Journal of Film preservation

As the years have gone by I have come to feel a need to take a less detached view of McLaren, and his place in the story of cinema. Perhaps the best way for me to begin to address this issue is to quote from a 1977 essay by the British film scholar David Curtis:
Perhaps surprisingly, Norman McLaren has succeeded, as few other filmmakers have, in polarizing his critics; they either envelope him in a blanket of unqualified approval, or else totally dismiss him. Most authors of work on the history of animation see McLaren as the supreme champion of the “experimental” cartoon – a figure not so much to be emulated as admired from a distance; a man privileged to express the artist’s communion with “genius” far from the pressures of commercial reality. Authors discussing the avant-garde film – the area in which such artists should by rights belong – rarely give McLaren a mention. His work is too orthodox, too compromised, or evades too many questions. But these reactions are themselves an evasion of the difficult problem of locating McLaren’s position. Is he an avant-garde animator like Len Lye, Harry Smith, or Robert Breer, or does he
31 Journal of Film Preservation / 69 / 2005
belong more properly in the commercial camp with Borowczyk, Trnka, or perhaps his “pupil” Dunning, or is he some form of exceptional cross-breed like Alexeieff, Kuri, or Foldes? (4)
When I first read those words of David Curtis, sometime in the 1980s, I was taken aback. Compare that scepticism with what Claude Jutra said to me in the autumn of 1971:
Film has up till now been mostly a new kind of literature. Norman’s films are really the new medium; and now the medium is becoming accessible to more and more people, especially with computers – computational creation where a person alone using his hands and tools creates something which is absolutely new. Painting is like that, but cinema is somewhere between painting and literature; but there is a new medium which is being created, and Norman was one of those at the earlier points who made it come true and produced masterpieces in that area, which is still underdeveloped. I think the only masterpieces are his – what others in the history of animation? We talk about Emile Cohl, Reynaud, Fischinger – all of them don’t compare with the achievement of Norman’s; and he’s a lonely man. (5)

Source

Watch Chelsea Space: Shin Azumi and Norman McLaren / interview with curator Jane Won in Channels  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Nomarn mclaren and shin azumi/ interview with curator jan won

The most interesting things get missed in an ordinary art gallery.

Experimental side of

Scottish moved to Canada

Whole areer was in candana he was a pioneer of the animation tecchniques

Making filmes without a camera

Very simple but was very involved in making these techniques, a range of techniques

Making the pieces without a lot of calaborations, magitians and dancers,

Brings a whole of his filmography very diverse and very interesting

Shin azumi expresses his interest in mclaren.

Make a space by anti garavity, inspiraed by mclaren

Create a space that has a scene of anti gravity

The film brings dynamic motion on the objects.

Black and white chalk effect

Collage Animation

Music is also a very important factor to consider because it is a psychological subtlety that the audience is not immediately made aware of but will influence their response to the animation greatly. The way that music changes the images you are seeing is an important aspect of animation and can be looked at in great depth. Examples of music being used to great effect can be seen in, Fantasia or The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics etc.


Source

12 Basic Principles of Animation

Squash and stretch
Anticipation
Staging
Straight ahead and pose to pose Animation
Follow through and overlapping action
Slow out and Slow in
Arcs
Secondary Action
Timing
Exaggeration
Solid Drawing
Appeal

Norman McLaren

Simple Geometric shapes

Talk about the whole idea of light.

simple colours used. red and green used. contrasting colours..

little squash and stretch used, gives more of a POP effect.
simple geometrical shapes.
linking each movement with sound almost like a screensaver.
music and animation both are in sync

Contextual Studies Essay

Compare one of Norman McLaren’s films to an animated film from any contemporary experimental animator of your choice and discuss the similarities and differences. Support your claims with relevant examples and citations or references from relevant literature.

Re-Film

We chose our background as plain so we could capture the ball bounce better and added horizontal lines within the backing to measure the distance between each bounce.


Captured a strange collision between the hockey ball and the ping pong ball.

The double bounce in mid air is definitely something I would like to work on.

May rotoscope the footage as ping pong because of the foreshortening.

Gravitantional Acceleration

In physics, gravitational acceleration is the acceleration on an object caused by gravity. Neglecting friction such as air resistance, all small bodies accelerate in a gravitational field at the same rate relative to the center of mass.^[1] This equality is true regardless of the masses or compositions of the bodies. At different points on Earth, objects fall with an acceleration between 9.78 and 9.82 m/s² depending on latitude, with a conventional standard value of exactly 9.80665 m/s² (approx. 32.174 ft/s²). Objects with low densities do not accelerate as rapidly due to buoyancy and air resistance.




Source

Heavy Ball

The camera is still shaky and didn't capture the drop point.
Filming needs to be re-done.

Bouncy Ball Project

Filmed in class.


Footage was shaky and camera was at a slant. Ball was hard to capture.

Algoriths + Computer Programs

Siso C++

Start with general abstract.

What is algorithms? Algorithms is step by step operations.
How many problems are in one operation?

The remainder of an integer division (A mod B ) Algorithm

1) Read two numbers A & B
2) If A is smaller then B go to step 5)
3) Replace A by A-B
4) If A is greater or equal to B go to step 3)
5) End, the result is A

100BC = Algorithm

You can have an Algorithm in another Algorithm.

Toy Story 3

MAYA IS AN ALGORITHM

Describing objects in space, textures etc. All are algorithms.
Same algorithms can get similar results.

Algoritms make decisions for you.

Lord of the Rings - use a massive program - integrate character with live footage.

Could have an algorithm better than James Cameron? Naaa

Complicated algoritms when your speaking to a computer. One that plays chess?

When does the algorithm stop? Limitation?
Worked on enigma - Allan Turnis - Committed suicide? for being gay!!
Damn Gordon Brown -Kill

A Turin Machine

You don't need to know the algorithm, just need to know the device.

Black box that can move left and right.

                                 [||||||||||||||||||]

---------------------------------^-------------------------------     <<TAPE

------------------------------------------------------------------    <<TAPE

Black box can move left and right

The Turing Machine Code

Left 

Symbol

on the type

internal state

gears etc

Right

When the black box does

3 symbols

Black box moves left to right one box at a time

00 = > 00R

01 = > 11R

10 = > 01L.Stop

11 = > 11R

Algorithm - can be expressed through machine  ecident by ractical idea, operation of turing machines

Turing Machine modify tape 0 - 1 

Input    000001110000 < if you don't turn internal state turn right

Output 0000011110000

00 => 00R -Move to right

001=> 11R (Bold are marks on tape) Change the state to 1 and skip right. skip all the ones until you find the next 0

Have one internal state modify tape :s

10 => 01L Stop. Stop to the left. Move left.

All the ones on the right are your results.

You only need to know the devices. Mechanical. It takes a well defined device, operations and stick with those can express any algorithm at all!

Algorithm & Computers

You need a language to express computers.

Don't want programming using turing language.

Programming language are turing type operation.

Cane be decimal formats - low level language

Turing machine is a language

Binary Decimal - describe variables

Higher level language - still basic numbers

A Programming language

C++ Python - higher level language

Computer Hardware and Von Neumann

Processor lets you read memory - Intelligent

Sketch of the Von Neumann Architecture - Similar to turin machine

The register can gold tempo-mental information in the tape

Read data and write data

Can create a turing machine that executes any...?

Taxanomy - If you were to write the native processor writing programmes as 0701s 

Assembly range - internal processor, same as machine, simple selection of commands.

Higher Level programmes that organise data

Machine Language looks like binary numbers

Load Value - One >> Particular address to storage

Add Value - Two >> "    "

Store Sum

Higher Level Language 

Sum - Value_one + Value_two -stores particular memory.