TELLING A STORY WITHOUT DIALOGUE

Pixar are masters at telling a story without dialogue. All you have to do is watch the opening scene of Up or the opening scene of Wall-E to see how well they do it. These two examples were brought up in class as we looked specifically at sequences in films that contain no dialogue. This was a good exercise to do because it introduced me to a wide range of storytelling techniques I can use besides dialogue.

In Wall-E, we recognised that the opening established the character of Wall-E and the world he was living in. I love that it begins in space before showing the audience the earth. Although the film starts on earth, the second half of it is set in space. Showing a audience a glimpse of space at the start ensures that it doesn’t feel like a random change in setting when they do end up in space later on. This opening has very striking visuals and this has probably been a deliberate decision considering the lack of dialogue to accompany and explain what is happening. The brownness of the scenery and the clearly recognisable piles of junk create a very distinct, gross feeling. I’d say this opening relies on the audience knowing what landfill and giant piles of rubbish looks like. If they didn’t, this would have as big of an effect on us. I guess when it comes to visual storytelling, it’s more effective to use imagery that people already know. (It’s like when thinking about the UI of apps. Skeuomorphism – a design concept of making items represented resemble their real-world counterparts. See mum, I did learn something from that one year I tried doing a Digital Media degree).

While this scene from Up does end up doing some establishing, it’s main job is to tell the story of Carl and Ellie’s relationship through time. This sequence is almost like a film within a film.

Telling a story without dialogue has been something I’ve wanted to explore and attempt for a while. In my case, I’ve been thinking about creating short videos that are more like the Wall-E opening in tone than Up. Up tells a full, chronological story without dialogue while Wall-E conveys more of a kind of feeling. Wall-E’s opening does tell the story of the earth’s downfall but instead of taking us through it moment by moment like Up does, it’s implied through what we’re seeing.