Shot-by-shot Analysis Life of Pi, a 2012 American 3D adventure drama film that composed of live -action and computer-animated adventure based on Yann Martel's novel. This film is directed by Ang Lee, a movie that tells a story within another story based on one simple truth. In the movie, the narrator pi, who was the only survived young man from the sinking Japanese ship caused by the storm. He made to the lifeboat, yet, he was alone in the center of pacific ocean without any supplies but with a tiger called Richard Parker. However, the theme of this film is not just this exciting adventure but is the implicit conflict between Pi and the tiger; Pi’s rationality of believing in God to the animality aspect of his personality, the animalistic side of human nature that he struggled with. Every scenes have highlighted this meaning of how they survived as a whole. However, I found the sequence of when the main character Pi has his emotional changes from fear tiger to kill tiger to the end of living with the tiger is interesting and it reveals the overall meaning of the theme of the film as well. In this particular sequence, the camera has used long shots repeatedly and frequently to align the audience with the filmed characters and with their feelings. The long shot in the looser framing and the wider angle of vision create sense of negativity between Pi the powerful and isolating environment of the ocean. In a image of this sequence, long shot of Pi catching fishes with his tools while sitting on his patching together a raft that tied together with his lifeboat by a mooring rope. Here, the long shot makes Pi small in comparison to the physical landscape of vast ocean. The discrepancy in size emphasize both Pi and the tiger are alien and isolated, but perhaps that is a good way of representing their feeling of hope and fear about floating in the center of

pacific ocean alone. This long shot also shows us a mooring rope that tied Pi’s lifeboat together with the boat has tiger. This indicates two things, one is Pi is really afraid of tiger, the second indicates two side of Pi’s personality, which are the animality and rationality have to bond together to survive. The deep focus lenses here allows for greater depth of the ocean so that we can see the foreground of white canvas cover from the the front part of boat and the background of Pi wears the white sea anchor. Here, the costume of white fabric is used intentionally to creates the similarities between the tiger and Pi, and suggests that they are both rely upon each other. Additionally, the long shot gives the huge empty space that used for semantic emphasis to shows imbalance between a small figure of Pi, a small part of boat with the tiger and the huge empty ocean behind them, which also indicates both his and tiger’s sense of alienation. The two were in the same frame, connected with each other in the same situation as a whole. The rope on previous scene leads us to the next shot, which gives a medium close-up to depicts that the tiger sat straight at the other side of the boat. Tiger now centered in the loose frame, means that he was equally important and valuable compared to Pi. Yet, he was located at slightly lower half of the frame implies he is evil animality side of Pi. In the next image, the filmmaker switches medium close-up shot to the long shot, which puts both Pi and the tiger within the same loose open frame and includes more of the landscape of the vast sea and the boundless sky. Here, the long shot captures the sense that the natural environment is more powerful than Pi and the tiger. However, their parallel position makes them a equal size suggests they are isolated from the civilized world, but they are in this life and death situation together as a whole.

In the following image, the crosscutting, which is the transitional cutting from the tiger to Pi has been used. In this particular scene, the tiger’s eager desire of eating the fishes in the sea leads his action of swimming toward Pi. The shot cuts back and forth between the tiger and Pi to give us a tension of approaching danger. The filmmaker gives close-up makes Pi seems in charge, but a contrasting long shot of him standing on the lifeboat suggest he is not. Soon, the wide long shot of the landscape of the sea at night foreshadows how isolating and powerful sea will cause Pi to save the tiger, which is the animality aspect of his personality eventually. Suddenly, the filmmaker filmed down the tiger and gives him a high-angle shot intentionally to makes him smaller, also indicates the tiger was at the edge of dying, his immoral animality personality is dying as well. Sure enough, the camera again gives a long shot of Pi putting the ladder to save the tiger, this techniques emphasizes the commonality between the tiger and Pi by locating them in complementary position. Therefore, it also emphasize the growing emotional relationship between the two and how they survive as whole. In conclusion, many films have their own way of constructing images, and their own special way of telling narratives. Yet, all the films have their explicit motifs and implicit metaphor meanings. When people saw this film at first time, they will see partial explicit meanings of how Pi was placed in life or death situation which test with his faith and morality. However, they will understand how characters were used as implicit metaphors to communicate true meanings if they saw it few times. The sequence of when the main character Pi has his emotional changes from fear tiger to kill tiger to the end of living with the tiger is enlightening and it reveals the overall theme of conflict between Pi and the tiger and how they survived as a whole in this harsh environment.