Mary Ellen Bute Abstract Filmography
Synchronization (1934) collaboration with Joseph Schillinger and Lewis Jacobs [paper or cel animation; lost? incomplete?]

Rhythm in Light (1935, b&w, 5 min.) in collaboration with Melville Webber. Music: "Anitra's Dance" from Grieg's music for Peer Gynt. Moving models with lighting: "cellophane & ping-pong balls," sparklers, egg beaters, bracelets & barber poles, and some drawn animation.

Synchromy No. 2 (1936, b&w, 5 min.) Music: "Evening Star" from Wagner's Tannhäuser, sung by Reinald Werrenrath. Light reflections from cut glass, collander, etc. "Gothic arches, a flowering rod, and stairs recognizable."

Dada (1936) 3-minute short for Universal Newsreel.

Parabola (1938, b&w, 9 min.) music: Création du monde by Darius Milhaud. Based on a sculpture by Rutherford Boyd. Small models and bent rods on a turntable.

Escape (1939, color, 5 min.) Music: Toccata in D Minor by J.S. Bach. Comb, cut celluloid, mirrors & lighting. [cel animation]

Spook Sport (1940, color, 8 min.) Music: Danse macabre by Saint-Saëns. Cel animation + McLaren's drawn-on-film effects.

Spook Sport (1940) Mary Ellen Butte Courtesy of William Moritz

Tarantella (1941, color, 5 min.) Music by Edwin Gerschefski. Drawn animation and cut-outs with light effects, McLaren.

Color Rhapsodie (1951, color, 6 min.) Music: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by Liszt. "Paint on glass, fireworks," animation, fireworks and clouds optically colored.

Polka Graph (1952, color, 5 min.) Music: "Polka" from The Age of Gold by Shostakovich. Cel animation over graph pattern, using Schillinger system. cutouts and cellophane layered.

Pastorale (1953, color, 8 min.) Music: Sheep May Safely Graze by J.S. Bach. "Kaleidoscope of ever-changing shapes, colors, forms, vapors, illuminations and mobile perspectives."

Abstronic (1954, color, 7 min.) Music: "Hoedown" from Billy the Kid by Aaron Copeland and "Ranch House Party" by Don Gillis. Oscilloscope patterns over drawn backgrounds.

Mood Contrasts (1953, color, 7 min.) Music: "Hymn to the Sun" from The Golden Cockerel and "Dance of the Tumblers" from The Snow Maiden by Rimsky-Korsakov. Oscilloscope over backgrounds, including colored liquids, clouds, and grids of colored light shot through glass bricks or cut-glass plate.

Imagination (1958, color, 3 min.) Collage of effects from earlier films. [Abstract bit for Steve Allen]

RCA: New Sensations in Sound (1959, color, 3 min) Commercial. Collage of effects from previous films.