McLaren was fond of listening to music which became a heavy influence for his animations. He was also interested in the montage techniques Russian directors used in live action films.
One of his first films was to the music piece, 'Brahms Hungarian Dance' in 1933. He had little to no equipment and a low bank balance and was discovering new ways to produce animation and film. He got hold of some old used 35mm film and removed he coating on it by soaking it for 2weeks in the bath: this made the film clear to work on. He applied ink and pen in each frame which linked together when put in a projector. He played the film so much that it burnt out.
He originally worked in black and white (black ink of clear film), but some of his animations have since been produced in colour. This was done by applying colour chemically to the film, one role was positive colour, another role was negative colour. They were superimposed together to create the one film, a white line can be seen around the film where the films don't match up properly. It creates an imperfect quality to the animations.
His method of direct animation was very appealing. He hand drew on the film, frame by frame, if it didn't work he rubbed it off and started again. He originally started this method because he had no equipment or camera to work with but developed the process making some very successful animations. They don't all look as if they have been made in this process especially the coloured films. The fluidity from frame to frame is strong. I think i prefer the black and white films he produced at the beginning to the colour films as they have more of a rustic quality to them. The lines of the films are shaky, but the film really reminds me of old movies and the imperfect aspect of using the reels of film.
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