Daily post &Frame Grabs 29 Aug 2011 06:41 am
The Multiplane Camera in Masaoka’s 1943 film
- Kenzo Masaoka was an early pioneer of Japanese animation. Masaoka established Masaoka Film Production In 1932 and gained the support of the company, Shochiku; together they produced “The World for the Power and Women†in 1933, which was the first talking film in Japan. He also introduced the use of cels to Japan. He produced many other films in the thirties and was considered the “Japanese Disney”.
In 1943 he created the short Spider and the Tulip. The film tells the story of a spider who lures a ladybug to its web. The spider, in blackface, is obviously a representation of the the American force trying to invade Japan. The innocent ladybug does its all to fight back. The film incurred the wrath of the military since it wasn’t obviously about the war.
The film, has extensive use of the multiplane camera throughout. Primarily, it’s used for pans and the look of depth in many of the still setups with the BGs out of focus. I’m going to post some frame grabs culled from a streaming video copy, which I also embed at the bottom of this post, so you can watch the film. Unfortunately, the frame grabs are small. I encourage you to go to Network Awesome where I was first introduced to this and several other Japanese classics. Cory Gross did an excellent job of analyzing these films.
1The opening titles are against a
soft BG probably multiplane.
2
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The flower backdrops set the mood
for the delicate film to follow.
4
The last title looks to be a constructed set
as the camera moves in on the tree.
5
The camera move feels almost hand-held.
6
CU of the spider against a soft background.
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There’s a long pan of flowers as the fly
flies across the screen to the ladybug.
9
Flowers pass in multiplane levels.
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14
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The pan ends on the beautiful rose.
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The ladybug stands on a leaf in the foreground, singing.
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She turns as the fly enters the scene.
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The fly takes off.
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Cut to the spider who sings a response.
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You can see that all the Bgs use the multiplane focus.
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The spider moves closer to her.
24
There’s a two-shot with the ladybug in focus
and the spider out of focus.
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Rack focus and the spider comes in sharp.
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The camera moves in on the spider.
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It goes in full on the spider.
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Later in the film, a storm comes up.
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There are many attractive shots within this sequence,
and I urge you to watch the film, embeded below, for it.
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This is quite an interesting film regardless
of the year it was created in Japan and the
enormous struggles going on in that country.
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