STORY SHOTS EXERCISE
An exercise from former Pixar creator, Emma Coats that takes a film and breaks it down in its simplest form by each shot to determine the type of shot it is and how it's working in the film.
I decided to take the film Princess Mononoke and break down the scene in which the protagonist Ashitaka is going against a demon boar, Tatarigami. I was interested in the action of this scene and wanted to break down how Miyazaki frame this sequence. In the beginning, the shots are wider shots showing the characters and the environment around them. This also helps understand the larger scale the demon is to Ashitaka and the girls of the village. As the action picks up so do the shots, they become quicker and the camera starts moving in closer to the characters to show their emotions. A few will be close up and fast but right before the audience can get confused the camera takes a step back again to understand the path of actions of the characters and then the camera pulls back in for more action. By the end of the sequence once the board demon has been shot with an arrow to the head. The camera becomes more static still shots to indicate the fast pace action as stopped. Scenes also get heald a little longer almost like taking a depth breath.
Princess Mononoke is one of my all-time favorite films so I’m happy that I was able to breakdown one scene and try to understand how and why it works!
