Blocking: PARALLAX variation
I wanted to break down a shot from The Return Of The Jedi - the shot where the ship flys from the explosion in the large chamber and enters the corridor:
What makes the shot energetic is the animation elements: the anticipation of the explosion by having a small explosion, and the overlapping timing of elements to make the shot elastic: first small explosion, then the large explosion, then entering the corridor.
To learn more about the importance of the principles of animation in film, check out the posts below:
Blocking: Animation Principles - Explosions
Blocking: Animation Principles Part 1
Blocking: Animation Principles Part 2
Blocking: Animation Principles Part 3
Integration: Overlapping Animaton
Visual Interest: Iris Pull
But there was something about the blocking I couldn’t quite articulate, so I decided to do a study.
A conclusion I came to from studying the clip was the benefit of not having constant parallax from the corridor. Even at a constant, linear speed, the camera appears to slow down when farm away from the back wall in the shot. That’s why the jolt of parallax seems to add more speed/energy, when the camera is actually not changing speed. I made an example of the concept below:
Another example found in The Incredibles. Notice the sudden changes in parallax:
The final example is from Beauty and the Beast. Being so high up, it’s hard to judge the camera speed which makes the introduction of quick parallax more surprising.