Scene Deconstruction

Watch this scene first, then continue reading.

There are a few main themes in this movie (and all the others as well as the books) that are shown well in this scene. They are Good Vs. Evil, Loyalty, Friendship, and most of all Love. You are being told by Neville that Love and Friendship are the main themes (didactic), but as for the other themes you have to figure them out yourself (active). I'll explain some ways to figure them out in the following paragraphs.

These themes are shown in the dialogue more than anything. But there are a few crucial elements that can't be ignored.

First of all let’s talk about line. The director, David Yates, decided to make a line behind Voldemort (‘bad’ guy) with his Death Eaters (army). This ‘line’ could be taken a few different ways. In one way you can see the ‘wall’ of people—you wouldn’t want to attempt to get past them. The way they are standing creates a long line all the way across the shot so that you aren’t really sure how many of them there are and if they just might win the battle. But in contrast to that, the lack of a line for the ‘good’ people leaves you unsure of the number as well. You aren’t sure how many people are hiding behind the walls of the castle. The use of line touches on the Good Vs. Evil theme I mentioned before.

The other main element that is a good example of Love, Friendship and Loyalty is movement. The way the ‘bad guys’ move is very contrasted by the movement of the ‘good guys’. Let’s get the bad guys out of the way first. Throughout the movie, Voldemort hasn’t showed any affection or even touched someone without a look of disgust on his face. So when he hugs Draco (who is a whole different story) it is a sort of release—you see him as silly and vulnerable. The way Draco moves, you get the idea, subconsciously that he is a good guy deep down. He isn’t so quick with his movements and he doesn’t jerk around either. His movements are more in affinity with Neville’s, who is a ‘good guy’. Their movements are more thought-out and smoother than the opposing side. 

Animation Deconstruction

Image 1

Image 2

      The lighting in these two images varies greatly. In image one, there are a lot of shadows cast on the two character's faces by the single light source. While in the second image there is limited shadowing because of the amount of natural light shown through the window.

Because of the shadows in image one, it symbolizes the dark 'place' they are in, not a literal place, but a place in time. At this point in the movie the two characters are searching for answers that don't seem to be there; they are lost in their search. Even though there are shadows, you know that the two characters are good because the light that is shining on them makes them look white or the 'good guys'. The darkness and shadows set a scary and mysterious sort of mood. You can't really see what's going on around them because of the limited light source, which does two things, you have to focus on them and you are left to imagine what is happening or lurking around them.

In image two the good lighting of the shot lets you see everything in the room. It shows the mess that the burglar left when looking for something. The light also lets you see the characters fully. You then think they are the good people in this movie--no shadows and friendly faces. It also contrasts greatly on the characters in the first image—TinTin is dark in the first image, while in the second he is fully lit. This may suggest that he has nothing to hide.

The differences between saturation and hue in the two images play a big part as well. There is a lot more black than there is white in the first image. And vise versa in the second image. Although there is black in both images, the placement is different. In the first image it is filling the room, while in the second image it is on the coats of the officers.

The saturation of the blue that TinTin is wearing in both images shows the contrast between the two. In the first image you can tell that TinTin’s shirt is blue, but just barely. While in the second image you can clearly see the blue color of TinTin’s shirt even though it is shadowed a little bit from the way he is standing. 

Storyboard Imitation

Make sure you have watched the scene from my past post, then continue reading this one.

This is the storyboard for the first 6 shots of the scene you should have just watched. 

The first two shots on the storyboard are a continuous shot, but from beginning to end it was so different I drew it as two shots. This is an example of the 180 rule. There were no cuts to be made in the first shot, so they didn't have any problem with jump-cuts. I guess you can also say he used the rule of thirds in the first shot. The girl, Sara, starts out at the top of the staircase and right away she has your focus because her head is at the intersection of the top right corner boxes and then it stays there for the rest of the shot. 

In the next shot, he went across the 180 degree line, but while following the rule that you can have a character look past to something and create a new line. After creating the new line and showing us it exists, he moves onto the next shot, where he uses the 30% rule. That is, as Sara gets farther away in the previous shot, this shot brings her back up close to us. Then again in the next shot it's another 30% difference in size of the shots as we see even more of what’s going on—almost in layers. Sara then crosses the 180 line by looking back at something and running towards it. 

That’s the end of the storyboarding I did, but as the scene goes on it’s about the same as far as the rules go.

I think Cuaron did a good job at using all 3 rules during this scene. He mostly played with the 180 degree line and the 30% rule, but it worked in his favor and made sense to the viewer. Cuaron is a very visual director and that’s why I chose to analysis one of his films. He likes to play with the shots and what they look like.