Characters

Sharpy Final

Character Design Lappy

Character Sketches

Character Design - Cal the Calculator

Waltz with Bashir

In 1982, Ari Folman was a 19-year-old infantry soldier in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In 2006, he meets with a friend from his army service period, who tells him of the nightmares connected to his experiences from the Lebanon War. Folman is surprised to find that he does not remember a thing from that period. Later that night he has a vision from the night of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the reality of which he is unable to tell. In his memory, he and his soldier friends are bathing at night by the seaside in Beirut under the light of flares descending over the city. Folman rushes off to meet another friend from his army service, who advises him to discuss it with other people who were in Beirut at the same time in order to understand what happened there and to revive his own memories. Folman converses with friends, a psychologist and the reporter Ron Ben-Yishai, who was in Beirut at the time. Folman realizes that he "was in the second or third ring" of soldiers surrounding the camp, and that he was among those soldiers firing flares into the sky to illuminate the camp for the militia carrying out the massacre inside. He concludes that his amnesia stems from his feeling, at the age of 19, that he was as guilty of the massacre as those who actually carried it out. The film ends with animation dissolving into actual footage of the aftermath of the massacre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltz_with_Bashir

One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari Folman about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can’t remember a thing anymore about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images …

Boaz Rein Buskila

Not your quintessential accountant, yet his work is his entire world. Therefore, it was obvious the dream about the dogs coming to kill him had to take place right outside the accounting firm in which he is junior partner. Boaz’s request that Ari help him find a solution to his nightmare is a standard pattern in their relationship, a pattern that has been recurring for at least thirty years, as if, according to Boaz’s fixed perception, individuals whose business is fantasy are closer to the real world than those whose business is mathematics.  Boaz’s obsession with his dreams and his past is very similar to his obsession with mathematics, statistics, numbers of all types and all things that have one absolute truth and which are devoid of various hues. It is for that same reason, that one absolute image a person of his stature should have of himself, that Boaz refused to be exposed in the film and his story is dubbed by a professional actor. Boaz’s face in the film is a fiction of directing. In fact, Boaz’s addictions are one of the reasons Ari developed the extremely unique format of the film “Waltz with Bashir”.

Ori Sivan

Undoubtedly Ari’s best friend and the person most close to him after his immediate family. Since their mutual adolescence in Haifa, Ori is Ari’s personal shrink, what one might call a ready made therapist, always available for problems pertaining to love, friendship, trauma and repressions of any kind. This despite the fact that during the day Ori is a highly regarded director of films and TV series in Israel. This friendship that erupted at the age of 13 took an interesting turn when they went to film school together at the Tel Aviv University and jointly directed their first two films “Comfortably Numb” and “Saint Clara”. They collaborate to this day on TV drama series, one of which, “In Treatment”, became a reputable remake on America’s HBO network. Easily evident in “Waltz with Bashir” is the fact that Ori took the term family to the extreme and he is raising five children in a remote settlement in Israel’s western Negev desert.  

Carmi

Were Ari and Carmi really closer when they were teenagers as opposed to their current relationship now that they’re in their mid fourties? Were they as cold to each other as  detached as they appear in "Waltz With Bashir"? Good question. It is doubtful the double encounter in the film can provide an answer. Sometimes separation of twenty years or more dulls a friendship and is liable to blur all the events that occurred to them when they were youths. Carmi went far. He was a genius student in school, a sure bet to succeed in any path he would choose, especially sciences. He chose the new age option, long before anyone knew it as new age. When you think about it today, it is plain to see that in the mid eighties, Carmi was a pioneer. Enraged, he left everything behind and settled in an ashram in India for many years. He perfected and internalized the so called "light buddhism" that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a famous guru in the city of Pune, orchestrated for the capitalistic western world, and introduced Central Europe to the gospel from India. What today seems like an obvious path for young Israelis after their military service was at the time considered “committing suicide” and Carmi paid for it in the form of a many year break from his family in Israel. But in recent years Carmi has found a renewed interest in all that he abandoned twenty years before. A Dutch wife and three children have kept him far from the country where he was born and perhaps as a result the renewed encounter with Ari caused him discomfort and unease. At the last moment, two days before the first day of filming, Carmi refused to reveal his face in the film and his story is dubbed by a professional actor.

Roni

Once, forty years ago to this day, when eight contenders ventured out on their own in small sailboats in a merciless race to circle the world, "The Golden Globe",   they were examined by a renowned psychiatrist before and after the race. The psychiatrist used the contradicting term ‘disturbingly normal’ to diagnose the winner of the race, Robin Knox. Johnston, who alone for a year in an eight meter boat no sturdier that a nutshell endured terrifying storms, constant fear of death and schools of sharks hungry for prey. Never the less, Johnston was found  so normal and devoid of trauma that he made the psychiatrist who diagnosed him totally lose faith in the profession in which he was considered a genius. Ronny Dayag’s initial reaction upon meeting the researcher of the film “Waltz with Bashir” for a preliminary interview was: “I’ve been waiting for this phone call for twenty two years, for someone to come and record my story”. In every war there are diverse anti heroes, but our Ronny is a “tailor made anti hero”! The man who abandoned the battlefield and swam home in one piece, is a senior nutrition engineer, a doctor of organic chemistry, manager of a huge laboratory at Tnuva, the company that monopolizes the Israeli dairy industry. When the researcher parted with him, totally shocked by his war story, she had but one thing to say about him: he is so normal that I am totally disturbed. The unbelievable story which is concisely conveyed in the film (yet of all the interviewees captures the most time on screen) leaves you deep in thought: how can it be that this man who escaped hell by tooth and nail while death enveloped him came out of the entire affair disturbingly normal. And if indeed he came out in one piece, unruffled, what does that say about us and the small traumas we go through in life which we don’t stop complaining about.

Shmuel Frenkel

Just before the world premiere of “Waltz with Bashir”, Shmuel Frenkel will compete for the first time in the “Iron Man” competition in Frankfurt, Germany. He will swim 4 kilometers, will bike ride 80 kilometers and will top it off by running a full marathon. All this because a simple triathlon or marathon in steaming hot July is not enough for him anymore. Physical challenges evaporate before his eyes. He considers activities involving physical effort and human mental endurance small change. Frenkel remained in the army many years after he danced the waltz at that cursed junction in West Beirut. He specialized in various martial arts, was Israel’s champion 8 years running in an eccentric martial art known as "Dennis Survival" whereby two competitors essentially bash each other’s brains out until one surrenders. No holds barred! Frenkel is the oldest competitor to ever win the competition and actually started training only after the age of 30. Whoever served in the military with Frenkel is extremely familiar with his wife Miri, who despite strict army regulations was with him throughout his military service, except when he was dispatched on military operations. Somehow, she always found a way to wait for him at the end of the day in his tent, secretly, in the middle of the night, in the most remote locations on the planet. Miri, whom he calls Yoko, was always there. No one figured out how. Incidentally, they are happily married and have five children.

Dror Harazi

Dror Harazi had one dream in life and that was to be a military general, like his father, like many members of his family, military men. But somehow fate would have it otherwise and Harazi found himself that cruel afternoon at the gates of the Shatila refugee camp. He was at the front line, with the tank squadron he commanded over. And though he did everything he could to alert people to the situation, eventually he became the system’s ultimate victim. The little man, the gatekeeper, the one who is known in Hebrew as the military base sentry, the man who ultimately always pays the price for crimes that men greater than him, much greater than him, are guilty of. Harazi was prematurely retired from the military, with much disgrace, virtually without explanations. It was convenient to blame him, a quiet and passive man who now bears this insult his entire life. It doesn’t let go. If only they would have listened to him, hundreds or thousands of lives would have been spared. Harazi considers his participation in “Waltz with Bashir” a necessity, a cry out, another last attempt to tell his story knowing full well that nothing can now change history.

Ron Ben-Yeshai

Undoubtedly the greatest and most important Israeli war correspondent of all time, the man who became a genuine legend at the height of his career. Ron Ben-Yishai was wounded three times while covering bloody battles, twice during the War of Attrition in the late 1960s and once in Kosovo. And as if that isn’t enough, he was awarded the Chief of General Staff Medal of Honor, the most honorable citation of bravery granted an Israeli soldier, for being caught in heavy Egyptian bombing while reporting for TV during the Yom Kippur War and single handedly rescuing many injured troops. No doubt, the man is a legend! He is seared into the collective Israeli memory with his forty years of broadcasting, from the Six Day War through all the Israeli wars to date, and his reports from Baghdad while blood curdling events occurred in the backdrop of the broadcast frame.  Therefore, it is only natural that Ari remembers him well from West Beirut, walking tall among the bullets, fearless, gazing at hell with eyes open, calm. Supposedly many former Israeli soldiers, throughout too many wars, have the same image of the man. Ron Ben-Yishai paid a high price for the telephone call he made the night he reported to Minister of Defense Arik Sharon on the massacre at refugee camps Sabra and Shatila. Sharon, who preferred to do nothing to stop the massacre that night, never forgot, and for twenty years he made sure that Ron Ben-Yishai would never be promoted to a managerial position at the Israeli National Broadcasting Corps.  

http://waltzwithbashir.com/film.html

Sketches

Nu Pogodi

Nu, pogodi! (Russian: Ну, погоди!, Well, Just You Wait!^[1] or You Just Wait!^[2]) is a Soviet/Russian animated series produced by Soyuzmultfilm. The series was created in 1969 and became a popular cartoon of the Soviet Union. Additional episodes have been produced in Russia since 2006. The original film language is Russian but very little speech is used (usually interjections or at most several sentences per episode).

The series follows the comical adventures of a mischievous yet artistic wolf trying to catch (and presumably eat) a hare. The series has additional characters that usually either help the hare or interfere with the wolf's plans.

The Wolf, commonly transliterated into English as Volk (Russian: Волк), is initially portrayed as a hooligan who eagerly turns to vandalism, abuses minors, breaks laws, and is a smoker.

On the other hand, many of the Wolf's attempts to catch the Hare are often characterized by uncanny abilities on his part (including figure skating, ballet and waltzing) for humorous contrast. The Wolf can also play the guitar very well and ride the powerful rocker motorbike.

In the first episode, while climbing a high building to catch the Hare, the Wolf whistles the popular mountaineer song, "A Song About A Friend" (a signature song of Vladimir Vysotsky). In spite of these talents, most of the Wolf's schemes eventually fail or turn against him. The character was originally voiced by Anatoli Papanov.

During the late Soviet and post-Soviet era, however, the Wolf's image slowly denigrates into a more cartoonish and less criminal persona. In the latest episode (#20), for example, the Wolf is seen chewing a lollipop instead of smoking and his drawing style is reminiscent of new Russian cartoons (Russian: Новые русские мультфильмы) rather than the old Soviet slapstick genre. The Wolf has also adopted a lot of cowardly attitudes in many situations since the first episodes, which more or less oppose his initial persona and actor's voice.

The Hare, commonly translated into English as Zayats (Russian: Заяц), is portrayed as a supposedly positive hero. He gets much less screen time and is less developed than the Wolf, and most of his actions are simply reactions to the Wolf's schemes. Therefore, the sympathies of some viewers are more with the Wolf (similar to the premise of Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner where the sympathy of the viewers also lies with the "villain").^{[citation needed]} In later episodes, the role of the Hare becomes more active and developed, and he even manages to save the Wolf on several occasions. The Hare is portrayed as a percussionist in a number of episodes. The character was originally voiced by Klara Rumyanova.

The series was, for many years, hugely popular among the Soviet public, and it is popular in Russia to this day. The critical reaction of the director's colleagues was less favourable. The director's son Aleksey Kotyonochkin recalls how, although nobody said it to his father outright, the animators and directors of Soyuzmultfilm generally considered Nu, pogodi! to be of low class. For his part, Vyacheslav Kotyonichkin was not a follower of auteur films (many of which were being made at the studio at the time), and considered them to be examples of someone needlessly showing off.

Kotyonochkin disliked subtext and tried to create very simple, straightforward scenarios. The main idea of the series was simple and "Western"; don't hurt the little guy or you will yourself get into a foolish situation. Because the series was so popular, however, it was often a subject for critical discussion. Soviet critics saw many different subtexts: for example that the films were supportive of the gay cause (because Wolf occasionally gives Hare flowers as a sign of goodwill, which, at the time, was considered as an acceptable social act among men, as much as today's criticism of Batman's relations with Robin in the late 1960s in America), or that they represented the struggle between the intelligentsia and the working class (with the Wolf representing the working class and the Hare the intelligentsia). Aleksey Kotyonochkin dismisses these interpretations as groundless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu,_pogodi!

Conceptual Storyboarding

“A storyboard [...] is a layout of still pictures, a shot-by-shot plan, with words, showing the story events as they will be finally edited and on screen” (Beck,)

“A storyboard is a plan, a way of figuring out the story of the film before you put in the enormous amount of work of the animation itself. Basically, it is the story of the movie drawn in pictures” (The Flying Animator,)

Conceptual Drawing
The sequence of images and ideas to communicate the overall style of the piece.

Production Storyboard
The complete production guide with as much detail as possible.

Rush Storyboard
Based on skills from rehearsals or pleminary shooting, problem solving, instant rearrangement of shots, adjustment of specific aspects.

Detailed Storyboards of specific sections
To clarify small details, transitions, intense scenes, purifying moments.

Initial Sketches

Lighting

Hard light
 “is characterised by a high contrast of bright light, dark shadows and sharp edges”, creating “energy, excitement, suspense and tension”
(Sullivan et al 2008:118)

Soft light 
“is characterised by lower contrast and softer, diffused shadows”, and conveys calm, tranquillity, innocence and romance

(Sullivan et al 2008:118)

A low-key scene is “dark, high in contrast, often lit by a single light source, creating shadows and patterns of light.  The fall-off from light to dark is rapid. Foreground objects are typically seen in sillhouette” (Sullivan et al 2008:118).  Conveys sadness, isolation, depression, alienation, foreboding.

High key lighting “is bright, with light shadows.  It is low in contrast... Usually evokes cheerful, high energy atmosphere [but] can also be glaring, harsh or hot” (Sullivan et al 2008:118).

Who framed Roger Rabbit?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters interact directly with human beings. Who Framed Roger Rabbit stars Bob Hoskins as a private detective who investigates a murder involving the famous cartoon character, Roger Rabbit. Charles Fleischer co-stars as the titular character's voice, Christopher Lloyd as the villain, Kathleen Turner as the voice of Roger's cartoon wife, and Joanna Cassidy as the detective's girlfriend.

 Walt Disney Pictures purchased the film rights to the story in 1981. Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman wrote two drafts of the script before Disney brought in Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment to help finance the film. Zemeckis was hired to direct the live-action scenes with Richard Williams overseeing animation sequences. Production was moved from Los Angeles to Elstree Studios in England to accommodate Williams and his group of animators. While filming, the production budget began to rapidly expand and the shooting schedule ran longer than expected.

However, the film was released to financial success and critical acclaim. Who Framed Roger Rabbit brought a re-emerging interest in the golden age of American animation and became the forefront for the modern era, especially the Disney Renaissance. It also left behind an impact that included a media franchise and the unproduced prequel, Who Discovered Roger Rabbit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Framed_Roger_Rabbit

A  milestone in film and animation history – four Academy Awards
A “technically-marvelous film” blending animated, ink-and-paint cartoon characters and flesh-and-blood live actors” (FilmSite review)
Hybridity and intertextuality (comedy-noir) Mix of live and hand-drawn 2d
Two ‘worlds’ (real and Toontown)
Use of lighting
Use of screen space

How does the film emphasise both the difference and the connections / transgressions between the ‘real world’ and the ‘cartoon world’?

The real world is dark, and there a lot of brown, greys and blacks, the cartoon world is bright and colourful. In the cartoon world there is more singing and dancing and everyone seems happy there. Throughout the film, on a few different occasions Roger says that it is a toon’s job to make people laugh, Eddie however never laughs. I think these two worlds represent the two characters Eddie and Roger, Roger is mostly happy and optimistic even when he thinks his wife has played pattercake with another man, he writes her a love letter rather than go off into a jealous rage. Whereas the human world everything is dull and dark, Eddie is quite dark as his brother was killed by a toon and the toon was never caught so his attitude towards the toon world is negative. And the contrast between toon world and the ‘real’ world mirrors the contrast between Eddie and Roger’s characters.

METALEPSIS
Definition from narrative theories:“paradoxical contamination between the ‘world of the telling’ and the ‘world of the told’” (Pier 2011)
“any intrusion by the extra-diegetic narrator or narratee into the diegetic universe (or by diegetic characters into a meta-diegetic universe” (Genette, in Pier 2011).

In animation:

Cartoons –  often, as they rely on “exaggerated comedy, meta-reference, or the presence and omnipotence of an authorial entity”

Experimental and hybrid films, mixing different animation techniques, or live-action with animation

Computer or object animation   - less frequently, as neither  “want to distract from the illusion of a perfect mimesis or the illusion of animate objects” .  Sometimes used as a historical reference to classical cartoons

In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, there is  “a clash of two different physical, social, and moral worlds, and even of two different kinds of perception. Toons and humans move in the same spatial environment, but they still inhabit different sub-worlds, which only partially overlap” (Feyersinger 2010, p 289). “A metalepsis combines the representations of contradictory concepts; two worlds that are perceived as mutually exclusive are connected at the same time. The perception of the viewers is important as their knowledge of reality and common sense determines whether two worlds are understood as mutually exclusive or not” (Feyersinger 2010, p 281).

Project

Project Ideas
Brief:

As part of assessment, you will propose a short animation under a broad umbrella of 'student life'.  The proposal will focus on one clear issue that new students are likely to encounter in their first year of the University.   The issue must be presented from a student point of view, as an engaging story with a human interest angle.  Statistics (if any) should be used only sparingly, and official documents may be useful but only as background research.

Ideally, the animation will depict a typical situation through a fictional character.  The central character may be realistic or abstract (or even non-human) but the situation must be recognisable.  You will create a synopsis / treatment;  a set of pre-production materials; and a screen cast based on this proposal.  At the end of the module the work will be shown to potential clients within the University with the view to commission work based on the most successful proposal.  (Please note that the module staff will not be involved in commissioning decisions, and cannot guarantee any outcome.  The module staff will invite the potential client to view the proposals, and it will be then up to the client to contact you when an opportunity arises).  

Situation Ideas
Getting the balance between work and play.

Location – this animation would be set in a bedroom and the characters are the items on the desk, books, rulers, pens etc. The student would be more like presence, the desk characters will talk about the student and his or her life. The animation would be split up into three parts -

1)      The student is going out all of the time, and the characters on the desk are not being used, and feel neglected, the folder hasn’t been picked up in weeks, the book is being used as a coaster and the ruler has been dropped on the floor and not noticed by the student that has been down there for days. The animation will be on the lives of the utensils needed for work. This is to emphasise the student needs to make time to study.

2)      In the second part we see the same characters but they are being over worked, the books are torn from being read so much, the pen is running out of ink from being wrote with all the time, and the group are all over-worked and tired, this is to emphasise that working too hard can also have negative effects on a student’s life, there has to be time to relax and spend with friends, not just work all of the time.

3)      The third part will show that the characters are being used but given time to rest also and they are overall happy and they work better when they have rested.

The animation will emphasise on the fact that students need to have a healthy balance between work and socialising between their friends, in the animation the student will not be seen, only his or her hands in parts two and three, the characters that are the objects will be the ones that tell the story.

Space

Deep space.  Illusion of 3d on 2d surface.  Depth cues (perspective, longitudinal planes, shape change, textural diffusion, up-down position, tonal separation).
Flat space
Frontal walls, no converging lines; no longitudinal planes; actors staged on the same horizontal plane; same amount of detail / texture.

Limited space Some depth cues – size change, textural diffusion, up/down position.  But no longitudinal planes, only frontal surfaces.

Ambiguous space Impossible to tell size / shape of room.  Unreliable spatial clues.

What types of space are presented?  (eg deep, flat, limited, ambiguous)?

Here are two scenes from the film ‘Perfect Blue’  The space in these shot are Limited, we can see different textures and slightly different depths in the room, and the fact that the shot is a mirror image in the second shot gives a greater illusion of depth, but it still feels limited.

Here is  a shot of Andy's bedroom from Toy Story three, here we can see that this scene has deep space as this film is made using 3D software and the room looks 3 Dimensional. 

Contrast and Affinity

“Contrast of tone means two shades of grey that are as different in terms of brightness as possible” (Block 2008:10)

“Any grey tones next to each other on the grey scale have affinity” (Block 2008:10)

“The greater the contrast in a visual component, the more the visual intensity or dynamics increases. The greater the affinity in a visual component, the more the visual intensity or dynamics decreases” (2008:10)

In the films screened so far, how does visual structure use contrast and affinity?

Here is a scene from ‘Barefoot Gen. This is the scene where the audience is first introduced to Gen’s family, here they have been in hiding from the air raids and it is just being announced that the air raid is clear and it is okay to come out of hiding. The contrast in this scene is very high, all the characters are black silhouettes with a white outline and the light from the sun is bright white and has a sharp effect, this could be to emphasise that the characters may have been in hiding for a long time, the same effect when you turn the light on in the middle of the night, your eyes are not used to the light and it causes you to squint until you get used to it, this could be used to show that the characters have not been used to be out in broad sunlight for a while due to the air raids.

In this scene Gen and Shinji are helping their father on the wheat fields, they are having fun, and we see Shinji and Gen’s relationship with their father, they are playing around and an having fun, we can see that they have a happy and healthy family life.  This scene is calm; there is greater affinity than the scene shown above, there is no sharpness to this image, we see two boys laughing, running having fun, the weather is a sunny, and there is a soft blue sky. This scene looks child-like, as if it had been made for the specific audience of young children, this style is not carried out throughout the whole film, the style changes when dealing with more sinister subjects.

This is the scene were the atomic bomb hits the town of Hiroshima we can see that there is a lot of contrast in this scene, the land is all white with a black outline and the red is the atomic bomb going off. The red contrasts the almost white background. Using the colour red as the colour of the bomb going off could be to indicate blood, and the death of the many many people that the atomic bomb will murder and leave the city devastated.

Here are the images of when the bomb hits Hiroshima, the colour fades out of the images and we see the black and white harsh images. This effect adds intensity to the scene, and the audience is aware that something terrible is happening.

Barefoot Gen

Barefoot Gen is the story of a young boy called Gen and his family and how they struggle in World War II, The beginning of the film focuses on the family's struggle to afford food and ration cards and Gen's pregnant mother, Kimie falls ill due to malnutrition. Gen and his younger brother, Shinji try and find food for their mother and their unborn younger sibling. The family is made up of Gen, Shinji, Daikichi, their father, Kimie their mother and Eiko their older sister. We can see through the film that they are a loving family.  

Throughout the film there are constant air raids from the war and the town is constantly wondering why they have been targeted yet as they are one of the main cities in Japan, they are soon targeted with an atomic bomb, this bomb ends up killing Daikichi, Eiko and Shinji leaving Kimie and Gen on their own, the night of the atomic bomb Kimie goes in labour and Gen has to deliver the baby, Kimie has a baby girl and Gen names her Tomoko which means 'friend' as he hopes Tomoko will always have lots of friends. Gen takes it upon himself to take his father's place and he goes and searches for food and fresh vegetables for his mother and baby sister.

On his search he comes across a soldier who is going bald and vomiting blood, he takes him to first aid and he is left for dead by the doctors after having an incurable disease caused by the atomic bomb. Soon after Gen then begins to lose his hair. After bringing home food for his mother and Tomoko they that catch a young boy Ryuta, who is trying to steal rice from them and Gen is shocked at how much Ryuta resembles his younger brother Shinji and him and his mother feed him and decide to keep him with them.

The two boys then go on a search for milk for Tomoko, they come across a man who offers them a job looking after his sick brother for 10 yen a day, the brother is rude and arrogant but the boys choose to stay and help him as they need money to buy milk for Tomoko, none of the others who have worked with this man have lasted and the man ends up paying them 100yen, they go to the black market and spend the full 100yen on milk for Tomoko, they go back to find that it is too late and Tomoko has already died due to malnutrition. The film ends with the crops growing and Gen's hair then begins to grow back.

Perfect Blue - Notes

Notes

Live-action Narrative

Perfect Blue was originally written to be a live action film, but due to unforeseen circumstances was made into an animation instead.

Hybrid Genre

This film could fall in to the genre of Drama, Thriller and Horror. The drama being a young girl trying to find her way in becoming a serious actress after being a pop idol in the girl group CHAM!. She is scared of tarnishing her reputation and never being able to be a pop idol again. The thriller ellements of the film are the fact that she is being stalked by a fan 'Me-Mania' and somebody is writing a blog called 'Mima's Room' which seems to know intimate details about Mima's life. Mima is also suffering from a split personality disorder so throughout the film we are not sure if Mima is commiting the murders or just dreaming about them. Some of the scenes in this are very bloddy and gory and these are from the horror genre.

Editing techniques

The film is edited with lots of jump-cuts which jump from scence to scene which is designed to confuse the audience as the main character Mima is confused.

Multi-layer Narrative

The film is a film within a film, not only are we seeing Mima's life, we are watching Mima'a characters life and also Mima's nightmares and dreams. The is not shown the difference between real life/ the tv character and Mima's dream it is left for us to work out for ourselves.