Geometry in Movie Making

In movies we can find geometrical figures such us, squares, circles, triangles ... The most basic forms we teach babies are also one of the favorite tools of filmmakers to manipulate our emotions when we look at the big screen. This is especially easy to see in animated films.

The human brain extracts abstract concepts from forms and sounds even if they are not there. It is such a settled behavior that it has even a scientific name: the Bouba-Kiki effect.

This video of Now You See It makes a review for the use of that same effect in the cinema, especially in the animation. Angular forms, for example, are used to define villains even though they are not yet presented as such. The friendly characters, however, are always combinations of rounded shapes. Disney's classic child character, Mickey Mouse, can be reduced to three circles.

The squares, on the other hand, represent stable forms, sometimes boring or stubborn, but also strong. Great characters like the protagonist of Up or Ira, from Inside Out respond to this description. These forms are used even outside the children's cinema, although in a much more subtle way.

See you soon!