When I first thought about films to analyse for atmosphere, mood and design, my initial reaction was to pick a dark and serious piece with a real that had a real sense of "atmosphere", but I decided instead to try something less obvious (and more relevant to my study).
Mr. CityMen is a series of five short films by Eric Lerner in which animated characters inhabit real-world environments. They don't have much in terms of plot - each one following one of the five characters as they go about their day. There's no dialogue either, only ambient sounds or background music. They are each filmed with a hand-held camera. This all serves to create an almost fly-on-wall style of film, as if they had been captured by someone on the street. It feels very real.
Mr. Afraid Of Anything But Heights
The characters themselves contrast greatly to their environment - despite a photo-real rendering style they are obviously animated characters. In design they are very simple, likewise with their moods and motivations, which are expressed through their actions. Each film appears to deal with how each character relates to their environment or urban decay. Some seem to be quite happy - Mr. Fortune is content with his guitar and busking in the streets on a sunny day - whereas Mr. Afraid Of Anything But Heights, true to his name, is frightened of everything the city streets have to offer, and finds comfort in being as high above it as possible.
The abstract nature of these characters' existence in our world with simplistic designs and personalities allows the viewer to read a lot into them. This, along with the almost documentary-like filming style, serves to create an emotional thinking space for the viewer. I think it's a really nice way to visualise the way we all feel at times.
Another way to look at it is that they're a grown-up version of the Mr. Men books. Maybe that's how I should have introduced them in this post... anyway, I highly recommend checking these films out. They're short, sweet and very slickly made. You can see them all on the official website here:
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