Optical Relays
About Optical Relays
A pianist plays Yablochko. On the lid and the keys, a tiny Red Navy sailor dances. Without stopping, the figure comes apart, locks together again, and juggles his own head. At one point the uniform flies off and the dancer is a body built of paperclips, still dancing.
Cast & crew
More about Optical Relays
Ivan and Vladimir Nikitchenko made the short at Soyuzdetfilm as a research piece on a new optical-combination method. The pianist and the dancer were filmed at different scales on different negatives, combined on a small screen, and rephotographed frame by frame on shop-built equipment.
Themes
Background
A 1946 studio experiment in optical printing, not a story cartoon.
Making
The Nikitchenko brothers designed the combination method and had Soyuzdetfilm mechanics build the rig.
Look
Mikhail Kirillov photographed the separate elements that were then combined on the optical rig. Konstantin Alekseyev is also credited on Wikidata.
Technique
Two negatives, shot at different scales, were lined up on a small screen and copied frame by frame onto a new film.
Music
The picture is cut to the pianist playing Yablochko, the sailor's dance.
Preservation
A print of about five minutes survives and is on Wikimedia Commons. Film schools used it as a textbook reel.
Notes
- David Ashkenazi plays the pianist. Vladimir Zernov is the dancer.
- Russian Wikipedia times a copy at 4 minutes 52 seconds.
- The film was shown in film schools as a teaching reel.
- The Russian title is Оптические перекладки.
Scenes
- The miniature sailor dances on the piano keys.
- He juggles his own head.
- The uniform flies off and a paperclip body keeps dancing.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1946. Оптические перекладки.webm)
