# Norman McLaren [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_McLaren) (1914–1987) ## Description Scottish-Canadian animator who spent most of his career at the National Film Board of Canada, pioneering direct (camera-less) animation drawn, scratched, and painted straight onto the film strip, along with hand-drawn "synthetic" sound and the pixilation technique of animating live actors frame by frame. ## Key Tags #direct-animation #drawn-on-film #animation #visual-music #canadian-avant-garde #camera-less #drawn-sound #sound ## Essential Works - [Neighbours](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighbours_(1952_film)) (1952) - Academy Award-winning pixilation film on the escalation of conflict over property - [Dots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_McLaren) (1940) - early experiment in hand-drawn synthetic sound made directly on the optical soundtrack - [Pas de Deux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pas_de_Deux_(film)) (1968) - stroboscopic multiple-exposure dance film ## Details Studied at the Glasgow School of Art before being recruited by John Grierson, first to Britain's GPO Film Unit and then to found the National Film Board of Canada's animation studio in 1941. Developed pixilation — animating live actors frame by frame as if they were puppets — for *Neighbours*, and spent decades experimenting with hand-drawn optical soundtracks, treating the film strip itself as an instrument for generating both image and sound from the same graphic marks. ### Concepts and Theories - [[Visual Music]] - his drawn-sound experiments extended the visual music tradition of composing image and sound as a single graphic act ### Creative and Technical Practices - [[Drawn on Film]] - among the medium's central pioneers, painting and scratching imagery directly onto the filmstrip - [[Drawn Sound]] - developed hand-drawn synthetic soundtracks, generating sound directly from graphic marks on film ### Collaborators - Evelyn Lambart - longtime NFB collaborator and co-animator on numerous direct-animation and stop-motion films ### Institutional Affiliations and Associated Movements - National Film Board of Canada - founded and led the NFB's animation studio from 1941 until his retirement in the 1980s ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %% ### Secondary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %%