Paterson - Giving On-Screen Worlds a Personality of Their Own (OUAN402)

 What makes some on-screen worlds feel like real worlds and what makes others feel like a set that the actors are confined within the boundaries of? Like, in some films I feel like I would be able to walk outside the frame and still come across great characters and stories that weren't on camera.

When I animated before university, I did everything with a plain white background because I lacked the technological know-how to do anything more sophisticated. Now I have a lot more choice I'm feeling overwhelmed because I had never considered the importance of the details of the scenery behind the characters. What colour scheme should I use? How much detail is too much detail before it distracts from the focus of the scene? Can a minimalist set feel tactile and relatable?

Most importantly, what kind of story am I looking to tell with my set and how can I tell it? I have no clue.

I loved "Paterson", partially for its scenery and set design. Though the locations in the film did not look objectively beautiful or traditionally cinematic, Jim Jarmusch made me relate to them very well because they felt authentic.

None of the sets looked like they were staged, in the sense that the director hadn't walked into the frame and tweaked things and placed visual clues all over the place to tell the audience more about the characters and how they live. It wasn't overdone, it was really realistic. Every prop that was there was there because it would make perfect sense for it to be there, and there was nothing more to it.

We've all been to places like the ones in the movie before, so they had a sense of familiarity to them. The familiarity with the locations gave me empathy with the characters before they even spoke.

This leaves me thinking about what I should and shouldn't add to an animated background? As in, what's the line between an authentic set and a caricature of that set? I think I should draw my backgrounds keeping in mind the time of day it's meant to be, what types of characters are there and what impact those characters have on the environment. If it's messy, then I can't just draw a generic mess because there's no story behind it. I want every facet of my background to be planned and be explainable.

The film shows us Paterson's walk to and from work quite a few times. We're also shown the route that Paterson walks his dog quite a few times. By the time the audience sees him walk these routes the second or third time, we have a basic grasp of where everything is in relation to each other and it gives the world a sense of proportion, making it feel real.

("American Beauty" does this really excellently as well. A lot of the shots are repeated to make them seem familiar and give the audience an attachment to that location)

This shot of the suburban neighbourhood is returned to a few times

Perhaps a lesser film would indicate Paterson's journey to work by doing one cut between home and work, but I found that showing me the walk increased my immersion.