Quotes by Norman McLaren

About Norman McLaren:

Norman McLaren was a Scottish-born British/Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was a pioneer in a number of areas of animation and filmmaking, including drawn-on-film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

So people will come along and do new things and sometimes return to the spirit of an earlier age.

Norman McLaren

Animation is not the art of drawings that move but the art of movements that are drawn.

Norman McLaren

In any art movement, the art has to move into a new phase - a filmmaker has a desire to make a film that is not like a previous film.

Norman McLaren

The process of art evolving is always one which has fascinated me.

Norman McLaren

The good moral work of art should have all the qualities that a good amoral work of art should have, such as formal unity, balance, contrast, and a sensitivity to the material out of which it is made.

Norman McLaren

And so my militant philosophy is this: to make with a brush on canvas is a simple direct delight-to make with the movie is the same.

Norman McLaren

By drawing or exposing two or more patterns on the same bit of film I can create harmony and textual effects.

Norman McLaren

The number of strokes to the inch controls the pitch of the note: the more, the higher the pitch; the fewer, the lower the pitch, the size of the stroke controls the loudness... the tone quality is the most difficult element to control, it is made by...

Norman McLaren

Well rounded forms gives smooth sounds; sharper or angular forms give harder and harsher sounds.

Norman McLaren

Film is changing, and it can't help but keep changing.

Norman McLaren

I don't know whether it ever comes back to the same thing; it does return to the spirit of a previous period in some way, but it's different, it's new.

Norman McLaren

Take a film of Jacques Tati like Mon Oncle which has something quite new - for me, unique - in it.

Norman McLaren

Unless it's done superbly, as in the Japanese film Gate of Hell, color can be a very distracting element.

Norman McLaren

But it has, in addition, an even more precious quality - a consciousness of the human intelligence, the human spirit and that man is a social creature.

Norman McLaren

I like black and white films. I don't exactly know why - probably because there is a stylization which is removed from actual life, unlike a color film.

Norman McLaren

I have tried to preserve in my relationship to the film the same closeness and intimacy that exists between a painter and his canvas.

Norman McLaren

Author Bio

  • NameNorman McLaren
  • DescriptionScottish-born Canadian experimental animator and film director
  • BornApril 11, 1914
  • DiedJanuary 27, 1987
  • CountryCanada
  • ProfessionFilm Director; Animator
  • AwardsPrix Albert-Tessier; Companion Of The Order Of Canada; Molson Prize; Knight Of The National Order Of Quebec