🦍 faceless storytelling - the mandalorian

📼 the mandalorian theme

ape of the emerald city here. i’ve got a column so you can end your week with something that might interest you. today, let’s talk about masks and how they affect storytelling

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🎞 acting with a mask

i’m sure a lot of you would have seen some sort of sci-fi movie in the past where the main protagonist is wearing a mask or helmet. however, it is hard to tell the character’s emotions if their faces are completely covered, so filmmakers usually find ways to avoid that:

• iron man’s face is covered but robert downey jr’s expressions are shown with a black background and holograms (the inside of the helmet)

• batman has a cowl but the mouth is visible and the acting comes across through the eyes (in the comics, his eyes are covered as well)

there is, however, an exception that stands out - the mandalorian. this disney plus show has a main character who does not take off his helmet throughout the show. this shouldn’t work as well as it does, but the showrunners manage to show emotion through this character

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🚀 the mandalorian

then, how did they achieve it?

1. for one thing, they focus the story on him. we don’t take detours to explore other characters; the story follows what he does in every scene

2. close ups are effefctively used so that even if we can’t see his expressions, we can infer what he is feeling

3. this ultimately makes the audience actively engage with this character - continually asking what he is thinking, feeling, and following his journey

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🙏 closing comments

all of this is just one ape’s opinion, but I would love to hear what you think. until next week, happy trading - i’ll be back with a topic that ape-peals to you!