Drawn on film animation
Encyclopedia
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock
Film stock
Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...
, as opposed to any other form of animation where the images or objects are photographed frame by frame with an animation camera.
Techniques
On blank film the artist can draw, paint, stamp, or even glue or tape objects. Black film (or any footage) can be scratched, etched, sanded, or punched. Any tool the artist finds useful may be used for this, and all techniques can be combined endlessly. The frame
Film frame
In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a film frame or video frame is one of the many still images which compose the complete moving picture...
borders may be observed or completely ignored, found footage
Found footage
Found footage is a filmmaking term which describes a method of compiling films partly or entirely of footage which has not been created by the filmmaker, and changing its meaning by placing it in a new context. It should not be mistaken for documentary or compilation films. It is also not to be...
may be included, any existing image might be distorted by mechanical or chemical means. A third method takes place in a darkroom, using unexposed film that is exposed frame by frame. The artists places objects onto the fresh stock and then uses a small light beam to create the images. This third category of work has to be sent to a lab and processed, just like films created with a camera.
Large formats such as 70 or 35mm film may be preferred for their relatively larger working area, but direct animation is done on 16 mm or even Super 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format....
as well. Since the sound strip on 35 mm film is optical, it is possible to create synthetic sound as well as images by drawing or otherwise reproducing forms in the soundtrack area.
The first and best known practictioners of drawn-on-film animation include Len Lye
Len Lye
Len Lye, born Leonard Charles Huia Lye , was a Christchurch, New Zealand-born artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives such as the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Pacific...
, Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren, CC, CQ was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada...
, Stan Brakhage
Stan Brakhage
James Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....
, then later artists including Steven Woloshen
Steven Woloshen
Steven Woloshen in Montreal, is a film animator and a pioneer of drawn-on-film animation.Woloshen first attended Vanier College, where he worked with Super-8 film and video, then specialized in 16 mm independent film techniques at Concordia University in Montreal...
, Richard R. Reeves and Baerbel Neubauer, who produced numerous animated films using these methods. Their work covers the whole span between narrative and totally abstract animation. Other filmmakers in the 1960s expanded the idea and treated the film stock more and more radical towards destruction, up to the point where a film was treated beyond any possibility to survive projection
Movie projector
A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...
. Some artists made this destruction a statement, others went back one step and copied the original work film strip to get a projection copy.
Direct animation can be an inexpensive way to produce a film; it can even be done on outtakes, or discarded film strips from other projects. It is a form of animation that is inviting to beginners and accomplished artists alike. Norman McLaren wrote a short illustrated introduction "How to make animated movies without a camera" which was originally published by UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
in 1949. Helen Hill published a collection called Recipes for Disaster that includes a wide range of approaches to creating images directly on film. Today, cameraless animation is being produced worldwide.
Animators and films
- In 1912, Italian Futurists Arnaldo Ginna and Bruno Corra discuss their nine abstract films (now lost) in their text Abstract Cinema - Chromatic Music.
- In 1916, American concert pianist Mary Hallock-GreenewaltMary Hallock-GreenewaltMary Elizabeth Hallock-Greenewalt was an inventor and pianist who performed with the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh symphonies as a soloist...
produced hand-painted film strips, possibly intended for projection in her color organColor organThe term color organ refers to a tradition of mechanical , then electromechanical, devices built to represent sound or to accompany music in a visual medium—by any number of means. In the early 20th century, a silent color organ tradition developed...
, Sarabet. - In 1926 Man RayMan RayMan Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
created Emak Bakia, which includes sequences made by exposing film directly to light. - In 1935 Len LyeLen LyeLen Lye, born Leonard Charles Huia Lye , was a Christchurch, New Zealand-born artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives such as the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Pacific...
created the first direct film screened to a general audience, a promotion for the British General Post Office entitled A Colour Box. Lye and Norman McLarenNorman McLarenNorman McLaren, CC, CQ was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada...
produced hand-painted films for John GriersonJohn GriersonJohn Grierson was a pioneering Scottish documentary maker, often considered the father of British and Canadian documentary film. According to popular myth, in 1926, Grierson coined the term "documentary" to describe a non-fiction film.-Early life:Grierson was born in Deanston, near Doune, Scotland...
in the GPO Film Unit. Lye went on to create direct films in New York. - Beginning in 1941, McLaren continued this work at the National Film Board of CanadaNational Film Board of CanadaThe National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
(NFB), founding the NFB's animation unit. NFB direct films created or co-created by McLaren include Boogie-Doodle (1941), Hen HopHen HopHen Hop is a 1942 drawn-on-film animation short by Norman McLaren, in which a hen gradually breaks apart into an abstract movement of lines, as it dances to a barn dance...
(1942), Begone Dull CareBegone Dull CareBegone Dull Care is a visual music animated film directed by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart.Using drawn on film animation, McLaren and Lambart paint and scratch directly onto film stock to create a visual representation of Oscar Peterson's jazz music...
(1949) and Blinkity BlankBlinkity BlankBlinkity Blank is a 1955 animated short film by Norman McLaren, engraved directly onto black film leader, Blinkity Blank features a soundtrack combining improvisational jazz from composer Maurice Blackburn along with graphical sounds created by McLaren scratching onto the film's optical...
(1955). - In 1946, Harry SmithHarry Everett SmithHarry Everett Smith was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic...
produced hand-painted films in San Francisco which screened at the Art in Cinema series at the San Francisco Museum of Art. - In 1970, José Antonio SistiagaJosé Antonio SistiagaJosé Antonio Sistiaga isa Basque artist and experimental filmmaker best knownfor his feature-length hand-painted "direct" film, ... era erera baleibu izik subua aruaren ... .- Early films :...
exhibited the first feature-length hand-painted film, the silent epic ... era erera baleibu izik subua aruaren ..., in Madrid. - Stan BrakhageStan BrakhageJames Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....
, Mothlight (1963) - Harry Everett SmithHarry Everett SmithHarry Everett Smith was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic...
, Profile, Filmography, Bibliography - Pierre Hébert, Memories of War (1982)
- Cathy Joritz, Negative Man (2 min, 1985)
- Cathy Joritz, "Give AIDS the Freeze" (1 min)
- Bärbel Neubauer
- Richard R. Reeves, www.flickerfilms.ca
- Jürgen Reble / Schmelzdahin
- Wes Southern
- Heide StrangeSky, "Revolver" (2002, 8 min) or "VooDoo Vex" (2001, 4 min)
- Steven WoloshenSteven WoloshenSteven Woloshen in Montreal, is a film animator and a pioneer of drawn-on-film animation.Woloshen first attended Vanier College, where he worked with Super-8 film and video, then specialized in 16 mm independent film techniques at Concordia University in Montreal...
produced and directed Ditty Dot Comma (2001, 3 min).
External links
- Drawing on film explained at the National Film Board of Canada
- An article about contemporary american filmmakers in this field
- Article about several experimental filmmakers and their techniques
- Watch Caroline Leaf's Two Sisters, an award-winning animated short film which uses the technique
- Watch "Animando", which teaches how to use the technique (along with 9 others)
- Watch Heide StrangeSky's short, Revolver an experimental Direct Animation; taking the technique a step further.
- Many articles about direct animation at the CVM Library