Tension is created when Lord Farquaad is introduced. Instead of focusing on his face, the camera shows parts of his upper body and his feet. This suggests that he is a big important Prince the viewer also sees close ups of him striding proudly. Low angle shots are effectively used to show Lord Farquaad looking down on Shrek and Donkey whereas in the tournament scene they show Shrek looking up to Lord Farquaad who is sitting high in his seat. Mid angle shots are used to show both of the characters at the same time and show romance and bonding. For example when Shrek and Donkey are relaxing together, and when Shrek has cooked Princess Fiona a meal. Sometimes, a character's back is shown rather than their face. This suggests isolation from other characters. For example when Princess Fiona leaves Shrek and goes inside the cave. She turned her back and walks away at a fast pace. I think this was to avoid any more questions from Donkey and Shrek.
Lighting throughout the film is used to show the mood of the characters. For example when Shrek is feeling sad he is shown in dark or poor lighting, whereas when he is happy he is shown with his friends Donkey and Fiona in sun lit skies. Light is used from great sun sets in the backgrounds down to the small flickering flame and the glow of sunlight in the swamp this shows the pure complexity of the film and the special effects that were used.
The use of special effects and computer graphics is what I think makes Shrek a pleasure to watch. The animation in Shrek is approaching photo reality with its visually striking computer generated images. Shrek himself has very human facial expressions, which came about through a creative process by a team of animators who gave him 900 moveable muscles. I think Donkey is the maincharacter who represents a clever coming together of state-of-the-art technology, donkey’s loveable and complex screen character whose body movements, fur, facial expressions and voice have all been cleverly synchronised to create a memorable screen personality. The maker of “Shrek” have used CG computer technology to make the characters skin textures appear clear, particularly in expressive faces which wrinkle like any real humans would. The animation in this film has warmth and depth. You can actually see the details of the fur on Donkey, the ripples in the skin of the dragon, and the stubble of Lord Farquaad’s beard. These computer-generated images are far more advanced than anything people have seen in the past and this helps reverse the traditional fairy tale.
Music is an essential part of “Shrek”. Music sets the scene, mood and adds to the overall effect of the film. Traditional fairy tales use slow rich, mellow, soft classical music in the happy scenes and sinister loud music for the scenes which involve the evil witch or the villain of the story. On the other hand the music in “Shrek” is mainly soft indie rock music. The music is always significant to the situation. For example at the beginning of the film when we hear a fairy tale being read through the pages of a book (soft music is being played). When suddenly we see Shrek’s hand rip the page.
“Like that’ll ever happen”
Then we hear a toilet flush, this suggests that Shrek used the page to wipe his bum, here we have an immediate mood change and the music is now a lot more cheerful and lively.
The language used in Shrek is very modern.
“Oh come on cant we settle this over a pint?”
This kind of language would never be used in a conventional fairy tale. Shrek is full of edgy humour directed at teenagers and adults, bathroom humour, cartoon style violence, and even a few words of mild language e.g. (synonym for Donkey). This would never been acceptable in past years especially in a children’s film which is why the makers of Shrek had to be careful how they used the humour in the script.
The film makers have reversed what is a traditional ‘Disney fantasy’ into a funny and message giving film. They have revealed that not all ogres are evil as throughout the film we can see that nobody is intimidated by Shrek even if he is an ogre Also that not all princes are good and caring as in the film we quickly learn that the Lord Farquaad is not a traditional prince but is selfish and evil. The message that this film gives is the one that Donkey teaches Shrek, which is to not judge people by their appearances.