Storyboard Imitation for The Lion King

 

Within these five shots of this particular scene of The Lion King, the director is very aware of the rules of filming. The camera never crosses the 180 degree line, keeping both of the characters, Scar and Simba, on their original sides (Simba on the left and scar on the right). The scene starts with an extreme wide shot of the gorge where the stampede takes place. When Scar and Simba are introduced, the shot is still very wide, and the line of action is established between the two of them when Simba climbs up on the rock to face Scar. The camera zooms in on the two of them, and there is some movement during the scene, but the line that was established at the beginning of the shot is never broken or changed. The rule of thirds is also carefully observed in this scene. Both Simba and Scar sit directly in the cross hairs of the thirds. With Simba sitting up on the rock, he is at eye level with Scar. Because if this, they are both in the top two crosshairs of the thirds, and their faces are the first two things that the viewer’s eye is drawn to. Even in the one shot where Simba is the only character in the frame, his face and legs are all within the rule of thirds. The camera doesn’t move enough during this scene to have to worry about the rule of thirty. The only real movement is like a zoom or a pan, nit really any cutting. The director definitely kept things simple in a very effective manner. The scene isn’t very complex, but it’s been one of my favorites in the movie. Throughout the whole movie the director is very good about how these scenes are shot. That’s at least part of the reason why I feel that this movie is so sucessful~

Song Deconstruction

Silly Love Songs: Wings

Silly Love Songs: The Replicants

 

While the lyrics in the cover of Silly Love Songs are exactly the same, it’s the melody that varies greatly. In the Wing version, the melody is very light and happy, yet in The Replicants version, the song takes on a very dark and hypnotic melody that sounds very far from the original. The rhythms in the two versions are also a little different. Wings version has an irregular rhythm, fluctuating often and not following much of a pattern (as seen in the emotional structure section of my listening analysis).  The Replicants version is irregular in the sense that it isn’t always regular or irregular. It starts off regularly, rising and falling in what seems to be a pattern, but near the end of the song, roughly the last two or three minutes, the rhythm is completely irregular and chaotic. This is similar in the songs intensity, as that also doesn’t stay consistent. Some parts will be very loud and intense, while others fall into being more quiet and hypnotic. Wings keep their version at about the same intensity throughout, a nice, even, easy to listen to intensity. Both songs keep a rather low pitch, but The Replicants is only slightly lower. Wings version has a very simple timbre, another thing that keeps it easy to listen to. It’s smooth and a little flat in that sense. The Replicants start in that manner, being smooth and easy to listen to, but by the end of the song the complexity is amped up and the listener can feel a little lost in all the complex textures.

Silly Love Songs when done by Wings is a very light-hearted, up-beat song about…love of course!  It has a nice, up-beat, moderato speed that keeps the listener in a good mood throughout the song. It keeps it optimistic and happy. When the song is performed by The Replicants however, the speed is andante, almost adagio. It’s much more hypnotic and almost creepy in nature. It definitely does not leave the listener in the same mood as the original version.

These songs are so drastically different; it’s really hard for me to say which one that I like better. That’s like asking if I like Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO more or The Ballad of Mona Lisa by Panic! At The Disco. The genres are just too drastically different for me to be able to pick one of them. I actively listen to both versions of these songs and I love them both, I think it really just depends on the kind of mood that I’m in~