Thursday 24 March 2011

Unit 5 - Timeline - Norman McLaren (1914 - 1987)



Norman McLaren was born in Scotland in 1914. At the age of 18, he entered the Glasgow School of Fine Arts to study interior design. However, he didn't earn the diploma as he began to have an interest in filmmaking which then became an acquainted with the great Russian filmmakers Eisenstein and Pudovkin and the German animator Oskar Fischinger. After seeing Oskar's abstract animated film, he was influenced.







Begone Dull Care was made in 1949. The animation is abstract and watching through it, you can see some human faces, etc if you look carefully. It may take a couple of watches to spot some or maybe if you already spotted them on your first try. The technique he used created a freedom feeling in this animation. The film and the music along with it reveals their essences, rich textures, patterns and energy.








Le Merle was made in 1958 which I found very amusing as it was animated by just using lines and dots to create the black bird. The song used in this film was quite catchy and suited very well with the animation. The animation was made to be surrealism as the black bird loses it's parts then gets them again. Also, it changes its form as well but gets its actual form at the end.








This animation uses horizontal lines that split when they are coming at each other at the centre at the same time. The lines will continue to split into many other lines until going back to normal by doing the same thing. The animation itself was made in 1962. while looking at this carefully, I noticed the lines bounce off each other one they touch, unable to go to the other side of the frame but when more lines appear, it gets more harder to notice it at all.









This image shown here is a good example on what the animation is like. The film was made in 1967 to show a frame by frame on animating to create a movement. I found this film to be very good and would suggest this to those who want to learn how to animate. It doesn't show you the frame by frame effect until later on in the film.



Taylor Albert. (1950). Norman McLaren. http://www3.nfb.ca/objan/lrg/Personnes/M/McLaren_Norman_60.jpg (Accessed on 24th March 2011)

Ortega Marcos. (1949). Begone Dull Careb Still. http://expcinema.com/images/albums/stories/mclaren/normal_vlcsnap-193094.jpg (Accessed on 24th March 2011)

Chelsea Space. (1958). Le Merle Still. http://www.chelseaspace.org/images/azumi/azumi_s_03.jpg (Accessed on 24th March 2011)

Daylife. (1962). Lines Horizontal Still. http://thumbnails.truveo.com/0018/A5/E7/A5E7E89249F22E11D4E6F2_Large.jpg (Accessed on 24th March 2011)

The Movie Doc. (1967). Pas de Deux Animated Loop. http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l9nol1F28R1qa4pypo1_500.gif (Accessed on 24th March 2011)

The Movie Doc. (1967). Norman McLaren. http://www3.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/filmmakers/Norman-McLaren/overview.php (Accessed on 24th March 2011)

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