I watched a few different animated shorts, a list of which I found through Imgur. Most of these I have never heard of before, so they were very interesting to analyse.
Firstly, The Backwater Gospel is aesthetically stylistic, giving a sense of disorderliness and unease. It does not look inviting or friendly, and the colours are dull and the shadows have stark contrast. it fits the subject matter well. The first minute of action contrasts to that which follows it: it contains no dialogue and is drab. Straight afterwards a voice begins singing and we see a relatively busy town, not knowing what the relation between the two scenes is. Within the first minute we know that there is an element of the supernatural in this story. Conflict is apparent immediately between the singer and the priest character. The action is relatively slow throughout the story. I would describe it as a multiprotagonist story ( as McKee would put it) with no one obvious main character, and each character displaying different desires. A definite resolution is reached in the ending, when all of the villagers are dead.
The Maker shows us one main protagonist, as hinted by the title. It is fantastical and fictitious, which makes it a bit harder for the viewer to understand what exactly is happening at the beginning. It contains no dialogue whatsoever, but an energetic melody and dynamic visuals to keep the viewers interest hooked. this also allows it to be understood by people of all languages. While the world is a little confusing, the desire of the protagonist and the images displayed are quite clearly communicated. The narrative structure is what Horton would call a 'circular tale,' because it ends with the same situation that was present at the start, only this time with a different character in the main role.
Alma starts with a view over the setting, giving the audience a definite location for the story. We are introduced almost immediately to the protagonist, and cleverly her name is shown by her actions. Like The maker, the sound relies solely on the core and sound effects rather than dialogue. Although the run time is very short, the story manages to pack a lot of action in. The protagonist seems inner-driven, in her childlike innocence, and is not influenced to run away from the creepy environment like a more sensible adult might be. Like the previous film, too, it seems to be circular in narrative form, with the ending returning to the original setting and premise.
Goat and Aaron focuses on two brothers engaged in conversation. We are introduced to the scenario through a 'title card' at the very beginning, saving on explanatory visuals or action. The animation and setting is quite surreal, which contrasts with the realistic conversation and characters. We do not understand at first what the brothers are talking about. To be perfectly honest, I didn't really get what this short was about and i didn't understand what the conclusion was; so I can't talk much more about it.
The next short is Salesman Pete, which has a distinct 3rd person unseen narrative voice. The introduction is very fast-paced, offering an overview of the protagonist. Other than the narrator, there is little other dialogue. the action happens so quickly that it is hard to keep track of the storyline, and I can imagine it would have been a difficult screenplay to write coherently, Because of the wacky animation and fast action, I found it too difficult to follow to be enjoyable. the characters are not empathetic so the viewer hasn't much attachment to them. I think too many ideas are squeezed into one single short for comfort, and it would have been better executed with more attention paid to a smaller amount of detail.
Sintel opens with a tracking shot of the location, giving the short a definite place in space and time. Almost off the bat conflict is introduced in an actual physical fight between two unknown characters. We get the sense that the attacker is the 'bad guy' and feel support for the defender, who we see first in the shot. Dialogue gives the premise of the short to is, as the character protagonist explains what her quest is to an old hermit. The tale employs flashbacks, and we get a sense of nostalgia from it. We can see that the protagonist's desire is to be reunited with her dragon, so she travels to find him and meets challenges along the way. A great deal of plot it fitted in to these 12 minutes of screen time.
