NFBC Launch Norman McLaren iPad App – “McLaren’s Workshop”
While we have another year to wait before celebrations for Norman McLaren’s centenary can begin, if you have an iPad you need not wait that long to immerse yourself in all things ‘McLaren’. The National Film Board of Canada (NFBC) have today launched their new app “McLaren’s Workshop” which lets users create their own films, exploring the myriad of techniques made famous by McLaren.
McLaren’s Workshop is a free app that offers several features, including:
- 51 films by Norman McLaren
- 11 short documentaries that explore techniques and themes of his work
- An illustrated biography and exclusive essay by Don McWilliams
- Paper Cut-Out workshop
- It also contains in-app purchases for the Scratch on Film and Synthetic Sound workshops.
For most of us (of a certain age), getting the chance to watch a McLaren film involved staying up into the early hours of the morning to catch Four-mations, the nineties Channel 4 animation show, or taking out an old scratched VHS from the University library. Although it has been possible since 2006 to buy a DVD box set of McLaren’s films (Norman McLaren: The Master Collection) (and we are not discouraging having such a wonderful DVD collection on your shelf) bringing these films and techniques to a modern platform, and subsequently a new audience, is a great move by the NFBC.
The NFBC’s original plan for the app was just to give access to the 51 films but it quickly became clear that there was a lot more scope to create an app that could do so much more.
The Films
We’re sure that most of our readers have already seen a wide selection of McLaren’s films, especially the likes of Oscar winning Neighbours (1952), A Chairy Tale (1957) and Blinkity Blank (1955) (and if you haven’t, where have you been?!), but equally, most of us haven’t had an opportunity to view such a comprehensive collection. Until now.
Having been carefully restored for the 2006 DVD box set, the films look as sharp and crisp on the iPad as they have ever been viewed; even McLaren’s oldest films from the 1930’s.
The layout is simple, spacious and you can easily browse all the films and documentaries alphabetically or chronologically. Once you have chosen a film you can view a short synopsis and technical notes of the film, plus you’re given the option to ‘watch later’, which pre-loads the film for when you don’t have WiFi or a 3G network connection.
The Documentaries
The 11 documentaries cover a selection of topics concerning McLaren’s life and work, from his beginnings in Scotland to the more technical ‘Painting with Light’ and ‘The Animator as Musician’.
All documentaries are broken down into digestible films (no longer than 9 minutes); including the 5-part series ‘Animated Motion’, where McLaren himself explains and demonstrates different aspects of movement that are essential to the animator’s art.
The Workshops
The app comes with one animation workshop included – Paper Cut-Out. Two more workshops are available as in-app purchases – these are ‘Etching on Film’ and ‘Synthetic Sound’. Essentially, each workshop is split into 4 parts:
- A description of the technique, with a list of related films
- A demo video showing the creation of a film in that style
- A key example of a film that uses this technique
- Easy to use software to create a film yourself
The user interface is extremely well laid out and intuitive. If you do get stuck, there is a clever overlay that shows you what each feature does. After creating your masterpiece you can export it to your iPad camera roll and share it with the world!
It can be quite surreal to create a film akin to McLaren’s using only your finger and an iPad, but when you consider films like the cut-out ‘Le Merle’, you realise that although the technology has changed, the technique is almost identical – it really helps you to better understand the process that McLaren went through. The fact that the NFB collaborated with people who had worked with McLaren and developed the app to mimic the methods that were available in his day really shows.
To celebrate the launch of the app, the NFB asked a number of notable filmmakers to produce a short animation using the workshop tools – animators include Regina Pessoa, Patrick Doyon, Koji Yamamura, Don Hertzfeldt, David OReilly and Renaud Halle. There are some brilliant, creative films that you can view on the NFBC’s Vimeo page, but we have also included one our favourites below – David OReilly ‘s “I Am Alone and My Head is on Fire”:
To sum up, this app succeeds on 3 levels:
- As an excellent Norman McLaren resource
- As a means to understand the techniques and methods used by McLaren
- Purely as an enjoyable tool to create animated films!
We hope that many students and professionals alike will be downloading the app and finding it as useful and fun as we did. You can download the iPad app from the app store for free by clicking here – there is no excuse not to have this treasure trove of animation on you at all times now!
Technical specs: McLaren’s Workshop requires iOS 5.1 or higher. Although the app does run on a first-generation iPad, we recommend using an iPad 2 or more recent model to enjoy all its features.