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The Cinematography of "The Incredibles"

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Re: The Cinematography of "The Incredibles"

#31

Post by rquantz »

bentcorner wrote: post #25
brazzy wrote: post #10

Interesting read, though sometimes it sounds a bit like over-analyzation. Especially the constant mention of "triangular composition" - three points form a triangle (unless they form a line). You'd have to make a conscious effort NOT to have "triangular composition".

Completely agree. I enjoyed reading about framing, how positioning backgrounds to ensure the viewer can easily follow action, the far/medium/full shots, bird/worm's eye view and the like. Mentioning triangular composition so often was strange. I guess it's a basic filmmaker thing? (don't line up talking characters in a line?) Moving the camera out-of-plane of the conversation allows the viewers to more easily underst…

You'll notice that the triangular composition shots had three figures on three different levels in the shot, when most shots with a single figure in them had their head at basically the same level, right below the top of the frame. If the default placement for a character's head is near the top of the frame, it would indeed be a conscious choice when placing three head in a shot to make them at three different levels.

Re: The Cinematography of "The Incredibles"

#32

Post by thecoffman »

frooxie wrote: post #30
scrrr wrote: post #5

That's cool, but I think if you want to study film, you should study the likes of Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone or Krzysztof Kieslowski [1] first. A lot of what Hollywood is doing has been first done by these guys. Especially computer games and Pixar movies are often directly reusing famous scenes and camera angles. [1] Disclaimer: I'm a big fan of "Three Colors", especially "Red".

Can you recommend any book or instructional movie that analyzes good (or bad) storytelling in film?

Depending on how much time you're willing to put in, "The Story of Film: An Odyssey" [1] Is available on Netflix and fantastic. Its also 15 hours long. The narrator, Mark Cousins, who is also the author, is frankly pretty poor; but if you can get past that, the content itself is very good. It covers both American and International cinema in great depth. It is also available in print form, but I cannot personally vouch for whats in the book itself.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Film:_An_Odyssey

Re: The Cinematography of "The Incredibles"

#33

Post by thecoffman »

Jagadeesh1210 wrote: post #8

Check All "hayao miyazaki" films. He defined the animated films.

While Miyazaki's contributions to animation are important and numerous, you're quite mistaken that he "defined" animated films. I would look very closely at early Disney films (Fantasia is a personal favorite). Most of those movies very literally involved inventing new techniques for animation.

Re: The Cinematography of "The Incredibles"

#35

Post by smrtinsert »

toyg wrote: post #12
scrrr wrote: post #5

That's cool, but I think if you want to study film, you should study the likes of Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone or Krzysztof Kieslowski [1] first. A lot of what Hollywood is doing has been first done by these guys. Especially computer games and Pixar movies are often directly reusing famous scenes and camera angles. [1] Disclaimer: I'm a big fan of "Three Colors", especially "Red".

No mention of Orson Welles? Citizen Kane is the first thing you'll be asked to watch in any half-decent film course. Also you can't think of the evolution of cinema without mentioning Stanley Kubrick, Fritz Lang, Friedrich Murnau, Dziga Vertov ("Man with a Movie Camera")... And it's quite debatable whether Kieslowski belongs to this list, something you're clearly aware of... or you wouldn't have put a note in to just…

After watching 2001 I believe Stanley Kubrick is a filmmakers filmmaker. I think he is to Spielberg as Spielberg is to Abrams (or any other modern promising director)

Re: The Cinematography of "The Incredibles"

#36

Post by omegant »

visakanv wrote: post #6
scrrr wrote: post #5

That's cool, but I think if you want to study film, you should study the likes of Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone or Krzysztof Kieslowski [1] first. A lot of what Hollywood is doing has been first done by these guys. Especially computer games and Pixar movies are often directly reusing famous scenes and camera angles. [1] Disclaimer: I'm a big fan of "Three Colors", especially "Red".

Thanks for the reccomendations! I've heard so much about Akira Kurosawa. Gotta check him out.

I was once watching tv, it was 01:00 in the morning and I was about to go to sleep. Then I changed the channel and there was this old movie of samurais in japanese, in black and white, just for curiosity I gave it 2 min. Then I couldn't stop watchin till the end, it was that good. I learned at the end that it was Kurosawa' seven samurais. An amazing film, really.

Re: The Cinematography of "The Incredibles"

#37

Post by larve »

bentcorner wrote: post #25
brazzy wrote: post #10

Interesting read, though sometimes it sounds a bit like over-analyzation. Especially the constant mention of "triangular composition" - three points form a triangle (unless they form a line). You'd have to make a conscious effort NOT to have "triangular composition".

Completely agree. I enjoyed reading about framing, how positioning backgrounds to ensure the viewer can easily follow action, the far/medium/full shots, bird/worm's eye view and the like. Mentioning triangular composition so often was strange. I guess it's a basic filmmaker thing? (don't line up talking characters in a line?) Moving the camera out-of-plane of the conversation allows the viewers to more easily underst…

i used to think that a lot of talk about composition is over analyzed. I put in a lot of work the last few years to learn painting and drawing, and I am now at a (very amateurish) level where what I actually focus on and consciously work on is at that "triangular composition", "color palette", "contrast" level of thinking. The rest really just pales. It's the job of so many people on an animated movie production to figure these out just right: storyboard, then set design, light design, color design, camera animation. Each of these is an individual job (often filled with multiple artists).

Re: The Cinematography of "The Incredibles"

#38

Post by Crito »

brazzy wrote: post #10

Interesting read, though sometimes it sounds a bit like over-analyzation. Especially the constant mention of "triangular composition" - three points form a triangle (unless they form a line). You'd have to make a conscious effort NOT to have "triangular composition".

Absolutely agree. How am I suppose to take things like this (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-49KvfGbTdbA/ULJiQ4gTNDI/AAAAAAAAbu...) seriously?

Okay yeah, if you draw those lines, you get a triangle. But why did the author exclude the one guy? Why is this an example of some triangle-y thing, and not an example of an quadrilateral whatever?

The author is just massaging and manipulating the data to make whatever points he wants.

Re: The Cinematography of "The Incredibles"

#39

Post by rhgraysonii »

tamersalama wrote: post #20
bitwize wrote: post #16

Holy shit, look at this: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AQTRoWPB3n4/Tbn5O99q6lI/AAAAAAAARG... Though it wasn't mentioned in the movie, Brad Bird described Edna as "half-German and half-Japanese". The walls of this room resemble Japanese rice-paper walls -- but the divisions are arranged as in a Piet Mondrian painting. Mondrian was Dutch, not German, but there's still a sense of Asian and European art styles mixed here. I…

I thought Edna was modeled after Edith Head [1] [1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Head

I have a friend at the Savannah College of Art and Design that was a student under her who mentioned this. Apparently its quite the accurate portrayal and her students don't receive an A unless its something she would put in her own collection.
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