The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has just released a free iPad app based on the work of Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director Norman McLaren.
The app McLaren’s Workshop features 51 films by McLaren, 11 short documentaries and an illustrated biography of one of Canada’s greatest artists.
“Norman McLaren was the founding father of animation in the National Film Board. He was really an innovator in terms of the techniques he used”, says Joël Pomerleau, Director of Platform Development and Digital Distribution at the NFB.
“You don’t tackle the work of McLaren without some guidance”. – Joël Pomerleau, Director of Platform Development and Digital Distribution at the NFB.
The application was designed to reproduce the filmmaker’s creative spirit as faithfully as possible.
“We hired people who worked with him to really explain us the techniques and challenge us … You don’t tackle the work of McLaren without some guidance and some experts around you,” says Pomerleau.
One of the key elements of the app is that users can create their own animated films using some of McLaren’s techniques.
The Paper Cut-Out workshop comes free with the app and uses a technique developed by McLaren for the film “The Blackbird”.
“He had a few [geometric] forms – a circle, a line – and he would animate those to create that story around this bird,” says Pomerleau.
Users can also purchase two other workshops – Scratch on Film and Synthetic Sound.
The launch of McLaren’s Workshop is part of a global realignment of the National Film Board that has been taking place since Tom Perlmutter became Chairman in 2007.
“He really challenged us to embark on this digital shift. Now we are trying to harness what we can do with those platforms, not only as media consumption devices, but also as media creation devices,” says Pomerleau.
A number of renowned animators have already tried the workshops. Their films can be seen on the NFB’s Vimeo channel.
Joël Pomerleau, Director of Platform Development and Digital Distribution at the NFB, talked to Gilda Salomone about McLaren’s Workshop, the NFB’s new iPad app.
ListenMcLaren’s Workshop app – Trailer
External links:
Explore the films of Norman McLaren at the National Film Board of Canada
McLaren’s Workshop Free App – Download