Blog # 6-Animation Deconstruction

Our protagonist Brendan 

The semi-antagonist Abbot Cellach

The above images our from Irish filmmaker Thomas Moore's highly acclaimed independent animated film The Secret of Kells. Let's begin our analysis with the protagonist Brendan's color scheme. Since he is just a novice in a medieval monetary, his outfit consists of a plain robe and cape. His entire outfit is done in a hue of brown. All of it's done in a light saturation nothing too dark about it at all to suggest any sinister motivations. He's a young boy with not a hint of darkness in him. As we can see Brendan is outside during the middle of the day. Behind him you can see the abbey farm fields, and the wall in the background. It's a multitude of colors-grey, green, yellow, etc. Now let's talk about the lighting of the image. It's bright, and there are precious few shadows in the image. This suggests a mood of peacefulness, and tranquility, nothing dark or sinister, or something to imply that something terrible might happen. 

Now let’s turn our attention to Abbot Cellach. As you can see it’s literally a very different picture from the one with Brendan. Since he is the Abbot his robe, is not a plain brown one at all. Instead his ornate robe is done in a hue of red. This not only symbolizes his place as the leader of the monks of Kells, but it also suggests something else as well. Brendan’s robe was done in a light saturation of brown, while the Abbot’s robe is done in a dark saturation of red. This is fitting since the Abbot, while he is not exactly an antagonist; he is at least an obstacle to Brendan’s goal, which explains why his color scheme is dark, and not in the least way bright in any way. Where Brendan was surrounded by a multitude of colors, only a very dark blue wall that is almost black covered with chalk drawings of building plans surrounds the Abbot. Now let’s turn our attention to the lighting of the scene. Brendan’s scene had no shadows at all, while the Abbot’s scene is far more generous with shadows, the only stream of light comes from the a window off screen which keeps the image from being in total darkness. But it also serves to show us that even though the Abbot might be an obstacle he does have a good heart. But never the less the mood is foreboding one, as we sense the Abbot is not someone who likes to be crossed.