juries, and has enjoyed universal critical acclaim by both the media and consumers whose positive reactions can be found on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. daSilva plans to have the film circulated worldwide where it has thus far not been released, believing Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s intrinsic message about the sanctity of all life on Earth is just as important today as it has ever been.
External links
- http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/dasilva.htm