Music Video Inspired by Red Raven Magic Mirror & Movie Records

Recently we wrote about the Red Raven Magic Mirror and its animated movie records, a mirrored praxinoscope device that was made as a children’s toy in the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. In 2009, a delightful music video for Moray McLaren was created for his song “We Got Time” using praxinoscopes inspired by the Red Raven device. The director of the video, David Wilson, hand-drew and colored the animations. Later, a great making of video was made that delves in deep into the history of the praxinoscope and talks about making the music video’s animation with only the use of the camera, not computers. Good stuff.

Using both praxinoscopes and the technique of matching up the frame rate of the spinning record to that of the camera, no computer super-imposing was used; what you see is what rolled off the camera. The transitions between each section of animation was created by simply cutting or wiping between the bits of footage.

Thanks David Ballinger!