Pierre Hébert

Population Exposion 1967

Pierre Hébert is one of those unclassified moving image artists, right out there on the boundaries. The work of the Canadian artist is wide ranging in form and technique. His 20 plus film career, the majority within the walls of the National Film Board of Canada, reveal an atypical creator who developed a hybrid of styles and techniques.
His first film, ‘Histoire Verte’, came into creation in 1963, scratched directly onto bleached film, the results mirroring earlier work of his predecessors, Norman McLaren and Len Lye. Etching directly upon the medium became an important technique for him and is recurrent throughout his career. Earlier experiments use simple graphic forms or blocks of colour that play with the viewers perception. Later works develop a more figurative approach to animation incorporating various techniques such as paper cut out, lettering, live action as well as more illustrative work.

Histroire Verte 1963

An interesting aspect of Hébert’s films is the connection with sound. Hébert played with the abstract qualities of sound; his first film mixes raw recordings of scrubbing and scratching noises most probably taken from the etching process itself. ‘Opus 3′, 1967 and ‘Around Perception’, 1968 were part of a series of more formalistic experiments with sound and image. These films all played with the concept of retinal persistance, the intermittent flashing of basic graphic forms, overlaying to create new forms and new combinations. The visuals are crude however the quality of abstraction is effectively expressed. With all these early experiments, it is the music that acts as a narrative structure.

Around Perception 1968

In later films, he begins to work with more musical compositions albeit within the free framework of improvisation. Many of the projections for Hébert’s work found their place within live performances, musicans improvising along with the film. For ‘Technology of Tears’, 2004, the music was performed by Fred Frith and John Zorn. It was created for a live dance performance the moving images becoming an integral part of the mise-en-scène. He even had Ornette Coleman score one of his more figurative and political works, ‘Population Explosion’, 1967, and this relationship with improvised music shaped many of his notions about how to animate and cut his films to such an extent that he went on to scratch directly onto film in live perfomance with the musicians.

 

Golan Levin : Interactive Bar Installation

The interactive bar installation or ‘Biotopes’ as it was named is an early project developed by Golan Levin in 2004 in which hand gesture becomes a means to interact directly with images on a screen. There may well be immediate thoughts of ‘Surface Computing’, Jeff Han and the Dialog Table. Levin claims to have come a little before the rush but that is not really the point. Interaction with the computer and screens, beyond the traditional keys and mouse, is only just becoming household talk, thanks to the crunchy ‘keep the doc away’ company. However, research into this area of how we interact and visualize information is becoming a hot topic and one that extends its possibilities far beyond pocket sized gadgets and the household computer. The image is taking on new spaces and indeed surfaces and with this the area of motion and the motion designer will have a pivotal role in how this imagery is presented as well as interacted with.

>>> Golan Levin
>>> Lecture on interactive computation

 

La Pub s’anime ! – Animated Ads

©Pyramyd 2007

Les Arts Décoratifs is a wonderful museum based in one of the extensions of the Louvre in Paris. The setting is grand, the perfect place to stroll through a century of animation history. ‘La Pub s’anime’ is the exhibition. A rare collection of French films, artefact, drawings, cells, model sheets and information brought under the perspective of animation in the commercial World.

© Pyramyd 2007

The exhibition begins with a brief introduction to the beginnings of French animation. Brief, it may be but rich all the same – Emile Reynaud’s ‘Autour d’une Cabine‘ plus Emile Cohl’s ‘Fantasmagorie‘ exhibiting a selection of early animation paraphernalia which sets the scene, in terms of animation as a new technique, for the abundant work that follows. Some of the better known names, Paul Grimault, André Sarrut or Alexandre Alexeieff are of course put in new light with a selection of their lesser known work for early 40’s & 50’s commercial work. Jacques Forgeot, Les Cinéastes Associés, Paul Casalini and the Bettiol brothers are all given full showing to lead us up to the early eighties and the beginning of 3D and the nineties with the likes of Pierre Coffin and the H5 collective.

>>> Watch a Trailer Here
>>> Les Arts Décoratifs

 

Classic Modern

Deubal’s work in motion revolves around the graphic modernist style
with a contemporary edge. Their imaginative use of typography is a
lesson in simplicity with class.

http://www.deubal.com/

 

Jeff Scher – Steven Heller

Jeff Scher’s animated portrait of Susan Shin.
Copyright Maya Stendhal Gallery.

An excellent article on the illustrator and animator Jeff Scher.
Written by Steven Heller for Eye Magazine. Vol 15. Summer 2006
…………………………………………………………………………….
>>>> Read Online Here
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>>>> Check out the videopod in the margin :
Inspiration
Let It
Reasons To Be Glad

 

Dad’s Dead Again

Chris Shepherd 2006.

The creative possibilities, visually speaking, to play with narrative nowadays are enormous yet rare are those that fully explore that rich palette before us. And then there are certain films that linger amid the ether of memory more than others. Chris Shepherd’s film, ‘Dad’s Dead’, screened for the first time in 2002 has both these possibilities. When I saw this film for the first time, the visual treatment, unconventional narration, the montage and clever use of mixed media, all came together to leave quite a surprisingly profound impression.

The creative process behind the production is a detailed journey of narrative, impression and inspiration that was built up from a specific and deeply personal experience. As Chris pointed out in an interview I conducted with him in summer 2006, Dad’s Dead had initially sprung from a return visit to his childhood neighbourhood of Everton, Liverpool. Walking through desolate council concrete and his then demolished secondary school, Chris suddenly began to feel a profound sense of loss and hopelessness. It is from that feeling Chris began to slowly layer up his film ‘like a painting’, mixing live action footage with animation and visual effects to enhance and evoke the very sentiment which had touched him so. And indeed you feel this as a viewer, the emotional impact can be felt with poignant ease.

The reason we are drawn into the Baconesque World of Dad’s Dead is in part due to the emotional side which many can relate to and also in part due to the means of communicating that emotion with efficiency. There are of course deeply cultural iconic images that play a part in that : The ‘Ladybird’ story book that opens up with nostalgia, the Dr. Who Daleks and the classic British ice cream van. Beyond these though there is also a tonal treatment to the film that enhances the darker sides of emotion, the animation is imaginative and the graphics perfectly chosen. Chris had also chosen to use a first person narrative that is in effect the camera. It takes you through that story as a character and that character could well be yourself.

‘Dad’s Dad’ is a great example of mixed media film. It underlines the fact that different techniques can be used to strong effect without having to be exclusive to any particular genre. Are we in pure narrative fiction, drama, documentary, animation ? This little film has it all. And all in the right amounts. Chris has just finished his latest short, ‘Silence is Golden’ which was premiered in Paris in 2006. It is yet another example of Chris’ ability to mix different techniques giving a wonderful dimension to his narrative work. Unlike Dad’s Dead, which is a film about memory and nostalgia, Silence is Golden embarks upon the imaginary World of a little boy. An imagination that draws him into sometimes difficult corners of reality.

>>> Chris Shepherd Films :
Dad’s Dead 2003
Who I Am And What I Want 2004
Silence is Golden 2006

>>>Slinky Pictutres Studio
>>> Interview with Chris Shepherd.2006

 

Channel Four And More

Channel Four made major innovations in the British TV
identity arena and was synonymous with creative ideas
and quality content. Their multi-coloured 3D logo of the
eighties has always been cause for reference in motion
graphics. Some of their more present day creations take
that initial 3D idea out of the realm of pure graphical
representation, placing it firmly within our environment
with ingenious effect. Structure, shape and play on
perception is the name of the game.

>>> Almost Complete Collection of Recent Idents by C4

 

The Complete Bond Titles

As Etienne Mineur, author for this informative link, points out. Practically all the techniques developed over the past 40 years in motion graphics are visible in the main titles for James Bond. It is in itself not only a body of work that is rich in technique, the visual narratives are legend for their iconic images loaded with sex and guns.
Etienne Mineur has presented the complete titles here in glorious chronological order.

>>>Watch