''Motion Painting No. 1'' (
1947) is a
short animated film in which film artist
Oskar Fischinger
Oskar Wilhelm Fischinger (June 22, 1900 – January 31, 1967) was a German-American abstract animator, filmmaker, and painter, notable for creating abstract musical animation many decades before the appearance of computer graphics and music vid ...
put images in motion to the music of
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...
's ''
Brandenburg Concerto no. 3, BWV 1048''.
Production
The film was created by applying oil paint on
acrylic glass
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...
. Fischinger filmed each brushstroke over the course of 9 months.
Legacy
In 1997, the film was selected for inclusion in the United States
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...
by the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The
Academy Film Archive
The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...
preserved ''Motion Painting No. 1'' in 2000, though they do not have distribution rights.
References
Further reading
* The original
acrylic glass
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...
panels are at the Deutsches Filmmuseum in
Frankfurt, Germany
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...
.
*
William Moritz
William Moritz (May 6, 1941 – March 12, 2004), film historian, specialized in visual music and experimental animation. His principal published works concerned abstract filmmaker and painter Oskar Fischinger. He also wrote extensively on other v ...
, ''Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger'' (London: John Libbey & Company Ltd., and Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 2004)
External links
* {{IMDb title, id=0039635
FilmAffinity
1947 films
United States National Film Registry films
American avant-garde and experimental films
Paint-on-glass animated films
Visual music
American animated short films
1947 animated films
1940s American animated films