Watching Wall-E

Silent films, they convey emotion through many factors such as facial expressions, body language and shot sizes. My group were encouraged to watch some silent films, which would help the development of our short film.


http://cartoonbros.com/wall-e/ 

We have chosen to shoot a silent film, with which the music will be the key factor in the emotion that is portrayed - as well as the factors listed above. I am going to watch Wall-E, which is a silent film as there is limited dialogue in the film (only from the humans), but we are able to convey emotions from Wall-E and EVA, who are robots and do not talk. As you can even see from the image above, without having watched the film, you can see a connection between the two robots. This is through their surroundings, it seems to be a fairly romantic setting due to the colours used and the moon being in the centre of the background. EVA, the white robot, has a typical cartoon closed eye facial expression, and her arm is touching her mouth, as though she were laughing or giggling. Wall-E however is looking up at her, as though he is mesmerised by her and is falling in love with her. He is holding a boot with a plant as a gesture.

Notes from watching Wall-E

• Jolly music to open with - we then see Wall-E is the one playing the music surrounded by depressing silence of rubbish everywhere - not letting his surroundings bring him down
• His eyes - his 'eyelids' squint to show laughter
• His body language shows friendly hand gesture to cockroach when he puts out his arm and open and closes his hand
• Eyebrows raise to show surprise or shock
• By seeing his home (environment), we get a sense of his personality - compassionate and has manners as he takes his 'shoes' off
• Compassion from watching a romantic film - large 'puppy dog' eyes - clasping his own hand - walks past and shoots back into the shot when the romantic moment catches his eye
• Wall-E sees a bright light around EVA when he first sees her (love at first sight) 
• He follows her - romantic music
• When Wall-E tries to trick EVA into thinking he isnt himself/goes deffective, he remains still showing no emotion and becomes an inanimate object (this is why facial expressions and body language are so important) - it is the eyebrows, eyelids etc that create the emotion on his face and make an object that wouldnt normally make the audience feel a connection, develop one

Examples of facial expressions/body language

• Eyes drooped and shaking when scared (as seen in the first image below) also anticipation as (seen in the second image below)
• http://sarembaart.deviantart.com/art/Wall-e-facial-expressions-428786581
• Eva - suspicion (as seen in the image below her eyes squint/scowl to look sly)
• http://www.chud.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/WALL-E-02.jpg
• Typical cartoon eyes when EVA is happy or laughing (as seen in the image below) - squinting
• 
• http://orig01.deviantart.net/94fa/f/2010/197/f/2/eve_giggles_by_cri86.jpg

If it werent for these facial expressions, especially on EVA, she would be a white robot with a blank black face - we would not be able to see a personality, but due to her eyes forming in different shapes on the screen, we are able to see the emotions she is feeling and we also grasp a sense of the mood by seeing her feelings in her facial expressions.