Originally broadcast on BBC2’s The Late Show in 1992, this delightfully simple and clever short from the UK artist John Smith deploys a camera, an amphibian and an alarm clock to show how the chasm between ‘gargantuan’ and ‘minute’ is all in the framing.
The difference between an enormous beast and a puny newt is just a matter of perspective
Director: John Smith

videoFilm and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
8 minutes

videoInformation and communication
An animation built from road signs is a whirlwind study of flash communication
2 minutes

videoFilm and visual culture
A Palme d’Or-winning animation toys with the way our eyes perceive light
5 minutes

videoCosmology
Revisiting ‘Powers of Ten’ – what we’ve learned about the Universe since 1977
7 minutes

videoPersonality
A ‘little thief’ turned career criminal recounts a life on the wrong side of the law
5 minutes

videoFilm and visual culture
Other worlds pop in and out of view when the perspective shifts by degrees
4 minutes

videoSubcultures
Bad puns, regrettable costumes, and other joys of collecting kitschy album art
13 minutes

videoDesign and fashion
Household items are reborn in a ‘visual symphony of everyday objects’
11 minutes

videoTechnology and the self
‘Perfection is for the gods,’ and this sculptor gets to a thousandth of an inch of it
14 minutes