Decision to Leave Cinematography Study

I can’t get the movie Decision to Leave (directed by Park Chan-wook who also directed Oldboy) out of my head. I was curious about what exactly made it so compelling. The story, acting, characters, setting and themes were all amazing of course, but the cinematography was the thing that stuck out to me. So here’s the first part of a little study I did that was inspired by scenes from the movie.

I am learning that, while animation is still important, you can get a lot of bang for your buck just by having some neat camera work! It’s really interesting what kind of story can be told with just 15% animation, and 85% camera movement and composition.

Part 1

I placed myself and my overly dramatic chiweenie Omar into this spot. He always gives the biggest, saddest stare when we leave the house for a bit, so I decided to use that as inspiration for this spot.

I started by sketching the characters in Photoshop. Then I traced them and made them into vectors in Illustrator, and finally, rigged and textured these characters using Joysticks n Sliders inside After Effects. Then for a little extra spice, I recorded a few sound effects at home and placed them along the timeline using Premiere.

I used Joysticks n Sliders to rig both characters

Actual scene from Decision to Leave that I referenced

Part 2

That moment when you catch your potty-training dog in the act…

Part 2 of my Decision to Leave cinematography study. The idea of thinking you’re being sneaky by secretly watching someone, only to find them noticing you watching them, is captured well in this scene from Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave.

I took a try at changing the narrative from star-crossed lovers to using my real-life experience training my rescue dog to not potty inside.

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A total aside: We first adopted Omar from Last Hope Inc. when he was about 3 years old. Despite his age, we had a few accidents while he was adjusting to his new home. We worked through it with love and patience.

If given the choice, I would adopt a rescue dog again 10/10 times.