A brief history of animation - The Silent Era

In the Silent Era, (1899 - 1924) Walter Ruttman was a pioneer in experimental film. When we look at his background, we soon start to see beyond the abstract colours and shapes. Ruttman served his country's military in WW1, as a result he lived on with severe psychological trauma. Thus from this we can depict that this experimental animation could reflect the psychological trauma in his mind, the confusion, the bad thoughts, etc, which adds another depth to his animations which is truly amazing.

Ruttman created his (avant-garde at the time) animation with paint on glass, where each painted shape was photographed before being wiped from the glass and repainted to form the next frame. Ruttman also explored a relationship between sound and shape, which was different in that time of film. I feel Norman Mclaren took great inspiration from Ruttman, in his 1940 video "Dots" which is very experimental, in both sight and sound as he explores the relationship between visual imagery and sound, creating shapes that are reflective of the sound that he makes by scratching onto the film, rather like Ruttman who creates shapes reflective of the sound you hear in Lichtspiel Opus I.

Lotte Reiniger was the pioneer of silhouette animation.

she created beautiful silhouette animations from black paper cut outs, that were fantastical and mystical. This from of animation recently made a comeback, but in the new medium of CG. Here when we observe the graphics of the game Limbo (2010), which probably wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Lotte Reiniger pioneering the use of silhouettes in animation.

Also in 2010 was the release of "Invention of love" by Andrey Shushkov, employing these silhouette lighting effects, to create an austere mood and atmosphere, to represent the bleak mechanical world, and create the feeling of steam and smog from the machinery using slightly frosted layers. She creates an industrial world, where our love for the environment has gone. The main message Shushkov employs is one of how our love for machines and industry is overpowering our love for our own environment, which is more important.

Emile Cohl was also a breakthrough in the silent era, it can be considered that he was the first animator to explore the relationship between character and narrative within animation, instead of just creating animation for just the aesthetic of making things move, she actually creates a story to engage the audience.

It is rumoured that Ladislas Starevich was inspired by Emile Cohl in manipulating objects and bringing them to life. This is present within his animations as he manipulates the corpses of cockroaches to give the illusion they are alive with anthropomorphic qualities and

stop-motion techniques.

I feel Starevich inspired many animators with his dark, stop-motion style. One of which I feel is Paul Berry, with his famous animation; The Sandman (1992) which has this creaky movement which complements the dark aesthetic of the animation. Tim Burton and Laika Animations also, taking on this dark aesthetic of childrens animation with a quirky, creaky stop motion movement.

You can also depict that Windsor Mccay was aslo influenced by Emile Cohl's 'Fantasmagorie' (1908) motifs to Cohl can be found within 'Little Nemo', with the use of dots forming into nemo echoing the repetitive use of dots in 'Fantasmagorie'.

McCay also was the first animator to coexist animation and live action within 'Gertie the Dinosaur' (1914), in return this made animation appear as realistic as live action when intertwined, increasing the "magical" aspect it obtained through it's early years from the pre-film mediums.