Research!

I have been looking at various chase scenes in films and games to get some inspiration for how I should shoot my trailer in terms of camera angles, lighting and how best to pace the movement and the shots with the Maya camera.



Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark Opening Scene

This scene shows both how suspense is created - by making the character suspicious of any danger in and unknown area, and therefore cautious of his surroundings, which makes him jump at any movement around him. This movement of being slowly cautious, but having fast reactions to movement creates suspense, while after the danger is realised, the camera shots switch to show all angles to show just how much danger the character is in.



The Lion King - Hyena Chase Scene

This chase scene similarly shows the varying camera shots, and really emphasises the character's change in emotion as the scene goes on. Being animation the character's facial expressions are highly exaggerated, but at the right times to effectively portray their emotion. The chase scene's suspense is amplified as the characters go through various obstacles in the way of their escape. I think this is very important to how a chase scene works, as this keeps the interest of the viewer by constantly adding new things for the characters to overcome.



Vertigo Opening Scene - Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was very good at showing fear in a scene, and here he introduced the "vertigo" shot where the camera zooms out to make the height look much higher, replicating the feeling of vertigo that a person feels when looking down on a great height.



Jackie Chan - First Strike Fight Scene

Jackie Chan's movies greatly consist of running away, or avoiding people, and the way he moves is extremely exaggerated. He has said before in interviews that he apparently takes influence from Charlie Chaplin and other silent movie actors, who rely on body language instead of speech to convey the story of their films.

It is interesting to see how different characters respond in different ways to fear and being chased. The way each film I have researched is shot also effects how you view the characters. By doing things such as changing the camera shots you can get a much more intense chase scene - creating suspense and fear. I want to emulate this in my animation.