Editing Max Fleischer (section)

===The Inkwell Studios===

Fleischer produced his ''[[Out of the Inkwell]]'' films featuring "The Clown" character, which his brother Dave originated; he had worked as a sideshow clown at Coney Island. It was one of the later tests made from footage of Dave as a clown that interested Bray.

Fleischer's initial series was first produced at the [[Bray Productions|Bray Studios]] and released as a monthly installment in the ''Bray-Goldwyn Pictograph Screen Magazine'' from 1919 to 1921. In addition to producing ''Out of the Inkwell'', Max's position at Bray was primarily production manager, and supervisor of several educational and technical films such as ''The Electric Bell'', ''All Aboard for the Moon'', and ''Hello, Mars''. And it was as production manager that Fleischer hired his first animator, [[Roland Crandall]], who remained with him throughout the active years of Fleischer's studio.

''Out of the Inkwell'' featured the novelty of combining live action and animation and served as semi-documentaries with the appearance of Max Fleischer as the artist who dipped his pen into the ink bottle to produce the clown figure on his drawing board. While the technique of combining animation with live action was already established by others at the Bray Studio, it was Fleischer's clever use of it combined with Fleischer's realistic animation that made his series unique.

In 1921, Max and Dave established Out of the Inkwell Films, Incorporated, and continued production of ''Out of the Inkwell'' through various states-rights distributors. "The Clown" had no name until 1924, when Dick Huemer came aboard after animating on the early ''[[Mutt and Jeff]]'' cartoons. He set the style for the series, redesigning "The Clown", and named him "Ko-Ko". Huemer created Ko-Ko's canine companion, known as Fitz, and moved the Fleischers away from their dependency on the Rotoscope for fluid animation, leaving it for special uses and reference points where compositing was involved. Because Max valued Huemer's work, he instructed Huemer to make just the key poses and have an assistant fill in the remaining drawings. Max assigned Art Davis as Huemer's assistant and this was the beginning of the animation position of "Inbetweener", which was essentially another Fleischer "invention" that resulted in efficient production and was adopted by the entire industry by the 1930s.

It was during this time that Max developed [[Rotoscoping]], a means of photographing live action film footage with animation cels for a composited image. This was an improvement over the method used by Bray where a series of 8" x 10" stills were made from motion picture film and used as backgrounds behind animation cels. The Rotograph technique went into more general use as "aerial image photography" and was a staple in animation and optical effects companies for making titles and various forms of matte composites.

In addition to the theatrical comedy films, Fleischer produced technical and educational films including ''That Little Big Fellow''<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/eroI30Lfv6Q Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130425130539/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eroI30Lfv6Q Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eroI30Lfv6Q |last1=AT&T Tech Channel |title=AT&T Archives: That Little Big Fellow |publisher=[[YouTube]] |date=April 6, 2011 |access-date=January 8, 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref> and ''Now You're Talking'' for A.T.&T.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/CgYH3w4Rzxk Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200109171235/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgYH3w4Rzxk Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgYH3w4Rzxk&spfreload=10 |last1=SignOffsGuy |title=Now You're Talking (1927) - Fleischer Studios Silent Cartoon |publisher=[[YouTube]] |date=April 3, 2011 |access-date=January 8, 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In 1923, he made two 20-minute features explaining [[Albert Einstein]]'s Theory of Relativity<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb7GzyUemO0&list=PLYkANRmww0Eqvun7opHl2e1XmmmEqyYA |title=The Einstein Theory of Relativity (Max Fleischer, 1923) |publisher=[[YouTube]] |date=March 16, 2012 |access-date=January 8, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/nb7GzyUemO0 |archive-date=28 Nov 2021 |first1=Willis Peter |last1=Bilderback }}{{cbignore}} Archived at the [https://web.archive.org/web/20140630165135/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb7GzyUemO0 Wayback Machine].</ref> and [[Charles Darwin]]'s ''Evolution''<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/BRYJDUazeJg Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190424094710/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRYJDUazeJg Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRYJDUazeJg&spfreload=10 |title=Evolution |publisher=[[YouTube]] |date=June 28, 2016 |access-date=January 8, 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref> using animated special effects and live action.