Mas Pocoyo!!!

I bet the next couple of posts will be centered around my fascination with Pocoyo. It is so well done and from an animation perspective it has it all, staging, clarity, good pose, simple story, squash and stretch, I could go on.

First the staging...

The top image lends a simple and clear example of a simple, well staged shot. The focus is the radio, both the characters eyelines point to the object of attention, the radio. The upside down triangle is a perfectly symmetrical shot with clarity of thought and intent.

The next image shows Pocoyo sipping from his cup, the duck in the background is affected by this. The interesting thing is how they staged the shot to tell the whole story. Pocoyo in the foreground in action with the straw and cup, the duck framed neatly in the background within the action of the cup. His pose suggests alarm with his hat fully erect and stretched eyes showing surprise. The offset angles provide a non-static symmetry in the shot. The white backgound gives the viewer an easy contrast with the character and the negative shape the white provides.

The last image is taken from Citizen Kane. Greg Toland was the cinematographer and is credited with most of the staging for the film. If you have not seen it, you should as it was way ahead of it's time and considered by most to be the greatest film ever made. It was a pioneer in the use of staging and lighting to tell a story rather than to just serve the dialog.

The scene is of Susan Alexander's suicide attempt. Notice how everything needed to tell the story is in the shot and the symmetrical relationships between them. The empty medicine bottle, the glass with spoon and cork, forming the base of a triangle that points to another triangle that ends with the passed out Susan Alexander in the mid ground. This triangle forms the base of another, larger triangle that then points to Orson Wells bursting through the door, discovering the crisis. Their eye lines direct us to the focus of the shot, Susan. Clear, complete, symmetrical but not static.

If you have not seen Pocoyo, follow the links in the previous post.