For my research assignment I decided to look at Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal (2019) and how it’s such an effective piece of storytelling without using a single line of dialogue. My presentation will look at how Tartakovsky uses visual techniques to engage his audience emotionally, communicate the character’s thoughts and convey deeper themes. I broke down the techniques Tartakovsky uses into:

• Colour.
• Editing.
• Cinematography.
• Character Design.

In this blog post I’m going to show in detail the material I found to support my opinion.

Colour:

“We feel emotionally, through the use colour, what we’re suppose to feel for the character.”
– Daniella Strijileva, Production Designer at Pixar (2017)

We know the importance of colour in films, but it’s become such a natural staple of film making today that it’s easy to forget how much colour plays a key role in defining the mood of a scene and how specific colours can be used to evoke subtle emotional reactions from the audience. Numerous film makers use colour to enhance their storytelling, a perfect example is Pixar. They have a wonderful series on Khan Academy about their film making process and have several sections about how they use colour to enhance their narrative.

In the above video the art department clearly demonstrates how they use colour within a scene from their intro to “Up” (2009) to visually communicate subtle metaphors about a character’s emotional state, by framing the old man in shades of blue he appears more sad and lonely, whereas framing the old woman in warm colours like orange and yellow make her appear more positive and happier. Pixar use this approach to colour for great effect in their intro to Up, like Primal it’s an animated sequence devoid of dialogue that relies on visuals to tell a complex story about grief. The intro was singled out within numerous reviews;

“It’s one of the most extraordinary openings to a film, much less an animated film, ever to have been crafted.” (Sukhdev Sandhu, 2009)

“This movie is remarkable for a brilliant montage sequence at the very beginning… It is a masterclass in narrative exposition.” (Peter Bradshaw, 2009).
This is a key example of just how effective colours can be in manipulating the audience’s emotion.

I knew now how important the use of colour was in a story, next I wanted to explore why Tartakovsky chose his particular colours and explore further the psychology behind colour. Mary Risk (2020) from Studio Binder has a great e-book and video discussing the topic:

In the above video they discuss not just the use of colours but how the Hue, Saturation and Tone of a colour can change the emotional response it elicits from an audience. So a lighter pastel red can evoke feelings of love and tenderness while a darker more saturated red can evoke feelings of anger or danger. I found this interesting but not directly relevant to the point I was trying to make about Primal, I did however find more use in their e-book which details colour schemes, particularly the section about monochromatic and analogous colour palettes and transitional colours.

A monochromatic palette is harmonious and lulling, it can be used to help sink the audience into a complete world or the mood of the scene. An Analogous palette is kindred and due to it be mostly common in nature appears more natural and pleasing to our eyes. Transitional colours are used to show a shift in the narrative, either a change in the character or scene.

Lewis Bond (2015) on his channel The Cinema Cartography goes into detail about transitional colours and how it can be used not just to show a change in location but also a change in the character’s state of mind.

Bond uses the example of the colour scheme in ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’ (2013) to show how transitional colours can be used to subtly communicate to the audience the characters emotional state. In the film, blue represents the main character’s freedom and expression so when we first see her love interest with blue hair it symbolises her emotional relationship with this character. From here the blue palette in the film becomes more intense and prominent, showing the character becoming consumed by love. Over time the blue remains as prominent but becomes more pale and faded showing how the love is fading but she’s still consumed by it. This is a fantastic example of how a change in colour can subtly convey to the audience a change the character’s emotional state.

Tartakovsky utilises all these techniques with the colour in Primal, especially transitional colours which he uses to guide the audience through the main character’s emotional journey. Each colour Tartakovsky uses in these scenes ties directly into the narration he’s is trying to tell and each colour chosen is used to amplify the emotion of the scene. It is worth noting here though, that the specific meaning of a colour can be subjective. Where red is traditionally the pigment of love, the director of ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’ chose to represent love with the colour blue. Studio Binder offers a guide on some common interpretations of colours.

As you can see some colours, depending how they’re used can evoke almost contradictory emotional responses. This leaves a certain level of subjectivity to my presentation but I’m fortunate that the assignment requires me to argue my own opinion.

Below is a colour script I put together of the opening to Primal. What I felt was of particular note was how the colour scheme followed the gradient of the colour wheel, which I feel was done to allow a more gradual change between the emotions of each scene.

In the beginning of the episode we see the main character ‘Spear’ surrounded by green. This green is largely monochromatic and gives us a natural and peaceful feeling which continues for the next few shots until becoming more analogous with the introduction of blue, which gives us a sense of calm as we see Spear observing his home from afar, here everything is still as it should be in the character’s world. In the same scene however we also see Tartakovsky subtly introducing purple which in the next few scenes grows in intensity becoming more ominous. It’s in this same shot that Spear notices something is wrong with his family. The purple shifts, becoming even more intense as Spear runs to save them until the scene turns red, amplifying the violence and danger we feel as Spears family is murdered before his eyes. This red comes to symbolise Spear’s anger and pain when we see him wiping away the cave painting of his family.

From this scene the colours almost seem to move backwards through the colour wheel, becoming purple and ominous again as Spear climbs a cliff to commit suicide before he changes his mind and we switch to a deep blue, representing his depression. As the sun rises Spear experiences a vision of his family at peace in the afterlife and the colour scheme becomes bright yellow representing hope and rebirth. In the next shot Spear is lit by a warm orange giving us a sense of happiness as he comes to terms with his family’s death. The next shot in sequence brings us back to the green representing the return to norm.

Editing:

Editing is another important element of filmmaking. Depending what sequence of images you show the audience you can vastly change the narration you are telling. Showing images in chronological order to audience can cause them to form a relation between what’s shown on screen. Tartakovsky keeps his editing simple and makes extensive use of the eye line match to show us the internal thoughts of Spear and his wants.
As Kyle Deguzman defines in his 2021 article;

“Eyelines are determined by where an actor looks during a scene. They can help inform viewers of the scene’s geography, as well as conveying actors’ relationships and moods. Eyelines are also a powerful tool for telling a story through visuals and directing the eyes of the audience to portions of the frame.”

Studio Binder has another video on their YouTube which breaks down in more detail what an Eye line match is.

Tartakovsky first uses this technique in Primal to establish Spear’s goals and convey to us his relationship to his family. We first see Spear looking off screen at staring at a smoke plume on the horizon then cutting back to his smiling face. This establishes that whatever he’s looking at is what makes him happy, which is eventually revealed to be his family.

This technique is used again to show us his sadness and pain over the death of his family.

Then again to show us his anger at the T-rex that killed his family and his desire for revenge.

I decided in the end to cut editing from the main presentation to save time, an awful lot of it also crossed over with cinematogrpahy so I wasn’t missing much.

Cinematography:

The framing and composition of Primal is another tool Tartakovsky uses to tell his story. By carefully framing his characters Tartakvosky can convey symbolic relationships between them and convey deeper emotional meaning behind scenes.
The examples I will be focusing on will be his use of repeating compositions, extreme close ups and how characters are framed in relation to each other.

Extreme Close Up:

The extreme close as defined by SC Lannom;

“An extreme close-up shot frames a subject very closely, often so much so that the outer portions of the subject are cut off by the edges of the frame. On an actor, this is commonly used to show specific portions of the body, like the face or hip, but it can go closer to show only an actor’s mouth, or even a single eye.”

and as Master Class explains this type of shot is “…an emotional moment that draws in the audience and portrays a character’s innermost feelings. This makes the viewer feel like they’re part of the action.”

Studio Binder has a wonderful break down of the film Nightcrawler (2014) which explores how focusing on a character’s eyes helps you empathise with them.

Marcos Mateu-Mestre makes a similar statement in his composition and storyboarding book, Framed Ink:

So when Tartakovsky uses extreme close ups of Spear’s eyes it shows us what he’s thinking and his emotional state. (I get a little bit of overlap here from previous images I’ve used in editing, but such is the nature of filmmaking.)

Repeating Compositions:
The above image is also a great example of how Tartakovsky uses repeating composition to relate the similarities between the two main characters. The top half of the above image shows Spear watching in horror as his family is devoured by the evil T-Rex, the bottom half shows his similar reaction as Fang’s family is attacked by the same T-Rexes.

Tartakovsky uses a similar shot of Spear throwing his weapon in both sequences. This helps to tie the two characters together and convey Spear’s empathy with Fang.
Tartakovsky also uses this technique to also show to us how Spear has overcome the death of his family and returned to his normal day to day life. The shot on the left is from the opening of the episode and the shot on the right is after Spear has overcome his grief.

Framing Character’s Relationships:

How Tartakovsky frames his character’s gives us subtle implications of their relationships. When we’re first introduced to Spear and Fang. both are shown to be fishing but are placed on opposing sides of the screen. This shows the character’s are similar but but currently working in opposition to each other.

This carry’s over to when they first meet, they’re framed in direct opposition now, they’re almost portrayed as enemies.

Tartakovsky even uses the same framing technique to demonstrate Fang’s adversity to the evil T-Rex.

But what’s key about Spear and Fang’s relationship is that Tartakovsky uses framing to show us their arc. At the start their against each other but by end of the episode they’re framed in the same silhouette, in dead centre of the frame. They’ve literally crossed the screen to come together.

Character Design:

The shape design of the characters helps to tell us a story about them. Each design conveys to the audience the idea of who the character is, so when we first see them we instantly get an idea of what they’re about just through visuals. Tartakovsky makes great use of shape language within his character design.

Spear’s character design is blocky and square, which conveys to us feelings of strength, power and reliability. Even the shape of Spears silhouette as he moves helps give us an idea of who he is. He runs on all fours like an animal and when he jumps his body shape becomes like that of a primate.

 

His skull in profile even looks more like an ape that a human. This all helps give us the feeling that Spear is bestial and animalistic.

Fang on the other hand has a square and triangular silhouette. Suggesting power and speed. Her body is also covered in stripes like a tiger which suggests to us she is a predator.

If you look at her in comparison to the evil T-Rex it’s clear to see they have very similar silhouettes but Tartakovsky breaks up the design by including more triangles, this gives us the impression this dinosaur is more dangerous, violent and scary. They even include more triangles within his patterns, Fang’s stripes cross from one side of her body to the other but the evil T-Rex has his stripes end in points, appearing sharper and deadlier.

Even the palette shift to red makes us instantly feel like he’s more villainous and evil. To make the evil Mother T-Rex stand out as the “big bad” they simply gave her the biggest triangle shape and then covered it in even more triangles.