Malcolm Collett

Malcolm Collett is a Canadian animator.

Early life and education
Collett started his career at the Vancouver School of Art (now the Emily Carr University of Art and Design) in 1969, graduating with honours in animation design and production. During his 4th year he worked at the National Film Board of Canada as a cel painter on the production of The Twitch before taking a job as an animation cameraman for Canadian animator Al Sens.

Soon after Collett moved to Alberta to work on a series of documentary films at the Banff Centre and resided in the town of Canmore.

Documentary film production
In 1975 Collett was hired to work as an associate producer with Milton Fruchtman at the Banff School of Fine Arts, to work on a series of documentary films as an animation cameraman financed by the Devonian Foundation in Calgary. The films used the art collections of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. The first of the series, Search for the Western Sea, told the story of Alexander Mackenzie's 1792 journey through Western Canada to the Pacific Ocean, using paintings of western artists to tell the story. The scripts were developed and produced by George Moore.

The paintings were photographed at the Glenbow Museum using an 8x10 Linhoff Camera producing 8x10 colour transparencies. Each transparency was backlit on an animation camera stand and photographed using animated pans, zoom and effects.The film was narrated by Christopher Plummer with a score by Kenyon Hopkins.

The film's debut aired on CBC Television in 1976, and received a Silver award for best television documentary film at the New York Film Festival. The second film, Completing Our Circle, a 30-minute documentary about First Nations art and spirituality in the West, used various artifacts and paintings to tell the story, with a combination of live-action and animation techniques.

Animatoon exhibition
After completing his contract with the Devonian Foundation, Collett began organising an animation exhibition in the Banff Centre's Walter Phillips Gallery, tracing the early developments of animation through the ages to contemporary animation production. He received two Canada Council awards to produce the exhibit. It was the first exhibit to be hosted at the gallery using David Jensen's module system. The exhibit opened in September 1978, and remained on display for two months, before travelling around Canada for two years to various galleries. It was at the Surrey Art Gallery from December 1980 to January 1981.

Some of the early animation imagery was produced based on early designs by Collett and Tapani Knuutila, while other samples were submitted from studios around the world. Collett spent months requesting contemporary animation works from international animation companies to display some of their recent work. The final exhibit included submissions from Richard Williams, Halas and Batchelor, and Atkinson Film Arts.

Marmalade Animation
In 1979 Collett incorporated his company Marmalade Animation Ltd. in Canmore. He landed projects with the Alberta Government and various other animated projects, but found it difficult to produce animation in a small town and moved his company to Vancouver.

Collett was contracted by Alberta Culture to produce and design eight 60-second vignettes for television distribution throughout Alberta, to mark Alberta's 75th centennial celebrations in 1980. The vignettes told stories of events in Alberta's over the past 75 years, and included:


 * Wop May: Short story about the Canadian ace pilot who saved a community from diphtheria
 * Lost Lemon Mine: Story of prospectors who claim "there was gold in them hills!" Only to discover fools gold.
 * Calgary Stampede: Story about how the Calgary Stampede started, using cut-out animation.
 * City of Edmonton: Story of how the city panicked when a herd of elephants escaped from the circus.
 * Fort Whoop-Up: Story of the nickname given to a whisky trading post near Lethbridge, Alberta.
 * Jack Bowlen: Story of a well known Calgary rancher and his love for horses.
 * Athabasca Tarsands: Story of the discovery of the Athabasca oil sands of northern Alberta.
 * Milk River Canyon: Story of the provincially designated protected area in the south-eastern corner of Alberta.

In November 1981, Collett received a contract to produce a segment of animation for a documentary film entitled The Snow War, produced by Harold Tichenor and the National Film Board of Canada, depicting the efforts of a mobile avalanche-control team to keep open the Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park. The film won Best Film on Mountain Safety at the Banff Mountain Film Festival in 1982.

Collett was commissioned to produce a 7-minute animated film for the United Nations pavilion at Expo 86 in Vancouver. His film depicted the history of inventions and weapons over the years, including the wheel and the printing press.

Collett produced the first Canadian independent animated half-hour for television in Western Canada, Tales of the Mouse Hockey League. The film aired on CBC National in April 1987 and received an 80% viewer rating.