Week 8

This week in our lecture we watched a couple of pixar shorts and identified the techniques and uses of said techniques.

Going back to week one's storyboard, I intended to have a shot looking down onto the cluster of empire ships as the X-wing slides into view ominously and quietly to obscure the view of the  empire ships. I think as far back as week 1 I felt that that would be a good shot, even if I didn't know why. In hindsight and with the knowledge that Steve gave us this week, the shot itself puts the viewer into a position of power and highlights the "power" that the X-wing has over the ships below by its stealthy 'sneak' up on them. It also puts the viewer higher than the X-wing which gives the viewer the feeling that they are currently at higher power than the X-wing as they can see everything going on below.

During the fight scene in the second half of the animation I also hope to have some views from inside the cockpit of the X-wing as it gives the viewer the feel that they are also the hero of the scene and makes them happy for the X-wing pilot as he takes out the empire's forces. It will also ramp up the excitement of the scene as the viewer can only see part of the battle which will allow me to hide some ships movements from the viewer and create tension, not to mention the viewer seeing lasers come towards them.

Also while watching 'For the Birds' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWIVoW9jAOs Ipicked out a few techniques to practice analysing said techniques.

1. from 00:17 to 00:28 they use a medium range shot that follows the telephone wires along to show that there is plenty of space, and when the small bird does come to land on it, it shows the viewer that this bird is small and possibly makes the viewer feel that it is cute.
2. from 00:28 to 00:47 the picture is zoomed in to show that in the bird's world at least, they are very important because each bird takes up more visual space, this is intensified when the birds start to squabble as they all are selfish and angry, which shatters the 'cute' aspect of the previous shot.
3. The camera then begins to zoom out until 00:54 which shows all the little birds are the same, and this sets up the next shot which reveals the big bird all alone, compared to the tiny ones. This shows the viewer that the big bird is probably not friends with the small ones at all, and is all alone compared to their group.
4. At 00:58 there is a close up of the birds as they all look on in horror at a seemingly harmless big bird. This is similar to other shows and films with teenage groups when an outsider approaches the 'popular' group and they are shocked that  the outsider wants to join them. This is then reinforced by the following shots where the birds start to make fun of the big bird while they know he is watching.
5. The small group and big bird are not shown in the same shot until 1:17, and even then this shot is just there to show the little ones running away and separating themselves further from big bird.
6. There is a close up of the small birds on the wire at 1:38 which gives a claustrophobic feel, you can't even see the whole big bird and this shows he's taking up 'too much' space in the shot, meanwhile all the little birds are squished together and nearly 5 whole little birds ARE in the shot.
7. 1:51 when the big bird tips over once again plays with how much space everyone takes up. The little birds all fit in, while only the big birds feet and legs are on screen. it makes the small birds look like a very close gang, with the big bird trying to stay a part of it, even in such a small way.
8. 2:16 is the shocking moment when it zooms out fully for the first time after the wire has bent, and reveals to the audience what the small bird on the left just noticed in the shot before. They're nearly on the ground already. The big bird isn't going to fall hard, but the small birds are going to take most of the fallout from their bullying.
9. 2:56 has just the big bird taking up the screen and this shows the smaller ones finally value him as they're willing to give up their own space on the rest of the screen to use the big bird to hide themselves, leaving the big bird with all the space and the small birds with none as they were the bullies.