Norman McLaren (53)

Dollar Dance
Norman McLaren 1943 4 min
This wartime publicity trailer by Norman McLaren focuses on wartime inflation and the role of price control. Single-frame animation is used with pen drawings made directly on 35mm film stock. Music is by Louis Applebaum, a leading composer and advocate for the arts in Canada.
Narcissus
Norman McLaren 1983 21 min
In this short film by Norman McLaren, dancers enact the Greek tragedy of Narcissus, the beautiful youth whose excessive self-love condemned him to a trapped existence. Skillfully merging film, dance and music, the film is a compendium of the techniques McLaren acquired over a lifetime of experimentation.
Alouette
Norman McLaren et René Jodoin 1944 2 min
This animated short co-animated by René Jodoin and Norman McLaren was produced for inclusion in the Let's All Sing Together sing-along series. It illustrates the popular song Alouette, gentille alouette. The technique used is single-frame animation of paper cutouts.
C'est l'aviron
Norman McLaren 1944 3 min
One of a series of French-Canadian folk songs, this film was illustrated by Norman McLaren for the Chants populaires series. White gouache drawings on black cards were photographed with overlapping 'zooms' to suggest the forward movement of a canoe along rivers and lakes. This film appears in Chants populaires no. 5 and in Chants populaires no. 6.
Synchromy
Norman McLaren 1971 7 min
This animated short by Norman McLaren features synchronization of image and sound in the truest sense of the word. To make this film, McLaren employed novel optical techniques to compose the piano rhythms of the sound track, which he then moved, in multicolor, onto the picture area of the screen so that, in effect, you see what you hear.
Lines Vertical
Norman McLaren et Evelyn Lambart 1960 5 min
An experiment in pure design by film artists Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart. Lines, ruled directly on film, move with precision and grace against a background of changing colors, in response to music specially composed for the films. Lines - Vertical is accompanied by composer Maurice Blackburn on the electronic piano.
Mail Early
Norman McLaren 1941 1 min
This publicity clip for Canada Post is Norman McLaren's first film for the NFB. For this animated short, McLaren drew symbols by pen onto clear 35 mm stock, which was then superimposed on a photographed painted background. Benny Goodman's rendition of Jingle Bells provides the accompaniment.
Neighbours

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Norman McLaren 1952 8 min
In this short film, Norman McLaren employs the principles normally used to put drawings or puppets into motion to animate live actors. The story is a parable about two people who come to blows over the possession of a flower.
Lines Horizontal
Norman McLaren et Evelyn Lambart 1962 5 min
An experiment in pure design by film artists Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart. Lines, ruled directly on film, move with precision and grace against a background of changing colors, in response to music specially composed for the films. Lines - Horizontal is accompanied by American folk musician Pete Seeger on wind and string instruments.
Now Is the Time
Norman McLaren 1951 3 min
Along with Around Is Around, one of two 3-D films commissioned by the British Film Institute for the Festival of Britain. Photographed paper cutouts and images drawn directly on film stock were given single-frame animation. Stereoscopy was achieved by photographing and drawing two visuals (one for the left eye, one for the right eye) with controlled displacement of the elements in relationship to each other. The hand-drawn sound was also composed and recorded on two separate bands for stereoscopic playing.
Polychrome Phantasy
Norman McLaren 1935 2 min
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.
Pas de deux

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Norman McLaren 1968 13 min
This short film by Norman McLaren is a cinematic study of the choreography of ballet. A bare, black set with the back-lit figures of dancers Margaret Mercier and Vincent Warren create a dream-like, hypnotic effect. This award-winning film comes complete with the visual effects one expects from this master filmmaker.
Around Is Around
Norman McLaren 1951 10 min
The second of the two 3-D films--the first is Now Is the Time--commissioned by the British Film Institute to Norman McLaren for the Festival of Britain. It photographs moving oscilloscope patterns given stereoscopic form through the control of different left-eye and right-eye image positions.
Camera Makes Whoopee
Norman McLaren 1935 18 min
Cinematic variations on the subject of the Glasgow School of Art Christmas Ball, 1934, using mixed techniques, including animated objects, optical effects, and live action. Made while Norman McLaren was a student there.
New York Lightboard Record
Norman McLaren 1961 7 min
This short documentary is a film about a film. In 1961, Norman McLaren produced a record of New Yorkers watching his short animation New York Lightboard in action in Times Square. The film within this film was produced as a promotion of travel and tourism in Canada. New York Lightboard Record depicts the reactions—awe, confusion, amusement—of onlookers and passersby.
Stars and Stripes
Norman McLaren 1940 2 min
An experiment in film animation in which 'stars' and 'stripes' perform acrobatics to a sprightly march tune. The film was made without a camera, by Norman McLaren drawing and colouring directly on film. The title is in eight languages. Rereleased with multilingual titles in 1949.
Boogie-Doodle
Norman McLaren 1941 3 min
In this short animation film, the "boogie" is played by Albert Ammons and the "doodle" is drawn by Norman McLaren. Made without the use of a camera, Boogie-Doodle is a rhythmic, brightly coloured film experiment.
Mosaic
Norman McLaren et Evelyn Lambart 1965 5 min
This short experimental animation tempts the eye with gradually unfolding yet increasingly complex movement, colour and sound. Reminiscent of the mid-20th-century style of “op art,” McLaren and Lambart’s film follows a single tiny square as it divides and multiplies, eventually forming a colourful, hypnotic mosaic set to the animators’ precise and deliberate musical orchestration.
Mail Early for Christmas
Norman McLaren 1959 40 s
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.
New York Lightboard
Norman McLaren 1961 9 min
This short animation of linear symbols made from paper cutouts was created as a Canadian tourism publicity clip. Projected in New York's Times Square, the large signboard was made up of thousands of light bulbs activated by the film images. The film promotes the attractions of the country: the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Calgary Stampede, winter sports, the Canadian Rockies and more, all in McLaren's signature irreverent and playful style.
Ballet Adagio
Norman McLaren 1972 9 min
Éblouissante démonstration de la technique de l'adagio du pas de deux. Ce court métrage expérimental tourné au ralenti souligne la maîtrise des danseurs, la précision de leurs gestes, l'équilibre de chaque pirouette, arabesque ou jeté. Document de travail unique pour les élèves des cours de danse classique, ce film révélera aux autres spectateurs une dimension inconnue du ballet. L'Adagio d'Albinoni forme la trame sonore sur laquelle évoluent David et Anna Marie Holmes, danseurs canadiens de réputation internationale.
Seven Till Five
Norman McLaren 1933 12 min
An impressionistic live-action study by Norman McLaren of art school activities from morning to night. This silent film was the first film of the Glasgow School of Art Film Group. It won first prize in the Second Amateur Film Festival in Glasgow, 1934. Film without words.
Short and Suite
Norman McLaren 1959 4 min
This short animation is a delightful colour cocktail by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart. The various moods in music written for a jazz ensemble by Eldon Rathburn are translated into moving patterns of colour and light. This lively short is composed of images hand-scratched and hand-painted directly onto the film strip.
Rythmetic
Norman McLaren et Evelyn Lambart 1956 8 min
An animated film by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart that endows arithmetic with lively humour. The screen becomes a numerical free-for-all as digits meet in playful encounter, add and subtract, jostle, attack and elude one another.
A Little Phantasy on a 19th-century Painting
Norman McLaren 1946 3 min
Isle of the Dead, by the nineteenth-century painter Arnold Boecklin, is the subject of this McLaren film experiment. The spectral island wakes to mysterious life, flickers in an ethereal light and fades again into the dark--the whole effect heightened by an interpretive musical score by composer Louis Applebaum. (Award: Salerno.)
A Phantasy
Norman McLaren 1952 7 min
Cut-out animation by Norman McLaren, and music for saxophones and synthetic sound by Maurice Blackburn. In a dream-like landscape drawn in pastel, inanimate objects come to life to disport themselves in grave dances and playful ritual.
Loops
Norman McLaren 1940 2 min
An experimental film in which both sound and visuals were created entirely by McLaren drawing directly upon the film with ordinary pen and ink. The titles are in eight languages. Rereleased with multilingual titles in 1949.
Serenal
Norman McLaren 1959 3 min
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.
Fiddle-de-dee
Norman McLaren 1947 3 min
A film fantasy of dancing music and dancing colour. To "Listen to the Mocking Bird" played by an oldtime fiddler, brilliant patterns ripple, flow, flicker and blend. Norman McLaren, painting on film, translates sound into sight.
Pen Point Percussion
Norman McLaren 1951 5 min
Norman McLaren explains how he makes synthetic sound on film. With an oscilloscope he first demonstrates what familiar sounds look like on the screen; next, how sound shapes up on a film's sound track; and then what synthetic sounds sound like when drawn directly on film. This technique is also demonstrated in Dots and Loops.
Points
Norman McLaren 1940 1 min
Norman McLaren a dessiné à la plume, directement sur la pellicule, non seulement les images de ce film, mais aussi les sons. Ce procédé lui a donc permis de se passer de caméra et d'appareil d'enregistrement. Le titre est inscrit en plusieurs langues. (Titres multilingues ajoutés en 1949.)
A Chairy Tale
Norman McLaren et Claude Jutra 1957 9 min
In this short film, a chair, animated by Evelyn Lambart, refuses to be sat upon, forcing a young man to perform a sort of dance with the chair. The musical accompaniment is by Ravi Shankar and Chatur Lal. This virtuoso film is the result of a collaboration between Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra.
Christmas Cracker

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Norman McLaren , Jeff Hale , … 1963 8 min
This short animation consists of three segments that take a playful look at Christmas: a rendition of "Jingle Bells" in which paper cut-out figures dance, a dime-store rodeo of tin toys, and a story of decorating the perfect Christmas tree.
Animated Motion: Part 5
Norman McLaren et Grant Munro 1978 7 min
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.
V for Victory
Norman McLaren 1941 2 min
This animated short by Norman McLaren is a publicity message for a war bond campaign. Symbols, a stick man and lettering are drawn directly on 35mm film stock and synchronized with a brass band rendition of Sousa's march "The Thunderer."
Spook Sport
Norman McLaren 1940 7 min
An expressionistic interpretation of 'Danse macabre' by Camille Saint-Saëns. Conventional cel animation and pen drawings were done by Norman McLaren directly on 35 mm film stock.
Animated Motion: Part 1

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Norman McLaren et Grant Munro 1976 9 min
The first part of this series by Norman McLaren deals only with tempo. It starts by showing the disc travelling in one move (1/24 of a second) from A to B, and progressively demonstrates slower and slower tempos.
Animated Motion: Part 4
Norman McLaren et Grant Munro 1977 7 min
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.
Canon
Norman McLaren et Grant Munro 1964 9 min
Norman McLaren and Grant Munro use three different animation techniques to provide visual representations of canons in a film designed to teach viewers about this ancient musical form. The soundtrack combines both recorded classical music and sounds produced by a synthesizer.
Book Bargain
Norman McLaren 1937 8 min
A documentary on the production of the London telephone directory. A novel attempt to inject some interest into a basically dull subject. Made by Norman McLaren while he was working for Britain's General Post Office in the 1930s.
Opening Speech: McLaren
Norman McLaren 1961 6 min
In this short film, Norman McLaren is literally caught by his own film tricks. As he attempts to welcome an audience, he is frustrated by an animated microphone with a will of its own.
Animated Motion: Part 2

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Norman McLaren et Grant Munro 1976 8 min
In this short animation film, Norman McLaren presents the first 3 of the 5 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.
Blinkity Blank
Norman McLaren 1955 5 min
This experimental short film by Norman McLaren is a playful exercise in intermittent animation and spasmodic imagery. Playing with the laws relating to persistence of vision and after-image on the retina of the eye, McLaren engraves pictures on blank film creating vivid, percussive effects.
Spheres
Norman McLaren et René Jodoin 1969 7 min
This animated short by Norman McLaren and René Jodoin is a play on motion set against a background of multi-hued sky. Spheres of translucent pearl float weightlessly in the unlimited panorama of the sky, grouping, regrouping or colliding like the stylized burst of some atomic chain reaction. The dance is set to the musical cadences of Bach, played by pianist Glenn Gould.
Dots
Norman McLaren 1940 1 min
An experimental film in which both sound and visuals were created entirely by Norman McLaren drawing directly upon the film with ordinary pen and ink. The main title is in eight languages. Rereleased with multilingual titles in 1949.
Hen Hop
Norman McLaren 1942 3 min
This joyful short animation features a dancing hen that transforms into an egg. The film was made without a camera by Norman McLaren, who drew directly onto 35 mm movie stock with ordinary pen and ink. Colour was added optically.
Le merle
Norman McLaren 1958 4 min
In this animation film, Norman McLaren imparts unusual activity to an old French-Canadian nonsense song. Simple white cut-outs on pastel backgrounds, many by Evelyn Lambart, provide lively illustrations. The folksong "Mon Merle" is sung in French by the Trio Lyrique of Montreal.
Five for Four
Norman McLaren 1942 2 min
This animated short by Norman McLaren serves as a wartime savings campaign. Symbolic figures, drawn directly on 35mm film stock, move and dance against a simple painted background. The score is "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie," by Albert Ammons.
Animated Motion: Part 3

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Norman McLaren et Grant Munro 1977 9 min
The third in a series of five colour films that offer an introduction to the basic techniques of film animation. McLaren explains and demonstrates different aspects of movement that are essential to the animator’s art. In this case it is the pause and irregular movement.
Pinscreen
Norman McLaren 1973 38 min
This documentary shares a behind-the-scenes look as husband and wife Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker demonstrate the pinboard technique of film animation they invented together. With a group of NFB artists and animators, they share and explore the techniques and astounding visual effects achieved by filming patterns and shadows created using 240,000 pins.
Two Bagatelles
Grant Munro et Norman McLaren 1952 2 min
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.
Keep Your Mouth Shut
Norman McLaren 1944 2 min
This animated short from Norman McLaren features a human skull cautioning Canadians to “keep their mouths shut” in an effort to end gossiping during World War II.

Warning: This film contains flashing images and stroboscopic sequences
Begone Dull Care
Norman McLaren et Evelyn Lambart 1949 7 min
In this extraordinary short animation, Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren painted colours, shapes, and transformations directly on to their filmstrip. The result is a vivid interpretation, in fluid lines and colour, of jazz music played by the Oscar Peterson Trio.

Norman McLaren (53)

Norman McLaren

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