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]
| 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 |
Production
editEngraved 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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