Marianne CombsTodd Boss and Angella Kassube are on to something big.
Boss – a poet – and Kassube – a designer/animator – have created what they call “motionpoems.” They’re using poems as the scripts for animated shorts. The results are otherworldly:
Karl from Scott Wenner on Vimeo.
It started out with just Kassube animating Boss’ poetry, but it’s expanding to something much bigger; they’re connecting filmmakers with poets from around the world. Their goal is to increase the audience for poetry by turning them into compelling short films.
Up until now it’s been a volunteer project, but Motionpoems has signed on to animate 12-15 poems to accompany Scribner’s 2011 Best American Poetry anthology and is looking to pay participants a stipend for their work.
RENDER, RENDER a poem by Thomas Lux from Motionpoems on Vimeo.
Euan Kerr reported on the Motionpoems project a while back – you can read that here.
You can see more poetry in motion here. What do you think? Are you a traditionalist, or do you think animating poetry in order to draw in a younger crowd is a good idea?
