Lutz Garmsen

The film traces the history of the camera obscura, the understanding of perspective and anamorphosis, peepshows and it shows the beauty of historical shadowtheaters and shadow toys.

Due to a small malfunction, the rulers of the planet are briefly distracted from the final catastrophe. Nevertheless, it arrives. We plan to film on location in the universe and elsewhere, and to rebuild the entire planet in its original size. We categorically reject special effects: We intend to interfere as little as possible.

Other essential predecessors of film were those devices that created the illusion of motion by taking advantage of the persistence of vision and the stroboscopic effect, such as the thaumatrope, phenakistoscope or wheel of life, zoetrope or magic drum and praxinoscope and later on, the more sophisticated flip-books such as the kinora and mutoscope.

The film looks at ways of creating spezial illusions through amiguous images, perspective theatres, folding peepshows and from the 19th century, the stereoscope, which look forward to today’s holography.

A little world-machine in a cube of six by six feet. The genesis in excepts: The creation of light, clouds, birds, aeroplanes, of the cow, the planets and the moon. A love story in three acts with a depressing ending.

The history of the magic lantern with demonstrations of moving slides, watertank or polarisation slides, followed by images on paper, which are brought to life with mechanical manipulations, with light shining through them or as panorama.