Synchromy (1971) by Norman McLaren

Norman McLaren (1914–1987) was born in Stirling, Scotland and attended The Glasgow School of Art at age 22. He immediately distinguished himself with home-made films, winning an award at festival. One of the judges was head of the General Post Office (GPO) Film Board. He hired McLaren, who moved to London. After four films, and with WWII in the offing, he moved to New York on a scholarship, thereafter accepting an invitation to Canada. He excelled at the National Film Board (NFB), not only through his body of work, but by forming an animation department of young people.

From his earliest days McLaren had experimented with scratching a soundtrack directly onto the optical track of the film. But "Synchromy" is a pure fusion of sound and image like none other in his catalogue. Strips of card one by 12 inches were drawn with rectangles that would create different frequencies when run through the projector at film speed. The visual track of "Synchromy" is identical; the viewer sees the shapes they hear. (The colours are arbitrary.)

Watch a high-quality video at the NFB.

Begone Dull Care (1949) by Evelyn Lambart & Norman McLaren

On the National Film Board website Evelyn Lambart (1914-1999) is credited with fourteen films, yet she does not get a bio. Her thirty-year career is overshadowed by her early work in collaboration with Norman McLaren. Indeed, their films are sometimes attributed to him alone. For example, "Short and Suite" (1959) is not listed on her page, despite her name being in the credits. Here is a Canadian female director in need of recuperation!

Her later method was generally to use paper cut-outs on lithography plates, painted, and then animated. But one of her best films, created through rather different means, is the early McLaren co-creation "Begone Dull Care" (1949). Here the film stock was painted directly, using a variety of means.

The contribution of the Oscar Peterson Trio is also notable. "Begone Dull Care" has won many international awards, and was designated a masterwork by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada.

A biography of Lambart and an article on the film itself are available in archives.

Tarantella (1941) by Mary Ellen Bute

A collaboration with Norman McLaren that uses drawn animation and cut-outs with light effects. Music by Edwin Gerschefski.