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Christmas Cracker (film)
''Christmas Cracker'' (French: ''Caprice de Noël'') is a 1963 animated short about Christmas, co-directed by Norman McLaren, Gerald Potterton, Grant Munro and Jeff Hale. The film consists of a playful clown who presents three segments: a rendition of "Jingle Bells" in which cutout animation figures dance, a dime-store rodeo of tin toys and a story about decorating the perfect Christmas tree with a Christmas star. Between each segment, the clown does a short transition while a chiptune rendition of "The Holly and the Ivy" plays. ''Jingle Bells'' The first of three segments presented by the clown displays two cutout animation figures dance together while a guitar rendition of "Jingle Bells". The figures are wearing trapezoids as clothing with boots. As the guitar progresses, the cutout animation figures’ dancing accelerates. ''Tin Toys'' The second segment is stop-motion animation of toys coming to life. In this short film is a tin butterfly, alligator, bird, robot, clown, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman McLaren
William Norman McLaren, LL. D. (11 April 1914 – 27 January 1987) was a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).Rosenthal, Alan. ''The new documentary in action: a casebook in film making''. University of California Press, 1972. 267-8. Print. He was a pioneer in a number of areas of animation and filmmaking, including hand-drawn animation, drawn-on-film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound. McLaren was also an artist and printmaker, and explored his interest in dance in his films. His awards included an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1952 for ''Neighbours'', a Silver Bear for best short documentary at the 1956 Berlin International Film Festival for '' Rythmetic'' and a 1969 BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film for ''Pas de deux''. Early life Norman McLaren was born in Stirling, Scotland, on 11 April 1914. He had two older siblings, one brother, Jack ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trapezoid
A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a Convex polygon, convex quadrilateral in Euclidean geometry. The parallel sides are called the ''bases'' of the trapezoid. The other two sides are called the ''legs'' (or the ''lateral sides'') if they are not parallel; otherwise, the trapezoid is a parallelogram, and there are two pairs of bases). A ''scalene trapezoid'' is a trapezoid with no sides of equal measure, in contrast with the #Special cases, special cases below. Etymology and ''trapezium'' versus ''trapezoid'' Ancient Greek mathematician Euclid defined five types of quadrilateral, of which four had two sets of parallel sides (known in English as square, rectangle, rhombus and rhomboid) and the last did not have two sets of parallel sides – a τραπέζια (''trapezia'' literally "a table", itself fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1963 Short Films
Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove River, Sydney, Australia. * January 2 – Vietnam War – Battle of Ap Bac: The Viet Cong win their first major victory. * January 9 – A total penumbral lunar eclipse is visible in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and is the 56th lunar eclipse of Lunar Saros 114. Gamma has a value of −1.01282. It occurs on the night between Wednesday, January 9 and Thursday, January 10, 1963. * January 13 – 1963 Togolese coup d'état: A military coup in Togo results in the installation of coup leader Emmanuel Bodjollé as president. * January 17 – A last quarter moon occurs between the penumbral lunar eclipse and the annular solar eclipse, only 12 hours, 29 minutes after apogee. * January 19 – Soviet spy Ghe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Driessen (animator)
Paul Augustin Driessen (born 1940) is a Dutch film director, animator and writer. Biography After studying graphic design and illustration at the Art Academy in Utrecht, Driessen began animating TV-commercials in the Netherlands in the 1960, although he had no training in that art at all. When George Dunning, in search for talent, found Driessen at the Cine Cartoon Centre in Hilversum, he hired him as an animator for his feature animation film '' Yellow Submarine'' (1968). He also helped Driessen to emigrate to Canada where he became a member of the National Film Board of Canada in 1972. Style Driessen's unique style can be easily recognized by the delicate quality of his ever-moving and wiggling lines, as well as by the fluid but awkward movements of his characters. His storytelling sometimes splits up the screen into three or even six different parts, with all actions nicely woven into each other. Accolades His short films have won more than fifty prizes all over the world, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noël Noël
''Noël Noël'' is a 22-minute animated short produced by the National Film Board of Canada in 2003 as a Christmas special. It was directed by Nicola Lemay and written by Martin Barry. The English-language version was adapted by John Weldon and narrated by Leslie Nielsen. The original French-language version was narrated by Benoît Brière. Awards for the film included the Prix Gémeaux for Best Animated Program or Series and an Award of Excellence in the category of Animation age 6 - 8 from the Alliance for Children and Television. In the United States, the short aired on Cartoon Network. Plot Billionaire businessman Noel Noël is rich but rude. He falls for a fairy named Beatrice, and tries to win her love with material gifts before learning the true meaning of love from a little girl named Zoey Murphy, her dog Snooze, and a blue-eyed reindeer. See also * List of Christmas films Many Christmas stories have been adapted to feature films and TV specials, and have been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
RiffTrax
RiffTrax is an American company that produces scripted humorous commentary tracks which are synced to mostly public domain feature films, education shorts, and television episodes. With the talents of former ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K'') cast members and writers, RiffTrax also produces several live shows each year which are broadcast to movie theaters. The style of commentating originated from MST3K, their earlier television series, in which they would similarly mock (or "riff") films aloud while watching them. As of February 2022, RiffTrax has riffed 460 feature films, 410 short films, and 16 TV episodes. The first releases originally featured Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett, through audio-only tracks intended to be played in unison with unaltered VHS and DVD copies of these programs. After the introduction of already-synced VHS and DVD material, added to the riffers were Mary Jo Pehl and Bridget Jones Nelson, who also wrote and performed for th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
37th Academy Awards
The 37th Academy Awards honored film achievements of 1964. For the first time, an award was presented in the field of makeup. The Best Picture winner of 1964, director George Cukor's ''My Fair Lady'', was about the transformative training of a rough-speaking flower girl into a lady. The musical had run for many years on the stage in both NYC and London. Audrey Hepburn, the female lead of the film, was controversially not nominated for Best Actress. The unpopularity of her replacing Julie Andrews – who had originated the role on Broadway and, coincidentally, the Best Actress winner of the year for ''Mary Poppins'' – as well as the revelation that the majority of her singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon (which wasn't approved by Hepburn herself) were seen as the main reasons for the snub. The ceremony was produced by MGM's Joe Pasternak and hosted, for the 14th time, by Bob Hope. The awards show was a star-studded one, including an appearance by Judy Garland, who sang a med ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Academy Award For Best Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1931–32, to the present. From 1932 until 1970, the category was known as Short Subjects, Cartoons; and from 1971 to 1973 as Short Subjects, Animated Films. The present title began with the 46th Awards in 1974. During the first 5 decades of the award's existence, awards were presented to the producers of the shorts. Current Academy rules, however, call for the award to be presented to "the individual person most directly responsible for the concept and the creative execution of the film." Moreover, " the event that more than one individual has been directly and importantly involved in creative decisions, a second statuette may be awarded." Only American films were nominated for the award until the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Francisco International Film Festival
The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by the San Francisco Film Society, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in international film and video production with an emphasis on work that has not yet secured U.S. distribution. In 2009, it served around 82,000 patrons, with screenings held in San Francisco and Berkeley."San Francisco Film Festival Bucks Economic Trends to Set New Records for Revenue and Attendance." sffs.org. 7 May 2009. San Francisco Film Society. 29 June 2009 In March 2014, Noah Cowan, former executive director of the Toronto International Film Festival, became executive director of the SFFS and SFIFF, replacing Ted Hope. Prior to Hope, the festival was briefly headed by Bingham Ray, who served as SFFS executive director until his death after only ten weeks on the job in January 2012. Graham Leggat became the executive director of the Sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cartoon
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images intended for satire, caricature, or humor; or a motion picture that relies on a sequence of illustrations for its animation. Someone who creates cartoons in the first sense is called a '' cartoonist'', and in the second sense they are usually called an '' animator''. The concept originated in the Middle Ages, and first described a preparatory drawing for a piece of art, such as a painting, fresco, tapestry, or stained glass window. In the 19th century, beginning in ''Punch'' magazine in 1843, cartoon came to refer – ironically at first – to humorous artworks in magazines and newspapers. Then it also was used for political cartoons and comic strips. When the medium developed, in the early 20th century, it began to refer to animate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwell's equations. Various common phenomena are related to electricity, including lightning, static electricity, electric heating, electric discharges and many others. The presence of an electric charge, which can be either positive or negative, produces an electric field. The movement of electric charges is an electric current and produces a magnetic field. When a charge is placed in a location with a non-zero electric field, a force will act on it. The magnitude of this force is given by Coulomb's law. If the charge moves, the electric field would be doing work on the electric charge. Thus we can speak of electric potential at a certain point in space, which is equal to the work done by an external agent in carrying a unit of positiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. But jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
