Norman McLaren

I came across this film maker named Norman McLaren today. Pretty interesting film methodology. He's created a very unique look and sound to his films which seems to add a default level of humor despite the subject matter. Here is an excerpt from his Wikipedia article.

McLaren was born in Stirling, Scotland, where he studied set design at Glasgow School of Art. His early experiments with film and animation included actually scratching and painting the film stock itself, as he did not have ready access to a camera. His earliest extant film, Seven Till Five (1933), a "day in the life of an art school" was influenced by Eisenstein and displays a strongly formalist attitude. McLaren's next film, Camera Makes Whoopee (1935) was a more elaborate take on the themes explored in Seven Till Five, inspired by his acquisition of a Ciné-Kodak camera, which enabled him to execute a number of 'trick' shots. McLaren used pixillation effects, superimpositions and animation not only to display the staging of an art school ball, but also to tap into the aesthetic sensations supposedly produced by this event.

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