There are certain things that a viewer aspects when they watch an animation that they know the story to. They expect to see some traditional to what they know as well as a new spin to the piece. Without a new spin, there would be no interest in viewing the animation in the first place. Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry has always been known for being eerie and slightly disturbing. This animation feature Poe’s well-known poem “Tell Tale Heart.” This poem, like many other works, is about a man who thinks he is “sane” but his murderous actions make the viewer believe otherwise. Obviously when creating a spooky animation there are techniques and details that cannot be forgotten to lose the suspenseful feeling. The trick is using different camera angles, movement, rhythm, and perspective to make the animation interesting to the viewer and not appear as something they have see in the past.
When animating a Poe poem certain details must not be forgotten. First, and most obvious, a lot of black will be needed. Followed by a creepy old setting, and it always helps to have a narrator with an eerie voice. All of these techniques feed into the animation as a whole. The animator of “Tell Tale Heart” grasped this and portrayed it excellently. The backgrounds were perfect and featured a lot of black and shadowing. In many cases most of the background would be black with a slight lighter area just to make out the difference. Shadow figures were used to promote the sense of fear and suspense. All of details that he used helped create the atmosphere that Poe intended.
The animator uses scenes to progress the story forward. A lot of the poem is told through the narrator’s description of the old man. He jumps from detail to detail about how the old man lives his life and bothers him. Scenes allow the viewer to watch what the narrator is saying. Each different idea allows for a new scene. The story has a few different locations, all of which need to be different scenes. The poem takes us through the house of the old man with the narrator. This requires different backgrounds, lighting aspects, transitions, etc. The popular transition of choice was a fade to black and pan or tilt off screen to the next scene. This allows for story continuation and does not leave the viewer hanging. A constant story motion is what can be seen.
There is quite a combination of different techniques used in this animation; some more complex then others. The camera angles used tend to be mostly stationary with a lot of pans and tilts. The movement was timed to the change of the scene and a fade to black. The palette is black, white, and dark colors. Not much color is even used, only for some accents in background and character.
Most of the animation uses blacks, grays, and whites. There is a rhythmic element to this animation and as the poem progresses different things change with it. The narrator becomes more frantic so the scenes change fast as well as faster movement within the scenes. The perspective is from the narrator’s point of view. We see what the narrator is talking about when he speaks it. His voice is perfect and emphasizes his true insanity. The entire animation is a great example of a hyperbole and really pulls on our idea of an insane murderer. He believes that he is sane and doesn’t understand why what he did (murdering the old man) was wrong.
The animator was able to use a great palette of color and good scene transition to draw me in and keep me interested. I have heard this poem many times before and seen many different animations/movies on it. Despite already knowing the ending I still found myself interested to the piece. This animator had a very precise vision with the unusual look of his characters and various decrepit locations throughout the mans house. All the background elements worked perfectly and he needed very few characters to tell the actual story.
The few characters that there were often displayed by the use of black shadowy figures deep within the background. As they approached they kept there black shapes which gives the viewer an even greater sense of suspense. I also enjoy the timeless element that this animation has. It was created in 1953 but the techniques and details are so important and essential that they still are the back bone for animation today.
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