A1 – Descriptive & Analytical Writing

Film:One second

link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HUFWM9h8BY

IMDB link:https://www.IMDB.com/title/tt8959680/

This clip is chosen from the film One second. The film is director by Yimou Zhang, he is one of the famous Chinese directors in the world.

The whole story is around stealing and returning a roll of film. The story happens in a  village which they can only watch the film once a month.

This clip I have chosen is from 00:21:17 in the film. What happened here is that the film projectionist has received the lost roll of film return by the man(the girl steals the film at the start of the film).

The dialogue mainly happens between the film projectionist and the man. This clip involves 4 cameras. The camera positions are showing on the screenshot. From the screenshot, we are able to discover the 180-degree line is able to be drawn by the film projectionist and the man. The director has chosen to place 3 cameras on the left side of the 180-degree line.

Camera B is a camera with a smaller focal length creating a wide shot, the purpose of this shot is to give out the information of the environment. By creating this look the camera needs to be in the middle of 2 parts. So that it can cover all the characters in the frame.

Camera A is a mid-shot involve the man and the girl. This shot has shown the reaction of both characters. The focal length is around 50mm to 85mm. This range of focal length is great for the filming human character. By following the 180-degree rules, the camera is position on the left side and it has chosen to be the middle of two characters.

Camera C starts with a long shot then it becomes a mid-shot during the conversation. The focal length is around 75 to 85mm discover by the compression of the lens. This position also involves the pan and till of the camera when the film projectionist has reviewed the role of the film.

Camera D is a close-up shot with a focus length larger than 85mm, the purpose of this shot is to show some detail of the film. The camera D position has across the 180-degree line. But the audience isn’t feeling any chaos. Because the last shot has present that the projectionist is holding the film. Those information has linked the shots together while it breaking the rules. The backlight coming from the window also breaks out the film from the frame.

Overall, the camera position is chosen carefully by the director and it works very well in the clip.

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