Begone Dull Care (1949)

Wissenswertes

Begone Dull Care is a 1949 visual music animated film created by Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

Production

At the time, Oscar Peterson was 24 and new to the professional jazz world. McLaren heard his music and traveled from Ottawa to Montreal to hear him play at a club, then asked if he’d be interested in recording the music for a film. The next morning, McLaren showed him Stars and Stripes (1939), Dots (1940) and Loops (1940) and Peterson played some ideas.

In their studio, McLaren and Lambart stretched a clear strip of celluloid and pinned it onto a 12’ wooden board. The recorded music was measured and drawn onto the film. An oscilloscope allowed them to see the vibrations and mark them on the film. After measuring notable passages as a visual map, they matched their configured shapes and colours to follow the benchmarked sounds.

Each segment was checked to make sure it had captured the spirit of the music. If it had not, they repainted the images. Numerous transparent coloured dyes were used; musical accents or short phrases were emphasized by additional painting or engraving. Black film allowed them to scratch onto the film.

These abstract shapes dance, shake, spin, and curl to the sound of Peterson’s fingers on the piano. In one instance, the sounds of the three musicians are encapsulated in a flurry of three-dimensional shapes landing on a pinkish feather; in another, a bird-like design flaps its wings in tempo.

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