Week 4

The animation I watched this week was Hitchhiker. The story starts out with a guy try to get a ride as he walks down a desolate road, but is passed by several cars. When it finally appears that someone is stopping, a creepy looking man comes out behind the hitchhiker and scares the driver away. When the hitchhiker turns and sees the creepy stranger who introduces himself. They end up traveling together, but the hitchhiker has visions of the stranger chasing him or doing something to try and kill him. As they camp out, the hitchhiker loses his nerve and makes a run for it, and the stranger wakes up and chases after him carrying his large knife. When the stranger catches him, he finds out that the stranger thought there was something chasing him and he brought his knife to get whatever it was.

One element that I made this animation particularly strong was the way the animator used lighting in each of the different scenes. A camp fire, passing head lights, the glow from a digital watch, lighting, and moonlight are all used and they add great deal to the movie. The various camera angles combined with the excellent lighting work well to draw the viewer into the film. Close ups of faces lit by fire, or shots of an empty road from above lit by the moon enhanced the mood of the movie.

There were also some really interesting transitions used for the parts of the movie where the hitchhiker was having visions of the stranger trying to kill him. For example one transition involved a flash of lightning in a dark vision becoming a close up of one of the hitchhikers eyes. The rest of the movie consisted mainly of standard cuts or fades.

Another interesting thing about this movie was that the mood of the hitchhiker was displayed only using his eyes because he was drawn with no mouth. This is carried out incredibly effectively and a wide array of emotions can be seen in just the eyes.