American Cinematographer - June 1984 - 50

our

ancestors? Listen

their

to

Rasmussen and

mu¬

sic. What can we learn about per¬
sonalities when we watch the

stepsisters in Prokofiev's ballet,
"Cinderella"?
The "Puss 'n' Boots" seg¬
ment of Tchaikovsky's "Sleeping
Baggett puts the
finishing touches
the day figure,
Form.

on

ities, limited funds and

Baby Seal Pups," blends guitar and
saxophone with - what else? whale sounds. The visuals shown
of real whales swimming. Fer¬
nand Leger's abstract cityscape
"The City" is more understand¬
able when categorized with more
realistic city scenes, such as John
Sloan's "The City." Different mu¬
sical styles - operatic, symphonic,
are

gospel

-

make

you

feel different

angry, awed, joyous.
"I don't think that in an
introduction to the arts we need

ways

-

show, for instance, why a
painter painted something this
way or that way," Rasmussen said.
to

"We don't

want to turn children
off before they get a chance to find
out if they like it. Before a child
will learn, he has to be interested
in what you are teaching. To be

interested, children

must see

going to take at least a year in
post-production, during which
time the crew could be working

the Line" is an animated line man
who evolved from the idea of a
stick man. "Shape" is a paper doll
who represents two-dimensional

on

shapes. "Form" is

a clay animated
"Shape's" coun¬
terpart in three dimensions.
"Light" is an animated ball of en¬
ergy. Not all the characters called
for animation. "Space" is - well,
nothing but space - and the au¬

character who is

thoritative voice of actress Barbara
Feldon. "Texture Tex" is a live ac¬
tor who wears a sheepskin vest,
leather chaps, a satin bandana and
brass buckles. He tells "Alice"
about texture in sculpture, while
"Texture Tess," whose painted-on

clothing resembles "Tex's," dem¬
onstrates implied texture in
painting.
"It

seems

to

be

a

basic

story-telling truism that the form
of a story follows the function of
what it is trying to do," explained
being from

narration. When the series

was

moves

with "Alice,"

to more di¬
instruction. Rasmussen de¬

a

outer space come
down and teach "Alice" about art,
but to keep the children's interest,

the attention would have had to
be on the creature, not on what it

supposed

characters

are

to be
what

saying. These
they are talk¬

however, it switches

ing about. 'Linus the Line' is

rect

and he talks about line in art. In
this way, we don't force the con¬
tent into the story; we make the

cided it was time to
enliven the lesson.
The

use

fantasy

challenge

was

to
to

sure the tricks enhance,
rather than detract from, the mes¬

make

48

Rasmussem achieved this by
having the characters "personify"
the elements they discuss. "Linus

Express does not use
any tricks while exposing art to its
viewers; it puts the examples be¬
fore the children, manipulating
only camera shots, sequence and
into the programs

American

Cinematographer

was

sage.

Rasmussen. "We could have had

relevance."
Arts

deadline.

because the animation in them

Jux¬

tapose Edward Hopper's "Street
Scene Gloucester" with a picture
of a real street scene. The Paul
Winter composition. "Lullaby of
the Great Mother Whale for the

a

Everybody had to do more than
one job."
They had to shoot the
on-location footage of the "Alice"
programs first, although these pro¬
grams fall at the end of the series,

Magritte.
too.

a

...

and move like cats, demonstrates
how dance can bring fantasies to
life. So can music. Watch ani¬
mated vegetables dance in time
with the folk tune "Barnyard
Dance." Look at a sculpture like
"The Therapeutist" by Rene
Art imitates life

faced

audio staff, a camera crew
we
didn't even have a secretary," said
Rasmussen. "Most of us were
one-man staffs facing limited facil¬

Beauty," where the dancers dress

Animator Bob

crew

mighty task. When it came to put¬
ting the ideas into film, they
squared off against Goliath. "We
didn't have an editorial staff, an

a

line

story out of the content."
In deciding the content

for this ambitious

June 1984

project,

the first nine programs.
The crew shot on loca¬
tion in the Hirshhorn Museum
and Sculpture Garden in Wash¬

ington, D.C., the J. B. Speed Mu¬
in Louisville, the Cincinnati
Art Museum and at the University
of Kentucky in Lexington.
Combining action with
seum

animation

meant

that the actors,

specifically 14-year-old Crystal Ste¬
vens, a Lexington junior high
school student, had to speak to
and

react

to

invisible chracters.

Lighting director Michael Murphy
adjusted the lighting to create as
few shadows as possible; if "Al¬
ice" had made a shadow, her ani¬
mated friends would have also cast

shadows.

Cinematographer Martha
Chute had to imagine where the
animated characters were as she
set

up

her shots. The animation

also forced her to lock down the
camera on location. If she had not,
the animated characters would
have appeared to float against the

background in the finished film. A
locked-down camera, however,
creates a static feel, which can
seem

suspenseful

children's

art

-

no

mood for

a

series. To soften the

static, Chute shot a variety of an¬
gles on location, and the com¬
pleted programs cut frequently
from shot

to

shot.

Once the programs were

shot, Rasmussen sent them to post
production. He and Chute edited
American Cinematographer - June 1984

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