Norman Mclaren Animated Sound

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Notes on Animated SoundAuthor(s): Norman McLaren and William JordanSource: The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Spring, 1953), pp. 223-229Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1209819 .

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N o t e s o n Animated S o u n d

NORMAN McLAREN

Introduction by WILLIAM JORDAN

NORMAN McLAREN is currently in India on a film assignment for UNESCO, but willreturn to Ottawa, Canada, to resume his work with the Canadian Film Board. A pioneerin animation, McLaren composed and photographed music and sound effects from draw-

ings in three notable films, Love Your Neighbor, Now Is the Time, and Two Bagatelles.William Jordan, a member of the Theater Arts Department of the University of Cali-

fornia, Los Angeles campus, introduces Mr. McLaren's description of his animated soundmethod with an explanation of normal sound recording.

IN NORMALound recording, the "live"voice, music, or noise, is collected bya microphone which converts these audible sound energies into correspond-

ing, fluctuating electrical energy. This current is then carried throughwires to the recording apparatus. After amplification, the electrical impulsesactuate a light valve which produces on film emulsion a photographicimage of the original sounds. Depending upon the kind of light valve used,the image may be either one of varying area-a saw-toothed pattern where

black meets white-or one of varying density, which appears as strips oflightness or darkness. These photographic images of sound waves are re-corded on a narrow strip near one edge of the film width, and are convertedback to sound when the completed film is run through a sound projector.In other words, actual sounds are translated into energy, and the energyinto light, which can be recorded on film as a pattern of light and dark.Because the animated sound techniques described in this article also pro-duce patterns on film, animated and recorded live sound can be used inthe same film. McLaren's Two Bagatelles contains a section of recorded

calliope music, and Maurice Blackburn, who composed and photographedmusic for Twirligig and Phantasy, used in the latter a combination of ani-mated sound and saxophones.

In the article which follows, Norman McLaren describes each step of hisanimated sound technique.

A SMALL LIBRARY of several dozen cards, each containing black

and white areas representing sound waves, replaced traditional

musical instruments and noisemaking devices in the animated

sound process developed at the National Film Board in Canada.

These drawings were photographed with the same kind of

r 223



motion-picture camera as is normally used in the shooting of

animated cartoons. In fact, they were shot in precisely the same

wayas the drawingsof a cartoon;that is, one drawingis placed infront of the cameraand one frame of film is taken. Then the first

drawing is removed, replaced with another drawing, and the

second frame of film taken; the drawing is changed again, the

third frame taken, and so on.

The only difference from normal cartoon picture shooting is

that the drawingsare not of scenesfrom the visible world around

us but are of sound waves, and they are not done on cards ofmotion-picture screen proportions but on long, narrow cards.

These cardsarephotographednot on the area of the filmoccupied

by the picture but to the left of it, on the narrow verticle strip

normally reserved for the sound track.

When the film is developed and printed, and run on a sound

projector, the photographed images of these black-and-white

drawingsare heard as either noise, sound effects,or music. It istherefore logical to call the kind of sound produced in this way"animated"sound, for it is madeby the same method as animated

pictures, and from a creative and artistic point of view it shares

many of the peculiarities and possibilities of animated visuals. It

could also be called "drawn" or "graphic"sound; in the past it

has frequently been called "synthetic"sound, which is correct,

but since "synthetic" sound also includes sound made by newelectronic and electrical instruments which do not necessarilyinvolve the use of motion-picturefilm,this is a moregeneral term.

"Animated"is by far the most precise term for the type of sound

discussedin this article.

There aremanypossiblewaysof makinganimatedsound,some

of which were tried out aslong ago as 1931.These notes deal only

with the method we have been developing during the last fewyearsat the National Film Boardof Canada.

It would have been possible to make drawingsof sound waves

byrecording"live"music soundson film soundtrack,then tracing

224 THE QUARTERLY



ANIMATED SOUND 225

the resulting patternsfrom the track.However, to do this would

be as pointless and creatively stultifying as to make animated

cartoonsby photographinglive actorsand tracing their outlines.Instead, in the films under discussion,a nonnaturalisticapproachwastaken,with no particularattemptto imitate naturalsoundsor

traditionalmusical instruments. New kinds of sound waveswere

made by using simple and easily drawn shapes.The drawingsconsist of a basic figure or simple shape that is

repeatedover and over to forma patternedband.The figure may

be no more thanawhite line on a darkgroundorasingle gradationof tone fromlight to dark,but, byvirtue of its identical repetition,it builds up into a series of sound waves having a definite tone

color.

Each card in the library of drawingscarries one such band of

repeatedpatternson an areaone inch wide by twelve inches long.On some cardsthe basic figure is repeated only about four times

within this area, and this, when photographedon one frame offilm,will sound as a musicalnote of a fairlydeep pitch (abouttwo

octavesbelow middle A). For mid-pitchesthere are from twentyto thirtyrepetitions of the basic figureon each card,and for very

high-pitched notes as many as one hundred and twenty.There is one cardfor each semitone of the chromaticscale,and

in all, for the sound tracksof Love YourNeighbour, Now is the

Time, Two Bagatelles, Twirligig, and Phantasy, sixty such cardswereused,coveringarangeof fiveoctaves,fromtwo octavesbelow

middle A to three octaves above.

These sixty cardswere labeled with the standardmusical nota-

tion and arrangedsystematically n a small box to form a kind of

keyboard.When the music wasbeing shot, the box wasplaced beside the

camera so that the composer(whowould alsooperatethe camera),desiringa particularpitch, could select from the box the requiredcard and place it in front of the camera.

To get notes of a very deep pitch, the music was shot twice as



fast as finally desired; in the process of rerecording it was slowed

down by half, and thus dropped one octave in pitch.

Because a picture camera takes film intermittently by the frame-ful (rather than running continuously as in the ordinary sound

recording equipment) the sound track has a mosaic nature; in

other words, it builds up out of small units each one twenty-fourth

of a second long.1If longer duration of a note is desired, several successive frames

of the same card are shot, building up a sustained effect by a very

rapid repetition of the same note, as in a mandolin or xylophone;for a very short note, just one frame or at most two frames suffice.

For rests and pauses a black card is photographed. Thus by

photographing combinations of picture cards and black cards for

varying lengths of time and at varying speeds, the composer con-

trols both pitch and rhythm.

Before exposing the film, however, the composer has to deter-

mine the precise volume or dynamic level of the notes. This is oneof the important new factors in animated music, for in the past

dynamic markings have never been written into traditional music

scoring with any degree of precision. The difference between forte

and fortissimo, piano and pianissimo, for example, is relative, not

exact.

In addition, the standard pp, p, mf, f, and ff, etc., indicating

relative and approximate amounts of volume, are never appliedto every single note in a score, and their final determining is left

to the interpreting artist; but in creating animated music, the

composer determines the precise dynamics of every note in the

score. In other words, the composer must also be the interpretive

artist.

To this end, twenty-four degrees of dynamic level were used

(representing a decibel scale) and opposite each note in the scorethe number representing the desired dynamic level of that note

was written.

1The standard for projecting sound motion pictures is at the rate of twenty-four images

per second.

226 THE QUARTERLY



For instance, o, i, and 2 represent three differing degrees of

ppp; 9, 1o, and 11,threeshadesof mp; 12, 13,and 14,threedegrees

of mf; 21, 22, and 23, threedegreesof fff; 24representsaffff.Subdivisionsof thesetwenty-fourdegreeswereconstantlybeing

used (particularly in crescendos and diminuendos), but were

seldom written into the score. In local or rapid crescendosand

diminuendos only the startingand finishing dynamicmarkswere

written and the type of crescendos and diminuendos (such as

"arithmetical"or "geometric")were indicated by a small sketch.

The volume was controlled sometimes by manipulating theshutter or diaphragmof the camera and so affectingthe exposure

(variabledensitycontrol) but more often by covering up the one-

inch-wide drawing until only a half or fourth or other fraction

of its width was visible (variableareacontrol).Whichever method

was used, the calibration was in decibels, giving the composer

complete control of dynamics.

The sound of a note, however, is affectednot only by volumebut by its attack, sustention, and decay,or tone contour. Not onlydid the composer have the last and precise word on dynamicsbut he was also forced to specify the exact tone contour of each

note. This is importantbecausethe contouringof the note is more

important than its basic tone quality in determining "instru-

mental"effect.In traditionalmusicalsounds,for instance,a piano

note has a very rapid attack,no period of sustention, but a longperiod of decay;its contour is like a mountain peakwith one very

steep side, and one gently sloping side. A typical organ note has

an abrupt attack, a prolonged sustention, and a rapid decay; a

contour rather like a plateau with a precipice at one side and a

steepslopeat the other.A tapon awood blockhasa suddenattack,no sustention, and a very rapid decay. Wind instruments are

capableof muchlessabruptforms of attackthanpercussioninstru-ments. A violin, like the human voice, is capable of almost anykind of attack,sustention, and decay.

By giving a particularcontour to each note, the composer gave

227NIMATED SOUND



it what would traditionally be called its instrumental quality. In

practice this was done by placing black masks of varying shapes

in front of the selected pitch card bearing the drawing of thesound waves; in this way we obtained about six kinds of tone

contour, some not possible by traditional instruments.

In Love Your Neighbour there was very considerable use of

variable tone contouring, while in the other films only one per-cussive type of contour (wedge-shaped) predominated.

In the sound track of Love Your Neighbour the range and

variety of sound effects and tone qualities were considerably en-

larged by using several supplementary sets of drawings, some of

which had rising and falling pitches for portamento and glissando

effects. Some drawings, though simple to the eye and easy to pre-

pare, had a complex sound-wave structure, rich in harmonics, thus

giving very strident and harsh sound qualities.

For several simultaneous musical parts, either in harmony or

counterpoint, three methods were used. In one, different drawingswere superimposed on each other by several separate exposures.

In another, the sound track was divided lengthwise into several

parallel strips and the different drawings shot beside each other

in each strip. The third was a method in which each musical part

was shot on a separate film and the various parts mixed together

during rerecording.

Animated sound produced by this method is normally com-

pletely "dry," or without resonance or echo. To achieve more

resonance and add acoustic quality, two methods were used. The

first, mainly for specific notes and localized or momentary effects,

was done by shooting the same note in a rapid series of diminish-

ing volumes (that is, the same drawing in smaller and smaller

sizes); this simulates the natural effect of the sound waves bounc-

ing back and forth from the walls of an instrument, room, hall, orcavern. The degree to which any particular note in the score can

be placed in such an acoustical environment is controlled during

shooting by the number and nature of diminishing replicas of the

original drawing of that note.

228 THE QUARTERLY



To obtain the general or over-allacousticalenvironment,vary-

ing amounts of reverberation and echo were added, either elec-

tronicallyor acoustically during a rerecording.To sum up the variousfeatures of animated sound asdeveloped

to date at the National Film Board of Canada:

The composerhas control over pitch (to the nearest 1/o1 of a

tone), over dynamics (to at least 1 per cent of the total dynamic

range), over rhythm and metric spacing (to the nearest 1/50 of a

second). The control over "timbre" (tone contour and tone

quality) is less flexible, but a variety of about a half dozen typesof tone quality and tone contour are possible, which by cross

combination give quite a rangeof "instrumental"effects.

Now that the initial researchhas been done it has sometimes

been found more economical to make animated rather than live

music, particularlyfor animated visuals. This is understandable

if we consider the hours of rehearsal which musicians have to

endure in order to match synchronously the visual action of afilm. On the otherhand, the composerof animatedmusic,working

slowly in incrementsof 1/24 of a second, can correlate his music

with the most subtle visual movement. The differences both in

cost, especially in termsof man-hours,and precision can be con-

siderable. Subsequent changes and alterations to parts of the

music can be made without the need to rephotographthe whole

score, simply by reshooting the particularnotes affected.Although we consider the possibilities of animated sound still

largelyunexplored, and this particularmethod to be not only one

of many but still far from perfect,we are alreadykeenly awareof

some of its salient featuresas a medium of expression.It is free from the normal limitations affectingthe human per-

formance of musical instruments and from the usual laws of

acoustics.For the musician, perhapsthe most important point isthat the shooting of the music is not carriedon at the samespeedas that at which it will finally be heard, but as slowly as desired,thus permitting the composerto plan preciselyand to deliberate

on the execution of the music as much as on the composing.

ANIMATED SOUND 229

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