dear viktor,
the idea to animate poems came from the Sundance Channel and the J Walter Thompson advertising agency (JWT). They assured me that they would bring in tto the project the best animators they could find and that the selection would be competitive. Apparently a number of people who tried out, were not invited to animate. I like the idea of poetry being adapted to different media (except dance) so I agreed to read the poems to be animated.
I was very pleased with the results. the first one I saw was „The Dead“ which set a high standard for the rest. I never liked the idea of illustrated books of poetry. A poem about a tree and on the facing page. guess what? a tree! but animation casts a kind of spell over the eye as the voice does over the ear. And two senses are usually better than one.
I have no idea how the animations got on YouTube. Apparently, just about anything ends up there. The films first ppeared as „filler“ on the Sundance Channel (USA TV). But I was happy to hear that some of the films were getting 500,000 hits on YouTube. Next we need to promote iPoetry so that poems can be easily put on your iPod along with your music.
If this phenomenon needs a star, I am happy to volunteer. I am an only child and have a great capacity for receiving attention.
My best to you and Ron Winkler,
Billy
