description Blinkity Blank Overview
Blinkity Blank is a 1955 experimental animated short created by Norman McLaren for the National Film Board of Canada. McLaren produced its abstract imagery by engraving, scratching, and painting directly onto film stock, coordinating flashes of color and shape with a score by Maurice Blackburn. Rather than presenting a conventional narrative, the film explores rhythm, intervals, motion, and the relationship between image and sound. It received the Short Film Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
insights Ranking position
Blinkity Blank ranks #123 of 438 in the Short Film ranking, behind The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life, ahead of The Windshield Wiper.
help Blinkity Blank FAQ
How was Blinkity Blank animated?
Norman McLaren scratched, engraved, and painted images directly onto black 35 mm film stock instead of photographing conventional drawings. The marks therefore appear as flashes of color synchronized with a similarly hand-worked soundtrack.
Does Blinkity Blank have a story?
It has fragments of recognizable action, including a birdlike figure and a cage, but it does not tell a conventional continuous story. McLaren uses gaps of black leader and isolated bursts of imagery to make viewers mentally connect movements across empty frames.
Who created the music for Blinkity Blank?
Canadian composer Maurice Blackburn created the film's score. Its percussive sounds are tightly coordinated with McLaren's scratched images, making sound and picture function as a single rhythmic composition.
What award did Blinkity Blank win at Cannes?
Blinkity Blank won the Palme d'Or for short film at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. It was produced by the National Film Board of Canada, where McLaren developed several influential direct-animation techniques.
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