On The Lawn

 When I watched one of the clips of Norman McLaren being interviewed about his life he talked about the making of A chairy tale....The film , made in 1957...explored the notion that a chair has feelings.....and McLaren turns this chair from an inanimate objest to a moving one. (see below)

This clip was very important for me. McLaren showed how he moved the chair.....

.and did a little demo of how he worked on it....in his garden......white clothes, green grass, chair. I have an image of him in my mind dressed like this.
( This has always reminded me of the look of  'The Green Table' ..a ballet which took place over a green baize covered table).

This was also the moment I heard him talk about being a film maker versus a dancer. He recognised that if he had been a dancer he would have moved things/people in a completely different way. I am not sure I agree with him on that! For me he already had many of the prerequisites for choreography!!!
Looking back on the original film now ( A Chairy Tale) I see the potential McLaren would have had as a choreographer. His sense of timing, his spacial awareness in the placing of man and chair, his exploration of the relationship between them both...all are similar to the process of choreography. The design of set and costume and lighting..all very dramatic visually. The image that stayed with me of the elder McLaren sitting on the grass with his white cap on explaining his methods was one I always felt I would include in my work one day......It seemed appropriate to include it as an exploration here!
So I took my son Finn outside at home on a daisy covered lawn... dressed in clothes that remind me of that original image..and used a kitchen chair to try my own animation.
The chair as closely resembled Norman's as I could find ..tho I do not really think it mattered...
Finn had some great ideas for where this could go too. I will ask him to look at music he might make to accompany it....I feel the timing is better in this than my last attempt, but still need to work on this.
I have looked at it afew times ...wondering where it could go next. The chair in my mini exploration takes on a character but so does the cap......the story has only just begun really......It was good to take myself through the process.

Finn questioned the need to wear white, but in end really liked the look. The Green Table ballet had men with black tailcoats, white gloves and green table.....and quite randomly our black cat suddenly decided to join the action...(.and we liked the addition of black to the colour scheme!!!!) So we enticed her into the picture and worked with placing her to follow the action!!  This gives the film another level.......