A moment passes. The artist stands transfixed on the images he has laid on the canvas; images that now beckon him to journey into a world of deeper meaning and mysticism. The artist meditates on the mystery for but a brief moment before courageously stepping into the canvas - the netherworld of his mind.
Drouin's Mindscape is introduced with a wide-angle, panning shot of an impressionistic countryside filled with rolling hills and a gentle forest populated by wildlife and fauna. At the centre of this creation stands a painter, in front of his easel, captivated by the beauty around him.
The birds chirp and fly through a cloudy sky that forever engages in a metamorphic dance of creation and re-creation. The artist contemplates his surrounding one last time before completing his painting with a final, gentle stroke.
That final, gentle stroke marks a new beginning; a spiritual revolution for an artist in search of beauty in truth.
What is Pinscreen Animation?
Mindscape was created through a rare animation technique called pinscreen animation. Pinscreen animation involves the delicate process of creating images through the careful adjustment of pins attached to a white screen. Each pin's length is manipulated to cast shadows of varying degrees which in turn renders a portion of the white screen lighter or darker. These shaded areas produce an image that can then be photographed for animation sequences.
The pinscreen animation technique used in Mindscape was developed by Alexandre Alexeieff and his wife, Claire Parker. The couple frequented the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and demonstrated their technique on August 7th, 1972. Amongst the artists available for this demonstration was Jacques Drouin.
Jacques Drouin - Writer, Director and Animator
Jacques Drouin was born in Mont-Joli, Quebec, Canada. Drouin studied art at the Ecole des beaux-arts in Montreal before leaving for UCLA, California to study filmmaking. During an animation exhibition in the late 60s, Drouin encountered pinscreen animation - an animation technique he has remained faithful to until this day. Drouin has also continued to produce short films for the NFB since he joined as an apprentice in the early 70s.
National Film Board of Canada Online
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Credits for "Mindscape"
- Animation, Direction and Writer: Jacques Drouin
- Music: Denis Larochelle
- Sound: Roger Lamoureux and Michel Descombes
- Produced by: Gaston Sarault
- Produced by the National Film Board of Canada
- Running Time: 7min 31s
- Black and White
Other Films by Jacques Drouin
- 1974 - Three Exercises on Alexeiff Pinscreen
- 1976 - Mindscape
- 1986 - Nightangel (in collaboration with Bretislav Pojar)
- 1988 - A Sun Between Two Clouds (animator)
- 1990 - Nathael and the Sea Hunt
- 1991 - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (animator)
- 1994 - Ex-Child
- 1996 - A Life Like a River (animator)
- 2001 - A Hunting Lesson (adapted by Jacques Godbout'
- 2003 - Winter Days (in collaboration with other animators)
- 2004 - Imprints
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