Environmental Storytelling - The Pride of Strathmoor Analysis.

The Pride of Strathmoor from Einar Baldvin on Vimeo.

The Pride of Strathmoor is a highly emotional and captivating animation by Einar Baldvin.

In relation to Environmental Storytelling, The Pride of Strathmoor is highly successful in setting a dark atmosphere and tone to the whole animation, complementing its narrative.

The backgrounds are minimal in design but are very powerful in the effect they bring to the animation, the black contrasting with the white to create a dramatic feel. The paper also has an old parchment style look, which dates the animation, quite topical considering the animation's narrative is one based on something that happened in history. But the paper isn't just stained to create this old feel, it is stained in a blotchy manner, rather like the way the ink is applied, this complements the whole sketchy aesthetic of the animation with the frames changing slightly in each frame creating this sketchy, jumpy, waver, which is very chilling and sinister.

The compositions of the environment settings also remain very central throughout the animation, not really sticking to the rule of thirds in film. Thirds is something our eyes have got used to, seeing something central all the time makes us feel uncomfortable, which I feel adds to the uncomfortable feeling to the whole narrative; The fly in the ear, the characters, the use of uncomfortable offensive words etc.

Also the fact the foregrounds are minimal in nature also brings across this feeling of desolation. This resonates heavily with the feelings I had within the quarry, along with the chills that the backgrounds of The Pride of Strathmoor bring.