Another neat thing on perception in media is kaiju-esque creatures so I’m about to ramble again. I’m gonna use Steven Universe bc it has both great and bad examples (screenshots from Youtube).
Behold (to me) the biggest gems in the series:
And also the diamonds and the cluster.
Notice how each of the shots these guys are in show off their incredible size. Sugilite can fit on screen beside Pearl and Steven, so we have a direct comparison for size. The others seem even bigger bc the camera angle is looking up at them, sometimes they’re face/body is shadowed to show how they block out light. Most times the camera shakes and there’s a lot of rumbling. The cluster is so large its base is behind the hills in the background, showing how large it is when its so far away. But most important is that they are BY FAR the biggest thing on screen when they are revealed. Even Alexandrite’s introduction was during the dinner scene with Connie’s family, and there she towers over even the building.
But what about Obsidian? Supposedly one of the biggest fusions on the show? The grand finale? The temple gem herself?
She was...not that impressive to me. Which is weird bc we had the recipe:
A ball of light so big the others had to run away from it. A shaking, rising camera showing multiple arms. A giant foot coming down beside Connie. Going great so far. But then we get this:
Firstly, the angle is just...off. The camera angle and direction of their heads make it that Lapis and Peridot aren’t looking up, they’re looking straight ahead. Obsidian is tilted backwards, I get that she’s leaning back to roar, but the shot makes her look way smaller. We also saw Obsidian stomp right beside Connie, but now she’s further back, so the sense of distance is also a bit muddled. Then, we get this:
And all sense of size we did get is immediately destroyed. Obsidian was only the biggest thing on screen for a few seconds. Now she’s mouse-sized in comparison. Her whole battle is scaling a giant humanoid spaceship. The whole fight she is comparatively way smaller than the opponent.
Audiences can only grasp a sense of size through comparisons. It’s why people compare whales to how many buses long they are.
There is one scene in the fight that does convey Obsidian’s size to me, however, and it’s here:
Not only is Connie tiny in her hand, but that hand is extended out from her. Making her body and face in the bground shadowed would’ve accentuated this distance even more. But again, this is for one second, then back to the main battle where she is tiny. It’s a shame bc I know SU got cut early and they had to rush everything at the end, and Obsidian suffered for it.
I say this bc of the Malachite and Alexandrite fight:
Now these two are the same size. Even though the island and the watermelon people are smaller, a lot of the shots of the fight are just them. BUT THIS WORKS. And it only works bc this is not the first time we’ve seen these fusions. We already have a sense of their size from their first, individual appearances. Add the camera shakes and the occasional comparison shots to the watermelon people as a reminder and you have two massive gems fighting each other in an awesome showdown.
I think if Obsidian’s first appearance had of been earlier, in a situation where she was the largest thing on screen, where there was time for multiple shots looking upwards at her, then she would’ve seemed far more impressive. Unfortunately we didn’t get an Obsidian-dedicated episode, and there was no time to show her size off properly. Still, it’s interesting to think of what could’ve been.
So, what I’ve learnt is that, when making gigantic things, it’s more than just making it big. It’s camera angles, shadows, rumblings, but more than that. It’s being conscious of how everything else in the shot also contributes. It’s about creating senses of distance and size through what you already have on screen. And I think it’s really neat how all of it comes together to create a perspective of size for the audience.
