LO1 - Analysis of How to Train Your Dragon 2

In this vlog I'll be studying the film How to Train Your Dragon 2*, which was released in summer 2014. I'll try to generally not reveal too much about the plot but beware of the odd spoiler!

Purpose

The purpose of the film is to entertain. It does this by making the film as engaging as possible to its target audience. If a film does a good job of engaging and entertaining its audience it will almost always be successful.

Genre

We can work out the genre of the film from the narrative and dialogue and what actually happens, and the soundtrack and characters and the way they behave. The genre of httyd 2 is mainly fantasy, which is obvious, because there are dragons flying around everywhere. It's even in the name.

Another genre that's pretty obvious is family. The majority of animated movies are generally for kids or at least families. We know it's for families because it's got all the colourful exciting stuff for kids, but there are also some jokes that maybe only older kids and adults would get. Plus, we can tell it's not primarily for young kids because there are some pretty frightening scenes, which were actually occasionally complained about by parents when the film came out in the cinema.

Other genres httyd 2 fits into include action. It can be described as action because of the thrilling battle scenes.

Form

The form of httyd 2 is a feature-length animated film that was distributed in cinemas worldwide. We can tell it's a feature film because of its length, which is an hour and forty-two minutes.

Style

The style of httyd 2 is CGI animation. They used new animation programs like Apollo, Premo and Torch so the animation style is very modern. In terms of filmmaking the style of the film is very conventional, meaning there isn't any unusual shots or editing.

Content and meaning

Mise en scene

In terms of mise-en-scene, the location is denoted very clearly at the very beginning, shown by the visuals and the voiceover to be the island of Berk. It's a small island by what we see, which could connote exploration, or isolation. The sea suggests it's a cold-ish area, which connotes places in the North like Norway and Denmark, which also connotes to Vikings.

Costume consists of fur hoods, armour, gloves, studded fur skirts, leggings, boots, parkas, helmets and a flight suit. All of this, apart from the flight suit and especially the helmets, again connote Vikings and Viking stereotypes with the horned helmets. The more unconventional costumes however, like the flight suit and Valka's... dragon suit? Connote that the story isn't completely fictional, it's fantasy, and not fully loyal to real history.

Props that are denoted include a pencil and map, swords, a fire sword, clubs, shields, staffs, and bows and arrows. Apart from the pencil and map, all of these props connote battle, war and violence. Again this builds on the Viking stereotypes.

Because of some of the genres, there are lots of colours denoted in the film. The beginning sequence denotes an array of different colours, so does the dragon sanctuary and the end sequence, so eventually the audience can associate the bright, saturated colours with all the different dragons featured in these scenes. The bright colours connote fun, happiness and freedom. There are also times in the film where it isn't as colourful, and this connotes sadness and hopelessness. So obviously these darker, less saturated colours are used in some of the sadder scenes.

Again, the lighting is at its brightest around the parts of the film that feature the dragons. It's also generally more high-key that's denoted when everything seems to be going right for Hiccup, the main character. The light connotes happiness, peace and goodness. However, there are some darker scenes, one especially low-key scene that's denoted is when Hiccup discovers his long lost mother. This shot is very, very shadowy, and there's lots of blackness, which connotes mystery and fear.

Gestures that are denoted in the film include fighting, imitating other characters, hugging, drawing, grabbing shoulders, pointing, putting a hand out to dragons, waving staffs, crying, fighting and flying. Lots and lots of flying. All of these gestures connote to the genres of the film: the hugging and drawing connotes innocence and shows us why it's a family film. Putting a hand out to a dragon connotes gentleness and peace, like a person should be with a real animal. Which also explains why a genre of the film is fantasy - the dragons are obviously not real creatures, and the flying and interacting with the dragons connotes fantasy. The fighting and waving the staffs connote violence and the staffs especially connote control. These gestures and meanings show another genre of the film, action.

Camerawork

There are many different shots denoted in the film. The film begins with a tilt shot, the camera tilting up and bringing Berk into view. After that, the most common shots that are denoted include panning, close-ups, follow shots (especially in flying scenes), mid-shots, very wide shots, over-the-shoulder shots and low and high-angle shots. There are also some uses of less common shots, like the point of view shot, and the extreme close-up.

The tilt, pan and very wide shots are usually used to determine a location, and the tilt and pan are generally used to be as if the audience were looking round. Close-ups and over-the-shoulder shots are generally used to show emotion. Mid-shots and follow shots are there to show the audience what the character is doing. The point-of-view shot in this film is to show what Hiccup and Toothless are experiencing when they crash. This engages the audience and makes the scene exciting.

There is one use of an extreme close-up at the very end of the film. This connotes the significance of the mark on Hiccup's forehead, and shows extreme details and emotion.

The use of low and high angles can also connote dominance and subordinance. In times where there's danger for example, the villain is portrayed in a low-angle shot to show that he has dominance over the other character.

Editing

There are many editing techniques used in httyd 2, the ones used the most include jumpcutting, shot-reverse-shot, flashbacks and cross cutting. There are also some others like dissolves, eyeline matches and colour effects.

The main form of editing in every trailer, film and TV show you'll watch are transitions. Every time a shot changes to a different one is a transition, and they are there to show ellipsis, which is the passage of time.

Jumpcutting is when each shot is different, but it focuses on the same character carrying on the same action. If the shot changed and Eret was suddenly stood still, the continuity wouldn't look right.

Shot-reverse-shot is typical of film conversations between characters. There's generally a few master shots in between as the characters are talking to establish the space between them. Shot-reverse-shot can apply to almost any editing technique, such as an eyeline match - there is a shot of the character, then what the character is seeing, then another shot of the character: shot, reverse, shot.

Flashbacks can give characters deeper backstories, and in this film they have visual effects that distort the image so we can tell it's a flashback. The transitions used for the flashbacks in this film are dissolves, which is when one shot merges into another.

Because there are lots of characters doing lots of things in lots of different places, there is lots of cross cutting to show the audience what all of the significant characters are doing. Cross cutting is just when the shot cuts from one location to another.

Another editing technique used in httyd 2 is colour effects. It's used in a point of view shot, showing that it's affecting the characters themselves. Using the colour in a point of view shot can create different meanings, for example in this instance the colour is very dull and the shot is blurry, but there's hints of red. This can connote that Toothless isn't thinking straight, as he can't see properly, and the red suggests danger.

Sound

In every film there are two types of sound: diegetic, and non-diegetic. Diegesis basically means the story world, or the world of narrative; meaning that diegetic sound is sound that is actually going on within the story. This includes dialogue, sound effects such as footsteps, explosions etcetera etcetera. This is usually covered during production, but sometimes sound effects like animal noises or prop noises are added in post-production, especially with animated films like httyd 2.

Non-diegetic sound then is sounds that aren't actually happening in the narrative, examples being voiceovers and the soundtrack. These are always sorted out in post-production.

All the sound in a film is there to create meaning. Sound effects and dialogue in particular are planned carefully during pre-production.

In httyd 2, by the time the logos at the start are finished and the film actually begins at about 57 seconds in, the soundtrack has already started and is beginning to engage the audience. At the very beginning we see a dragon fly across the sea, accompanied by the first diegetic sound we hear in the film. This sound creates meaning for the audience as it gives the audience the impression of the dragon flying, and going quite fast, even though we only get a quick glimpse of it. From then there are sounds which obviously denote a location near the sea, as we hear the rushing of waves, and sea birds making noises.

The non-diegetic soundtrack is still going when a voiceover starts at about 1 minute and 12 seconds in, which is another example of non-diegetic sound. Even though this voiceover is from an actual character in the film, it's non-diegetic because it doesn't add up to what is currently happening in the narrative, aka, we aren't seeing the character talk, as he isn't actually there.

At about 1 minute 28 seconds in, we are hearing dragons flying past again, and a flock of sheep are bleating, which are more diegetic sounds. This is still accompanied by the non-diegetic voiceover and soundtrack, and all together this gives the audience a lot of the stuff they need to know, as they are picking up the atmosphere of what's going on from the soundtrack, they're engaging because of the voiceover, and the sound effects are telling them exactly what's going on in the narrative.

Production process

Every element of mise-en-scene is covered in the three stages of production; pre-production, production, and post-production. Because it's an animated film, the production process for httyd 2 is a little bit different to a live action film. With live action the production process is organized and set out, whereas in CGI animation work can be done more flexibly.
Pre-production consists of mainly storyboarding, layouts (locations and costumes) and model sheets (how a character will show expression and how they appear. Planning aspects of live action that also apply to animation are also done in pre-production, like script-writing.
It's in production that most of the work is done. Layout artists make locations and shots that storyboard artists have drawn in 2D on paper into 3D, Modelers turn 2D concept art of characters into 3D virtual models and these go on to rigging and texturing to be readied for the actual animation process. Then, the model goes on to lighting, rigging (allowing the model to move) and animation, which is where animators make the actual sequences to be in the film by moving the models. As well as moving a character frame by frame, animators can also use motion capture to animate a character. However, they still have to add the details like facial movements, because these might not be included in what's captured in motion.
In post production, the objects are finalised by bringing all the different 3D elements together to create the final image, ready to film. All the animated shots are strung together so that they make sense and run smoothly. It's here that any fully rendered and animated deleted shots or sequences are taken from. Other stages of post production include the sound editing, which is when the voices of characters are recorded and synced to the sequence. 
In the end, all of the different elements of the film come together because people from all of the different stages of production can work together with each other.

*httyd 2 - will actually say the full name