VOA常速英语2018--GIF动图带给现代人无限欢乐

Whether you call them gifs or gifs, they’re short for graphics 1 interchange format 2, and better known as the looping video animations 3 that are everywhere on mobile and social media. And at the Giffy Film Fest in New York, they’re moving from touchscreens to the big screen. I think people are just used to shorter form content in general, and I really think people will embrace this format as a type of entertainment.

不管怎么叫，gif其实就是指图形交换格式。它有一个更为人熟知的名字——循环视频动画，广泛存在于移动和社交媒体上。而在纽约动图电影节上，它们摇身一变，从触屏转向了大荧幕。我认为，大家更习惯于总体上更简短的内容，所以我真心认为大家会喜欢这种格式的东西作为娱乐。

Users can upload their videos and photos to sites like giffy.com. In gifs.com which they generate the gifs automatically, making them easy to share on social media. An emoji you can give a thump 4 up or smile, but in a gif, you can give a full reaction, and I think that is what really has taken it to next level. The entries were so different. They were live action. They were illustrated 5. They were stop-motion, they were experimental. Some were sad, some were heartbreaking, some were romantic, some were terrifying.

用户可以上传视频和照片到一些网址，比如giffy.com。giffy.com可以自动生成一些gif，便于在社交媒体上进行分享。可以通过表情符号来竖起大拇指或者微笑，而通过gif则可以做出一个完整的反应，这是gif更高一筹的地方。gif的种类繁多，有的是实景真人，有的带解说，有的是单格拍制，有的是实验性质的。有些很悲伤，有些让人心碎，有些很浪漫，有些很可怕。

But it only lasts 18 seconds or less. Can you really call it a film? For this creators, it’s beside the point. I don’t care about taking someone on a long journey. I just want to someone to remember it and oftentimes I find that it’s more effective to do that with a short piece. I love gif format because they’re super easy and they are super quick. In a day, I can create one gif and post it and share it and it’s like an addiction 6.

但gif最长不超过18秒，所以能称其为电影吗？对于gif的创造者来说，答案并不重要。我不介意再多一个伙伴。我只希望有人能记住它，而我总是发现，用小短片来展现更有效果。我喜欢gif格式，因为很简单又很便捷。我每天都会做一个gif，然后发布并分享，就像上瘾了一样。

In the last six months, I’ve gone from 136,000 views to 200 millions, so it’s been a whirlwind. There are also democratizing access for aspiring 7 filmmakers and artists. Maybe you don’t have the means to create a feature like a film right now or even the means to create a short-like film. But you could probably create a film within 18 seconds. Shoot something with your phone, shoot something with your ipad, cameras are everywhere. There is no excuse to not make a film. And in the age of diminishing attention spans, it’s timely entertainment.

过去半年来，我的浏览量从13.6万增至2亿，如同旋风一般成长。渴望加入的电影制作人和艺术家也会以民主的方式加入并体验。或许你没有方法来在当下就制作一个类似电影的专题节目或者甚至也做不出短片。但还是可以在18秒内制作一部电影。只需要用手机、Ipad、摄像机去拍点什么就好。说自己没法做电影的，就是在找借口。在这样一个注意广度缩减的时代，gif是应运而生的娱乐方式。