The first camera angle we see is an extreme long shot, it is of the chicken’s enclosure this shot alone introduces the surroundings then it pans across onto the chickens this is the most important shot as it shows us what is happening in this case the chickens all in a line standing still. When Mrs. Tweedy walks in you do not see her face this creates a mysterious atmosphere as you don’t know what she is going to do. You are seeing her from the chicken’s point of view, only her boots it makes you feel intimidated by the size of her. When she looks down at the chicken the camera is from where she is looking. So the chicken looks small and scared. This angle changes as we see it from the chickens view looking up Mrs. Tweedy looks evil and intimidating. Another clever
Camera angle is when the chicken food is poured on to the camera this is affective because it is different.
They use shadow a lot to create different moods again when Mrs. Tweedy is looking down at the chicken and the camera is looking up at her the shadow on her face makes her look more evil. When the camera is looking down at the chicken the shadow from Mrs. Tweedy covers the chicken making her look even smaller and scared.
As I said before the background and setting is similar to that of the great escape. Chicken hutches and the fence remind me of the concentration camp.
The only editing technique I picked up on was that when Mrs. Tweedy and the Chicken were looking at each other, the shots changed rapidly from one to the other.
The music plays a big part in creating the mood for certain parts an example of this would be when Mrs. Tweedy comes through the gate the Jaws music is played this creates a tense mood, the music makes you think that she out for the kill. After Ginger had told the chickens that they were them fattening up. The mood became very low and by one chicken playing a slow dull tune on a harmonica it emphasized the way they felt this was also another link with the war camps as they also used to play the harmonica. When the chicken thinks she is going to die for a few seconds she is praying with an angel chorus singing in the background this is a total contrast to the tense background music seconds before. When the chickens are eating the music is quick and jumpy combined with the noise of the chickens moving made everything seem hectic.
The sound effects I noticed were when the gate slammed, chicken food being poured, boots walking through sand, tape measure snapping, silence, knitting needles clinking together, food falling through fingers onto more food. For every movement there was a sound effect this added to the realness of the animation.
Mrs. Tweedys voice is quite masculine which suits her character because she is more of the man of the operation the one who is in control. Her voice is quite intimidating and without seeing her you could imagine her not looking that pretty. All the chickens have different accents and voices this make it more interesting than just having one type of voice for all of the chickens.
The film makers have created Mrs. Tweedy as the evil character and Ginger as the good. They have created them by the way they act, look, speak and there intentions e.g. Ginger wants to free the chickens but Mrs. Tweedy wants to kill them. It’s the original good verses bad.
Overall I think Chicken run was a very clever animation that must have taken a long time to produce although it was better than Robby the Reindeer it wasn’t as advanced as Shrek even though it took longer to make. After only watching 3 minutes I learnt plenty about the characters and the surroundings and the relationship between the characters.
