Following on from last week’s focus on the still image, this week we looked at the link between motion and the frame in film. We looked at Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood For Love, delving specifically into the way in which the film demonstrates and captures motion. Kar-Wai so beautifully frames this film; the entire film the camera is in a continuous state of motion, making for a very smooth, trance-like viewing experience.

He creates this very engaging effect (which I can only compare to a kaleidoscope) through the use of colour in tandem with movement which is not only unique in style, but also very different from any film I think I’ve ever seen. Watching the warm reds and blues flicker across the screen as the camera slowly panned was a delightful experience. Whilst I don’t think storyline made for Oscar award winning film, the continuous presence of the warm colours and elegant music made the entire film feel like a moment in time, a sort of slow jam if you will.

Dan talked briefly about the “invisibility of style”, and the idea of breaking rules that classic Hollywood has set as a precedent and template for all films, and the fact that this film basically breaks all the filming rules set, which to me was suuuuuuper inspiring. I find myself fascinated by experimentalism, and the ways in which filmmakers push the boundaries to create content that can be analysed aesthetically and artistically.

I find that too often, modern filmmaking revolves to centrally around simply trying to tell the audience directly what is occurring on screen, rather than letting the audience digest and defragment it themselves. Not only does this make the viewership of the film way more intimate, it also makes it more rewarding, being able to make one’s own meaning entirely through relating their experiences with their thoughts, which is what all good art makes me do for the most part.

In this sense, Kar-Wai truly captures the idea of filmmaking as an artform, and sets a gauntlet down to film lovers and film makers to push their own creativity and think alternatively to what everyone else is thinking. It’s this type of thinking that inspires me, and makes me excited about filmmaking in the sense that it’s okay to experiment and even fail, for it is the furthering of one’s craft that doing so develops.