Pinscreen Animation, "Night on Bald Mountain" (1933)

~ Howdy, Folks!

Alexandre Alexandrovitch Alexeieff (18 April 1901 – 9 August 1982) was a Russian Empire-born artist, filmmaker and illustrator who lived and worked mainly in Paris. He and his second wife Claire Parker (1910–1981) are credited with inventing the pinscreen as well as the animation technique totalization. In all Alexeieff produced 6 films on the pinscreen, 41 advertising films and illustrated 41 books.

After building the first large pinscreen, Alexeieff and Parker began work on the first pinscreen film in 1931, "Night on Bald Mountain", an adaptation of the piece by Modest, his favorite Russian composer. The theme of Mussorgsky's composition and the film is a witches’ Sabbath on the summer solstice on Mount Triglav near Kiev, Russia. However the film is less narrative and more poetic, a succession of images rather than a story. The film took the couple two years to make.

The technique of the pinscreen made it impossible to erase any of the images that had been shot after having drawn them. Once an image was shot, it was impossible to correct it. One had to wait until the film was back from the laboratory. Therefore two years of work had been conceived in the dark so to speak. Adding to the impermanence of the pinscreen itself, Alexeieff made no sketches for the film, composing each shot in his head and filming them immediately.