A film made of 240,000 metal pins having an existential crisis. Yes, really.
Pinscreen animation makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows.
Direction
McLaren captures two masters at their obsessive craft
Practical Effects
The pinscreen itself — no VFX, just physics and patience
Cinematography
Shadow play that makes 2D feel impossibly dimensional
Director
Norman McLaren
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The pinscreen took Alexeieff and Parker two years to build and required hand-filing each of 240,000 pins.
This technique directly inspired the title sequence for The Twilight Zone: Nightmare at 30,000 Feet — the pins became shorthand for uncanny dread.
CA
