That's a cute piece, nice job. I'm often
much more impressed by people that can get an idea
across simply than by those that create a much
more complex piece that often misses its point by trying to be
profound. That's why children are brilliant...they just call it like
they see it. Anyway, it looks like you guys are up to a lot of good
stuff over there.
Best,
Tarah Feinberg
Producer/Director
Very nice.
Bradford N. Hammer
Shalom TV, Inc.
It is great! Could not see
it at the first Internet Cafe I use, but went to another to view it -
impressive!
Michael
Levitt
thanks for the link -
We will post your link on our site
http://www.ttt.org.il
Susan and
David Suna
The Israeli flag
On the winter of 2005 I invented "the Israeli flag thaumatrope game".
It all began about a year ago when my son Shir and I
saw a film called Sleepy Hollow with the actor Johnny Depp. In the film there
is a scene in which Johnny is a baby and his mother shows him a thaumatrope, a
paper disk which has a bird on one side and a cage on the other and when his
mother twirls it on a string Johnny Depp sees
the bird inside the cage. Immediately after the film
I told Shir that we have to find out who makes thaumatropes and to import
them.
A year passed by and one day Shir asked me if I can think of a product to
import. I described him the thaumatrope that we saw on the film, but I forgot
the name "thaumatrope" and the name of the film. Shir remembered the name of
the film and borrowed a copy of the film from the neighborhood video store. We
saw the scene of the thaumatrope frame by frame dozen times. Then I looked it
up on the Internet and found the name "thaumatrope" and the instructions how
to build it. The next week Shir and I were busy making all kinds of
thaumatropes: clowns with hats, puppies in a frame of a television, and a six
pointed star. This last design was original and I thought it captures the
essence of Zionism, which is composed of complementary parts that make sense
only when they work together; parts
like people and country, vision and fulfillment, center and Diaspora.
When the flag was ready Shir was not sure if it would sell.
A friend of us who is a sculptor
thought maybe if we make a three-dimensional weathercock flag people will put
it on their cars on Independence Day. Everybody knows that on Independence Day
flag makers are making a fortune. So we talked a lot about how such a flag
could look, but eventually we had no idea how to make it.
When we had the first Israeli flag thaumatrope in
our hands I came up with a new idea: let's make a film, a very short film, to
promote the product, and put it on our website so that we
could refer potential clients to our domain. Shir and Aran agreed to
make the film and in two days it was all over, with music and all. I was very
proud in my first film and so was Shir. It came out better than we thought
because the flag was twirling with a wild drum beat on the background and the
total effect was just funny.
Making the thaumatrope was easy: we designed it on our computer, took it to a
printing shop and made a few thousand flags. Then we
had to make two holes on each flag, to put a
string in each hole, and to tie the
string. We succeeded to make only
100 cards in an hour, but when a
salesman came with an offer to sell two hundred thousand flags to the
Israeli national flight company we understood that
without a machine it will be impossible to fulfill this
order. So we went, Shir and I, to an efficiency consultant laboratory.
At the beginning of our meeting I showed the
consultant the thaumatrope film. He had no loudspeakers so half of the
effect of the film was lost, but he couldn't stop twirling the flag in his
hands. "By the way, it is an amazing coincidence but I have on my desk a
three-dimensional weathercock Israeli flag" he said.
-"really", Asked Shir ardently?
The consultant went to his desk and brought us the
flag. He twirled it and we so clearly the six pointed blue star. It was so
exciting we couldn't speak. What are the odds to find such a new invention?
Even if you go to all the efficiency consultants in the world it is
unimaginable that you will find what you are looking for. Anyhow
the consultant suggested we go to a patent
office to ask if we violate anybody's rights. Before we left the laboratory
he told us: "I'm sure this flag will sell millions".
Then we went to a patent office and met a religious tall
clerk. The clerk couldn't stop twirling the flag
throughout the whole meeting. He said there is no violation of any
rights because we didn't copy our design from anybody - we've invented a new
design based on the invention of the thaumatrope in 1824 and nobody has patent
rights on the thaumatrope. We told him that the Israeli national
flight company is interested to buy two hundred
thousand flags from us.
"Can I ask you a personal favor?" asked
the clerk.
-"of course"
My brother is a manager in Lufthansa air flight
company; can I show him the flag?
-"of course"
"By the way, concluded the clerk, "I'm sure this
flag will sell millions".
