Redundancy and Entropy in Film.

Lets face it, becoming a animator isn't the easiest thing in the world to achieve. As animators we need to understand narrative and the way it's executed. There will be plenty of times where we ourselves will have to tell a story for whatever it might be for. Without an understanding of how to construct and create an successful story line, your audience isn't going to be interested. Therefore the 100's of hours you have invested in animating your film or game will be useless.

During my younger years after watching my first digitally animated movie 'Toy Story' I was amazed by how it was done. Being so young I didn't really think about why the story had a positive impact on me or what made it work, the only thing I could think of was 'I want to be doing this one day' and 'Where is the closest disney store'. The reality is if you don't have a story, then you have nothing to animate. The visuals of a film can surely be very impressive and give the 'wow' factor, but If the narrative doesn't keep the audience on their toes and wanting to see more, then the film isn't doing it's job.

The film 'Kick Ass' displays an very good example of entropy during the opening scene. The main character Dave lizewski dresses up as a super hero and tries to fight crime on the streets for the first time. When he approaches two thugs trying to steal a car, he ends up getting stabbed in the stomach and run over by a passing car. This it totally unexpected by the audience because this isn't a common scenario that we are used to seeing during films. Especially because of the fact that he is the main character and the film had only just begun. I was personally in shock at what i was seeing and thought it had to be during some kind of dream state, but this leads to his body having to be reconstructed with metal plates and sets up the character for the rest of the film. This is a very realistic approach to what would actually happen and 'Kick Ass' consists of  well used entropy moments throughout the film that worked very well in keeping me interested.

'Kick Ass' also has a nice balance of redundancy. It has everything that you would expect  from a superhero type of film. The superhero gets the girl, saves the lives of citizens, defeats the villain and everyone lives happy ever after. Although the audience knows this will more than likely happen, the right amount of balance between entropy and redundancy makes the film work and a enjoyable watching experience.