Pixiallation is the stop motion animation technique that consists of shooting one frame at a time with either characters or objects whose movements are entirely controlled by the film maker. Although made famous by Norman McLaren pixillation goes back to trick films where using special effects marked the early years of film making, these techniques were made famous by Segundo de Chomon of Spain in 1905 and Roméo Bosetti of France in 1912.
The silent film El Hotel Eléctrico by Segundo de Chomón which was one of the first forms of special effects later known as Pixilation.
As Marcel Jean says Pixilation is about reality and how the film makers explore the techniques, it is an interaction of the actors and objects that are formed in a three dimensional setting. Through Pixilation the film makers have found a way of telling the story which can be interpreted in many different ways depending on how the audience sees it.
Norman McLaren most famous work was Neighbours which was a humorous but slightly extreme version of a real life event. In both 'Neighbours' and 'A Chairy Tale' within the stop motion where the inanimate objects have been given personalities. The soundtrack in 'Neighbours' is matching to the movement that they are making, although the soundtrack would have been made after the pixillation an example of this is when something dramatic is about to happen the music gets a bit more tensed. The movements are minimal which causes the most impact this is because it is being filmed in a small space where the camera doesn't move at all, it's the movement of the actors and objects. In Norman's work he tells a story where there is action and conflict in a humorous way.
Jan Kounen who is a French film director born in Holland was influenced by parts of McLaren's work of 'Neighbours' in his production of 'Gisele Kerozene'. Jan's used a lot of movement of the actors and he makes it look as though the witches are actually flying on the broomsticks. The narrative is told in three parts, with the main plot being them wanting to get the statue back off the fourth witch. Similar to Norman McLaren's there is conflict and action which is interpreted in a humorous way so that the tone is less serious. This soundtrack were little pieces of audio which were used to make it sound as though the witches were talking.
While Jan Kounen and Norman McLaren's work were both about conflict, this area of Jan Svankmayer's work was about humorous nightmare stories. As Svankmayer's work had unorthodox tones to it this meant that he got banned from movie making for a period as his ideas were seen as disturbing for the time. The sounds that he used were exaggerated these were especially used in his eating scenes of 'Food'. His disturbing ideas were seen as dark humour by Michael Nottingham who said Svankmayer was mocking the social ritual's. The narrative story is showing the strange relationship that people have with food. Similar to the other two Svankmayer also used pixillation to move inanimate objects.
Other ways of using Pixillation are through green screens, which is the way Aardman Animation produced a music video clip for Peter Gabriel. This way the green screen can match the soundtrack. Less known about artists such as André Leduc who used pixialation at the National Board of Canada where he explored techniques for fantasy in his three films Tout écartillé , Monsieur Pointu and Chérie, ôte tes raquettes.
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/07_pixillation_project.html -12th September
http://www3.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/techniques/pixillation.php -12th September
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_%C5%A0vankmajer -12th September
Norman McLaren's most famous work 'Neighbours'
Jan Kounen who is a French film director born in Holland was influenced by parts of McLaren's work of 'Neighbours' in his production of 'Gisele Kerozene'. Jan's used a lot of movement of the actors and he makes it look as though the witches are actually flying on the broomsticks. The narrative is told in three parts, with the main plot being them wanting to get the statue back off the fourth witch. Similar to Norman McLaren's there is conflict and action which is interpreted in a humorous way so that the tone is less serious. This soundtrack were little pieces of audio which were used to make it sound as though the witches were talking.
Jan Kounen's most famous work 'Gisele Kerozene'
Other ways of using Pixillation are through green screens, which is the way Aardman Animation produced a music video clip for Peter Gabriel. This way the green screen can match the soundtrack. Less known about artists such as André Leduc who used pixialation at the National Board of Canada where he explored techniques for fantasy in his three films Tout écartillé , Monsieur Pointu and Chérie, ôte tes raquettes.
http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/aim/a_notes/07_pixillation_project.html -12th September
http://www3.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/techniques/pixillation.php -12th September
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_%C5%A0vankmajer -12th September
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