The Cinematography of "The Incredibles" | Hacker News Reader

The Cinematography of "The Incredibles"

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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 never noticed that before.

Fuck this movie is so good.

I only see low res shadow maps with an awful filter. Joke aside, I find it always fascinating what detail or references are put in movies which nobody notices.

It's not so much that no one notices these details of composition. If that were the case, who could justify the disproportionate effort applied to engineering every shot? These elements of composition are about emphasizing the storytelling. It's an act of support that takes real craftsmanship and will always serve to make the final product better quality, especially to those who know nothing about composition in a formal sense.

Edna is, without a doubt, my favourite character in this movie. And one of my favourites of all time. The short film "jack-jack attack" is also very good. I think I enjoy that almost as much as the full movie.

Couldn't resist. http://vimeo.com/17346855

I thought Edna was modeled after Edith Head [1]

[1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Head

I thought it was the boss from NCIS LA

Sorry... Pixar did not invent a time travel machine just to get a character reference. (NCIS LA came five years after.)

Surely Linda Hunt is older than Pixar...

"Q meets Edith Head" is how she was planned and sketched out, but I'm fond of these little details that make a character unique.

True story: I once was on Maui, and stopped inside a curio shop. The owner of the shop, a little Japanese woman, came out from the back and smiled at me -- and I'll be God-damned if she didn't look exactly like Edna -- perfectly sculptured hair, glasses, and all. I found myself actively looking for a secret lab behind all the blown-glass trinkets. It was only after this incident that I found out Edna was conceptualized as part Japanese; and today I wonder if someone at Pixar didn't visit the same shop, meet the same woman, and incorporate her into Edna's design.

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.

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 understand the flow of conversation, who the characters are paying attention to, and who we should be paying attention to.

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.

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).

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.

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.

Kurosawa has a wide range of styles - which is why I like to compare him to Kubrick, although Kurosawa usually stays within Edo period contexts while Kubrick also had a wide range of themes. My favorites so far are Seven Samurais, Yojimbo and Dreams. Don't be afraid of watching one of his films from the 50ies - because of their relatively quick pace, clear themes and modern looking cuts I find them highly enjoyable, not just as an educational experience, but with a genuinely high entertainment value even today. From an educational standpoint it's amazing to see the strong influences he had on Star Wars for example.

Since you're looking for recommendations, try Blow Out directed by Brian De Palma in 1981. I saw this film recently and thought it had a very interesting style, especially the shots using a split focus diopter.

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.

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 justify yourself ;)

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)

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

This is great stuff that I think everybody should check out, whatever your field- it's just generally interesting. Insights can be useful metaphors for presentation, direction, writing, project management...

Relevant link: The use of light in cinema: http://imgur.com/a/cpLno

Exactly. Cant agree more. :)

One thing you don't get from that first photo is that they're sitting round a green baize table. Like poker players.

Somewhat related: A collection of the different types of chairs in The Incredibles

http://jimunwin.com/extra/incrediblechairs/

I think The Incredibles is at least partially responsible for the return of mid-century modern furnishings.

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

Um, no. He didn't. He did absolutely great and in many ways groundbreaking work, sure.

But if you're going to talk about who defined animated films (and even more so if it's a Japanese person), then Miyazaki's work pales in scope and influence compared to Osamu Tezuka - and HE in turn readily admitted being inspired and influenced by Disney and Fleischer cartoons.

I know it is a mainstream movie and everyone has seen it. But try watching Disney's Snow White again, and remember that it was released in 1937. Your statement "defined the animated films" is more applicable to that movie than anything else.

My favourite Disney book is "The Illusion of Life" which is written by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson, 2 of Disney's "nine old men"

The first chapters deal with the creation of the Snow White film, and the startup culture within the Disney studios at that time.

Co-incidentally, both authors are referenced in the film The Incredibles (the original subject of the OP's post)

Not just referenced -- they appeared as themselves!

I can't help but wonder if this is a shout-out/jab to the perennial Stan Lee cameo in films based off Marvel characters, especially considering that The Incredibles was often seen as competing with, and compared favorably against, Fantastic Four (2005).

The scene right after the hunter gives her a chance to run away, where she's running through the woods and the trees look like they're alive, and then she falls in water and her hair gets wet, is amazing. Also, the shadows in the whole movie are incredible.

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.

This is awesome it adds a whole other perspective to movies.

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