Shooting Styles of Directors From Different Countries

Directors of different countries have different cultures and growing backgrounds, so films made by directors from different countries always bring different feelings to the audience. This research project mainly focus on two clips from two movies, one is from In the Mood for Love which is directed by Wong Kar-wai, another is from The Terminal which is directed by Steven Spielberg. The reason why choose these two films is that both of them have scenes related to confession and the directors of these two films have their own distinctive style. Even though the content of these two clips is a confession, the two movies are so different in many ways that they are comparable. At the same time, this research project will summarize the different shooting styles displayed by the two directors when making these two films.

First of all, in terms of story content, In the Mood for Love and The Terminal are two completely different stories. Wong Kar-wai’s films about modern times always have a sense of time, and this film In the Mood for Love can be said to show this feature of his films incisively and vividly. According to Wong Kar-wai himself, he wanted to describe the living conditions and attitudes of people in Hong Kong during a certain period. Every prop, costume, and food in the shot tells the audience that this is what Hong Kong was like in the 1960s. As for the theme of the film, on the surface, it is about love in middle age. But at a deeper level, the film is a reminder of a bygone era. As for Wong Kar-wai, he believes that secrets are the theme of the film, and the way of expression in the whole film is also very suitable for this theme. Lines are rarely used to describe things in movies. The facial expressions and body movements of actors are just one of many metaphors. Props that can show the sense of the times also have the function of metaphorical suggestion. Such as necktie, embroidered shoes, cheongsam, and so on, every little detail has a hint to the plot. But it can’t be spoken out, just like the characters’ emotional entanglements. Cheongsam is probably the most frequent and special element in movies. Wong Kar Wai takes the cheongsam as a metaphorical prop, which imperceptibly conveys the information of the story and the emotional changes of the characters to the audience, and plays a role in shaping the artistic image. In a certain sense, the cheongsam is a symbol of traditional thought in the film. The female character is influenced by traditional moral thought, which makes her unable to overcome the bondage of self and morality to pursue her true love. On the other hand, The Terminal tells a plain and extraordinary story, which is adapted from real events. Steven Spielberg uses a variety of camera language, the combination of light and shadow to make a film that is completely different from his personal style. At the same time, the film through different scenes and different characters and their psychological interpretation of the theme of the movie about the true meaning of life, showing the kind and warm side of human nature.

For the part of the shooting technique, although the main story content of the two films is different, both films contain a segment dominated by a confession. And the two clips are completely different in terms of composition, type of camera shots, shooting Angle, and camera movement. For the part of the composition, In the Mood for Love used a very special composition, the important characters occupy only one-third of the picture, while the insignificant stone walls occupy a large part of the picture. By contrast, The Terminal‘s composition is very formal, it mainly focus on the main characters. Moreover, In the Mood for Love shots often use long shots to emphasize the background setting off the atmosphere and use medium shots to explain the dialogue between the characters so that the audience will focus on the expression of the characters. The Terminal mainly uses medium shots and close-ups, it allows the audience to see the changes in the characters’ expressions clearly. For example, there are many scenes where the character is in tears and the close-up of the paper can better explain the plot. In addition, In the Mood for Love is shot mainly from the side of the character. This Angle can well highlight the facial expressions of the actors and provide the audience with a very good visual Angle of the onlookers. In The Terminal, dialogue plays an important role in promoting the development of the story. Most of the shot angles are over the shoulder, which helps to show the communication between characters. Furthermore, In the Mood for Love used a lot of fixed shots and kept the foreground clear and the background blurred in the dialogue between the characters. In this way, the director makes the audience feel that although the distance between the characters is very close, there is always an invisible wall between them. However, in The Terminal, Spielberg used push in to highlight the eyes and expressions of the characters. Also, he used pull out in the kissing part at the end of the clip, which not only explained the relationship between the role and the environmental background but also made the rhythm of the whole shot more relaxed and cheerful.

In conclusion, Wong Kar-wai is good at expressing the feelings between people with some hidden details, rather than directly using words to express. For example, the sound of rain runs through the whole clip, which can express the sad emotions of the characters, and also show that their love is increasingly tragic. At the same time, the feeling of the character’s confession shown in the film is very reserved and constricting. On the other hand, The Terminal is a rare emotional drama in Spielberg’s works. He pays attention to the inner expression of the characters, advocates emotional communication and cultural collision and integration, so it can be said that he uses the simplest shooting technique to touch the hearts of the audience.

After viewing many clips, we discussed many knowledge points and contents about the long shot in class. A long shot in a movie refers to the continuous shooting of a scene for a long time to form a relatively complete shot paragraph. It can record every detail of the whole event in a relatively complete way, and maintain the continuity of drama space and time. The images presented through the long shot will make the audience feel as if they are in the scene.

For the part of the function of long shot. First of all, it can be a real record of life. A long shot can reproduce the real historical environment and create the real atmosphere of the times. It is because of this feature of a long shot that long shot is widely used in documentary films. The documentary film represented by long shot advocates the verisimilitude of the artistic image of the film and the close connection between the film and real-life and pursues the highly real audience’s watching psychology. Moreover, long shots can complete complex scene scheduling and achieve seamless conversion between pictures. People or objects in the real world are generally not static, so it is necessary to use a long shot to fully record the whole process. In addition, the long shot can make the style of the film become solemn and slow, which can make the audience calm down to watch every detail and think about it constantly. At the same time, the long shot can keep the audience’s continuous attention. Since the continuous movement of the long shot draws the audience’s eyes, a highly unified sense of participation and identity of the plot content is formed at the beginning of the film.

The opening scene of a film is a crucial part of the whole film. The functions and advantages of the long shot mentioned above make it often used by directors in the opening scenes of films. The use of long shots at the beginning of many films can catch the audience’s eye in the first place and stimulate their curiosity. At the same time, it also carries the narrative intention that the directors expect to achieve to different degrees or implies the good intentions of the directors in the atmosphere building and emotional rendering. Therefore, in addition to learning more professional knowledge about the long shot, I should also learn more about the use of long shot in various films.

In class, we not only discussed the shooting techniques of the movie but also noticed that the scene is an important part of the movie when viewing various clips. First of all, the scene is the space where the character is, the place where the story takes place. Scenes show the audience the space environment, but also can shape the character and foil the atmosphere of the story. For example, I still remember a scene from a Korean movie called Parasite. That is a poor people living in the basement, after a heavy rain, the home was flooded, and the family’s daughter sitting on the toilet scene. With just such a scene, the director can express the character’s depression and collapse at this moment, without the character’s words, actions or demeanor to convey this feeling.

On the other hand, I have observed that architectural details such as doors and windows are often used in movies to give meaning to the picture. For instance, windows can show that someone from the outside is watching what happened inside of a house. In addition, mirrors are also props I often see in some movies. Shooting scenes of people in the mirror can make the audience feel that the shooting of this scene is to convey that the mirror reflects people’s inner world or their unknown another side. Furthermore, the layout and selection of the scene are also very exquisite. Generally, we rarely see the camera shooting directly against a wall. The background of the picture is usually doors and windows, which can increase the sense of space of the scene visually. At the same time, the teacher also mentioned in class that the choice of camera focal length will make the shooting scene different. For example, the wide-angle lens can enhance the sense of space in the scene.

Overall, some symbolic scenes can deepen the theme of the story and the audience’s understanding of the characters in the play. Therefore, the choice of the scene is also an important part of film shooting.

After listening to all the students’ presentations in class, I am very interested in Leo’s research topic, and what he said in his speech was very detailed. His topic is why recent fantasy movies are so pealing to audiences. Personally, I am interested in fantasy movies, and I have seen a lot of fantasy movies, such as Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and so on. So I think I have some ideas of my own about this topic.

Leo’s speech mainly explained three reasons for the popularity of fantasy movies. One is that fantasy movies often have exciting, attractive, and suspense story plots. The second is the realistic and immersive special effects brought by modern technology. Finally, the third reason is to use the right camera position and Angle to capture a better picture of the film, so that the film is closer to the picture and effect that the audience expected.

In addition to these three reasons he mentioned in his speech, I think the reason why fantasy movies are so popular can also be analyzed from the perspective of the audience’s psychology. In my opinion, one of the important reasons why fantasy movies are popular is that most people’s daily life is dull, while the plot of fantasy movies is indeed colorful. With the help of special effects technology, the protagonists of fantasy movies can do things that are absolutely impossible for people to do in real life. Fantasy movies have their own unique world outlook. They propose new solutions to the problems and puzzles in people’s lives and let the audience get emotional catharsis in their self-generated imagination. Moreover, in recent years, female audiences have made up an increasing proportion of the film audience. Looking at the fantasy films in recent years, we can see that more and more films take female characters as the main roles, such as Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, and so on. At the same time, female characters in fantasy movies are often extremely powerful, which allows women to break through the limitations of reality and get satisfaction from female characters in movies. This expands the original audience base, which is the reason why fantasy films have a wider audience.

In general, I think this is a very interesting research topic, and I think the three reasons mentioned by Leo in his speech are indeed the main reasons for the popularity of fantasy movies. At the same time, he can also analyze the reasons for the popularity of fantasy movies from the perspective of audience psychology.

From the clips shared in class, I think that camera movement is also an important part of film shooting. Therefore, I began to find a lot of materials about camera movement to learn. There is a lot of different type of camera movement, such as pan, tilt, tracking, dolly, and so on. Correct use of the appropriate camera movements can have a psychological and emotional impact on the audience, and make the film more immersive and attractive.

First of all, the pan can be said to be the most basic camera movement, it’s very common in movies. A pan is a horizontal turn of the camera to the left or right. The pan can be used to present new visual effects as well as new information to the viewer. It usually follows the movements of the characters. In addition, the director can also use the whip pan to create a chaotic feeling in the film picture. Moreover, tilts are vertical, with the camera shooting up or down. Tilts can be used very effectively in setting up the environment and showing the characters. In fact, pan and tilts are often used in combination during film shooting. Furthermore, tracking camera movement usually follows the movement of the characters. It is suitable to show the continuity of movement, expressions, and subtle changes of the characters. Finally, dolly camera movement can be divided into two different shooting techniques: push in and pull out. Push in is a shot in which the camera moves slowly or rapidly toward the character or an object under the condition that the position of the subject remains unchanged. Such a lens can make the main parts and local details in the picture gradually magnified. Its main function is to highlight the main content and focus the audience’s visual attention on the main content. On the other hand, the motion direction of pull out is opposite to that of push in, and the scope of the scene is enlarged from small to large, so as to open the distance between the shooting object and the audience. Its main function is to show the character’s surroundings. I think if I can master the camera movement during the shooting, it will be helpful when I have the task of shooting later.

After watching a lot of clips shared in class, one of them I was interested in was a clip from the Run Lola Run. So I watched the whole movie after class. I think this film is very special, because this film can be divided into three segments, which are independent of each other, and the director uses the fantasy world of the two people after death to connect these three segments, making the story more natural. 

In addition, I think some clever elements of this film are also very special, such as prop clocks, animation references, and the use of photomontage. First of all, time is a very important element for this movie, and the clock can be a symbol of time. In the movie, the clock is a little monster, which can show the devouring of human life by time and the game mentality of pursuing visual stimulation. Moreover, the people that Lola meets during the three runs use a photo montage to reveal their lives had different endings without disturbing the pace of the film.

The main part of the film is Lola’s running. In the performance of Lola running is mostly used tracking camera movement, this can make the audience immerse themselves in the scene, in order to increase the sense of reality, the camera is more shaky and unstable. Furthermore, the sound and color processing of the film is also very special. The whole film mostly uses the fast-paced background sound, and rarely uses the realistic environment sound, which can show that the film itself is divorced from reality. And the fast rhythm of the background music can also render the atmosphere, bring a sense of freshness and excitement to the audience. The color of Lola’s hair in the film is also particularly conspicuous, and the use of this color plays a role of emphasis. Red symbolizes passion and vitality but also symbolizes crisis and insecurity, which fits the tone of the whole film. I think it’s the combination of these different elements that makes the film so special and impressive.

Exercise 3 followed Exercise 2 last time. Unlike Exercise 2, where there were many scripts to choose from, this time there were only two scripts to choose from. In class, we enjoyed the works taken by four students. Three of them chose to shoot the same content. This is a script without dialogue, and all the content is mainly presented to the audience through the actor’s body movements and facial expressions. The other student chose to shoot a script with a few short lines.

First of all, we enjoyed the work of Campbell, who chose to shoot the script with lines. I love the part of the phone ringing and the character checking it. Because if I was shooting this part, I would have chosen to shoot the close-up of the phone. But his pictures are not just about mobile phones. It also allows viewers to see exactly what the character is doing after he hears cell phones ring. Furthermore, in the part where the character speaks, I think the proportion between the character and the background in the picture is well controlled.

For the works of the same script shot by the other three students. I think the main problem for Lilli’s work is that the shooting time is at night, so the picture is dim, and the facial expressions of the characters can not be well captured. Moreover, in the part where she sat down to read the letter, I think a close-up of the face or the content of the letter would make the video more complete. In contrast, in Jeremy’s and Jennifer’s work, they both took close-up shots of the characters’ expressions as they read the letter, which made their works look more detailed. In addition, what impresses me most is that in Jeremy’s work, when the character is looking around, the scene shot by the camera will make the audience feel like they are the character himself. This kind of shooting technique makes me feel very special and novel. After enjoying the works of Exercise 3, I think I also learn a lot from other people’s works.

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