Business Screen Magazine (1963-1964)

On New Techniques in Animation Producer Les Novros Details His Company's Experience on Four World's Fair Projects 'T'oo OFTEN, the claim for new -* techniques in animation turns out to be disappointing, either because the technique may not be new at all or because novelty, of itself, just isn't sufficient to recommend it. For example, the manipulation of frames to suggest movement with a minimum of visual change is as old as animation itself, yet the phenomenon is constantly being re-"discovered.'" Computers do not contribute anything to the animated film when they merely replace the assistant animator. New experiences require new modes of expression, but not necessarily new techniques. The early UPA films were not essentially different technically from the Disney films, although they differed widely in form and content. New Forms in Our Future On the other hand new forms do invariably follow from technical discovery and invention. The forms of contemporary architecture, for example, derive from the availability of materials made accessible by new industrial processes. '"Glass alone," said Frank Lloyd Wright, "with no help from us (the architects) would eventually have destroyed classic architecture, root and branch." In film, the wide screen in itself produced nothing, whereas the stereo-film of tomorrow, used by film-makers aware of its expressive power, will encourage — or more — demand, the creation of new forms. The present uses of visual and acoustic elements and their dynamic inter-relationships that have assumed the authority of principles, may all be incompatible with the new technique. Content itself may be subject to its strict demands. Four Films at World's F.iir During the past year. Graphic Films was largely involved in the production of four films for the New York Worid's Fair. Of these, two use familiar techniques and the somewhat incongenial limits of the Cinemascope field. A third film is a version of one produced earlier for an Abbott Laboratories' exhibit in Chicago: Chemical Man. What was novel there was the shape of the screen, v/hich was round, and its position — in the jloor of the theater. We had to accommodate the The Varied Skills for Aerospace Production Below: Graphic Films' director Ted Purnudcc (at left) discusses du story hoard and models for sequences in "Rendezvous in Space" film. m WLmjM B design of the film to the circular field and to a 360-degree viewing ramp. This meant an up/ down, right/left orientation that shifted with each viewer. However, it was not until we were asked to produce the Cinerama film for the KLM exhibit that we were confronted with formidable problems requiring novel technical solutions. Exploring Space on a Dome Cinerama had used a dome to house the Boeing exhibit at the Seattle Fair and wished to use it again in New York. There were two conditions: First, a greater technical control and a greater variety of content. From a number of themes under consideration we finally chose to develop one which came to be titled. To The Moon And Beyond. The film is. in fact, an exploration of space — the vast events in outer space and the intricate workings of molecular and subatomic space. A rough script and the most tentative of storyboards were developed. (A final storyboard was never produced because we could never render in static drawings the qualities of continuous change that we were seeking. There were doodles, fragmentary pieces of action, charts, working diagrams, abstract patterns, camera tests, countless photographs cut from magazines and mounted on the wall in the hope that they might suggest a clue for the organization in a few shots of the inexhaustible variety of matter.) Modified a 65mm Mitchell Simultaneously, Lin Dunn was modifying a 65mm Mitchell camera for the project . . . one camera which we were later to mount on the animation rig. dismount and remount in an airplane or a trip for the live sequences and dismount again for use on the optical printers. These actions were not consecutive so that the tactics of the job. in view of a fast-approaching deadline, were not the least of the difficulties we faced every day. The building that housed the exhibit — the Transportation and Travel Pavilion — was not completed until the day before tlie scheduled opening. So we were never to know whether our calculations were accurate until it was too late to make corrections. Simulated Dome in the Studio The best we could do was to set up a small dome at our studio; it had a nine-foot diameter and was tilted on its side. The projector was used primarily to analyze 1 I 1 "* J' v''Jo j^^l~ ^^^^^*jMi& .\ninniti«n rii^ and camera capture scene from the m^'i, ui. ,. ipicnce in "To the Moon and Beijond." Director Con Pederson is at lower right. BUSINESS SCREEN MAGAZINE