Wall-E 2008
Click to access Wall-E.pdf
The essay above points out the use of wide shots in the first 5 minuets of Wall-e. These are geography shots, but Wall-E slightly breaks the general rule of an establishing shot, because the film in mostly set in space. It begins with an extreme wide shot of a galaxy, setting the audience up for something space/sci-fi related. It gradually gets closer till we have a shot of earth but not as we know it, it is covered in fog and is an orange dust colour. It then slowly zooms over a city, buildings made of rubbish and the world collapsing. This sets up how small the earth is, and how small and perceivably insignificant our main character is on it. It shows that there is a big challenge up ahead. The change of scale and colour from the huge, bright expanse of space to the small, dull planet earth suggests something bigger than ourselves.
The music played over the top adds another important element, it is an old, upbeat song, and sings about ‘ A world outside our own’, suggesting the character is going to have to move outside of what he knows. It also references to later in the film, when Wall-E watches old films and romances. The upbeat nature juxtaposes what we are seeing visually, making us nostalgic for a world that has long gone, and we are left with a wasteland.
I have started looking at the opening scene of Robots directed by Chris Wedge. It opens on a geography shot of the outside of a house, that is similar to what we know but slightly different. From this we can tell the film isn’t set in our modern world but in alternative one, and from the title of the world we assume they are robots. The lines are curved and the light is yellow in town, it seems peaceful and happy, an idilic family life. Although set in what would be a highly technological age, the tone makes it seem like a 1950’s Good Housekeeping magazine. This is achieved with the juxtaposition of the robot characters and the colour and style used.
Our main character then enters through a door in a mid shot which we can assume is the door to the house that was just established. He is framed by the door, and we can tell hat he is our main protagonist. The doorway shot is square like the character, showing he is strong and sturdy, whilst the wife is framed by the window which is circular. This again reflects her feminine shape, and perhaps suggests a stereotypical stay at home mum and working dad dynamic. There is a lot of focus on the characters faces, we have a close up of both wife and husband, their eyes looking lovingly at each other. We can tell they have a happy relationship. The wife says he has ‘just missed the delivery’, and we can see the van driving away though the window. The use of the window gives us further geography of the surrounding area. This a play on word, as we soon find out that the ‘delivery’ is a baby that has been delivered in a box.
The wife character then says ‘don’t worry, the fun part is making the baby’. A comedic ‘sexy’ jazz song is played to insinuate something else, when in reality they are literally making the baby out of robot parts. We then have lots of close up shots in a montage of them making the baby.
After this we are again shown a wide shot of the outside of the house, this time the colour has change to night time, insinuating the passage of time.
Maddy Caulfield Animation 