Published between 1982 and 1995
It is possible to get a lot of spirals and curvilinear designs which I was never able to get by cutting off the masking tape; then spraying bleach into the place where the groove was. I made short samples of that sort of material. As I say, less than half of all that stuff is in my possession at this point. I also made alternate versions of a great number of scenes.
I was manipulating cutouts and working with fluids, very much as they are used in the light shows. I had an oil bath on a level tray with the light below. I put dye into the oil until it was deep red, and then used red-blind film in the camera. With my finger or with a stylus, I could draw on this thin bath of oil; and then would push the oil away and the light would shine through so I could draw linear sequences very freely; and by selecting the weight and thickness of the oil, I could control the rate at which the line would erase itself, so that it was constantly erasing with a constantly fresh surface to draw on.
The Films of Sheila Graber
Sheila Graber began experimenting with a Super 8 camera and trial and error methods of animation purely for fun in 1970. In 1974 she won the Movie Maker magazine Ten Best competition with THE BOY AND THE CAT. In the next four years one, two or even three of her animated films appeared in the top ten of this annual competition. Her films went all over the world and gained over 20 top international awards.
THE BOY AND THE CAT – 1974 10 minutes
The first ‘complete’ film I produced, first: shot on Super 8 and re-taken at a later date on 16 mm. Situated in the streets of the seaport in which I live, the characters are based on my own cat and nephew Nigel; and the plot follows their adventures through the snows of Christmas.
THE BOY AND THE SONG – 1976 4 minutes
Brenda Orwin has composed several sound tracks for me. In this one her fine Soprano singing voice is featured singing four well known songs:- ‘Blow the Wind Southerly’, ‘Over the Sea to Sky’, ‘In the deep Mid-Winter’ and ‘Just a Song at Twilight’. Combined with the characters of my nephew and my own cat, the singing hero keeps on courageously against all adversity aided (and abetted) by his stalwart Cat.