Category: Design for Animation

Original Quote

The authenticity of a documentary is ‘deeply linked to notions of realism and the idea that documentary images are linked to notions of realism and the idea that documentary images bear evidence of events that actually happened, by virtue of the indexical relationship between image and reality’

Horness Roe. A. (2013) Animated Documentary. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Paraphrased Quote

How a documentary presents its topic authentically can be dependent on the factual basis of the imagery used throughout, and also dependent on how reality is depicted in the images shown in the documentary.

Impossible Figures II, created in 2016, is an animated short film directed by Marta Pajek.

The film begins with a wide frame of a woman returning home with a bag of groceries. What becomes immediately apparent is the use of space in this animation, as she walks through a seemingly borderless world until she gets inside her house, which in itself sets it’s own borders with an aerial blueprint. The film creates a sense of a well-tread routine as the characters behaviour is coordinated and deliberate. Only at the point where the eggs roll out of the bag and smash on the floor below is where the routine becomes interrupted, and the desperate plight to protect this one egg from being broken becomes the womans primary purpose. Throughout the film, various patterns emerge and disappear, the sense of perception becomes increasingly warped, and the use of space and colour changes dramatically.

Categorisation: Surrealist Animation. The use of blending shapes and patterns, a synaesthetic dream sequence, and the visual storytelling created appear to fit within this category of short films.

Form & Function: How the film presents it’s narrative seems to rely heavily on the use of symbolism and interpretation, as the meaning behind several elements are not made apparently clear, even as the film draws to a close. The audience can interpret her character in several ways: one who yearns for the scenarios created in this sequence, one who has lived and lost these memories, or as a character who has put these human needs in the background as she prioritizes other objectives.

Process: The film relies on simplistic shapes and outlines with limited details. This process works well as the patterns and shapes blend between frames, and the illusion of depth is used effectively to convey the characters altered mental state. Seemingly straight planes become angled, furniture changes shape and size dramatically, and the striking imagery of an ever expanding and contracting house convey the characters mindset throughout.

Formal Elements: The main element which is utilized throughout the film is the use of space. How the woman finds herself in ever changing environments reflects her state of mind. When she is curiously searching for reason, the space expands and widens. When she becomes focused on a particular element, such as a husband and child, the space shrinks to a singular box. This use of space is thoroughly effective and allows for more surreal scenarios, such as opening the closet and discovering a room of several lifestyle scenarios which she may be longing for.

The film uses a very limited set of colours, mainly a mixture of reds and blues on the characters makeup and earrings. A dull green filter is applied during the characters dream sequence, which effectively removes the colour from the scene. This indicates to the audience that she is experiencing an altered state, perpetuated further by the constant forming of shapes into humans dancing and audio track.

The pacing of the film, at first, illustrates a fast-paced and determined character completing her usual routine. This pacing slows dramatically as the film progresses, spending more time in each shot with slower and more elaborate transitions. The pacing follows the mindset of the character as she makes her way through the house, inquisitively for some time, and becoming longer the more surreal the experience becomes. This combined with the synaesthetic dream sequence and changing environments and patterns around her assist in driving the story forwards.

The audio maintains a somewhat industrial soundtrack, reminiscent of Inception (2010), creating a sense that things are not quite as they seem with shifting rooms accompanied by foley sounds, such as the scraping of bricks, and an ever present guitar grunge giving the sense of uncertainty. The audio changes tone once she enters the dream sequence, with a slow, romantic ballad replacing the distorted guitar and echoed sounds outside. As she leaves the dream sequence, and the film begins to draw to a close, the audio is replaced with the sound of chirping crickets in an outdoor space. This creates an unsettling atmosphere, and is quickly added to by the animalistic sounds of the creature revealed to be contained in the egg.

In this Word document I attempted to break down FIght Clubs narrative into the Eight Point Story Arc : Stasis, Trigger, The Quest, Surprise, Critical Choice, Climax, Reversal and Resolution. I chose to keep this project as a viewable document due to the large word count

“Mise-en-scene as a Visual Aid in Video Game Level Design“

For this topic I will be discussing how video game developers and 3D environment artists utilize elements of mise-en-scene to guide their audience through their levels and gameplay. In this report will be examples of games which have strongly implemented mise-en-scene into their titles such as: Journey, Metal Gear Solid, Limbo, and certain first-person video games. Also included will be research into areas of game development where mise-en-scene has not been employed sucessfully. Instead of impressing the audience, it takes away from the experience by either being too unrealistic (a simple yet unpassable barrier), or existing as a dead-end with no purpose for gameplay. In essence, I will be attempting to answer the question ‘How can mise-en-scene be used as a tool for game design?’

The main reason for my research into this topic are: my interest in creating game worlds, how lighting can be used effectively as a tool for interest and guidance, and understanding how to effectively utilize elements of mise-en-scene for game development.

Key Words: Mise-en-scene, environmental storytelling, gameplay and level design, signposting, visual language, navigational cues (video games), lighting.

Sources and Materials: Vrendenberg, B. (2017), Signposting, Mise-en-Scene, and Environmental Storytelling. The Netherlands: University of Utrecht.

Girina, I. (2013) ‘Video Game Mise-En-Scene Remediation of Cinematic Codes in Video Games’, in Koenitz, H., Sezen, T.I., Ferri, G., Haahr, M., Sezen, D., Catak, G. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. Switzerland: Springer, Cham