Norman McLaren || Lignes verticales | Lines vertical

Film expérimental de Normand McLaren et Evelyn Lambart.
ONF 1960
Musique: Maurice Blackburn

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Norman-McLaren
• Maurice-Blackburn
• ONF
• short

[allumgraphics]

This is a stunning example of a true masters work. Start with something as simple as a single vertical line and describe music, turning 2 dimensions into 3 dimensions. If you cannot see the sheer mastery, you are blind. The lines are actually drawn on raw film stock, by hand, no undo buttons here. If you do not know how this is created and its historical importance please research and learn.

[rickbmtl]

Mc Laren did a lot of films drawn directly on 35 mn footage. In this one he tried, very sucesfully, to get rid of the shaky aspect of the usual effects of this technique by using very long rulers that could cover many frames at a time, thus the total verticals are done by precisely angled rulers while tho moving ones are always slightly angled because they were made buy very slightly angled rulers so there is continuity from one cell to the other.

Too many things to write so next comment...

[aldiakaroofus]

@dtwhitney My mentor said that the main parts are: introduction, inciting incident (or trigger), build up and climax. It's also about pacing. Let's say you have some cool abstract animation tricks you want to show in a 3 minute film. The last thing you want to do is throw it all in the face of the audience in the first 15 seconds and spend the remaining 2 minutes and 45 seconds repeating the same thing. One of my teachers showed us such an example (I forgot what film it was).

[dtwhitney]

@aldiakaroofus Nice comment. Apart from the rising and falling action, what else seen in this movie constitutes a narrative structure? I think about doing abstract work from time to time, but I don't know how to make it presentable or enjoyable in a narrative. What are your thoughts/advice?

[dtwhitney]

Wow. Every conceivable shape, formation, and movement in three dimensions all with just vertical lines. And it perfectly follows the rise and decline of the intensity and dynamics of the music.

[aldiakaroofus]

When I explain to people how important a solid narrative structure is for all films, no matter what genre they are into, I quote this film. No matter how abstract you get, you still need a strong structure, and this film has it.

[ChrisDavey83]

You can see how this inspired the titles to Trainspotting

[Daathfeuer]

Omg there are lines!

[cm2dude]

This is genius.

[LMorland]

This is absolutely brilliant. Thanks so much for posting this video!