Translated material
Memory. Mikhail Druyan
On October 17, 1911, Mikhail Druyun, operator-sales operator of Soviet cartoons, was born.
Personal business
Mikhail Zakharovich Druyan (1911–2000) was born in Kharkov. One by a teenager, he left for Moscow without money, wandered in the capital.
“I was a homeless manner,” Druyan recalled. - Not a profession, there is absolutely nothing. I slept on the boulevards sometimes, on Petrovka. " He dreamed of working in a circus or a movie, but he was not taken.
In 1932 he came to the newly created Mostochfilm studio. He was probably accepted with the assistance of a relative who worked in the secretariat of Nadezhda Krupskaya - she was one of the organizers of the studio.
He worked as an assistant operator in the animated workshop. He shot the first Soviet campaign cartoons. He recalled: “I was attached to the good operator, Fedya Goltsov. And he was somehow imbued with respect, attitude-to everyone. Well, of course, I got out of the skin. I was interested in this, and there I got into the animation. ”
At that time, the operator was sitting on a stepladder under the ceiling and manually twisted the handle of the film apparatus, taking off his frame like this. “But the pleasure was colossal,” Druyan said.
His first independent work was drawn credits to the comedy “Funny Guys” (1934).
In 1936, on the recommendation of colleague operators, Druyuyan was accepted for the new Soyuzmultfilm studio.
In 1941, a volunteer went to the front, went through the whole war as part of a separate motorized rifle battalion. He returned to Moscow in December 1945, in January 1946 he was already working at Soyuzmultfilm.
He noted: “I worked at the studio for fifty years. Multiplier operators were not prepared anywhere, they grew out of our assistants. Young directors, as they came, asked me to work with me. <...> And I often stayed overnight. My wife (she also worked at the studio) adapted a pillow on the table so that when there was a lot of work, I would not leave. ”
In 1975 he became an honored cultural worker of the RSFSR. This is the only honorary title of the operator.
He continued to shoot until the mid-1990s, when he was already in eighty.
In 1996, he suffered a stroke and could no longer continue to work.
Mikhail Druyan died on July 12, 2000. He was buried in the Donskoy cemetery in Moscow.
What is famous
The legendary operator who shot more than 300 Soviet and Russian cartoons, including the Golden Antilopa, Snow Queen, Thumbelina, Vovka in the District Kingdom, Kid and Carlson, Winnie the Pooh and Day of Bangs, “Robbery on ...”, “Caliph-Aist”, “Lived, there was a dog. Was one of the most indefatigable animation operators in the world. He said: “[Director] Fedya Khitruk was often abroad - he went to contests, he told me directly:“ Misha, as much as you shot, not a single person in the world took off. ”
What you need to know about
He was proud that in the 1980s, Pope John Pavel II recommended that all parents raise children at Soviet cartoons. “I was told by Lev Konstantinich Atamanov, a wonderful director with whom I shot all [his] films,” Druyan said. - He was in Paris at the festival and there the pope promoted to children to watch Soviet films. They carry good, they bring up. When he arrived and told, it was very touching. " At the same time, he lamented that the Russian Orthodox Church wanted to take the building of the animation museum from Soyuzmultfilm.
Direct speech
About the debut in the animation (interview with the Mary, Mirabela program , 1996): “The first thing I shot was remembered by me. We made the picture "Funny guys." At the "cartoon" [animated studio] I took off the credits - there are also game credits in the beginning. And so they entrusted me to bring to the studio, what happened. I came to the room. Sitting Grigory Alexandrov and Orlov. And the operator Nielsen. They are satisfied, I am satisfied - I do not find a place for myself at all. Love Orlova even smacked me on the cheek. And that was my beginning, my first baptism. "
About the contribution of the operator to the cartoon (ibid.): “There is a crew, and accordingly the operator must accurately meet the fact that the multiplier, director, which replica, how much it is calculated according to the phonogram-but this is, in general, is technical work. The operator must make his creative contribution, his own. How is it possible? First of all, the operator gets acquainted with the script. The director himself gives part of the proposals, and I already complement the part with all sorts of light effects. For example, "Snow Queen", "Golden Antilope" - these spray is all ... [Further] a test for the color so that the color that is conceived is on the screen. There are simple films where the work is purely mechanical. But I, thank God, had few such films, because this is an uninteresting job. ”
About your favorite cartoon (ibid.): “I love more funny films. I by nature and try not to lose heart. So we made with Eduard Nazarov the film "lived a dog" - this is a Ukrainian wedding. You know, I love this film so much, and everyone who comes up and sees it on my wall in the room, they say: "Oh, well, this is a wonderful film."
On the attitude with colleagues in the workshop (quote for Promultik.ru ): “In the multiplier there is no this at all - envy, enmity. Everyone is worried about each other, everyone loves each other. If, for example, competition, jealousy occurs in a feature cinema, then here ... you won’t make a cartoon if a bad atmosphere. At the Soyuzmultfilm, everyone was a mountain for each other. "
The fact that in America he would have long been a millionaire (ibidable): “You know, I am already satisfied. I was now convinced: these films will [live] for a very long time. I will die, and the children will watch what we did. And the children of the children too. "
5 facts about Mikhail Druyana
- He stood at the origins of the Soviet animation, recalled that when the courses of animators were founded, at the entrance to the studio there was a line of artists who wanted to try themselves in drawn cinema. The most talented guys were selected from them.
- During the work, he prepared four animation operators. All of them at different times were Assistant, or rather, assistants.
- Sometimes in cartoons, where the characters have very complex movements, shot actors, the personnel with which the artists later drawed. This technique was called eclair. “But this was not abused, it was generally considered an extreme measure,” said the operator.
- In the 1990s, despite her age, he wanted to shoot, as before, but often he, according to him, was “in a simple position” due to the lack of money studios.
- The last cartoon Druyan was Polyfem, Aikk and Galatea, shot in 1995 based on Greek myths. “Those who ask me, I say that this is an erotic film. Immediately they have a smile on their lips. Because the animation is somewhat unusual. But an interesting film, ”Druyan said.
Materials about Mikhail Druyan:
Biographical certificate Animator.ru
Interview Druyan for the program "Maria, Mirabela"