Miyazaki study

spend time on arbitrary actions, ones that characters don't have to think about, and it describes for us the characters personality. putting on shoes, eating, sitting down to work. Are they careful and precise, forceful and impatient, etc...

character short comings are a requisite for identifying with the characters. Have to have flaws to feel real. no binary, everyone has positive and negative, brutality and tenderness

story is not about the protaganist winning, it's about them adapting to the world as it is

Miyazaki's characters begin flawed and end flawed but their experiences have helped blossom their outlook. Miyazaki gives a sense of liberation to his characters, and so to us. We see people in a suffocating society who achieve self reliance not through a tangible achievement, but an emotional one.

don't depict fate, depict will. The goal is where you want the char to end on an emotional level

scenes are planned out individually, not as story threads, but as a method conveying emotion. Draw settings that evoke feelings not concerned about plot, emotion is the key, important to instill this in the audience before anything else.

His films create atmosphere so well because the imagery takes precedence, continually altering during preproduction with the objective to make us feel something. The impression of a landscape is dependent on the person viewing the landscape, by displaying the world through the emotional perspective of character, the world reflects this emotion back. Human sensibilities are often connected to the weather. Miyazaki's feel bigger and calmer because the mood of the character is recreated through the world

Pacing is used to heighten the response of the audience. Having big octane moments needs quiet moments to let it sink in. A quiet moment lets the character, and the audience reflect on the characters situation and project the audiences feeling onto the character. Time slowly passing lets us relate with the characters, just living through the same moment with them.

Not understanding something makes it more interesting, if you understand you can empathize, so fantasy stuff is mysterious and humans are empathetic.

Sometimes it's fine not to offer explanations, having a reason doesn't necessarily clarify anything.