Point Of View In A Film Film Studies Essay

Often many good animation films mesmerize the vital element of the film known as Point of View to allow a viewer to make important connections and seeing the world in certain way. “How To Train Your Dragon” uses its first act of point of view through the use of camera shots, the collage of friendship , the upper and lower shot cuts to get across the range of dragons that inhabit this world, including the one nobody has ever seen, the sinister Night Fury. It’s a character (Hiccup) that has ‘end of game boss’ tattooed across it from the moment it’s first mentioned. Hiccup instantly knew that dragons weren’t harmful to humans but only defend themselves as would a typical person had done in unease situation. Crammed with lively scenes and plenty of action, this rowdy tale is just right for fantasy fans or anyone with a spirit of adventure.

The Point of View in a film is a vital element because similar to narrative it has connection with the literacy and visual arts. Point of View as defined by Corrigan is as the vantage point from which a story is presented, something is seen and, by implication, the way the point of view determines what you see (49). So it makes sense that there would be a sudden surge of movies from this point of view because it so connects to people’s experience. Anything that calls for a level of naturalism and voyeurism can absolutely be filmed in this style. The face to face of the Hiccups and night fury for the first time, the way the intense scene the camera presented, the closeness among the sounds of approaching danger, the alert generated when the night fury first abandoned by the hiccups, the closeness of facial gestures on both the characters ultimately not only created a suspense but a general attraction to the shot. The short and long term camera angle around the eyes of night fury as he see the hiccups for the first time made a statement pertaining as if an unknown person was looking doubtful and vicious. With a dragon’s eye view, the viewers fly through gorgeous wrinkly rock formations that rise from the sea. As mentioned in the “A Short Guide to Writing about Film” by Corrigan, the camera can take the actions to the higher level bringing subjective and objective perspectives so that what is shown is not confined to any one person’s perspective (49).

In Viking culture, there’s nothing more disloyal or perilous than consorting with the enemy- especially when it’s a dragon. But Hiccup discovers that maybe the dragons fear the humans as much as they fear them. Will Hiccup finally become the man his father wants him to be by slaying a dragon, or will he honor his newfound friendship with Toothless deliberately done by the camera work? A different kind of simplicity works, to equally satisfying effect, in the scenes that refer most directly to the film’s title. When Hiccup first meets Toothless, a type of dragon especially feared by the Vikings of Berk, the animal is hurt and scared. As noted in the middle of the movie, the camera mainly focuses more on the actions of hiccups and the objective actions between him and night fury to build a concept of the film. The camera gives close shots of night flurries first outburst and then love with the hiccups thus making the entire scene vibrant with the sounds, realism, and voyeurism what a normal viewer would have asked from a good film. As viewer notes hiccup in a scene where he goes to explore the place the night furry fall, the camera makes the scene more vibrant than anything to create a stage of exploration, a new settings and tone of the shot. The dragons, not surprisingly, are the main visual attraction and come in various shapes and sizes with clever names like the two-headed Hideous Zippleback, or the Monstrous. The most fearsome and illusive of all is the Night Fury — basically, a fire-breathing stealth bomber in black scales. As he further to the point where he notices the impaired dragon, the close of up shots, a complete silence, and along with the direct sound, the camera ultimately changes the position of sniper, to be exact the view of the people. It takes the audience through the entire scene as creating fear, a fear that any typical human would have gone through at the moment when he or she has seen something vicious, out of frontier, and moreover compelling to defeat. The camera slowly builds a tense situation, close shots at the face of the hiccups to pertain the sweating of a normal person, and none the less to show cause and effect. The broken tree truck in half, the impact of the fall of night furry on the ground, the long muddy slide made by the fall, recalls in viewers mind that the dragon must be something dangerous and so powerful that his fall slashed a tree in half and made a drag in the dirt. This scene represent as if the viewer were walking through the process of finding the dragon. This is another factor of point of view that as viewers watch the particular scene they might feel that they are seeing another character through the eyes of Hiccups, and that character of course is the viewer himself (49)

This film doesn’t excite straight away, but when it starts to warm up, you’re left with a moral tale and a fun animated kids film. Hiccup is a pretty rubbish viking. His lame Viking-ness is made much worse by the fact that his dad, Stoick (Gerard Butler) is the daddy of all Vikings and chief dragon slayer. When Hiccup downs one of the toughest dragon’s of all no-one in the village believes him. That is until he feeds, tickles, tames and flies the beast leading to the blurring of the line between human and dragon. Gone are the ironic one-liners, replaced by some genuinely funny jestings. From when Hiccup first encounters Toothless and all the following dragon/human interaction that follows, the jokes are straight from the Pixar ‘more than words’ handbook. As for the flight scenes, it’s really not too far off the majesty of other animations, comprehensive and soaring over seas and forests. The viewers will believe a dragon can fly. As for the mild danger that adorns the movie scenes there’s nothing particularly mild about it. Toothless may have huge, pensive eyes and tiny retractable teeth but some of the other beasts are enough to get the viewer scared. The camera angles around the Night Fury physical appearance make his look so aggressive and enormous in size but in fact the dragon is merely a small compared to other dragons. When the true foe rears it’s scaly head, the camera affect will surely make children and adults alike quivering in their glasses. Hiccup’s world is turned upside down when he encounters a dragon that challenges him and his fellow Vikings to see the world from an entirely different point of view. Although the viewer might feel stranded from the actual element but fire-breathing dragons, medieval projectile weaponry and dragon dive-bombing provide edge-of-seat suspense. The action sequences are well-balanced with humorous and poignant scenes from the emotional life Hiccup so the subjective and objective perspectives stay alive and viewers get the mix of all kind of emotions.

Regardless, Hiccup ventures out into battle and downs a mysterious Night Fury dragon with his invention, but can’t bring himself to kill it. The scene that makes Hiccup realize that there is a hope of consideration that dragons are likeable, and the camera switches back and forth to the actions of both to make a scene of curiously. In the process, Hiccup finds a kindred spirit and gets to know the secret life of dragons (it turns out that they’re far from nightmarish beasts, despite being snuggle-toothed and bug-eyed). A scene that would make a twist or force the viewer to think, Will he! Will he! Kill the dragon or not. Beside that scene the viewers doesn’t get to see that much interaction between both of them, especially when Hiccup and Astrid were taken by the Night Furry to the dragon world. The overall view and standpoint after the in progress of the movies changes as to something solemn. Instead, Hiccup and the dragon, whom he names Toothless, begin a friendship that would open up both their worlds as the vigilant boy learns that his people have misjudged the species. But even as the two each take flight in their own way, they find that they must fight the destructive ignorance plaguing their world.

Through the use of point of view in the film, the viewers get to experience the abnormal yet adventurous and realistic scenes in the film. The camera help generate the scenes that viewers perceive would have experience themselves thus making the film more enthusiastic, blastic, and more over the complete scene of something fresh off the bucket. The notion of significance or urgency immensely is shattered all throughout the entire film scenes. Several examples but more truly the love of Hiccups for Astird is visible through the friendship of hiccup and the night fury. Since she hasn’t seen the coolest dragon and noticed the hiccups have controlled the deadly one, it has opened a path for a girl to trust someone who is capable of dealing with vicious dragons. Hiccup spends much of the film flustered and frustrated. But with a voice that is both geeky and vulnerable, Hiccup ultimately winds up attracting our sympathy and love. The bond between both the hiccup and dragon are can be pertained as ultimately, a boy and his dog, only the dog is played by a massive black dragon named Toothless. Both characters are shown openly taking risk of their own safety to protect the other, and their connection is all the more affecting because it’s wordless. The viewers ultimately feel that Toothless, like the rest of the dragons, is not anthropomorphized or attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena. Unlike the creatures in other Animation films, Toothless doesn’t speak or crack wise, make pop-culture references, or dance to songs by Smash-mouth. This film hits on point of view such as diversity and acceptance and is mixed in with the humor and spunk of Viking teenage anguish. Hiccup does a fantastic job as voice talent for the adventurous character and his love interest, Astrid a tomboy out to be the best Viking girl displays comic relief throughout the film. Other than that the film ends in much the same way it begun, but it has a more positive outlook and the perspective constantly changes as the scenes progress. I don’t think it was a good enough way to resolve the issue. The story builds up this climax, but it felt more like a cop-out. Hiccup gets banished, losing his father, and then in an instant he’s forgiven. The different views the audience see makes them feel like Hiccup’s personality and his interactions with the dragons and the different personalities of the Vikings are the basis for the humour in the story, versus humour that is more satire or topical.

An animated like Zero to Hero, where the title character is a awkward misfit who, after accidentally wreaking chaos on his own village, must undergo training in order to attain his true potential, the same goes for this film. From the beginning to the end of the film, the viewers feel as if there’s a camera room where one can walk around with a little monitor and see the set and the characters in virtual space. Viewer can change the lenses and do tracking shots through a virtual world. It’s peculiar, but it’s instructive in terms of finding camera angles and lens lengths. Somehow walking around with a camera on a virtual set is like shooting live action on the fly. The close up shots and the wide ranges shots of the characters help both the voice actors all provide great performances that always keep pace with both the humor and the range of the characters’ emotions. Like most movies It’s the kind of generational divide you can see repeated throughout history.  It is where the clash has been established by the older, it’s the younger generation who be trained that the only way to bring peace is to reexamine the nature of the conflict and then try to resolve it non-violently.  Violence perpetuates violence.  These lessons of “courageous kindness” and “violence-begets violence” may seem corny, but Dragon makes it work.  The lessons are subtext that kids will pick up on by seeing how the characters behave and that adults should appreciate because it makes the film more than the sugar cereal of most animated films.

From the eye-catching, hillside Viking settlement to the peaceful mountain lake where Hiccup carefully nurtures his relationship with Toothless, the film’s design elements known as Point of View bring the viewers into the lives of these dragon-blighted people conjuring up vivid pictures of what that place in history might have looked like. The inhabitants may be modern and the situations a bit fantastical, but the realistic approach to perspectives makes for a more livable film.