Direct Films

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Direct films are produced by painting, drawing, scraping or otherwise working directly on film to create an image without the use of a camera.

While applying color to film in the form of tinting or toning where black and white photographs would be given color, direct films are a variety of animation. This process has been most commonly used by experimental filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage, Len Lye, and Norman McLaren:

• In 1909, Italian Futurists Arnaldo Ginna and Bruno Corra discuss their nine abstract films (now lost) in the Futurist Manifesto of Cinema.

• In 1916, American concert pianist Mary Hallock-Greenewalt produced hand-painted films for projection in her visual music player the Sarabet.

• In the 1930s, Len Lye and Norman McLaren produced hand-painted films for John Grierson in the GPO film office.

• In 1946, Harry Smith produced hand-painted films in San Francisco which screened at the Art in Cinema series at the San Francsico Museum of Art.

[edit] References

• Malcolm LeGrice, Abstract Film and Beyond. [MIT Press, 1979]
• The Dream of Color Music, And Machines That Made it Possible
• Michael Betancourt, Mary Hallock-Greenewalt: The Complete Patents. [Wildside Press, 2005]