Blinkity Blank
| Blinkity Blank | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Norman McLaren |
| Produced by | Norman McLaren |
| Music by | Maurice Blackburn Musicians: Bert Niosi Lew Lewis Gordon Day Isaac Mamott Perry Bauman |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | National Film Board of Canada |
Release date |
|
| Languages | English, French |
Blinkity Blank is a 1955 animated short film created by Norman McLaren for the National Film Board of Canada. It won, among other awards, both the Short Film Palme d'Or at Cannes[1] and the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film.[2]
Production
[edit]Engraved directly onto black film leader, Blinkity Blank features a soundtrack combining improvisational jazz from composer Maurice Blackburn along with graphical sounds created by McLaren scratching onto the film's optical soundtrack.[3]
The film features lines, dots and other abstract forms, along with fruits, trees, planets and chickens—the latter featured at length in another McLaren hand-drawn film Hen Hop—which blink in and out of existence, or merge with or modulate other shapes. McLaren also left some frames blank, which he described as "sprinkling on the empty band of time".[4]
Awards
[edit]- Cannes Film Festival, Cannes: Short Film Palme d'Or, 1955
- 9th British Academy Film Awards, London: BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, 1956
- Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin: Silver Bear, 1955
- Franco-American International Film Festival, Paris: Fourth Prize, 1955
- Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh: Diploma of Merit, 1955
- Cape Town International Film Festival, Cape Town: Certificate of Merit, Documentary, 1955
- Durban International Film Festival, Durban: Certificate of Merit, Documentary, 1955
- SODRE International Festival of Documentary and Experimental Films, Montevideo: First Honourable Mention, Experimental Films, 1956
References
[edit]- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Blinkity Blank". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2011-03-14.
- ^ "Blinkity Blank". Collection. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
- ^ Rist, Peter (2001). Guide to the Cinema(s) of Canada. Greenwood Publishing. p. 18. ISBN 0-313-29931-5.
- ^ Schaffer, Bill (2005). "The Riddle of the Chicken: The Work of Norman McLaren". Senses of Cinema (35). Retrieved 16 March 2011.
External links
[edit]- Watch Blinkity Blank on the NFB website
- Blinkity Blank at IMDb
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- 1955 films
- Films directed by Norman McLaren
- National Film Board of Canada animated short films
- Drawn-on-film animated films
- Animated films without speech
- Short Film Palme d'Or winners
- BAFTA winners (films)
- Jazz films
- Visual music
- Graphical sound
- 1950s animated short films
- 1955 animated films
- Animated musical films
- Canadian animated short films
- Quebec films
- 1950s Canadian animated films
- Pre-1960 Canadian film stubs
- 1950s film stubs
- Short animated film stubs