The story is an extremely powerful one, with plenty of messages about the consequences of our attitudes to this planet. I am particularly interested in this film as there is very little dialog in this film, yet it is still able to communicate deep meaning. The main characters can't communicate with complex language, so use tone and body language to communicate with each other.
It was after watching this video that inspired me to learn more about the processes the team went through, to create the look, feel and atmosphere of this film. For this film it seems they wanted the world and characters to feel 'real', even though it is a science fiction film set in the future. This sense of realism is important for the audience, to be able to connect and relate to the story.
One of the ways they decided to do this, without manipulating the environment or characters, was to experiment with camera movements. The way a camera moves within a 3D space is different to live action, as it moves mathematically and often very accurately than a camera held by a person would. When you watch wall-E it feels like he has been filmed from afar by somebody with a hand held camera. E.g. the blur of the camera as it zooms in and refocuses. Pixar spoke with cinematographer 'Roger Deacons' to try to understand and recreate the imperfections of live action cameras. Deacons mentions how bizarre this seems to recreate this with an animated film, when photographers and cameramen have strived to remove this.
"In an interview with World Magazine's Megan Basham, Stanton explained his singular vision for WALL-E: "What really interested me was the idea of the most human thing in the universe being a machine because it has more interest in finding out what the point of living is than actual people. The greatest commandment Christ gives us is to love, but that's not always our priority. So I came up with this premise that could demonstrate what I was trying to say—that irrational love defeats the world's programming. You've got these two robots that are trying to go above their basest directives, literally their programming, to experience love."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Stanton
Andrew Stanton, director of the film, explains the importance of story and narrative in this video. One of the techniques he talks about is story telling without dialog, which he describes as the 'purist' form of cinematography!
You can understand the validity of his comment as images, icons and symbols have been used to pass down stories as the earliest forms of story telling. As film and animation has developed in modern day, this style of story telling has become more sophisticated, as our knowledge and understanding of symbols has developed over history.
As a visual communicator, it is an important skill to be able to communicate meaning to the audience. Stories are one of the fundamental ways in which we can pass on knowledge or meaning.
I found this blog here that lists a few of the shots, explaining the deliberateness of the design to direct the audiences attention and also to indicate the importance of certain aspects shown in these scenes (these objects/characters/actions are important to the story)
http://karenjlloyd.com/blog/2009/01/18/wall-e-wrap-up/
“You need to see this and only this.” This shot changes from a Close-Up of Wall-E to an Extreme Close-Up of the plant. The change in focus makes it so, even though we still see him in the background.
We really need to see this plant.
“Look at me.” All relative again. Since nothing else enters the scene, I feel this is a Full Shot of the plant. Take it all in. We also need to be wide enough to see it’s growing in a pile of earth.
“This is important.” Another Close-Up. The plant is out of focus, so it’s all about Wall-E and him staring. So many close shots definitely make us feel all of this is important.
"I screwed up big time on this film and there were two moments in the film that I had wrong all the way through to the finished animation," Stanton admits. "And then it's a testament to how great this place is and how great my crew was that when I suddenly realized that I had it wrong and I had the right answer, they recognized it and said, 'Okay. All right.' ... I don't know if you guys recall in the film, when they're out in space and the pod's almost blown up and they reunite with the fire extinguisher and he shows EVE that he has the plant still, she gets all happy and then they sort of hug and they start flying around the ship. Well, it used to be that she just was happy that he was alive and it wasn't until after they flew in the ship that they had a scene in a closet where they were sort of sneaking back into the ship that he revealed to her that he had the plant. And the whole same moment happened in this little closet. And he tried to confess that he loved her and stuff, and it didn't work."
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2008/11/22/a-look-at-the-making-of-wall-e?page=2
"Eighty percent of an animated film's production time is spent in developing story, art direction, and designs for the characters. The other 20 percent is spent on the animation production and post production!"
(Prepare to Board! Creating story and characters for animated features and shorts - introduction - Nancy Beiman - Focal Press)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wall_e/news/1781418/5/a_look_inside_the_making_of_wall-e/
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