Ruijia's VFX Blog

《Persepolis》 is a true story. It shows the Iranian society from the perspective of the protagonist through black and white animation, which is mixed with religious fanaticism, terrorism, political turmoil and lingering kinship. Personal growth experience also vividly reflects the changes in the political and social environment in Iran, enabling people to have a direct sensory understanding of the chaotic history of Iran.

Questions to consider:

• Could animated documentary potentially detract from the seriousness of the situation?

— No, I think the exaggeration of animation expression means exaggerates the seriousness of the situation to a greater extent.

• Could  it prevent a direct engagement with the factual content of an animated documentary?

— No, because of the characteristics of documentary, it will be more objective and authentic

• Could this be positive?

— It can be positive, but I think it should be more neutral.

• There is a historical attitude that animation is for children and is not suited to grown up material? How far do you agree/disagree with this?

— I totally disagree with this view, because I think animation is just a form of expression, and more in-depth content suitable for adults can be expressed in this way.

• Could it lead to a more universal level of identification? Why do you think this might be?

— I think so, As Honess Roe points out ‘This use of animation demonstrates that envisioned information is easier to understand and retain, and that much factual information is communicated more efficiently via animation than the spoken word’

Q&A:

1.Consider what constitutes an animated documentary?

— On the basis of “fact core”, the creative subject carries out a subjective and creative reconstruction of history, reality, culture and psychology through audio-visual images.

2.What are the implications of using animation in a non-fiction context?

— Animated documentaries can not only reveal subjective, conscious experience via animation that is evocative rather that directly representational, but also encourage us to imagine from our own point of view and empathise with the unfamiliar experiences of other people.(Honess Roe)

What’s more, As Honess Roe points out ‘This use of animation demonstrates that envisioned information is easier to understand and retain, and that much factual information is communicated more efficiently via animation than the spoken word

3.What issues arise from the use of animation in documentary?

— As Honess Roe further points out however, animation, ‘presents problems for this documentary ontology and this means that animated documentaries do not fit easily into the received wisdom of what a documentary is’

Horness Roe. A. proposes that notions of realism is not only closely related to the authenticity of the documentary, but also deeply linked to the documentary images. In addition, the documentary images prove the real events through the exponential relationship between images and reality.

Categorisation:

Experimental

Background:

Shuji Terayama decided to make a transparent film.He insisted on leaving his “heterochromatic” hobby for the time being, and gave up any rendering of intermediate colors. Instead, he used pure black and white to paint his lens. As a result, “A Woman With Two Heads” has become an alien of Mount Temple and a “non heterochromatic” film sketch. At the memorial exhibition of Mount Temple in a certain year, “A Woman With Two Heads” was shown as the representative work of Mount Temple. Some people said that they never knew that Mount Temple had ever made such a clean and transparent film.

Process:

In order to highlight the effect of the painted “shadow”, He removes the real shadow with strong light. What’s more, By breaking the classical concept of time and space, through a large number of temporal ambiguous cameras and voiceover means, Teriyama Shusi has made the past and the present, reality and memory, documentary and fiction, etc. into a synchronic existence.

Formal Elements:

The incredible combination of sound and image and the use of color in his films also made his films show a surrealist sense of picture in terms of composition, color and sound.

The 8 stages of the story arc

1. Stasis

Ofelia , our protagonist , a girl fascinated with fairy tales and her mother on their way to meet with Ofelia’s new stepfather . the Captain Dramatic premise.

2. Trigger

One night, Ofelia wakes up to a large insect who turns into a fairy and leads her to a Labyrinth. When Ofelia reaches the maze, she meets a fauned.

3. The quest

The faun is convinced that Ofelia is the reincarnation of Princess Moanna and that it is her destiny to return to the Underworld . Then Ofelia gets a book that describes three tasks that she must complete in order to go back to the Underworld.

4. Surprise

The character the hero needs to return to the underground world : self sacrifice and protection of the innocent

5. Critical choice

After completing her first task, Ofelia’s mother grows even sicker and she is hesitant to carry out the other two. But she finally chooses to continue the tasks.

6. Climax

The faun visits Ofelia again and tells her her last chance to prove herself is to take her new brother to the Labyrinth, The last task is the final choice—to give her little brother to the faun as a sacrifice or return him to the villainous Vidal.

7. Reversal

In the ultimate selfless act, She refuses them both, and chooses to protect her brother’s life with her own.

8. Resolution

Vidal grabs the baby and shoots Ofelia, as her blood drips down into the labyrinth, Ofelia successfully entered that world. Her father and mother are the king and queen of this world. They are finally reunited. In the real world, we see Ofelia die, but the closing narration tells us that she reigned for centuries in the underworld…

Archetypes

1. Hero : Ofelia (the main protagonist)

2. Threshold Guardian : The Faun. He shows all the qualities of an archetypicalw threshold guardian and it is unclear as to whether or not he is on the side of good orevil. Pan would give Ofelia tasks to complete , but if she failed he wouldn’t punish her or help her , he would act neutral.

3. Herald : Vidal fights the rebels and ends up killing his doctor,Carmen ends up dying but not after giving birth to a healthy son

4. Shapeshifter : Carmen , Ofelia’ mother , faces a difficult choice between her cruel and despotic husband and her own daughter

5. Shadow : Captain Vidal, Ofelia’s new stepfather

6. Trickster : Pan

7. Aiiies(sidekicks) : The fairy in the underground world ; Mercedes and the Doctor in reality

Ofelia’s Timeline

It is said that the princess of the underground kingdom escaped from the kingdom and came to the world and lost her memory

Ofelia was born and grew up. The film began when her mother takes her on the way to her step father of a captain

Ofelia is guided by the spirit of the underground world, coming to the maze , then meets Fuan. He tells her that she was the princess of the underground kingdom. Now she needs to complete three tasks to test whether her character is polluted by the world. After passing the test, she can return to the underground world

After completing two tasks(1.feed a giant toad magic stones to snag the key 2.enter the lair of the pale man and use the key to retrieve a dagger), Her mother dies after giving birth

The faun visits Ofelia again and tells her her last chance to prove herself is to take her new brother to the Labyrinth, while the captain commanding to bring the baby back

Ofelia chooses to sacrifice herself, however the captain follows and shoots her, as her blood drips down into the labyrinth, Ofelia successfully entered that world. Her father and mother are the king and queen of this world. They are finally reunited. In the real world, we see Ofelia die, but the closing narration tells us that she reigned for centuries in the underworld…