The last scene in this episode, which was the Kageyama setter dump, made great use of foreground framing to put focus on the character on screen and to also create continuity. The characters on play were used for foreground framing; by doing this the viewers become aware of the other parts of the play developing despite not being the focus of the shot. This viewer awareness was essential in creating a sense of continuity, which was very important for the misdirection the scene was going for.
The first image (top-left) is the beginning of the play, with Hinata acting as the first decoy. Kageyama is also on screen, this helps with the continuity in the next shot (top-right) where his body is used for foreground framing. The focus of this shot is the Aoba player witnessing the play develop, which is in the third shot (bottom-left). In this shot Tanaka is the second decoy, again Kageyama is being used to frame the shot for continuity purposes. The fourth image continues Tanaka’s action.
This sequence is the next phase of the play where Asahi acts as the spiker. The first image (top-left) continues to reinforce continuity with Hinata in the foreground still acting as the first decoy. In the next shot (top-right), Hinata is used to frame and put focus on Asahi as he’s about to spike. This of course never happened as we see in the next image (bottom left) where Kageyama executes the setter dump. In the following shot (bottom-right), Kageyama is again used for foreground framing (continuity!) to highlight the shock on the opponent’s face.
The storyboarding also helped a lot with creating continuity, specifically the good use of eyeline matches.
Whip pans can be visually off-putting when used inappropriately due to the abrupt movement and distortion of image. When used well, whip pan is a good way to do dynamic transitions especially in action oriented scenes and that’s what this episode of Haikyuu does.
In this sequence two different actions in different places are cut together. By using whip pan to imitate the volleyball’s movement it makes a seamless transition from one action to another, which gives an impression of one cohesive action. This also helps the narrative as it connects two groups of people going through a similar experience of being overmatched but yet still staying resilient.
In this scene, the use of whip pan was more straightforward but nonetheless very effective at showing teamwork. Hinata acts as a decoy, then a whip pan to Daichi as the spiker.
The video below was the beautifully done montage. I really like how it uses the shape of the volleyball to frame the sequence, which puts an emphasis on how much the sport can mean to people. Also, the narrow and round field of vision helps puts more focus on the pain of defeat expressed in their faces and body language.
Another thing worth of note is the use of extreme close up on Hinata’s eye with the reflection of his defeated opponent. A moving image but also a subtle way to show Hinata’s empathy since he had a similar experience.
