on Reflection 1:
https://www.mediafactory.org.au/qingxinzheng/2020/03/20/the-scene-in-the-cinema-refection-1/
Reflection 2:
https://www.mediafactory.org.au/qingxinzheng/2020/03/20/the-scene-in-cinema-refection-2/
Reflection 3:
https://www.mediafactory.org.au/qingxinzheng/2020/03/20/the-scene-in-cinema-refection-3/
Scene analysis:
https://www.mediafactory.org.au/qingxinzheng/2020/03/20/the-scene-in-cin…for-assignment-1/
on The scene I choose to analyze is from The Man Standing Next which is directed by Woo Min-ho released on January 22, 2020.
Political thriller and social conspiracy are the subject matter for South Korean filmmakers.The Man Standing Next is a movie according from assassination of President park chung-hee.
What I think of the theme of the movie is “cage”, if u watch the whole movie you will find out that a lot of scenes is a rectangle of mirrors, doorframes, corridors and stone columns which represents the cage of fate. The actors’ position in the scene shows the relationship between cage and the characters. For example, the scene I want to talk about is Kim Gyu-pyeong and Park Yong-gakhaving a conversation in a park. They start their conversation from the bench of the park, and they walk from ground to the monument. At the shot of the monument, they stand in front of the Lincoln’s statue at the middle. And also, the magnificent Lincoln’s statue is at the middle of the shot which shows democracy bubble in a cage.
At the beginning of the scene, it is a wide shot of Kim Gyu-pyeong sitting on the bench and Park Yong-gak walks into the scene and sits on the bench. It also shows greatest depth of filed with the background of people playing around. At the moment Park Yong-gak sits down he comes out with his first dialogue “freedom” representing what they look and also the situation different from Korean and America. Then it cuts to the front of the characters and zoom in to the characters when they start their conversation about Korean revolution. Cuts in some simple jump cut between two characters. After that, without showing their movement, it cuts to show their foot on the stairs. And then goes to the shot that I mentioned, the Lincoln’s statue. The camera tilts up follows their movement that they walks the on the stairs.
This scene is the quietest scene of this movie. Only the conversation which need audience to focus on the characters’ dialogue. We only get the information of the scene is from the dialogue and also from their words the environment and set up brings us the idea of what is going on and what the situation was at that time in South Korea.
It is the outdoor scene, so the light source is the nature light. The color grade is nature shows the sense of the times. The lighting at the shot in front of the Lincoln’s statue, comes dark which shows the situation that Korea maybe under something.
To sum up, this simple scene use the camera language shows the conflict between two characters and also delivery some information about the political situation of South Korean at that time.
on Reflection 3
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, RMIT cancel the class this week. I read what I received three parts series of cinematography notes from canvas.
So, goes back to the question that we have talked about is “what director does”, from the notes, I found out the one very important thing is director decide about the camera coverage of a scene.
In the notes, I watched “A Clockwork Orange” and Anderson’s “O Lucky Man”. In “A Clockwork Orange”, director Stanley Kubrick use a wide shot to shows the scale of the prison with wide-angle lens. It takes quite a long time to follow the officials walks to cell 23. And it ends at the position that they are closest to the camera. The director of “O Lucky Man” Anderson uses more close-up of the objects and long takes to get the audience focus on what he tries to bring to us.
The scene in Gossip Girl and A Flame Within makes me think about the shooting of people’s conversation. So what I have learnt is 180 degree rules. The 180 degree rules is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another. When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle.
So the scene of Gossip Girl followed this rules but A Flame Within did not. But in fact, I prefer A Flame Within which more shows the conflict between characters. It was complex but I like it.
To sum up, the scenes about conversation happens between the characters could be more consider about the frame and angle. For me, I would like to try continuing shots like zoom in when they are having a conversation for example the scene in The Man Standing Next. and cut between them while they talk to each other. I probably do some practice at home with my roommates.
on Reflection 2
In week 2, we talked about the camera department mainly focusing on the focus puller. And also introduce other crew roles like director and director assistant. This class also discussed about the blocking continuing on from last week’s reading. We tried to block a scene in class as well.
During the class, I was asked to place marks and Robin showed me a good way to place clear marks for actors to sit or stand at a right position which is suitable for prop. I got further understanding how important the block is. In this practice, I found out the prepare work the focus puller should do is to mark the different focus points. So in the actual shooting, focus pullers are able to do the focus without monitor or viewfinder which looks hard for me to do because that need to match actors’ movement and also the speed of their movement. That also improve that blocking is essential before shooting, if the camera operator did the rehearsal with actors. They have chance to communicate with each other about the movement which calls cooperation.
What a director does? Seems like a simple question, but it came out that I only think about as a leader. And then I think of that question, director is the most important part in a role crew of film, as I said, director is a leader who communicate with the other crew members and also he is the only to direct the actor. When I was in advanced diploma, we had a class which is about how to direct, there was a part is，how to communicate with your actors well. This is an accomplish study including the art of language. The first assistant director is responsible to the director, this person begins work during pre-production. He serves the needs of the director.
In general, everyone plays an important part in crew roles for a film. And the most important in my opinion, is helpful and effective communication and cooperation.
This week, I read Decoupage, or cinematic segmentation from filmmaker Luis Bunuelwhich is a step by step map used by filmmaker to produce a film. As Luis wrote: ’A film=. A series of shots, A shot = A series of images.’ What I understand to this article is the process in planning the images give the information and emotions of the screenplay. The point is how to connect a series of images which could be said a shot and we connect these shots to represents things that creates a film. Decoupage is quite a difficult theme I need more time to understand. What I think so far is decoupage refers to the editing process which means to cut up. It is an essential part of filmmaking. It’s a big challenge for filmmaker especially cinematographer.
on Reflection 1
I was so glad that got this opportunity to come to this studio. I came from advanced diploma of screen and media where I learnt a lot of technical operation about camera and the progress of making a film. I come to bachelor for furthering my cinematography knowledge.
For our first practice, we were given a script to convey in a single shot (use pan/tilt only) This exercise really made me deep in thought. I was always in conventional thinking like drawing a story board according to how I will edit it. So there was a lot if jump cut in my early short films. I think continuing shot is a part that I lack of. This class gave me more information of continuing shots. Robin also showed us some good example.
It took me a while to get familiar with the cameras, but it was interesting that Robin did not give us any information first instead of us to work with camera and get to know how it works.
The second class on Thursday we talked about the depth of filed. To be honest, it was quick hard for me to translate the technician words of film making from Chinese to English. Luckily, I had some experience with depth of filed when I was in advanced diploma and also it was clearer to understand the work after we did some practice. I reviewed what our group had done in google drive. That was actually pretty good job to show how depth of filed works in scene.
What I learnt from this is not only the skills but also the depth of filed can show what the directors and cinematographers want to let the audience focus on. In my opinion, if the background is blur, audience only pay attention on the characters. On the opposite, the greatest depth field, there probably something happens in the background.
We read The Big Picture: filmmaking lessons from a life on the set (Reilly, 2009), specifically chapter 4 (What is a shot, anyway?) and chapter 23 (Blocking is overlooked and undervalued) this week.
From my point of view,Blocking is overlooked and undervalued is about before actual shooting，actors should do the rehearsal to know where he suppose to stand or sit. And also the camera man get to know actors’ movement so he can find their position for the scene. Blocking is one of the parts of preparation which could be useful before shooting, helping the director, the DOP and the actors to progress the work. And it may come different ideas how they block the scenes.
What is a shot, anyway? is about defining a shot. ‘a “shot” is what is filmed in a single camera setup.A shot is merely what is photographed in between the words actionand cut‘by Tom Reilly.
Many directors, including Woody, don’t know how they will cover a scene until the day of shooting. I understand that because it is quite hard to translate the ideas into the shot with scene and angle. Directors and cinematographers will do some adjust with the scene on the shooting day.