Monday, January 11, 2016

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

    When I started The Arrival I was almost confused at first how it could be a whole story of just pictures. After reading the images and going page by page I was really impressed with how easy it actually is to just read this. As a motion designer we have to create storyboards quite often and this is like story boarding to me but without all the extra markings which are not even necessary. As you are reading through this story these images really capture the moods and feelings that are trying to be portrayed by the man as well as everyone and everything going on around him. You feel his sadness at certain times and you can sense his feeling of struggles and confusion as he goes to the new place. I really like how time passing is shown through this with using an object or environment and having it be changing slightly picture to picture with a lot of them on the page. I also found it interesting how they made the character show what he was looking for when he was asking for something, with using a book and drawing pictures because the people could not understand what he was trying to say because of a language barrier in the new land. The way the character is depicted through the story along with other characters like the old man in the factory help to tell the story with the way they are staged as well as with their facial expressions and reactions to things that were happening. I really enjoyed this piece and thought it was a great read.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Jesse,
    I had felt the same way when reading this. Relating it to motion design it was like a giant storyboard where you have to work out the timing and message of the work. In terms of The Arrival I had also noticed how well the pacing was. You get the sense of timing throughout each of his days and it helps build the story's tension of finding his family.

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