Film Studies Librarian
Lucinda M. Hall
Contact:
Evans Map Room, Baker-Berry Library
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 646-0962
Website Skype Contact: d1128r8@kiewit.dartmouth.edu
Internet resources
- Association International du Film d'Animation (ASIFA)
The official site of the International Animated Film Association. It was founded in 1960 in Annecy (France) by the most famous animation artists of that time (like Norman McLaren & many others). The goal of ASIFA International is to promote cultural understanding through the art of animation. - Best Animated Short Films from Short of the WeekThey want to discover and promote the greatest and most innovative storytellers from around the world.
- The Big Cartoon Database (BCDB)The BCDB Is a Giant Directory of Cartoon Episode Guides, Cast and Crew Information, Animated Film Lists, Cartoon Character Registry and Cartoon Pictures.
- Don Markstein's Toonopedia
The author's attempt to gather and share information and observations about the toon world — a "toon" being anything that's done in cartoon form, such as animated films, comic books, etc. - Ottawa International Animation FestivalThe aim of the festival is to foster the development and growth of animation talent found within our country and region. Our animators and animation companies are among the most creative and successful in the world. The Ottawa festival helps them achieve both artistic excellence and commercial success.
- Richard's Animated DivotsThis site has a Chronology of Animation, animation filmographies, a Bibliography of Animation and other links. No longer current.
- Society for Animation StudiesThe Society for Animation Studies (SAS) has supported the study of animation since 1987.
Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature
Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.
You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.
Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.
A definition for stop-motion
A form of puppetry animation involving the use of small-scale flexible figures. The technique is an immensely labour-intensive manual process using a camera which can expose one frame of film at a time, though in digital filmmaking the process can be eased with the assistance of dedicated software. To create the impression that the puppets are behaving like living characters they are moved in tiny increments, and each small movement is recorded in a single frame. This means that one second of filmed action will required 25 frames (see frames per second), with all of the puppets in the scene needing to be moved in each frame in relation to facial expression, lip-motion if speaking, hand and arm gestures, and all other changes of body position, as well as for movements of walking or travelling. ...
Kuhn, A., & Westwell, G. (2020). Stop motion. In A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 18 Apr. 2021
Introduction to animation in the library's collections
Resources about all types of Animation and Animated films are split between two libraries. Sherman Art Library has a wide range of books about animation and the art of creating animation. Most books would be in the call number range NC 1765 through NC 1766. Baker/Berry Library has books on animated films, their history and criticism with the call number of PN 1997.5 on Baker Level 4.
The Jones Media Center, in Baker/Berry Library, has a collection of short and feature length animated films. The Subject heading "animated films" in the online catalog will show you lists of films, lists of films from various countries and books about those films in general.
If you are looking for a specific animated film title, you can do a search in the online catalog. If we have it, a record for the film will display. If we do not have a particular title, and it is something you think the library's collection should have, you can always "Request a purchase" for the library to buy the title. Making a request does not guarantee the purchase, but it lets us know about our users' interests.
Suggested subject headings to search the online catalog are listed below.
Finding resources in the library's collections
Introductory reading(s)
The animation bible: a practical guide to the art of animating, from flipbooks to Flash by Call Number: Sherman Art Library NC 1765 .F86 2008bISBN: 9780810995451The Animation Bible is the first book any aspiring animator will want to own--and with increasingly affordable tools for digital animation and the vast forum of the Internet for free distribution, animation is becoming more popular than ever. Animation authority Maureen Furniss covers every aspect of production, from finding a concept, choosing a medium, and creating characters all the way to getting the end result screened and distributed. ...
Clay animation: American highlights, 1908 to the present by Call Number: Sherman Art Library TR 897.5 .F75 1994ISBN: 9780805793277Clay animation is a living art form. It can be seen in television series such as "Gumby," in commercials with dancing raisins, interspersed in music videos and in films, both shorts and features. The dimensionality and movement of the clay characters - as they talk, dance, sing, and run - have a distinctive quality that sets it apart from other forms of animation. Yet clay animation, which made its American debut in 1908, has always been marginalized by the dominance of cel animation (the cartoon form that made Bugs Bunny so popular). Michael Frierson explains in Clay Animation the reasons behind this neglect and gives the reader not just the history of American clay animation, but also the technique, the masters, and a look at its future. ...
Stop motion filmmaking: the complete guide to fabrication and animation by Call Number: Baker-Berry TR 897.6 .W35 2019ISBN: 9781474268042Based on a world-class curriculum and cutting-edge industry practices, Stop Motion Filmmaking offers step-by-step instruction in everything from puppet making and studio set-up to animation and filmmaking. Reflecting exciting advancements in the medium, animator and educator Christopher Walsh focuses closely on digital filmmaking techniques, and offers specific instruction for creating 3D designed and printed puppet components as well as hand-crafted elements. ...
The world history of animation by Call Number: Sherman Art Library TR 897.5 .C38 2011ISBN: 9780520261129Lavishly illustrated and encyclopedic in scope, The World History of Animation tells the genre's 100-year-old story around the globe, featuring key players in Europe, North America, and Asia. ...
Selected book title(s)
Art in motion: animation aesthetics by Call Number: Sherman Art Library NC 1765 .F87 1998ISBN: 9781864620399A comprehensive examination of the aesthetics of animation in its many forms. This work is a useful resource for researchers, students and anyone with a serious interest in animation. It provides analyses of animation produced throughout the world. It overviews the relationship between animation studies and media studies.
The art of Ray Harryhausen by Call Number: Sherman Art Library NC 1766 .U52 H37 2006ISBN: 9780823084005Profiling the works of the greatest animator in movie history, this lavishly illustrated volume is an enlightening follow-up to Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life. 286 illustrations, 211 in full color.
First light: Tala Madani by Call Number: Sherman Art Library ND 237 .M334 A4 2016ISBN: 9783791355900The latest work from the Iranian-born artist, who brilliantly and subversively explores the sexual politics of the Middle East, is profiled in this book. For more than a decade, Tala Madani has developed a practice centered on playful yet provocative representations of men. In paintings, drawings, and stop-motion animation, Madani creates deadpan and often hilarious satirical works that both mock virility and redistribute the dynamics of power. ...
Hand-made television: stop-frame animation for children in Britain, 1961-1974 by Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1992.8 .C46 M67 2016ISBN: 9781137551627Hand-Made Television explores the ongoing enchantment of many of the much-loved stop-frame children's television programmes of 1960s and 1970s Britain. The first academic work to analyse programmes such as Pogles' Wood (1966), Clangers (1969), Bagpuss (1974) (Smallfilms) and Gordon Murray's Camberwick Green (1966), Trumpton (1967) and Chigley (1969), the book connects these series to their social and historical contexts while providing in-depth analyses of their themes and hand-made aesthetics. ...
Unsung heroes of animation by Call Number: Sherman Art Library NC 1765 .R62 2005ISBN: 9780861966653When future cinema archaeologists dig deep into the history of the art form that was animation, and its artists, during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, this excellent collection of insightful biographical essays by Chris Robinson, a modern Vasari, will provide invaluable illumination.... Robinson is the perfect guide, viewing as he does over 1,000 animated films a year. His book focuses on a world of little-known, fiercely independent contemporary animators. ...
Other library resource(s)
The animated century by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #2784Professors Elderberry and Horace introduce clips from 160 animated films from 26 countries. They discuss the most significant animated films of the past 100 years.
Animation & the animated film from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286For many years, animation received minimal recognition as a significant form of cinematic and artistic expression. A seemingly irrevocable process of marginalization and dismissal has been arrested, however, by the enduring presence of animation festivals worldwide, the rise of animation studies in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the exponential rise in animation production in all sectors of media, culture, and the arts.
Computer animation celebration by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #73ISBN: 9781573308960A collection of computer-animated short films.
Dartmouth Animation (Facebook)Call Number: Electronic resourceEach year, students creating animation projects screen them for the Dartmouth Community. This is there Facebook page.- John Whitney Sr. byCall Number: Jones Media DVD #9920Robert Gardner interviews John Whitney and fellow animator Eric Martin on the inaugural episode of "Screening Room" in 1972. "Abstract computer animator, inventor and digital pioneer John Whitney Sr. (1917-1995) is widely considered the 'father of computer graphics.'
Norman McLarenCall Number: Jones Media DVD #3394 discs 1-2, bookExplores the creative process and techniques of Norman McLaren, artist, cinematographer and animator; includes excerpts from McLaren's film vaults, interviews and narration.- Stop-motion animation from Oxford Bibliographies Online by Call Number: Electronic resourceISBN: 9780199791286Scholarship on animation frequently centers on drawn (and especially cel) animation and its computer-generated (CG) progeny. Yet stop-motion practices have been integral to global animation production—from studio efforts to artisanal and avant-garde traditions—since the earliest years of cinema. Several full or partially animated features made before Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) used stop motion, including Quirino Cristiani’s El Apóstol (1917), Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), and Aleksandr Ptushko’s The New Gulliver (1935). Today, stop motion occupies a reliable niche in the market for theatrical animated features (most notably through the work of the studios Laika and Aardman) and for animated television series. ...
- Student Animation Work (Film & Media Studies)Call Number: Electronic resourceYou can see examples of students' animation work on the department's web site.
- William Kentridge: drawing the passing: documentaryCall Number: Jones Media Video tape #3493In November 1998, filmmaker Reinhard Wulf and art historian Maria Anna Tappeiner visited Kentridge's Johannesburg studio to film the artist at work. The resulting documentary records Kentridge in the final stages of animating Stereoscope. It includes excerpts from the finished film, plus Kentridge's reflections on his work and the process of making it.
A selected list of Animated titles in the library's collections
Find more stop-motion films in the online catalog.
Anomalisa by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #19903Michael Stone, husband, father and noted author, travels to Cincinnati to speak at a customer service conference. But once he's separated from the routine of his daily life, a chance encounter helps him to realize just what, and whom, he's been missing.
Cartoon noir by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #636Abductees (Paul Vester) five tales of alien abduction. Ape (Julie Zammarchi) a grouchy, married couple battle daily over their nightly dinner--a cooked, whole monkey. Club of the Discarded (Jiri Barta) a family of discarded mannequins enjoy a quiet life in an abandoned warehouse until a group of hipster mannequins move in and ruin the neighborhood. Gentle Spirit (Piotr Dumala) depicts the psychological landscape--fraught with entrapment and violence--between a young woman and an ominous male figure. Joy Street (Suzan Pitt) story of a woman's journey from suicidal despair to personal renewal, with the help of an unlikely spirit guide. The Story of the Cat and the Moon (Pedro Serrazina) a Portuguese mini-epic of unrequited love follows a cat who is beguiled by an always out-of-reach moon.
Isle of dogs by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #21686ISBN: 9786317284920Isle of Dogs tells the story of Atari Kobayashi, 12-year-old ward to corrupt Mayor Kobayashi. When all the canine pets of Megasaki City are exiled to vast Trash island, Atari sets off in search of his bodyguard dog, Spots. With the assistance of his newfound mongrel friends, he begins an epic journey that will decide the fate and future of the entire Prefecture.
Mary and Max by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #10357ISBN: 9780788613012Mary is a lonely eight-year-old in the suburbs of Melbourne. Struggling with questions that no one can answer, she writes to Max, an obese 44-year-old Jewish man with Asperger's Syndrome living in New York City, which starts a friendship that spans 20 years and two continents.
My life as a zucchini by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #21129After losing his mother, a young boy is sent to a foster home with other orphans his age where he begins to learn the meaning of trust and true love.
Na půdě aneb Kdo má dneska narozeniny? = Toys in the attic by Call Number: Jones Media DVD #16196When the lovely Buttercup is kidnapped and held prisoner by The Head, it is up to her friends--a teddy bear, a mechanical mouse and a marionette puppet--to cross the international boundary and attempt their daring rescue.
Finding scholarly articles & journal title(s)
Articles and other writings about stop-motion animation can be found in many publications. Our collection does include a couple of journals looking at animation. Other film journals within our collection will cover animation. You can use Film & Television Literature Index to find relevant articles.
Animation studies: peer reviewed online journal for animation history and theory by Call Number: Electronic journalThe Society for Animation Studies published Animation Studies.
Animation magazine by Call Number: Electronic journalThis is a trade publication the covers all aspects of the animation industry.
Film & television literature indexCall Number: Electronic resourceThis index covers over 300 journal and magazine titles for film and television reviews, scholarly and critical analysis of cinema and television, and articles of popular interest about film and television. About half the journals and magazines are film periodicals and the other half cover film and television with some regularity. Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews.
The web of science citation databases by Call Number: Electronic resourceThe online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.
