Evangelion Choreography and visual subject matter

[Electric Sachiel]

Hey guys. I've been thinking about this for a bit now. I'm sure everyone here has recognized that the original NGE tv series along with the recent Rebuild movies all possess a certain approach to the way the action choreography is done during the epic scenes that involve the Evas.

As well the tv series along with its movie counterparts often sees the camera fixating on random objects. Be it telephone poles, a glass on the countertop, a school stairway, a puddle on the concrete ground, the water facet, public telephone and other random urban objects. Is there a certain terminology used in film to describe these odd camera shot perspectives seen in Eva? Its almost as if the film was shot like those black and white still life pieces you often see in high school art class or done by your average photography student.

If anyone knows what type of film terminology or style that Anno is using here...by all means please chim in....

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

It's called production management.

Still shots mean less frames. Less frames means less money needs to be spent on the workers. Less money spent on the workers means more money to put into the awesome action scenes that Eva has, or more money for Anno to put into buying crystal decanters to hold the tears of crying Evangelion viewers. It also means that it takes less time to finish a shot, making it possible to move faster on everything else.

[Felipe]

Besides the budgeting issue, there's something terribly chilling to be found when the emotional focus of the scene is off screen, almost as if you were being forced to use other means of interpretation than your sight. Finally, once you start getting used to seeing, say, a glass of water instead of the character saying the line, when you actually do see the character, you're immediately drawn to it, creating an awesome dramatic effect.

[Electric Sachiel]

It's called production management.

Indeed. But as you can tell even the Rebuild movies with much more extravagant budgets still retain these still shots. While it may have been entirely necessary with the tv series, I think its become second nature now with the Rebuild movies.

@ Filipe. Totally agree with your sentiments about the approach with the still ife shots drawing the audience's attention more effectively than seeing a character/mech in shot all the time.

So is there another way we can describe these still life shots in the tv show and films aside from the very obvious notion of "budgetary" production contraints?

[chee]

They're called pillow shots. It's not only a budgetary thing, its also a deliberate stylistic choice that goes back all the way to Ozu.

[Electric Sachiel]

They're called pillow shots. It's not only a budgetary thing, its also a deliberate stylistic choice that goes back all the way to Ozu.

Thanks Chee. Never heard of the term pillow shots. I'll need to look into this.