Far Beyond The Traditional Cel: Innovative Techniques

Joan Kim interviews Nina Paley, Michèle Cournoyer, Stephen X. Arthur, Kirsten Winter, Mikk Rand and Richard Reeves about their filmmaking techniques and learns that there is more than one way to make a picture move frame by frame.

By Joan Kim | Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 12:00 am

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Innovate! Take a chance. Take a risk. Do something just to see what it looks like. Nina Paley, Michèle Cournoyer, Stephen X. Arthur, Kirsten Winter, Mikk Rand and Richard Reeves have done all of the above. Take a look at the descriptions from the artists themselves on the variety of materials and technical methods they incorporate into achieving the look and feel that they want. From traditional to more unorthodox techniques, these artists give us some insight into their creative process.

Pandorama. © Nina Paley.

Nina Paley, Director/Animator
Nina Paley is probably best known for her alternative comic strip, Nina's Adventures, which began in 1988. She went on to create her film Pandorama, which was presented in IMAX theatres. Working as the producer for this project she was able to raise donations in the form of film stock, processing and services, and got Xlargo in Paris, France as a large-format distributor.

"I've used clay models; clay on glass on an Oxberry animation stand; 2D digital animation; drawing, scratching, painting and rubber-stamping directly on film; and drawing on paper with an animation table. Over the past 4 years I've used Super-8, 16mm, 35mm and 70mm film. I've used Flash, normally a Web animation program, for my film Fetch! I designed the movie at 24fps, and had the whole thing rendered to 35mm film on Monaco Labs' film recorder. I used a crude 'mini-rotoscope' system for parts of Pandorama and Cancer. I passed bits of 35mm slug with images I liked (usually people dancing) through a little backlit rig with brads as registration pins. Over this I layered clear leader. One frame at a time, I traced a few lines of movement with black Rapidograph. Later I added color to the other side of the film. "I love trying new techniques. I'm strictly limited by budget constraints, which is a drag, but it also drives me to find creative production methods. If I had to make my films the 'correct' way, they'd never get done!"