We watched Norman McClaren’s Documentary and it brought up a lot of noteworthy, inspiring nuggets and food for thought. He is an experimental filmmaker who was largely inspired by Scottish weather in its gentle changes in lighting, and nature, which he said was made by the ‘Original Creator’ – a statement which I found touching and intimate.
Like many artists, McClaren was a deep, soul-digging person who believed that Abstract Film frees you from constrictions of logic. He described animation as something which “rejoiced that it was drawn by just a line and that it could move”, and that abstract films were like watching thoughts.
He says he wouldn’t know what was gonna happen in 10 mins from now
“Subconscious plays a very important role.”
His thoughts included ideas such as how our Subconscious probably has the whole thing [scene] already, but it’s Consciousness’s job to put it into the real world yet, it could be contaminated by conscious’s logic, doubts or worries.
McClaren’s thoughts reminded me of how animators, or humans in general live in a space where they have the ability to control and yet, have so many other aspects that are out-of-control too. It seems like animation is a format where we can play around with those aspects.
ANIM223 - HISTORY OF ANIMATION - FALL 2019 