Influences

Whilst researching for this unit, I was going to produce an animation for Amnesty International instead of WWF. I found some very interesting adverts from this company, which in fact influenced my rhino point of view idea.

This video uses very powerful and emotive cinematography to allow the viewer to become fully immersed in what is shown on the screen. By having the first person perspective it allows the view to imagine what it must be like to be a situation like the one portrayed.

I would like to create the same emotion within my animation from the perspective of the rhino. It will be challenging to create the same emotion between the viewer and the first person perspective in my animation as it is from a rhino’s perspective. So I loose the connection of human emotions that is seen within the amnesty advert, i.e. the audience are able to relate to the main protagonist, as he is human and can put themselves in his position.

The use of non-diegetic sounds within this advert has a huge influence on the viewer’s emotions, as throughout the majority of the video the screen is filled with an illusion of a sack being over the viewer’s head. This allows the viewer to use their imagination to create the scene within their head just by listening to the sounds. The sounds are very uncomfortable and disturbing to listen to which plays a big role in this illusion for the audience. In my initial idea I have a scene, which the rhino blanks out after he has been tranquilised, I would like to use the same approach by using sounds of sawing off the horn, people mumbling in foreign language and people using different tools on the rhino’s horn. I want to make the viewer feel unnerved whilst hearing these sounds, which depict the reality of rhino poaching.

By using first person perspective in my animation it will allow the story to build a relationship between the audience and the rhino. Putting the viewer in this situation will create sympathy for the rhino character; realising how inhumane and cruel poachers are to these animals and hopefully leaving the viewer wanting to donate to help stop this cause.