Direct films

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 1912, Italian Futurists Arnaldo Ginna and Bruno Corra discuss their nine abstract films (now lost) in their text "Abstract Cinema - Chromatic Music."

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

:* In 1926 Man Ray created Emak Bakia, which includes sequences made by exposing film directly to light.

:* In 1935 Len Lye created the first direct film screened to a general audience, a promotion for the British General Post Office entitled "A Colour Box". Lye and Norman McLaren produced hand-painted films for John Grierson in the GPO Film Unit. At Grierson's invitation, McLaren continued this work at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), founding the NFB's animation unit. Lye went on to create direct films in New York.

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

:* In 1970, José Antonio Sistiaga exhibited the first feature-length hand-painted film, the silent epic "... era erera baleibu izik subua aruaren ...", in Madrid.

References

* Malcolm LeGrice, "Abstract Film and Beyond." [MIT Press, 1979]
* [http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.1/articles/moritz2.1.html The Dream of Color Music, And Machines That Made it Possible]
* Michael Betancourt, "Mary Hallock-Greenewalt: The Complete Patents." [Wildside Press, 2005]

External links

* [http://www.directfilm.eu Watch direct films "Blinkity Blank" and "Hen Hop" online at NFB Web site]