Norman McLaren

Norman McLaren is a Scottish/ Canadian film maker. He sees himself more as a Canadian although he was born in Scotland due to him working and living in Canada. His film "Neighbours" was awarded an oscar which was a shock to the audience as it was a canadian film that included McLaren different way of making film in it. "Neighbours" is a human statement which reveals human nature for violence.  He painted picture on the film rather than take photographs. Whilst he was growing up he came to realise that he wanted to work with moving imagery rather than still imagery like painting and sculptures. In his teens he came across Jazz music and liked it very much, so much that he wanted to interpret Jazz music with visuals. He decided to work straight onto film, by painting with inks. He is in love with the motions, movements in film. McLaren said "Animation consists in a film where you can stop anywhere and make an adjustment" This is pretty much saying that animation is easily malleable compared to film. Film can not be altered as easily as animations can be. He tries to use music as a type of commentary. The results that turned out for him seemed like music to him.

I quite like the way he has used pixelation and stop motion in one film. He uses mixed media rather than keeping to one all the time. I also like the way he has gone about it in "Neighbours" as he is using comedy to present human natures problem. With the main theme being violence. I would suggest watching the full video of "McLaren's Negatives" animation short documentary to hear about his inspirations and his technique.

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