Every story, independently from their plot or style, has a compact structure for its narrative. With this parameters we are able to deconstruct films, tv shows and even documentaries.

This is why humans love story, because stories give us a sense of purpose, meaning, and shape, and they do that through story arcs.

There can be identified two ways of creating a pattern in narrative: story as a curve and stories as a circle.

Narrative arc, also called a “story arc,” a “dramatic arc,” or just an “arc,” is a literary term for the path a story follows. It provides a backbone by providing a clear beginning, middle, and end of the story: our brain needs to understand why things are going badly for us so we can avoid it or why things are so well so we can do more of whatever’s working.

The story arc can be exemplified in these few steps:

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end, with the middle typically taking up a longer period of time than the beginning or the end. Every narrative arc has key points, traditional stories have key plot sections and points that map nicely onto this arc:

1. Exposition: which introduces the setting, the character and the problems they face.
2. Rising action: Moves the plot forward by showing characters fighting against their problems.
3. Climax: tensest moment of the crisis; it describes the moment when the characters face a crisis that controls the rest of the plot.
4. Falling action: which moves the plot from the climax towards an ending.
5. Resolution: brings the story to stability by showing the final results of the climax.

Stories as a circle have also an equilibrium where the ending and the beginning are attached creating a round journey. Many have tried to create the perfect formula but the Hero’s journey formula, the monomyth, by the philosopher and theologist Joseph Campbell described in his book “a hero with a thousand faces” is the most explicative one. He concluded that there are characteristics of an effective story and those characteristics are consistent regardlessn of religion, race, time or ancestry.

Dan Harmon simplified the monomyth formula into an even more basic structure: the story circle: a distillation of the hero’s journey into eight steps. He believes that his circle is universal for any story in any medium. These 8 steps follow a character’s pursuit of a goal outside of their normal world. Their inevitable return finds them changed, whether or not they achieved their goal.

The theory behind the circle:

The circle is split in to main sections through an horizontal line: the top part of the circle represents where the characters journey starts and finishes, the bottom represents the world that needs to be traversed in order to grow and change. This duality helps to keep the balance and rhythm of a story and it could refer to life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness or even order and chaos. The hero dives and emerges as he saves all lives. If we add a vertical line we find ourselves with 4 main intersections and four spaces: the four points where the lines cross the circle are numbered 1,3,5,7 and the quarter sections 2,4,6 and 8.

Here follows what each number represents:

1. You: a character is in a zone of comfort. In this section, we firmly establish their starting point, their situation, so we can assess and compare the change at the end. This is also the time to understand the context around the character — their world, its rules, and how they fit inside it.
2. Need: they want something. The story starts to take shape, something happens to our “You” who is the “who” of the story that presents a problem or a question, the “Need” of the story, the “what“.
3. Go: they enter an unfamiliar situation. Crossing this step means that the protagonist enters the bottom half of the Story Circle. Leaving their normal world behind and officially entering the unknown, the Special World by taking action responding to the “Need”.
4. Search: adapt to it. It’s a series of obstacles the hero must overcome: story and process get more complicated.
5. Find: get what they wanted. The hero has found the “Need” that sent them on this journey: plot and character development collide since now need something bigger.
6. Take: pay a heavy price for it. Even after their initial success, the hero suffers heavily losses since everything comes to a price: it could be anything from a temporary setback to the death of a major character.
7. Return: then return to their familiar situation.
8. Change: having changed. This change could be a personal one or can alternate world our him or her or both and it can have opposite effects too.

Each of the semicircles has an an important meaning crossing from one half to the other – which are major sources of drama in the story – from top to bottom you delineate the moment that the hero enters a new situation and is forced to adapt often struggling to do so this usually means that the protagonist fights some external force. The second line is defining the inner struggle of the hero once the hero crosses this diving line he or she finally faces and tries to overcome his or her inner flaws or problems.

Characters type

Characters in a story are defined and described as the following types:

Protagonist: who is the main character, the hero or story driver, who may be good or bad.

Antagonist: who stands against or challenges the protagonist but who can also have something to learn or redeem.

A character can also be Dynamic if it experiences inner growth or changes throughout the narrative and even learns something. Or it can be Static so it experiences no growth or chance and repeats its actions and does not learn any lesson.

A Round character is a developed, life like character who has a deep relatability. On the other hand a Flat character is an underdeveloped, one dimensional character of whom we have minimum insights.

All the character which is not human in a story has anthropomorphic features which help the audience to emotionally relate to them.

Along with the story structure and parameters John Campbell came up with the Hero’s Journey Archetypes. In order to make run a story, to make it special, you need them all, and if the characters employed are less that the archetypes themselves it means that some of them have to serve double purpose, however sometimes it can be an element to fulfil that role.

We can identify 8 main archetypes, roles that character play:

Hero: the protagonist or the central character who separates from the ordinary world and sacrifice himself or herself for the service of the journey at hand. Is the one who is called to answer the challenge, the one that completes the quest and restores the ordinary world’s balance. Us audience we experience the journey through the eyes of the Hero.

Mentor: Provides motivation and insights and training to help the hero. Often, the mentor will perform another important task – getting the plot moving. Heros can be reluctant to leave the world they know for one they don’t.

Threshold Guardian: is the Guard of the Special World and its secrets from the hero so he prompts the hero to give up. It provides essential tests to prove a hero’s commitment and worth. They can appear at any stage of the story, but they always block an entrance or border of some kind.

Herald: has the role to announce changes, issue and challenges. they can make their appearance anytime during the hero’s journey but they often appear at the beginning of the journey to announce the call to adventure. Often, the herald isn’t a character at all it can be an event or a force.

Shapeshifter: is the character that keeps the audience on edge, blurs the line between ally and enemy. Often they begin as an ally, then betray the hero at a critical moment. Other times, their loyalty is in question as they waver back and forth: they mislead the Hero by hiding their intentions and loyalties.

Shadow: villains in the story. They exist to create threat and conflict, and to give the hero something to struggle against. is the opposite of the Hero: it represents the darkest desires and rejected qualities. He or she sees himself or herself as a hero, and the story hero as his or her villain. This physical force is determined to destroy the hero and his cause.

Trickster: adds humour and fun to the story to show the absurdity of the situation by its laughter in order to force a change. It also challenges the status quo, turning the ordinary world into chaos with their quick turn of phrase and physical antics (even the world and its inhabitants are transformed by their antics.

Allies (sidekicks): they fills the gaps of the hero by representing its virtues and create interactions as well. They can be represented by single individuals or a team and support the hero to complete its journey.

We can identify 10 different types of villains:

The bully: who is cruel and gets back at the world and is quite true to life.

The dragon: it constitutes an immediate threat for the hero, is tough and last task fornthe hero to overcome.

The vengeful: Who wants to make the hero pay and suffer, he has a personal problem with the hero.

The fallen hero: who used to be good but a tragedy of event set them on the wrong path and the audience feels for them.

The terrorist: they fight fo an ideal or a belief.

The beast: its hard to survive to then, they usually are represented by monsters or animals.

The unhinged: they commit bad things just because they can and are unpredictable and have a devastated psyche.

The machine: is the void of human emotions and is determined to kill the hero.

The equal: it mirrors the protagonist since it shares the same motive, morals and skills but with a slight distortion.

The mastermind: is the most sinister and brilliant and ultimate villain. he is genius that appears at the end of the story since is may steps ahead of the hero and does not get personally involved but lets other people do his work for him.

Where is the story leading?

The ending of a story is a crucial part of the story development: is the last part that the audience sees and has a huge impact on the whole narrative comprehension and overall feeling. The most simple narrative form is the linear narrative: there is an initial equilibrium and a trigger that changes the equilibrium in disequilibrium which then reaches a climax resolution to finally find a new equilibrium. This type of narrative runs chronologically with events happening in order in which the character experience them: there can be a timeline of a story which coincides with the one of the character.

A character performance has a huge role in the narrative development, it can also drive it. Designing a good story includes designing a good character, so adding a sort of dimension to character is essential. Animation in these terms promotes a broader definition of a caharcetr than other media formats through the re-interpreting human form, applying anthropomorphism, bringing inanimate objects to life with the plausibility for all to interact with each other. S, in other words, a narrative can be advanced through a character: a character movement should be able to convey the necessary action pertinent the narrative but the attitude emotion or mood in which the action is performed will contextualise and emphasise the narrative objective and most importantly connect the characters predicament to the audience. For sure, there are other elements that drive the developing of the narrative when the character is not performing: in films nothing happens unless they are fulfilling the dictates of the story’s pertinent actions.

Some key elements to take in consideration in order to develop a narrative:

• Establish the personality or demeanour of your character for the film or scene by developing an appropriate biography or personality trait for the scene or story.

• Determine anatomical details and physical fluidity and extremity of action required with appropriate design.

• Identify all the actions your character performs in your piece by determining character movement camera action and dialogue and audio.

• Design the actions and emotions that drive the narrative.

• Clearly frame or stage your character for performance in a scene through a storyboard and animatic production stages..

• Design audio to support the performance and actions of the characters. Audio drives and narrative determines timing and enriches character action and performance.

Not all films rely on quest the same way, but are equally represented by the archetypes of characters and sometimes the story elements becomes the elements of the archetypes when the characters don’t: in order to communicate in a new and challenging form the rule of the monomyth are manipulated but still used as a starting point since that not all productions are “extravagant” and may have a different way to embrace narrative structure and the mise-en-scène. You can tell a story in less direct ways using a different angle of the story narrative.

8 narrative stages of Dan Harmon story circle of “The Graduate”  a 1967 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols.

1. You: Benjamin has just graduated from a prestigious school with good grades and comes back home to his parents.
2. Need: Benjamin has to find his purpose in life, he wants to figure out what to do next, he needs to take action.
3. Benjamin takes Mrs Robinson, his father partner’s wife, home and she makes herself available to him.
4. Search: Benjamin after a while calls her and they start a secret relationship and a new world opens to him.
5. Find: Benjamin takes out Elaine, Mrs Robinson Daughter, on his parents request even though Mrs. Robinson did not want to. Benjamin actually enjoyed Elaine company, they empathise with each other over how confused they feel about the future.
6. Take: Benjamin comes clean about the affair too late and Elaine goes back to school. Benjamin starts to make decisions, so he goes after her but she tells him that she is getting married.
7. Return: Benjamin runs out of his apartment to stop Elaine’s wedding. For a man who could not take action regarding his future, he starts screaming at it. And, in away, also Elaine character circle is complete: she runs away from the family and situation who always telling her what to do and goes with Benjamin.
8. Change: Benjamin manages to get to the wedding in time to stop it, they run away together and take a bus to escape: Benjamin finally sits next to his future. In one of the last scenes they have a “what now” look on their face: even if it may look like as if nothing changed for him, that he still has to figure out his life, it is also clear that he did take action and that he will have to many more time in the next steps of his life.

The Graduate character archetypes:

Hero: Benjamin is the main character and the hero of the story. At the beginning he returns from a prestigious college he attended. His parents’ friends at a graduation party, are all asking him what he’s going to do next—scholarship winner and track star that he is trigging an introspective mood: he is not happy and lost and he wants his future to be “different.” 

Herald: The call to adventure comes when Mrs. Robinson asks Benjamin to give her a ride home. After arriving at the Robinson residence, it quickly becomes pretty clear that she’s trying to seduce him, even though she denies it at first. She puts on music, offers him a drink, and starts talking about her personal life. Things get more obvious when she wants his help taking off her dress and when she gets naked and in front of Benjamin in the room with her, making herself available if he wants, either now or later on.

Mentor: After escaping from Mrs. Robinson proposal, Ben runs downstairs when he hears that Mr. Robinson is back home and ends up talking with him. Mr. Robinson gives him some friendly advice, telling him that he won’t be this young again and that he should take it easy and have fun with the girls, have a few flings. You definitely couldn’t say that Mr. Robinson is actually Ben’s mentor, but he serves up a comically unwitting parody of the role in this scene.

Thresholds guardian: Mrs Robinson, once they get to the hotel room after Benjamin decides to call he, questions whether he’s sexually experienced enough, he gets annoyed and actually does sleep with her, setting the main action of the movie into motion. When Elaine goes back to Berkeley to study, but Ben follows her, trying to convince her to marry him and confessing his love for her. While there, he is renting this place where there is a difficult and suspicious landlord who makes it clear that does not like him and that he wants him gone from the apartment (especially after Elaine visits Benjamin and starts screaming).

Allies (sidekicks): Benjamin’s parents are worried about him, and feel like he’s wasting time and not fulfilling his academic and social promise and force him into a date with Elaine. But his attempt to torpedo his date with Elaine leads to an unexpected connection.

When Elaine become engaged to Carl the details about the wedding are kept secret from Ben to prevent him from interrupting it. However, he’s able to get the info from one of Carl’s friends, and rushes into the place where the wedding is taking place: he is with his car and runs out of gas a mile away so he continues on foot and runs as fast as he can.

Elaine fills the gaps of Benjamin by representing somebody who he can relate to and create interactions as well. She supports the him to complete his journey.

Shapeshifter: Mr. Robinson appears as a kind and encouraging man in the beginning of the film, but when he learns about Benjamin’s affair with his wife, his short temper and vengeful character is revealed.

Shadow: Mrs. Robinson is disappointed with the way her life turned out, which makes her ruthless, bitter, and vengeful. Mrs. Robinson does not approve of the relationship between Benjamin and Elaine, given the fact that she’s been having an affair with Benjamin. She threatens to tell Elaine the truth, but Benjamin wants to be the one to tell her and rushes into it. Elaine is upset and yells at Ben to get out.

Trickster: After some awkward interactions with the room clerk in the hotel where Benjamin is meeting up with Mrs. Robinson he acts embarrassedly the whole time because he has never found him self in that situation: adds humour and fun to the story to show the absurdity of the situation by its laughter in order to force a change in his situation.

Alienation moment, symbolised by scuba-diving suit he has to wear in his family’s pool.

Timeline for the main character including the character situation before the film starts.

References:

StudioBinder. 2021. How Dan Harmon’s Story Circle Can Make Your Story Better. [online] Available at: <https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/dan-harmon-story-circle/> [Accessed 6 November 2021].

What is Mise-en-Scène

Everything that communicates to us within the frame is part of the Mise-en-Scène. This is A French term meaning what is put into a scene or frame  and is constituted by all the visual information in front of the camera and is able to communicate essential information to the audience. The Mise-en-Scène is an essential part of the director’s creative art.

The Mise-en-Scène made up of various elements which all help to convey the message wanted by the director.

Elements of Mise-en-Scène

1. Settings & Props: very important in the visual conveyance of information to an audience. They work to convey the story. Props are an essential tool to the character’s action and to the narrative of the character: most characters have some elements to distinguish them and they do become important depending on how much they interact with it. Settings help the viewer to understand where the character is in the frame or in the location. It actually assumes as much importance in the total film as the action, or events (e.g. Manhattan in Woody Allen films). The set may represent exactly a particular place or it might be deliberately constructed to recreate the possible, improbable or even impossible location: they contribute the dramatic impact and add to the meaning to the film’s narrative orienting the viewers. The settings’ ability to enhance the narrative is also accompanied by props which are also part of the control that directors dictate in film art: selecting and arranging elements of setting is a very creative ability.
2. Costume, Hair & Make Up: they can be instant indicators to the audience of a character’s personality, status or job. For instance, the costume of the character of Cruella Deville reflects her evilness in term of colours and shapes. Costume and make up accuracy is necessary for period pieces so that the illusion created by the narrative e is not spoiled: verisimilitude concerning historical reality is indispensable to establish authenticity.
3. Facial Expressions & Body Language: characters can speak volume through body language before even speaking: it may also indicate how a character feels towards another character or it may also reflect the state of the relationship between two or more characters. These elements are used by directors to support the narrative as well as helping to develop the thematic unity of a film: figure expression refers to the facial expressions and posture of a n actor, while the figure movement refers to all other actions of the actors including gestures. The appropriateness of expression of the actors and the control that the director has over the actor’s movements are two essential elements in films: actors are used by directors as vehicles of expression.
4. Lighting and Colour: even if they are part of the same element this two aspects should be considered separately. Lighting can be used to achieve a variety of effects: it can highlight important characters or objects within the frame; to convey characters personality by making them look mysterious, for instance, by shading sections of their face and body; it can also reflect a characters’ mental state and hidden emotions. We can identify different types of lighting: Low key Lighting which is created by using only the key and back lights: it produces sharp constants of lights and dark areas; High key lighting where more filler lights are used. this lighting is natural and realistic to our eyes it produces brightly lit sets or sunny days; High contrast lighting typically employed by noir and black and white films lighting became part of the framing: the light is used as an aesthetic; Natural Lighting where the lighting obey the rules of physics (e.g. paper man with natural lighting and hazy lights in the distance). Instead, the primary types of directional lighting (which helps to define the setting of a scene by manipulating it) are five: frontal lighting, used to eliminate shadows from a scene; side lighting, causes the features of an object to cast sharp shadows; back lighting illuminates only the edges of an object which is ideal for a silhouette effects; under lighting coming from below the object or character and tends to distort the features and shape of the object; top lighting shines from directly above the objects in the scene. colour, on the other hand, is used in association with emotions, however it differs from culture to culture. Some films have a consistent and distinctive colour palette such as “Amelie” ochre, browns and warm colours. Colours in films can also disrupt our eyes creating depth and create a contrast.
5. Positioning of characters/objects within the frame camera positions are able to convey the action and progress the narrative: from the way a character, or object, is positioned within the frame, the viewer may be able to tell about their status, their intention or relationship to another character or to the frame itself. Films can be considered as a sequence of frames, so it can be helpful to apply some guidelines to position characters, or objects within the frame, such as the rule of thirds, which divides the frame in three vertical and three horizontal lines creating four sweet points that attract the viewer attention. The position of the camera creates a visual effect. Part of the Mise-en-scène is also what is in focus or not: the distance from the near to the farthest that objects are in focus is known as Depth of field. We can have a deep focus where everything is in focus, which means that there is a use of the camera lens and lighting together so that both close and distant planes are shown in sharp focus, which helps to emphasise a character or object that appears far away. The shallow focus, instead, brings the main subject in focus, making the audience look directly at the character. The effect will change depending on how close or how far away the camera is from the subject. The following are some shot length:

Extreme close-up: which gives us very little informations, we can only see the character, bringing us very close to a person experience for instance.

Close-up: which gives the audience a bit more of Information but still limited and still tells to focus on that moment which is useful to create a feeling of intimacy.

Medium shot: still relatively close shot, usually showing a character from the waist up. A medium shot is used to emphasize both the actor and their surroundings by giving them an equal presence on screen.

Long shot: a view of a scene that is shot from a considerable distance, so that people appear as indistinct shapes.

Extreme long shot: a view from an even greater distance, in which people appear as small dots in the landscape if at all. No expression is visible and the characters get overwhelmed by the environment.

The camera within a shot can also move:

Pan shot: the camera is mounted on a non-moving base. The camera pivots on its axis along the line of the horizon pans left to right.

Tilt shot: The camera can move up or down while fixed on its axis.

Travelling shot (dolly shot): the camera can move forward or backward while fixed on its axis on a track.

Crane shot: The camera can move in and out and up and down while fixed on a mechanical crane.

The framing of a scene can be Onscreen, the space image is the one that is contained within the borders of the screen; or Offscreen, where the space is a suggested, by the character usually, image that is left to be imagined by the viewer.

ELEMENTS of MISE-EN-SCENE By Gail Lathrop and David O. Sutton (Article Summary)

Research Activity 1

Can you describe how the elements of Mise-en-Scène in the following scenes? Choose one of the following scenes from Fantastic Mr. Fox   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhVA4NBWbC4  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azJi8hIgk54  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuxjUxaawpg

Settings & Props: as we can see from the establishing shot at the beginning of the scene (showing the door of the class the scene is going to take place into), the setting is the chemistry class at Ash (Mr. and Mrs. Fox’s son) school. The scientific props surround the characters: vials with chemicals in them, pipettes, illustrative scientific posters explaining what a cell is or the life cycle of plants, goggles to use, while carrying experiments, books notes, pencils to take notes. So everything is speaking school and Chemistry class.

Costume, Hair & Make Up Ash has distinctive black markings around his eyes he is wearing a superhero inspired outfit based on “White Cape”, a comic book character whom Ash idolises: wearing a white fleece jumper and another jumper which appears to be a mock cape. Kristofferson wears pale blue button shirt, looking very sharp. He has a lighter fur, similar to her aunt: Mrs. Fox. Agnes, Ash lab partner has a fur dotted with spots, which she confesses to having covered up in the past after Kristofferson compliments her. Her outfit is a simple light brown strap dress with white flowers patterns. Agnes also wears two yellow circle clips next to ears. The Beaver, Kristofferson lab partner, is wearing an ocher shirt (almost as if it was a school sport uniform).

Facial Expressions & Body Language Ash displays a moody, eccentric personality. His tensed relationship with Kristofferson is dictated by the fact that his cousin is considered better than him at just about everything. Agnes maintains a passive attitude against Ash’s rude behaviour and keeps her arms hold together on her belly. Kristofferson exchanges eye contact with Agnes too and the beaver (who is probably a bully of the school) causes their experiment to blow up, making Kristofferson slightly annoyed and he goes to extinguish the Magnesium. Agnes is very impressed with this.

Lighting and Colour throughout the scene, and the whole movie the predominant colour palette is composed by warm colours colour scheme (ochers, reds, browns): the colour scheme also is involved with the characters and the characters’ costumes.The lighting throughout the scene, and also the movie, is distinguishable and has a very “normal” feel to it: in this scene, in particular, there are also some key lights illuminating the characters from beneath in front of they desks, probably to highlight characters actions and expressions. Moreover, in the background there is this constant orangey light which could possibly allude to the fact that the scene is set during daytime.

Positioning of characters/objects within the frame both pairs are working on a desk in the middle of the scene.

What role does the shot choice (Cinematography) play in the scene. The fact that there are multiple crane shots, that skip between two desk of the class at the same time, points out how Ash lab partner’s attention is directed to his cousin Kristofferson (her eyeline is always towards Kristofferson) not paying any attention or even assisting Ash in their experiment. As I said before the establishing shot a the beginning helps to better set the scene with the script on the door saying “elementary chemistry”

Research Activity 2

Anomalisa. Charlie Kaufman 2016

Can you describe the mise-en-scene in this picture? How are the characters placed in the frame?  Settings & Props The characters are in a bedroom lying on the bed. there are hotel-like flip flops on the man side of the bed. On top of the bed there is also a cover at the end which resembles those in hotel beds. There are also two bedside tables on both bed sides, and a note on top of the bed with a logo on top. Costume, Hair & Make Up The man has grey hair which make him look a bit older that the woman who has long brown hair. The woman is wearing brighter colours: a pink cardigan with a white shirt and a jeans skirt. the man is wearing a green jacket with a light blue shirt and brown trousers. Facial Expressions & Body Language The woman seems to be very self-conscious about her body, almost as if she was ashamed of it since that her arms are covering it. Form her facial expression she seems worried too. The man, on the other hand, seems not present in the moment as if his mind was somewhere else: he is staring at the ceiling with an alienated expression. Lighting and Colour The artificial lighting represent the one of a room at night with lights switched on: in the whole scene, however, the characters and props seem to have a soft/hazy light creating a nostalgic melancholic mood. The overall colour palette is composed by warm colours but almost not saturated at all, so the colours appear to be a bit dull. Positioning of characters/objects within the frame The two bed sides are very different and make the frame almost asymmetrical. The man side is messier: the bed covers are not completely in place, the flip flops are not parallel.

 Research Activity 3

Watch this scene from Rebecca. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLRMrb6NvmA(Approximately 31mins into the film) Can you describe the relationship between the characters?

                 Hitchcock, A. Rebecca (1940)

How do we know what the relationship is?  The relationship between the two characters is established by several elements: they costumes and make up, their position within the scene, their facial expression and body language, the lighting on them: the Characters are the new bride of Mister the Winter and her maid. Can you describe how the mise-en-scene works together to tell us what the relationship is?     Settings & Props The scene is set in the mansion where the groom already lived and that after their marriage became the residence of the bride too. It is a spacious house with plenty of sophisticated furnitures and decorations such as flowers. In this scene the two characters are in the bride’s room since she is getting ready to dinner: there is a perfume, some make up and jewels too. From the view from the window we can see that is raining outside. Costume, Hair & Make Up an important element establishing the relationship between the two is constituted by their costumes and hair and makeup: the bride is wearing a fancy light dress with a big bow on the back, she has a pearl necklace highlighting her status, and her hair are styled in a classy way. We understand the the other woman is her maid from the fact that she is wearing a black uniform with a white collar and her hair style is very neat but in a practical way not to show off. Facial Expressions & Body Language The made is always tensed and on her guard, observing the bride behaviour and comparing her to Rebecca (the deceased bride) with a superior attitude but being respectful, since she is her maid, at the same time. At some point the rain covers their faces when the maid is talking about Rebecca as if she was remembering her with nostalgic feelings. On the other hand, the new Mrs.The Winter seems to get her new made to like her and she tries to relate to her in a kind and polite way but she is also scared of her. She is confused and new to her current situation trying to figure out what she seems to be the only person to not know about Rebecca. Lighting Since this is a black and white film, lighting becomes part of the scene, “acting” as if it was an actor itself: there is a high key lighting illuminating Mrs.The Winter who, compared to her maid appears much lighter and referring to her innocence maybe. Positioning of characters/objects within the scene  There is a shallow focus to make the audience focus on the characters. In the frame above, in particular, the position of the characters can tell us many information about their relationship: the maid is standing up in an omniscient way suggesting that she does not consider the new Mrs.The Winter to be worthy of staying where Rebecca was. Mrs.The Winter looks up at her as if she was inferior somehow.

Research Activity 4

Can you describe the mise-en-scene in this picture?: Settings & Props this frame is set outdoors in what to seems to look like a local market: crowded, busy street full of people (older compared to the young girl in the foreground), there are also some baskets with fabric inside, old buildings and red tends (which are sheltering shops probably), some wires which are maybe bringing electricity throughout the city. Facial Expressions & Body Language the girl in the foreground as a worried and concerned expression and even her body language seems to communicate so: she is holding tight to her bag (she might not be trusting the people who surrounds her) and holding to her burka probably she is trying to cover up her face because she does not want to be seen (she is might be escaping from somebody. What type of shot is it? medium shot showing the audience the young girl character approximately from the waist up. This medium shot is used to emphasise both the character and her surroundings by giving them an equal presence on screen. What is the camera angle? slightly high to make us feel the loneliness and confusion of the character: the director might want the audience to feel “small” just like the young girl does. Where is the character located in the frame? she is in what seems to be the middle of the frame, however she is not completely symmetrical. The frame is actually displaying the elements using the rule of thirds. Proportionally she looks smaller compared to the environment. What is she wearing? The young girl has a long green dress with long sleeves; a magenta burka and a brown bag of which we can only see the handle. What is the depth-of-field? Deep focus since everything is in focus the “camera” lens and lighting make sure that both close and distant planes are shown in sharp focus. Describe the colour palette? warm desaturated colours (except for the young girl which has bright, vibrant colours to create a contrast with the rest of the scene emphasising the young girl). Describe the lighting? hight key lighting with defined lines that distinguish illuminated parts from those in the shadows.

The Elements of art are the basic components of art-marking. It is impossible to create a work of art without using at least one of the seven elements of art. Artworks can also be analyzed according to the use of the elements in a work of art.

The Elements of art are stylistic features that are included within an art piece to help the artist communicate.

Form: every three dimensional object, which has a length, width and height, has a form. We can Identify two different types of forms: the Geometric ones and the Organic forms. The Geometric forms falls into a specific category and are typically man-made; some examples are the cone, tube, sphere or cylinder. On the other hand an organic form does not have a specific name associated with it since they are compared to naturally occurring forms. An artist goal is the one of recreating the illusion of a down form and he or she can accomplish that by observing how light reacts on the specific object in real life. There can be different elements to identify: highlight – the area where light is hitting the object directly-, midtone – the middle value of the local colour of the object-, core shadow – area shaded on the object-, cast shadow – areas shaded on the surfaces surrounding the object itself because the object blocks the light from it, reflected highlight – area on the object that is lighter because of reflected light off of surrounding objects.

Colour: in Art has a very important role and features, it has an effect on our mood and behaviour and refers to reflected light. In Art and films too colour has the ability to subtly manipulate the audience, affecting them physically (altering mood and feelings since it affects the centre of emotions in the hypothalamus), has a psychological effect (colours have a different impression of weight and size). the theory behind colour is split in three parts and each part is built upon the previous:

• The colour wheel, theorised by Isaac Newton which offers a visual representation of the colours separating them into a spectrum found in prism they are arranged in a circle and the primary colours (yellow, red and blue) are equally spaced; the colour wheel is composed by Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colours. Primary colours (yellow, red and blue) can only be created through the use of natural pigments and are used to create the colours on the colour wheel. Secondary colours (orange, green and purple) are generated by mixing equally any of two primary colours so the combination of yellow and blue would create green, or mixing red and blue creates purple and red plus yellow is equal orange. Tertiary colours (red-purple, red-orange, blue green, yellow-green, blue-purple, yellow-orange) are, instead, created by mixing equally a primary colour with a secondary colour.
• The colour values, a value of a colour determines the darkness or lightness of it. A hue, pure colour, can be affected by adding white, producing a tint, or black, producing a shade, to it.
• The colours schemes, which are patterns with which colours are put together an a clever way. The monochromatic scheme represents none colour with its shades and tints. The analogous scheme, shows colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel. The complementary colour scheme, showing colours found directly across from each other on the colour wheel and offers great contrasts. Three colours found on the colour wheel which are equally spaced apart from each other are part of a colour triads scheme. Warm colours scheme is associated with warm things and cool colours scheme is associated with cool things.

Space: in art space can be the area around, above and within an object. An artist accomplishment can be recreate the illusion of space in his or her artworks. There are several techniques to achieve so: overlapping, positioning closer object and one prevents the view of the other creating the illusion of depth; placement, for example, an object placed higher within the picture it will appeal further away; size, smaller object will appear further away from the viewer; detail, having less detail on an object further away is more realistic; colour and value, further away objects tends to be cooler in temperature and lighter in value the closer they are the warmer darker in value they appear; perspective, a drawing created using linear perspective using lines to create the illusion of space on flat surfaces, all the parallel lines (orthogonals) in a painting or drawing using this system converge in a single vanishing point on the composition’s horizon line – we can identify 4 major types of perspective defined by the number of vanishing points lying on the horizon line: 1 point perspective, 2 point perspective, 3 point perspective and multi-point perspective; positive space, in the shapes or forms of interest; negative space, which is the empty space between the shapes or forms.

Texture: alludes to the way an object may feels to the touch or looks as it may feel if it were touched. A texture can be: Visual, 3D surface imitating a real texture; invented, 2D pattern created by using lines and shapes repeated; rough texture, which reflect light unevenly; smooth textures, instead reflect light evenly; matte, a surface that reflects a soft, dull light (shiny surfaces are the opposite); impasto, a painting technique in which the paint is built up on the surface to create a texture. Values are very useful in revealing the illusion of texture.

Line: the most basic element of art: a moving dot that controls a viewer’s eye it can describe edges it can indicate form as well as movement. Such techniques are hatching and cross hatching which are linear drawing techniques that can be used to create texture, value, and the illusion of form and light and is mostly used to create a full range of value. Contour lines help showing where an object ends. Line quality refers to the thickness or thinness of a line helping create the illusion of form in a drawing. Vertical lines move up and down without any slant, whereas horizontal lines are parallel to the horizon. Diagonal lines are lines that slant and zigzag lines are a combination of diagonal lines. Curved lines change direction gradually. A line variation helps adding interest to the lines. Lines can also be long or short and wide or skinny but also rough or smooth (texture).

Shape: when a line is enclosed a shape is created: they contribute to the balance within a work. They have a length and a width. Shapes can be geometric, regular shapes following math rules, and organic shapes which are freeform and seem to follow no rules.

Value: deals with the lightness or darkness of a colour. Showing full range of colours in an artwork is very good where there is an ample amount of light values (called tints) and dark values (called shades). Using a value scale, helps to create a full range of value.

The early usage of animation was about exploring its potential and was really influenced by the new vision of the century: in a context full of social change and political revolution, the role of all the arts were also questioned and re-defined by their most influential exponents. Among the famous individuals who contributed to the progress of Animation we can find James Stuart Blackton who introduced animation and other important film techniques that helped shape and stimulate the development of cinematic art: one of most famous works was “Humorous Phases of a Funny Face” (1906) which can be considered to be the earliest surviving American animated film where single exposures of drawings were simulating movement where the presence of an artist is only suggested to the audience.

Blackton pioneered stop frame animation. He brought innovation in the process of production in the industrial organisation making it more efficient and effective by employing faster or simpler working methods so that he could manage multiple films at once.

“Enchanted Drawing” (the first animated sequences recorded on standard picture film) is another famous work of his, where Blackton actually interacts with its drawing making it come to life.

One of the earliest pioneers of animation, along with Blackton was Émile Cohl: he is considered to be the creator of the first fully animated cartoon: ‘Fantasmagorie’ (1908). Even if It shared a similar look with Blackton’s chalk animation, there was a notable difference between Blackton’s characters and his: Cohl’s animation was drawn on hundred pieces of paper.

in the 1880’s Cohl and Jules Levy (who was the founder) were members of the artists and journalists movement called the “Incoherent”. The Incoherents presented work which was deliberately irrational and iconoclastic, “found” art objects, nonsense humoristic sketchs, drawings of children, and drawings “made by people who don’t know how to draw.”

“Cartoons, which rebuff so ferociously painterly realism and filmic naturalism are set in a universe of transformation, overturning and provisionally”

This statement was created by modernist movements fro whom animation became an extension of their work and innovative thinking: the role of Art is defined during a time where anarchy was exploding into the cultural scene when Modernists (both a philosophical movement and an art movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries) and Dadaists (art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war) also questioned the difference between high and popular culture – Art was never available to the people only for educated and wealthy to appreciate and understand it. This necessary debate arouse from the division in terms of accessibility to creativity. Animation in the midst of these polemic arguments softened the edges between his and mass forms of culture and was able to cross social and cultural divisions: from its very early stages animation was destined to be a multi-cultural, multifunctional medium fuelled by technological change. The avant – garde interest in animation is part focused upon the formal aesthetic potentials of film and animation, line and form movement and rhythm colour an d light.

There are several inventions which helped, in the1900, transforming production possibilities and facilitating assembly line production setting a path for animation:

• 1913 Raoul Barré, a French Canadian painter, cartoonist, animator of the silent film era, had invented the peg system which provided a universal registration system by creating common relationship with the background or the viewer’s point of view where the animated images shared foundation with each other.
• 1915 saw the introduction of cel: a transparent sheet used in the process of hand-drawn animation;

Mass production was priority since mass communication was a first concern, and America became land of filmmakers, immigrants coming over from Europe after the Wars in the midst of social reforms in Europe; European culture is abandoned in favour of American technology:

• John Randolph Bray (1879-1978) was a pivotal figure in the development and organisation of the animated cartoon industry in the United States: he introduced the printed background and releasing the first animated colour film “the debut of Thomas cat” in 1920; it was produced by Earl Hurd for Bray Pictures using the Brewster Colour film process.
• American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio founder and owner Max Fleischer was very influential in the whole process of animation. Max Fleischer invented the rotoscope, a time and labour saving device in which live-action film frames are traced as a guide for animated action. Brother Dave’s on-camera performance in a clown suit was rotoscoped into the character Ko-Ko the Clown, who starred in the “Out of the Inkwell” 1915

• Winsor McCay was an American cartoonist and animator pioneer (he created the first animated documentary “sinking of the Lusitania” 1918). He is best known for the comic strip “Little Nemo” and the animated film “Gertie the Dinosaur”.

Audiences can be highly influenced by several media or entertainment platforms: newspapers and other kinds of informations (e.g. Television, magazines, events) have always been means of persuasion of very vast group of viewers. Nowadays these “traditional” means of information and persuasion have been sided by Social Media, Television and Web Sites.

Of course also Film and Animation can have other goals other that simple entertainment, becoming a very effective mean of influence and political persuasion: they can reach a large number of people and new technologies allow to produce more and more material capable of impressing its audience.

For this reason, in the last few decades, Print media has lost part of its importance progressively being substituted by new communication media: in particular some media platforms as social medias and podcasts have gained a great power of persuasion: when they are employed for propagandist intentions, the public can be easily manipulated due to the high sense of participation these means can usually lead to.

Also Films and Animation maintain their high power of persuasion thanks to the high number of new broadcast platforms they can use: more and more often these new platforms can mask subliminal contents that are easily dissimulated thanks to the impressive visuals they implement. The most common use of this power of persuasion is the commercial advertising: commercial communications are the outcome of thorough studies of the potential buyers and are produced with sophisticated techniques.

Nevertheless, sometimes communication media, and in particular films and animation are used to express personal struggle that the authors want to communicate to their public: in these cases these media assume their highest value because they become a way to share experiences and original points of view that can enrich the audience.

Also political persuasion makes a wide use of information and entertainment media: also politics are more and more spectacular because the new audience is used to impressive ways of communications and want to find the same modalities also in this kind of information.

Nowadays some sensitive issue are becoming more and more relevant: films and media are becoming a mean to explore and acknowledge some aspect of twenty-first century society as gender equality, race disparities, disability inclusion, ethical issues or political innovations.

All the considerations above can help to clarify how politics shapes media and communication: Cinema, Television and Documentaries have always been an important way of influence, but nowadays their transformation and progress make them more and more powerful means of persuasion.

Examples of politics affecting media in Animation:

“Wall-E” (2008)

Wall-e is an example of an animation film with a high political content well hidden behind entertainment and beautifully executed CGI. The first political message is the pointless use of Earth resources operated by mankind: the Earth where Wall-E (standing for “Waste Allocation Load Lifter- Earth” class) operates is full of rubbish and abandoned things that humankind left behind him when leaving the planet because all its resources have been exploited. World population is exiled on an immense spaceship where man are slaves of A.I. and robots. They have the illusion of having everything they want and build their happiness on superficial activities that distract them from the reality of facts: the movie can be considered a clear criticism over consumistic society and undiscriminated use of resources even if the apparent thread of the plot is just a robot love story.

Animated Documentaries

Animation has been mostly used to represent fiction and illustrate the non-fiction could constitute an issue: it is not conventional but has much potential. This potential, for instance, resides in its usefulness to represent what has not been reported.

What constitutes an animated documentary?

According to Honess Roe, something can be considered to be an animated documentary if it fulfills the following criteria. (Annabelle Honess Roe is Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Surrey, UK. She has contributed chapters to a number of books and had articles published in Animation)

1. Has been recorded or created frame by frame.

2. Is about the world rather than a world wholly imagined by its creator.

3. Has been presented as a documentary by its producers and/or received as a documentary by audiences, festivals or critics 

The employment of animation within a non-fiction context is not recent: it dates back to the early history of animation. In 1918 Winsor Mc Cay created what is thought to be the first animated documentary, “The Sinking of the Lusitania“. This work resulted from a lack of recorded footage of the incident itself: what the animator did was to recreate the events, as retold by survivors, using animation, trying to show that there is no distinction between live-action and animation in terms of their ability to show us reality.

However, the modern use of animated documentaries nourished the idea that animation’s illustrative function to be modest and discreet since it is mostly employed to clarify, explain, illustrate and emphasise.

What are the implications of using animation in a non-fiction context?

The first impression on animation is that it could alter reality of facts and by that not being completely objective, however this is one perspective on it: it can present the observable events and the world in non-conventional subjective, giving insights on the emotional and cognitive impact of a human experience, which means that it has the potential of shifting and broaden the limits of what and how we can show about reality, by offering new or alternative ways of seeing the world.

Animated documentaries can be ‘…means of accessing the now absent past, especially pasts from which the filmmakers have been ruptured due to trauma or other events that cause a disruption in the continuity of personal and collective memory.’ For example, Ari Folman’s animated documentary Waltz with Bashir explores into the horrors of the 1982 Lebanon war and it manifests his personal memories of the war through a first person narrative.

What issues arise from the use of animation in documentary?

One of the issues with animation is that whatever is in the scene can communicate something which could leads to a lack of objectivity: animation changes how documentaries are perceived, undermining the conventional but misleading perspective that they are authoritative and objective. Somebody could argue that the creative take of animation keeps it real, reminding viewers that they are seeing a subjective narration: helping us to think of animation as a viable means of documentary expression is John Grierson who refers to documentary ‘as the creative treatment of actuality’.

In other words, Animation and Documentary should work together so tightly that the facts narrated become undistinguishable from the way they are represented, and the events or the notions reported are completely merged with the mean used.

However, the power of animated documentaries to override the mere reality is undeniable: but this power is not to be intended as a lack of objectivity, as it must be used to involve the audience at a higher level, this way fulfilling the “educational” intent usually attributed to documentary itself. When this goal is reached, the animated documentaries deny the critic often moved to them of interpose a layer – the animation itself – between the reality and the audience: the viewers are engaged as well as they would be in a “traditional” documentary.

Could animated documentary potentially detract from the seriousness of the situation?

The opinion of Animated material has been changing over decades in parallel with the advance in technique and technology that relies behind it. Even if some exceptional goals can be archived nowadays in terms of “credibility”, the role of animation is far from being seen as a representation of concrete facts and events. However an important default of live action seems to be forgotten: behind the production of a documentary there is an idea, a direction that the narrative takes on in order to represent the fact, and those facts are always considered to be true by the audience; but, what if those facts are the result of a subjective perception? So, at what extent animated documentaries can really alter reality more than live action documentaries do? Sure, for animation it might be more obvious and exaggerated but isn’t it our concept and opinion over it a bit prejudiced? Or, shouldn’t live action’s roles and parameters be reconsidered as well?

Could  it prevent a direct engagement with the factual content of an animated documentary?Could this be positive?

The audience engagement with the facts reported by an animated documentary can be the same of a live action narration: animation can be able to involve the viewers on a very high level, as well as – and maybe even more – than “traditional” representation.

There is a historical attitude that animation is for children and is not suited to grown up material? How far do you agree/disagree with this?

Most of the time, in our culture context we tend to categorise things giving them a precise role and definition, so that there are no halos of doubts surrounding them. This could be the case of the idea that animation – or even comics – are “children material”, but there are several examples of animated works that adults have appreciated as much as children have, or even more due to their more experienced point of view. Moreover, the concept of synthesis of ideas and forms via animation requires innovative thinking as much as technical skills: symbols and metaphors behind the “childish” figures are in front of the viewer but somehow hidden from the sight of those who refuse to grasp them.

Could it lead to a more universal level of identification? Why do you think this might be?

I think that, even though some symbols and behaviours are not fully shared by all cultures, the animated representation of reality can help to override this differences, because it is nearer to a form of art as painting, and for this reason it tends to be someway more shareable by different societies and populations.