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Subway advertisements-moving pictures


Robert Hughes

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I was on the subway in Washington, DC today. On the Red Line heading east of Gallery Place there is an ad for Lincoln, or Lexus, or some car - in between stations, on the walls of the subway tube. Multiple frames with some sort of reflective grating that lets you see a movie by riding past this sign and looking out the window.

 

How did they create this sign? Is anybody acquainted with the technique?

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I was on the subway in Washington, DC today. On the Red Line heading east of Gallery Place there is an ad for Lincoln, or Lexus, or some car - in between stations, on the walls of the subway tube. Multiple frames with some sort of reflective grating that lets you see a movie by riding past this sign and looking out the window.

 

How did they create this sign? Is anybody acquainted with the technique?

 

I had an idea like that a long time ago, but then again, it does have limited applications. I assume the train has to be moving at a certain speed for the effect to work correctly???

 

I wonder where they practiced the idea before trotting it out for the public.

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There used to be one in the early nineties, on the D train as it left Brooklyn heading for Manhattan. It was a completely hand-painted animation of a moving geometric pattern. Very impressive.

 

It was a nice little visual treat as I headed in to work every morning.

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I saw it again today, front and back. It's backlit with multiple fluorescent tubes. According to one of the abovementioned links, the sign is printed on some sort of Kodak transparency sheeting. John Pytlak or any Kodak-ites out there care to explain what this sheeting is that allows for this effect?
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I haven't seen the thing in real life -- is it some kind of ribbed surface that limits the viewing angle? I mean, you have to provide some kind of "shutter" to see each frame as a still image and not just a blur.

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There used to be one in the early nineties, on the D train as it left Brooklyn heading for Manhattan. It was a completely hand-painted animation of a moving geometric pattern. Very impressive.

 

It was a nice little visual treat as I headed in to work every morning.

 

By Bill Brand. Very cool.

 

-Sam

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I wonder where they practiced the idea before trotting it out for the public.

 

Hi,

 

About 6 years ago a Swatch commercial I shot was shown in a train tunnel near Bern, Switzerland. Every frame was printed and fixed to the side if the tunnel, strobe lights were used below each frame.

I am trying to find 'The making of' as I can't remember all the technical details. The train had to be going at a constant speed to work properly. I think the project cost about $1,000,000. Swatch got a huge amount of TV coverage at the time.

 

Stephen

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Hi,

 

About 6 years ago a Swatch commercial I shot was shown in a train tunnel near Bern, Switzerland. Every frame was printed and fixed to the side if the tunnel, strobe lights were used below each frame.

I am trying to find 'The making of' as I can't remember all the technical details. The train had to be going at a constant speed to work properly. I think the project cost about $1,000,000. Swatch got a huge amount of TV coverage at the time.

 

Stephen

 

So can we assume that somewhere in the world exists an expert or a specialist that makes their entire living by creating these moving commercials and they been doing it for the last 20 years? What a unique gig.

 

Congrats on having your work literally plastered in Switzerland.

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