Who is the founder of Canadian Animation Department?

Norman Mclaren is the godfather of Canadian animation.

Norman Mclaren norman mclaren (19 14- 1987)

Real animation artist, experimental animator. He shot nearly 60 animated short films in his life, won 147 international animation awards, and led the animation department of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) to create amazing brilliance.

Steve mcclaren is one of the most influential animation masters, not only because of his cultivation of others, but also because of his own talent and innovative spirit. During his artistic career, his short films won 147 awards, far exceeding many other independent animators.

Norman mclaren was born in Stirling in April of 19 14+0 1. 1933 Enter Glasgow Art Institute to study interior design. In his spare time, he initiated the establishment of a film club at school and tried to draw on movies. In the meantime, about 1934, he found an old 16 mm movie projector in the basement, and he subconsciously looked for some uses of this machine. It's a pity that he didn't find a movie camera, but he suddenly had an idea to try to make cartoons by painting directly on film. So he collected some old movie films, soaked them to remove latex paint and painted them directly. This was his first attempt at animation. Although these films were not shown in public, they let him know that this technology is feasible in working principle.

Since then, he has made various short films as his extracurricular activities, mainly some real movies, and his "reason for existence" has added special effects and techniques. 1935, at the second Glasgow Amateur Film Festival, one of his short films won the first prize, but his future film production career was based on the second year's film festival.

At the 1936 film festival, there was a judge named john grierson (1898~ 1972), who was a pioneer in film production and a strong advocate of new camera applications. He filmed the 40-minute documentary "Wanderers of the North Sea Herring Fleet". 1929) was selected to be shown at the British premiere of Sergei Eisenstein's Brown Nocete in potemkin (1925) at the same time, which became a milestone in British movies. Because of Gleason's love for documentary production, he was appointed as the CEO of GPO (General Post Office) film organization. During that time, the General Post Office was not only responsible for postal letters, but also for bank savings and telephone calls. To 1939, he was appointed as the first director of the National Film Bureau of Canada. During World War II, he supervised NFB to produce a large number of promotional materials and training films (i.e. documentaries) about Canada. After the war, he left NFB and planned to go to the United States to continue shooting commercial films. Unfortunately, however, he became an innocent victim of mccarthy era and was politically persecuted. He was blacklisted by party member (it seems that he was a Scottish socialist in an old school, but McClaren was a Scottish party member, and he stuck to the socialist tendency all his life). Since then, Grayson has worked in UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and United Nations Film Company, mainly engaged in Scottish television. When he was old, he taught at McGill University.

1936, McClaren showed his two works at Glasgow Amateur Film Festival. He had high hopes for Camera Makes Whoopee, in which he used all kinds of new effects he could imagine. Another of his works is colored cocktails, in which he used many colors. Since there is no copy left, it should be a five-minute abstract short film interwoven with fast motion and slow motion, always accompanied by scenes of various colors and lights on colored paper. Accompanied by the sound of phonograph records, its full and detailed sound and picture synchronization give people a feeling of talking movies. To McClaren's dismay, Grayson really didn't like Carnival of the Camera. He thinks the film is technically skillful, but it is of no value in art. When McClaren was ready to give up the idea of making movies in the future, Grayson suddenly announced that Colorful Cocktails had won the competition. The old filmmaker later invited the students out for tea discussion, which provided McClaren with enough time to interview Grayson, who offered McClaren a job in a film agency under the British General Post Office. McClaren began to work there in the autumn of 1936, but in early September he was sent to Spain by Grayson to be a photographer, and together with Ivor Montagu, he made a propaganda film about the Spanish civil war, that is, the documentary "The Battle of Madrid". The time was 1936. This film strengthens the propaganda calling for peace and opposing violence, which is also McClaren's political tendency. Just like his early animated film Hell Unlimited (1936) with Helen Bigger, it profoundly shows the theme of anti-war and anti-capitalism.

1937, Grayson left the British General Post Office Film Bureau, and Aubert kavak took his place. Under the leadership of kavak Dee, McClaren began to make his first professional cartoon, Love on Wings (1938), which was the first time that he painted directly on film. The purpose of this film is to emphasize a very important theme for the promotion of the British General Post Office: "This is a telegram from heaven-if you want to be an angel, please send a telegram." But it caused a controversy, so the film was banned at that time. The reason for this incident was that McClaren used penis images of certain religions as fertility symbols, so the postmaster blocked the release of the short film. Now, this short film is a masterpiece with positive significance, which realizes McClaren's first experience of "animated sound". The sound in traditional movies is the light and shadow produced by current fluctuation. This device translates the edges of the film into codes and then releases them through the microphone. When a movie is shown, a beam of light shines on the photocell through the moving edge of the device, and the electronic beat from here drives the speaker. Mcclaren's idea is that if the visual part of a movie is made by painting on film, then the vocal cords in the movie can be made in the same way. McClaren is not the first person to try this technology. 1932, Rudolf Finnig proposed a very similar method, but McLaren was indeed the first person to apply this method to valuable art films.

The image of religion as a symbol of fertility in Love on Wings troubled McClaren's work in the British General Post Office Film Bureau, but even without this incident, McClaren would have left Britain from 65438 to 0939 after the outbreak of World War II. He saw too many massacres in Spain, and his attitude towards violence and war was reflected in the battle of Madrid. Since then, he has made many cartoons. Before boarding the ship for new york, he made Mony a Pickle (1938), whose title means "many difficulties" in Scottish. Later, he was commissioned by others to make several experimental animated short films about two minutes long. Such as Allegro (1939), Rumba (1939), Polka Dot (1940) and Loopback (1940). These films all use his animation sound technology. However, the due funding has not been implemented. He was forced to take a part-time job and do a relatively low-level job in a commercial animation studio, so that he could continue to make some animated films of his own. The most famous of these films is "The Stars and Stripes" (1939), which was painted directly on film, and the vivid image of the American flag was accompanied by music of the same name. Spook Sports (1939), later directed by Mary Allen Bout, is a more abstract film.

1939 At the beginning of the year, shortly after he arrived in new york, he wrote to Grayson, his teacher who worked in the Canadian National Film Council, to see if there was a suitable job there. Grayson wrote back that, unfortunately, there was no one there. However, things changed in the spring of 194 1. Because of the war, the Canadian government is in urgent need of financial assistance. Therefore, NFB was asked to start making promotional videos to encourage people to invest in anti-Japanese war bonds and so on. Most of NFB's works are put in crowded places, such as factory canteens, and are displayed in series. Grayson thinks that a little relaxation during the break can improve people's attention and make the audience more receptive to new ideas. So he invited McLaren to join NFB, and opened up a new animation world for NFB at 1943. Of course, McClaren initially refused. As a pacifist, he is very afraid of being ordered to do some propaganda. McClaren was eventually employed by NFB and spent his career there.

At the end of the war, McClaren created a series of animated short films for NFB, including V( 194 1) for victory, Mail Early( 194 1) for Christmas and hen Hop. 1942), four equals five, five against four, 1942), dollar dance (1943), shut up (1944), pop songs. 1944), C'eat l'aviron (1944) and Lark (Alouette, 1944). The songs in the latter two films are very popular in France.

Grayson was appointed as the leader of NFB during the war, and he left there at the end of the war. He has successfully directed more than 40 animated short films for NFB in 30 years, and made many other animated films. At the same time, he made NFB a dream place for some international animators who want to work with him and learn from him. Two of them are Frederick Barker and George Duning.

At any time, McClaren is innovating in science and technology, although he is a little paranoid. For example, he applied technology to the Oscar-winning short film Neighbor (1952). Neighbor is an anti-war fable, which tells the story of two people robbing a flower growing between their two borders. In the end, both of them lost and died. He uses frame extraction to shoot animation, and he uses special lenses to make people look like they are flying or gliding. In the famous abstract short film Blinkity Blank (1952), the image he made was not painted and colored on a clean film, but was completely exposed by removing latex, so the image looked like a white image on a black background. In addition, because it is difficult to locate by using this technology, he invented a technology that uses a set of images that can last only a few frames, and then makes the film appear 12 frames or more black before the next set of images comes out. This protects the sense of movement, but at the same time shows the stroboscopic effect of stimulation, but this measure does not seriously consider the visual persistence of the audience. In the same way, he made an audio track with percussion effect. In Dance for Couples (1968), he exposed each film 10 times, and made a vivid image of a pair of ballerinas Margaret messer and Vincent Warren dancing on a black stage background.

More interestingly, some music vocal cords are used in these short films. He often worries that the attraction of movies is restricted by national or ethnic differences, which is why he seldom uses any language form. After that, he began to succumb to many languages. Of course, when they asked for languages, most of the films he made for NFB were in French and German. Music forms are eclectic, ranging from duet performed by wind music to albinoni, from adagio ballet (197 1) to Caprice en Couleurs, oscar peterson's jazz trio (1949) and Ravi Shankar's other famous short film The Story of the Chair (1). In this short film, a man performs with a chair that refuses to sit. The film shows that young people try to control the situation at first and then seek understanding. For him, the use of recordings in movies is more interesting than the sounds in his early experimental movies. After applying this technology in Blinking White, he made three short films in the same way: Rhythmic (1956), in which the sound tape was accompanied by a series of simple mathematical performances composed of Arabic numerals, just like dancing. There are Mosaic (1965) and synchro My( 197 1), which are the basic principles of most of McClaren's works. A more obvious example is "dancing in pairs". His last film was a 22-minute short film Narcissus (1983), in which he used many animation techniques from his long-term working experience. Of course, he once again told the traditional story of a young man who lost everything because he only loved himself.

The National Film Board of Canada was established in 1939 according to the Act of Parliament of Canada. The purpose of creation is to let Canadians and foreigners know about Canada through movies. Mclaren founded the animation department at 194 1. From the beginning, the animation department encouraged animators to explore freely and create boldly, not only in content but also in form. Almost all animation techniques can be displayed here: hand-drawn animation, three-dimensional animation, needle screen animation, transfer animation, paper-cut animation, real shot frame extraction, film direct depiction, sand painting animation, glass oil painting, three-dimensional computer animation and so on. Today, the Canadian National Film Board has become the cradle of animation artists and trained a large number of outstanding animation artists, such as Michèle Cournoyer, Jacques Drouin, Chris Hinton, Koholdman, René Jodoyne, Evelyn Lambart, caroline leaf and ishu patel. Neighbor, Sandcastle, Special Mail, Every Child, Bob's Birthday, Ryan, Danish Poet and other animated short films won the Oscar for best animated short film, and dozens of animated short films were nominated for Oscar animated short films. All these achievements are inseparable from McClaren's organizational ability, academic opinions and specific methods of rewarding outstanding young artists.

In 1973, McClaren was awarded a medal as an animator and the head of the NFB animation department. This talented animator and great humanitarian died in Montreal on1October 27th, 1987+65438, which was mourned by people all over the world.

-Excerpted from "Life and Works of Animation Masters" Author: Lu Hongyan/Zhang Jun

Norman mclaren painted directly on film (1944).

Main works:

1. Neighbor (1952) Neighbor

When norman mclaren returned to Canada from China, he felt the pain brought by the war. He created an animated short film "Neighbors" to promote peace. The film, shot by a real person, tells the story of two neighbors fighting for a flower and eventually losing both sides. The action of the characters and the music production in the film all use extremely exaggerated artistic expression techniques. Because of its unique artistic expression and profound implication, the film won the Oscar for Best Short Film with 1953.

2.2. The Story of the Chair (1957) Magic Chair

It also uses real animation to show interesting stories between chairs and people ~ ~

3. Point. (1940) Point.

Norman thinks that animation is not a moving picture, but a moving picture, so many of his works are centered on the study of movement and rhythm. A lot of materials and sounds are experimented, even simple abstract graphics and colors are combined with music to form a flowing visual symphony. Dots are such simple abstract works ~ ~ ~

4. new. York.lightboard.record. (1961) new york neon lights.

A very creative movie ~ ~ An experimental animation made of big-screen billboards on the streets of new york ~ ~ It also recorded the reaction of pedestrians to it ~ ~

5.Pas( 1968) Dance

One of Norman's representative works ~ ~ ~ A very avant-garde short film at that time ~ ~ perfectly expressed the beauty of dance with film ~ ~ ~ It was Norman's summary of sports research ~ ~ ~

6.gogone _ Dull _ Care( 1949) Color Fantasy

This is an experimental short film drawn directly on the film, full of color, texture and rhythmic beauty ~ ~ ~ ~ It is also a classic ~ ~ ~

7. Mosaic. (1965) Mosaic

Many colored squares dance with the sound ~ ~ ~ ~ or abstract works ~ ~ ~

8. This is Aviron (1943).

9. Hen (1942)

10. Canon (1964)

1 1.Blinkety blank( 1955)