© Disney, All Rights Reserved, Disney Entertainment
The growing contrast over time between t he different camera languages.Riley’s outside world is viewed in a somewhat similar way with steadicam shots. However, more randomized were used to illustrate her coming of age and freedom. Overall, the two camera languages for Act I appear in sync and fairly unified, with little difference visual between Riley’s inside and outside worlds.
Act II
Soon Riley’s troubles at home and school begin to leave her apathetic and depressed. She starts to withdraw from her parents, and her emotions become “clamped down and unstable,” according to Lin. In response, the outside world camera becomes devoid of spatial movement, locked to the tripod and limited to pan and tilts. It’s at this point, Lin explains, the first use of the imperfect focus pull occurs during the hockey tryout. “Like the camera,” he states, “Riley has become unfocused in her hockey practice.”
As the narrative moves into Act II, the contrast between the two camera language begins to widen. As Joy and Sadness get increasingly lost within the maze-like world of Riley’s mind, their camera becomes much more agile, moving through space with quicker pans and tilts.
Act III
By Act III the two languages have completely swapped. Joy’s fall into the Memory Dump with Bing Bong along with Riley running away from home are the most emotionally intense moments in the film. Sweeping mechanical movements follow Joy as she continues her journey back to the Control Center while a more chaotic handheld camera follows Riley as she boards the bus bound for Minnesota.
Lin explains the motivation behind the switch: “Riley’s running away, and she doesn’t feel like she’s being supported by her family, so we went with a handheld” camera to reinforce this feeling.
Finally, the story’s resolution ends with the return of Joy and Sadness and the reconciliation of Riley and her parents. Both families have united with stability and balance returning to both worlds. The resolution is signified visually through the mixing of the two camera languages: the scene begins with a steadicam shot (i.e. outside world) and transitions into a crane shot (i.e. inside world) that smoothly lifts away from the action.
Lin explains that prior to this scene the two styles had never mixed and that the scene’s purpose was to “symbolize the harmony of the inside and outside world.”

An abundance of vertical lines compose this image during one of Riley’s most emotionally intense moments. TM & © Disney, All Rights Reserved, Disney Entertainment.
Scale progression
Scale progression involves expressing the size of the world from a character’s perspective. Again, the difference in size of the inside and outside worlds alternates as the story progresses. To affect the perceived scale of the different spaces, Lin and his team used composition, framing and strong horizontal and vertical lines to create a sense of openness and enclosure respectively.

Strong horizontal lines from the fence and pond create a sense of openness in this happy family scene.
At the start of the film, Riley is shown growing up in Minnesota. Her world is big, wide and open. Strong horizontal lines frame these scenes as long shots show her surrounded by lots of space. However, after moving to San Francisco, her more urban world gets smaller and more enclosed with strong vertical lines consistently framing her. As the emotional intensity of the scenes increases, this vertical framing strategy also increases, squeezing her into tighter compartments until the climatic scene on the bus when she is completely alone.In direct contrast, Joy’s world begins in the small, confined space of the Control Center. It’s only after she and Sadness are sucked out of HQ, that the inner world becomes an incredibly large, open space. Similar to the outside world, Joy’s world continues to expand larger until the story’s climactic moment when she falls into the fathomless Memory Dump. According to Lin, this moment contains the film’s widest shot.
Conclusion
The Inside Out example shows how to create a specific theme for your project and then adjust your cinematography to reflect that theme. In this case, Pixar used strong contrasts to help identify the different worlds and to help support and reflect the emotional intensity of the characters. To do this effectively, it’s helpful to know what specific physical camera elements “say” about a characters emotional state. For example, horizontal lines can communicate a physical and mental “openness” while verticle lines can help suggest that a character feels enclosed, small or trapped. These examples, of course, represent only one element (i.e. cinematography) of a total project. When used in conjunction with set design, color schemes, blocking, sound, and others, the overall effect is amplified.