In 1941, John Grierson who headed the newly founded agency National Film Board of Canada, invited the Scottish artist and filmmaker Norman McLaren to join his staff. Grierson famously quipped ' I can only afford one artist,' which was actually quite characteristic of Grierson. McLaren's signature technique was derived from his experiments in drawing, scratching and painting directly on to celluloid. The majority of McLaren's film canon was therefore produced without the use of the camera; his technical triumph was to synchronize the scratch marks on the celluloid with the beat of the music so that his lines moved precisely in accordance to the rhythm of the soundtrack. Through the collective works : Stars and Stripes (1940), Hen Hop (1942), Fiddle-De-Dee (1947) and Begone Dull Care (1949), McLaren cultivated many forms of experimental animation, drawing on his distinctive wit and ingenuity.
 |
| I Lost Continent as to how many experimental shorts (were they cut-off denims?)came feom NFBC's George Dunning |
McLaren was not the only animator in town to create a highly personal style for the National Film Board of Canada. George Dunning (1920-1979) who would become most recognized for his animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine (1968), embarked on his career in the early 1940's along with other nature forces in the names of Jean-Paul Ladouceur, Rene Jodoin and Grant Munro, all of whom collaborated on films such as 1944's C'est l'aviron and Up There In The Mountains (1945) adapted from a French folksong.
 |
 |
| Pin Screen works a la mode - (by Alexandre Alexeiff and Claire Parker) |
Alexandre Alexeieff of France and his American wife Claire Parker devised the infinitely laborious 'pin screen' technique - whereby lateral lighting was cast over an area covered by closely set pins which could be raised and lowered to create an irregular surface with highlights and shadows. A unique few films were made by this process, the most famous being Une nuit sur le Mont Chauve (Night on Bald Moutain,1933) and En passant (1943), Alexeiff and Parker's contribution to the National Film Board of Canada's Chants Populaires series was a remarkable and outstanding achievement.