Presto – A Pixar short film. Semiotic Analysis
The film company Pixar created a short carton film entitled Presto which is about a magician and his rabbit that are performing on stage in front of a huge audience and everything goes wrong because the rabbit wants a carrot, even though everything goes wrong the audience love it.
As Stuart Hall (1980) suggests the audience have been positioned to get a preferred reading of how they want the audience to understand the video, this reading can depend on a person’s social background and beliefs.
Mise-en-scene is used to help create verisimilitude of the diegetic world in which this short film is set in. The film is set in the magicians dressing room and then on a stage in a huge theatre. Costumes and props have been used to create this world. As this is a cartoon the characters have been carefully thought about and designed to fit the stereotypical magician, as he has a suit on, a top hat and a curly moustache, he also has a stereotypical cartoon rabbit as his pet. The rabbit has large teeth and wants a carrot, which are associated with rabbits a lot of the time. The dressing room is stereotypical as it has a star on the door when the magician flies in the room; it also has lights around the mirror. The magician opens the box in with a top hat in and a wizards hat, magicians generally use hats for there tricks, he also uses handkerchiefs. The gestures that he uses are like ones you would see a real life magician use such as a ‘Walla’ gestures. After the show they show the presents they have been bought, which happens in real life shows.
Even though the short film is a cartoon and hasn’t used a camera to film it, it has been created in a certain way to give the audience a preferred reading from the film. They used a zoom out at the start because it looks like the title screen and then when it zooms out it is actually the poster for the show that they are going to perform. It has a medium close up of the rabbit trying to get the carrot off the table when it is locked in the cage, but at first the audience only see the carrot and then it uses a whip pan to show us the rabbit. Lots of medium close ups are used during the film; when the magician bursts through the door, lots when he is performing on stage. There is a long shot of his dressing room and then a close up of the box with the two hats in; this is because they are a main feature of the show he does so the audience need to see them clearly. When the magician firsts goes on stage there is an establishing shot of the theatre they are in, this helps the audience to understand that he is supposed to be a really famous magician as lots of people have gone to see him. Throughout the film they use lots of crowd shots to show the audience at his show. Whilst the rabbit and the magician are looking at each other angrily they have used over the shoulder shots so that the audience know that they are looking at each other. When the audience need to see what the magician is doing with his legs they have used long shots. High angled shots have been used to show him on stage above the musicians, this makes him look important and shows him as the main focus of the film. A lot of close ups have been used to show the emotion on the rabbits face as he isn’t very happy because he didn’t get his carrot before the show.
Editing has been used to create a variety of effects. Continuity editing has been used throughout the film, simple cuts links the shots together. Eye line matches have been used to show the magician looking at the rabbit whilst he is on stage and the rabbit is misbehaving. There is also shot reverse shot sequences of the look on the magicians face to the look on the rabbits face. Insert shots have been used to show important things such as; the rope breaking while he is tied to it and when the piano falls.
In the film no voices have been used. Diegetic sounds are used on it things like; the audience clapping, door opening, the rabbits rumbling stomach, the magician chewing his dinner, the clock ticking and the magician screaming, when he gets closer to the ‘camera’ it gets louder to make it sound realistic. Non-diegetic music is used and it changes depending on the narrative. When there is high tension in the narrative suspension music is used.
Throughout the film there are lots of stereotypical representations of magicians and rabbits are used, this is because the film is aimed at a young audience and it will help them to understand the narrative more.
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