Over the past couple of weeks, I have been working in a new group on our Narrative Studies Presentation. The assessment was to analyse a short, animated film whilst considering the Hero’s Journey, Mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound, editing and how the animation evoked a reaction from the audience. We were given a lecture on narrative and technical details, and how different areas such as plot, structure, theme, style, lighting, camera movements, sound etc. change the emotions in an animation. I learned about different camera shots, such as close-ups, long shots and POV shots, high key and low key lighting, and diegetic sound (sound whose source is visible on screen) and non-diegetic sound (sounds only the audience can hear).
My group included me, Milo, Caitlin, Dan and Alexander, and our short animation to analyse was called “Late Afternoon.” It is an Irish animation about an elderly woman who is experiencing memories from her past, whilst being brought back to the present where a woman is looking after her. At the end of the animation, she remembers that the woman in the room with her is her daughter Kate, suggesting the woman has some form of memory loss, such as dementia.
We first thought about allocating one area to each person, so I would talk about the hero’s journey and Milo would talk about sound etc, but we then decided to split the animation itself into sections. I was allocated her final cluster of memories, where we see her running to her husband, to her calling for her daughter at the beach.
Through my research, I found out many interesting things, such as how it relates to the hero’s journey by crossing the threshold and encountering challenges. Colours are also a large part of the animation, as they are seen many separate times in different settings, both in her subconscious and the physical world. In her subconscious, the colours make the audience feel trapped. However, the soft colours at the beach in the physical world make the viewer fell calm and at peace. Diegetic sound is heard multiple times throughout the animation, such as through character dialogue. During her memories, non-diegetic sound is played. During tense times, the music softens, enabling the viewer to concentrate on intense shots.
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