Mary Ellen Bute Interactive Authoring Presentation Project

By: Les, Taylor, Austin and Kevon Mary Ellen Bute’s Life

- Grew up in , . Born November 25, 1906.

- Received a scholarship to Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

- Attended Yale for stage lighting and ran the switchboard

- Was a founding member of the Women’s Independent Film Exchange

- Died October 17th, 1983 Start of Her Career

- Thomas Wilfred’s

- Introduced to filmmaking from Joseph Schillinger

- 1934 to 1959, 11 abstract films were played in theaters

Thomas Wilfred, inventor of the Clavilux.

Synchornization (1934), Joseph Schillinger and Lewis Jacobs; Polka Graph (1952) Mary Ellen Bute

drawings by Mary Ellen Bute List of works-main ideas

-Abstract films with visuals synced with sound

-Basic idea of - SEEING SOUND

-Painting and lighting background transferred over into her films - most visuals move and show emotion/change based on lighting and shape

(examples: Synchromy no. 2, Synchromy no. 4)

Had an unreleased/unfinished piece, “Synchromy” and worked with Joseph Schillinger

- One of her first pieces, painting frames so detailed it would be too complicated to finish Filmograph

Synchromy No. 1 (Short) 1934 Polka Graph (Short) 1947

Rhythm in Light (Short) 1934 Color Rhapsodie (Short) 1948

Synchromy No. 2 (Short) 1935 Pastoral (Short) 1950

Dada (Short) 1936 Abstronic (Short) 1952

Parabola (Short) 1937 Mood Contrasts (Short) 1953

Synchromy No. 4 Escape (Short) 1937 Imaginations (Short) 1958

Spook Sport (Short) 1939 RCA: New Sensations in sound (Short) 1959

Tarantella (Short) 1940 Passages from James Joyce’s Finnagans Wake 1966 Synchromy #4: Escape 1937

-Used Conventional Animation for the main themes in the music

-Used special effects into the background (swirling liquids, clouds, fireworks, etc.)

-Imploding/exploding circles, triangles, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRmu- GcClls Spook Short (1940)

-Spook Short (1940): Cel Animation with drawn-on-film effects

-She matched the movements more to the mood of the music than to the actual notes https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=6wXTx9BKENs Abstronic (1952)

-Used her own paintings with surrealistic depth perspective

-Zooming in/out in rhythmic pulsations synched with “hoe down” music.

-Patterns drawn over background using an oscilloscope. Moon Contrast (1953)

-Grids of colored light shot through glass bricks/ cut-glass plate

-Used oscilloscope to create the backgrounds and the colored liquids clouds Technique + Films

"Colorwork." Colorwork. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015. Sources http://whitney.org/Events/Colorwork

"CVM - Mary Ellen Bute." CVM - Mary Ellen Bute. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015. Life http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/Bute.htm

"Light Industry." Light Industry. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2015. "Light Industry." Light Industry. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015. http://www.lightindustry.org/bute http://www.lightindustry.org/bute

“Mary Ellen Bute.” Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2015. "Mary Ellen Bute." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ellen_Bute http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0124722/

"Mary Ellen Bute: Seeing Sound." Mary Ellen Bute: Seeing Sound. N.p., n. "Mary Ellen Bute » Bio." Mary Ellen Bute RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. d. Web. 06 Oct. 2015. 2015. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.2/articles1.2/moritz1.2.html http://ima.or.at/maryellenbute/?cat=3

"Seeing Sound - A Mary Ellen Bute Retrospective." Harvard Film Archive. "Mary Ellen Bute: Film Pioneer." Mary Ellen Bute: Film Pioneer. N.p., n.d. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2015. Web. 08 Oct. 2015. http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2014sepoct/bute.html http://www.flashpointmag.com/butenotes.htm

"Mary Ellen Bute: Seeing Sound." Mary Ellen Bute: Seeing Sound. N.p., n. d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.2/articles1.2/moritz1.2.html

"Mood Contrasts." OtherFilm. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2015.

http://otherfilm.org/mood-contrasts/