NORMAN MCLAREN STOP MOTION MASTER

vintage experimental film

Still from Neighbours

Since embarking on the research for the RW book I have been taken down various deadends, detours and disused railway lines. It's easy to get lost and then forget where you were going or why you were even heading there. Norman McClaren was a Scottish born film-maker who moved to Canada in the 1940s and began to make pioneering stop-motion films. I presume I stumbled across him through looking at something Canadian. Whatever it was I am glad I did. He's not obscure, I discovered there were plenty of references to him and most of his work is available on DVD, but he was news to me. You can see his Pen Point Percussion film from 1951 here or there's his most famous film Neighbours here. Neighbours has some of the best use of stop-motion filming for making people move that I have ever seen. It is like a cross between silent comedy and ballet.