Norman McLaren

The film's soundtrack is an original musical composition produced with synthetic sound - through photographing unusual geometric shapes and running them through an optical sound head. The images are an artistic rendering of this soundtrack. (imdb)

Two ballet dancers perform a dance enhanced with surreal multi and after-image effect visuals. (imdb)

This film, shot in pixilation (a kind of stop-motion animation with actors), is about two neighbors who come to barbaric blows over a flowers that straddles the property line (imdb)

An experimental film, consisting of abstract shapes and colors shifting to the rhythm and variations in the music. This short was made by painting directly onto a film strip. (imdb)

Picture and sound dance triple-quick in this version of a musical scherzo. A film without words. (bcdb.com)

A play on the theme of hearts. Two hearts cavort, change shape, shoot arrows at one another, give birth, and finally become one heart bearing the message "Will you be our Valentine?" (bcdb.com)

An abstract animation by Norman McLaren, who was born in Scotland in 1914. His interest in filmmaking began early in life after he became acquainted with works by the great Russian filmmakers Eisenstein and Pudovkin and the German animator Oskar Fischinger. (nfb.ca)

Fun abstract movie that PEOPLE are TALKING ABOUT, filled with disembodied spooks, bats and bones. (centerforvisualmusic.org)

As the dots collide, expand and merge there is a timed beat rhythm that builds throughout and creates a soundtrack that would not be out of place in many a modern club. Created by scratching directly onto the film the soundtrack combined with the visuals are amazing in consideration of the fact that this was made in the 60's. (imdb)

The surreal story of a bird and its cage with both their conflict and union. (imdb)

Geometrical shapes tangle on eachother (Spunkie)

A balletic interpretation of the Greek myth in which dancers enact the tragedy of the beautiful youth who condemns himself to a trapped existence through excessive self-love. (imdb)

New Yorkers watch as Norman McLaren's animated promotional film for Canadian tourism plays on the giant pixelboard overlooking Times Square. The caption below the board reads: "Canada... Wonderful World At Your Doorstep". McLaren himself is a member of the crowd. (imdb)

A surreal blackbird made of lines is dancing to the music (Spunkie)

An ordinary looking chair refuses to be sat upon. (imdb)

An animated film drawn entirely in pastels. Various fantastical plant-like things "grow" from the ground, eventually launching five spheres. The spheres drift in space while changing shapes and come back down to another setting, which eventually becomes more fantastical and symbolic than the opening one. The soundtrack has a jazz slant, with an ensemble of four saxophones and synthetic sound (i.e. sound created by drawing directly on the soundtrack) (imdb)

Multiplying horizontal lines. (Spunkie)

Montage and animation in two Acts: the preparation for the Glasgow Arts School Ball; and the ball itself. (imdb)

Shows the production of the London telephone directory. (imdb)

Animation featuring dancing black and white shadows. (imdb)

An experimental film of dots animated by being drawn directly on filmstock. (imdb)

A Nazi death's head "congratulates" Canadians for all the helpful military intelligence he overheard from loose talk and gossip. (imdb)

An illustration of a traditional French Canadian song in the form of progressing cutouts and still pictures. (imdb)

A film made without a camera, made by painting directly on the film. (imdb)

An experiment in abstract film-making, this short film (as it name implies) consists only of vertical lines, drawn directly onto each film frame, that change in response to music. (imdb)

Perhaps the only film whose content is totally based on the musical form known as canon. The first sequence is a simple demonstration of the canon "Frere Jacques" where four cubes dance and combine with one another on a checkerboard. The second sequence show four little human-like figures dancing in space. The third and most elaborate sequence shows a human going through several strange gesticulations. (imdb)

Two ballet dancers perform a dance in ghostly slow motion. (imdb)

Experimental film showing a day's activities at the Glasgow College of Art. (BFI)

Filmmaker Norman McLaren animates Arnold Boecklin's painting "Isle of the Dead" in this program. Eerie shapes flicker to life, hover briefly over the void from which they came, and sink slowly into imperturbable mystery. (movierevie.ws)

For this folk song, monochrome pastel drawings were metamorphosed under an animation camera. (bcdb.com)

A short film publicizing the G.P.O. (General Post Office) Savings Bank. (imdb)

Norman McLaren's documentary-style account of how a letter from home reaches a sailor on duty in foreign waters. (nfb.ca)

Advertising cartoon showing advantages of using gas supply and gas cookers. (imdb)

A Norman McLaren lullaby on film about the little grey hen who nests in the church, the little brown hen who nests in the moon, and others. Photographed from pastel drawings, the transient images express the dreamy mood of this old French song. (nfb.ca)

To the music of Bach, Norman McLaren has animated a set of constantly moving and splitting spheres against a never-ending and moving sky. (imdb comments)

A chicken dances to the song "Turkey in the Straw"

Animated shapes and objects.

An experimental film in which both sound and visuals were created entirely by McLaren drawing directly upon the film with ordinary pen and ink. (nfb.ca)

Norman McLaren's first film for the NFB was this publicity clip for Canada Post. Non-abstract symbols drawn with pen on clear 35 mm stock were superimposed on a photographed painted background. Benny Goodman's rendition of Jingle Bells provided the sound. (nfb.ca)

In this pre-Christmas reminder to mail early, filmmaker Norman McLaren used an electric vibra-drill to engrave the images on black film, and included the occasional "subliminal" burst of lettering, which he hand-scratched on a few frames. (nfb.ca)

The full version of New York Lightboard Record (1961)

A gay fantasia of patterned sound in which Norman McLaren salutes the West Indies, painting the spirit of fiesta on film to the lively beat of an island tune by Trinidad's Grand Curacaya Orchestra. (nfb.ca)

A color cocktail by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart, translating into moving patterns of color and light the moods of music written for a jazz ensemble by Eldon Rathburn. Inscribed and colored directly on film. (nfb.ca)

This Oscar-nominated animation short is comprised of three segments linked by a court jester dancing that looks like still photos being flipped. (imdb comments)

Norman McLaren attempts to give the opening speech for the first Montreal International Film Festival, but his microphone won't cooperate. (imdb)

In this early film Norman McLaren shot crystal formations through a low-power microscope, using polarized light with the lower part of the picture masked off. The film was then rewound and a scene of dancers was filmed. (nfb.ca)

Two short Norman McLaren films in which animation technique is employed with live actors. In the first, entitled On the Lawn, a male dancer waltzes to synthetic music. The second is a fast march, In the Backyard, accompanied by an old-fashioned calliope. (nfb.ca)

Wartime savings campaign publicity by artist Norman McLaren. Symbolic figures, drawn directly on 35 mm film stock, move and dance against a simple painted background. The music is from a recording of Pinetop Boogie played by Albert Ammons. The technique of Vitacolor was used, a three-color process now obsolete. (nfb.ca)

Wartime inflation and the role of price control are the subjects of this Norman McLaren publicity trailer, which employs single-frame animation of direct pen-drawing on 35 mm film stock. The sound track consists of spoken rhymed verses accompanied by an orchestra. Film without words. (nfb.ca)

In this film Norman McLaren uses puppets, diagrams, animation and live-action to present an anti-war message for use by peace organizations. (nfb.ca)

In this film, a publicity message for a war bond campaign, Norman McLaren draws symbols, a stick man, and lettering directly on clear 35 mm film stock to synchronize with a brass band rendition of Sousa's march The Thunderer. Color printed in laboratory by Warnercolor process. (nfb.ca)

The first part of this series by Norman McLaren deals only with tempo. It starts by showing the disc traveling in one move (1/24 of a second) from A to B, and progressively demonstrates slower and slower tempos. (bcdb.com)

In this second film, Norman McLaren presents the first three of the five categories of motion: constant, accelerated, and decelerated. Various types of acceleration and deceleration are demonstrated, and examples are shown of how these types of motion may be applied in regard to gesture, gravity, and perspective. (bcdb.com)

Zero motion and irregular motion (the other two of the five categories of motion) are examined by Norman McLaren in this part of the series. Immobility (or "zero motion") and its duration, when occurring within a context of motion, plays a vital role in animation. The student sees how irregular motion, though seldom found in nature, can be used freely by the animator. (bcdb.com)

In this fourth film, Norman McLaren explains and illustrates composite motion, where two of the categories of motion occur simultaneously in one action, such as the motions of jointed or pivoted parts (as occur in animal and human movements). Also shown is a human gesture with increasing amounts of emotion; and finally, the phenomenon of "strobing" in animation is examined. (bcdb.com)

In this fifth part, Norman McLaren deals not with motion (if motion is defined as a change of location in two- or three-dimensional space) but with change--change in the amount and color of light within an otherwise static screen. Normally, the animator combines such change with motion, but here it is studied in isolation. (bcdb.com)

Norman McLaren, as first producer of the NFB's newly formed Animation Unit (1943), co-animated with René Jodoin this item for inclusion in a sing-along series, Let's All Sing Together (No.1). Single-frame animation of paper cutouts was the technique used. (nfb.ca)

An animated film by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart that endows arithmetic with lively humor. The screen becomes a numerical free-for-all as digits meet in playful encounter, add and subtract, jostle, attack, and elude one another. (nfb.ca)

An introduction to the hand-drawn sounds of Norman McLaren. Prepared by Don Peters and Lorne Batchelor. (youtube)

Stop-motion, pixillation and other trick photography methods are used to depict situations on a farm. (imdb)

A short piece of animation set to a popular song.

Pinscreen animation makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows. (imdb)

Early abstract 3D film by animation master Norman McLaren.

Early abstract 3D film by animation master Norman McLaren and collaborator Evelyn Lambart.