Reflection

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/xinyuwu/2021/05/27/assignment4-reflection-wk7/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/xinyuwu/2021/05/27/assignment4-reflection-wk8/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/xinyuwu/2021/05/27/assignment4-reflection-for-wk9s-presentation/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/xinyuwu/2021/05/27/assignment4-reflection-wk10/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/xinyuwu/2021/05/27/assignment4-reflection-wk11/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/xinyuwu/2021/05/27/assignment4-reflection-wk12/

Research Project for Wong Kar-Wai

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/xinyuwu/2021/05/27/assignment4-research-project/

What did Chungking Express use to shaped the style of Wong Kar-Wai.

In this era of rapid development of information technology, overwhelming commercial blockbusters are constantly sweeping the mindset of the audience on the huge screen, keep giving visual impact on them.. It is difficult for many people to appreciate and enjoy an old movie that does not have too many ups and downs, no major events, no violent plot conflicts but only lights and shadows for emotions, this is Wong Kar Wai’s movie. Wong Kar-wai has established himself as one of the authoritative figures in the contemporary film industry with his lush sensual visual effects, a perfect soundtrack and affectionate romanticism. He wrote and directed films that attracted worldwide audiences and critics, with poetic emotions and music, narrative and style, inspired countless other filmmakers’ bold and powerful theme  and memory. Compared with other Chinese directors, he doesn’t care much about grand narratives. He only cares about the emotions of lonely individuals in urban life. He likes the killer on the edge of the city, the lover who wanders in a foreign country, and the people who couldn’t love it in the 1960s. Chungking Express, one of the most distinctive films of Wong Kar-Wai, a low budget movie which takes a month to complete the shooting received high praise from both local and international.  

In Chungking Express, there is a unique way to promotes the story and shows the characters, the storyline becomes less important, instead of enriching and expressing the characters through the plot, the director mainly promotes the development of film plot and expresses the emotional changes in the character’s heart through several elements such as props, vision and music. Time and memory are the everlasting theme in Wong’s movie. Observing the distinctive personal style of Wong Kar Wai’s movies, the memory and flow of time are broken and free, traversing countless ambiguous clips. The two stories in Chungking Express illustrates dramatically opposite expression of time. For the first stories, He Qiwu as well as Cop 223 emphasizes the concept of time, he keeps stressing that canned food will expire soon, the expiration date on the can implied 223’s girlfriend, in addition, the director constantly interspersed frames of the beating electronic clock, the repeated concept of time highlights the fear of being abandoned.  

223 wants to find someone else to fill the blank in his heart, however, for the second story, the cop 663 is a faithful person who cannot get out from the broken relationship easily, there are few intuitive expressions of time in his storyline, the same work suits, work content and the similar emotions that he repeats everyday blurred the sense of time flow, the audience can only observe the passage of time from the change of other character. 

The reason that Chungking Express branded and labelled in the style of Wong Kar-wai, his cinematographer Christopher Doyle’s contribution can never be ignored. He is good at using slow shutter speed, which leads to individual frames that are more blurred than usual. For the movement of camera, plenty of hand-held shooting keep the screen in a state of drastic shaking, especially in some dynamic scene, the camera following character tightly, established an unsecured and terrified keynote of character’s mindset. The same imaging technology has different effects, matching the different mentalities of the two protagonists. For 223’s part, while he is chasing the criminal, the characters are moving quickly, the background is blurred, and the visual effect of shaking the characters’ shadow creates a sense of urban loss. For 663’s part, when he was drinking at Faye’s fast-food store, the character moves slowly, wants to stop time, the background is blurred, and the character is immersed in the passage of time.  

Moreover, the indeterminacy of camera movement does not completely maintain the same frequency as the subject gives a sense of peeper., which often approaching the character autonomously in abrupt movements, forming an impactful visual effect. For the setting of lights and shadow, Christopher consciously looked for scenes rich in light and shadow changes, such as bars with flashing lights and shadows, streets with neon flashings, and dim and obscure residences.  

Different light presents different tonal environments. The characters performing in this space are also given different emotions. He intentionally placed the characters in various colors, flashing, and having In an environment with strong light movement, an uneasy and blurred atmosphere floating like debris can be created. 

In the second half of the film, the confused abstract part of Wong Kar-wai’s usual photography is replaced by unique and human-aspired themes. The song ‘California Dreaming’ for instance, serves as a music pass in the chaotic film. The symbolism of the song is two-fold. On the one hand, California, a place radically different from Hong Kong, highlights the characters’ desire for escape and reinvent. Secondly, the latter half of the song’s title reflects the film’s tendency to occasionally take on a surreal quality, blurring the line between the real and the imagined until they merge into one..(Cho. I , 2020). For the final couple of scenes, the girl returned from America after fulfilled her ‘California dream’, they finally get together, while 663 was asking her about California, California becomes insignificant anymore.. 

The film is about the emotional state of urban men and women, the attitude of facing broken love and the loneliness felt in the broken love. In urban life, men and women often pass by but there is no real and direct communication. Whether it is in the transformation of light and shadow or the controlling of the camera, the image style of Wong Kar-wai’s movies of this period is very strong, public, and deliberately pursuing the extreme beauty of form, using the pen of the camera to outline the loss of the individual spiritual world struggling in the gloomy city. 

Article: 

Cho. I, 2020, ‘Chungking Express’ is Poetic, Genre-Bending, and Incomplete, The Harvard Crimson, viewed 21th MAY 2021,  

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/12/8/chungking-express-FLC-review/ 

Images: 

Chungking Express, 1994, https://m4uhd.tv/watch-movie-chungking-express-1994-15203.html, directed by Wong Kar Wai. 

We finally ended our last course for this semester last week, I was reluctant to say goodbye to everyone especially to our studio leader Robin. Due to the epidemic, all our courses this semester are completed online, and virtual classrooms actually test students’ ability to learn independently. However, I was greatly surprised for the studing style that Robin brought to us, fewer people but more efficient learning. I started not well-adapted to this mode of learning, a class of five people make me nervous, but Robin shortened the class time from three hours to one hour, which made time precious and I became more focused. If I missed any of the class, Robin will email me the content of the class or make me another consultation to make sure I can keep up with the rhythm of the class. I am very interested in the art of film. I like watching movies or some film appreciation in my spare time. In the past few semesters, I have also taken some courses on film or video, so I have some basic concepts and foundations. In this semester, I have learned more and deeper film knowledge which benefited me a lot. I hope that one day I can apply this knowledge and technology to my own works, and I believe that this day will not be too far. For the research topic, I’m still working on it, although I still have a lot of other tasks have to be completed in such a tight time period of the final week, I still enjoy the process of doing Wong Kar-wai research. I knew that there are other students who are also doing research on him, which aroused my desire for doing better. I want to conduct a more comprehensive observation of him and make it fresher entry point. I looked for a lot of information and watched a lot of interview videos, I learned the process of his success, however, I had no choice but to make my research topics detailed, so I focused on a sole aspect which is the movie Chungking Express, and also my favorite film of Wong’s. Although I am a big fan of Wong, I didn’t know the background story of him and the detail of the process that making such a wonderful movie, therefore, this research topic makes me proactive and excited. 

In this week, we watched some clips from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, collectiely refferred to as the Dardenne brothers, who are Belgain filmmaking partners. They have twice won the Palme d’Or, the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival, and the second prize. In 2011, Darden University won the Robert Bresson Award, which is an award sponsored by the Holy See. It is the Pope’s Cultural and Social Communication Committee, and participated in the Venice Film Festival, whose works prove the pursuit of spiritual meaning in people’s lives(Belz, 2018). The clips from Kid with a Bike which left a deep impression on me. In the scene of the boy chasing the cyclist, the director did not let the camera follow him all the time. Instead, he used single still shots to capture the boy’s chasing process, altered from slightly wider shots to wide shots. The Dardenne brothers used “we are not a wide shot sepcialist” to describe themselves in film shooting records. In terms of costumes and props, the little boy wore a highly saturated red shirt which makes a sharp contrast with the large area of green woods in the background, therefore, the audience can always catch the protagonist at a glance in different frame. In the scene from the restaurant, I was moved by the sincerity of the little boy and the desire for his father. Of course, I was more regretful for him. The Dardenne brothers illustrated the sitting of the shooting environment. They deliberately decorated the restaurant in a quite simple way, to set off the distress of the father’s life and the sluggish work. They always have matrix ideas to guide them, they have rehearsed a lot to make sure the best appearance of scene.  

 Belz, E. 2018. WORLD News Group, Spiritual Cinema, <https://wng.org/articles/spiritual-cinema-1617648601> 

In this week, we keep working on the research project, after researching more on the director Wong kar wai and receiving the suggestions from teacher, i found some new perspective of studying him. In the past few weeks, I did a lot of research about Wong Kar Wei himself, however the success of his film also has big contributions from his cinematographer Christopher Doyle. He attend 7 films production that directed by Wong kar wei, he was once the exclusive photographer of the director Wong Kar Wai, and also participated in film production as an actor and director. His unique creative style has added a touch of legend to the history of Hong Kong film. I watched a lots of interviews about him and review the process of filmming Chunking express. This pair of best partners created an unprecedented way of film language expression in the exploration of light and shadow, leaving behind many wonderful and eternal moments. However, according to Christopher’s interview, many of the classic frames were made in accident. In the process of filmming, he shot failed fragments inadvertently brought him a different inspiration, these ‘failed’ shots made a bizarre, fantastic style of Wong kar wai. Chunking express has a unique and strong image style, the storyline becomes less important, instead of enriching and expressing the characters through the plot. The director mainly promotes the development of the film complex and expresses the emotional changes in the character’s heart through several elements such as vision, music and props. That’s whyt I want to take this movie as the case study, expanding wong’s movie universe based on Chunking express. 

Week9  reflection for presentation  

In this week. We had a in- class presentation to talk about what we going to do for the research project, we introduce our inspiration, thought and final plan for the assignment. It was really exciting to hear everyone’s idea, and we all got the positive feedback and suggestions from teacher and the leader of the department. When the tutor explain this assignment to us,  the first thing that came to my mind was the famous Chinese director Wang karwai. . I first encountered Wong Kar-wai’s movie Chongking express when I was in junior high school. The unique composition, psychedelic soundtrack and editing techniques reshaped the old Hong Kong in my mind, it put a thick layer of filters belonging to Wong Kar Wai for the Hong Kong of the last century in my mind. Wong Kar Wai is indeed a genius director. His films from romance to matial art movies show the age and characters in his heart vividly and exquisitely. The interesting thing is that Chongking express, which left a deep impression on me, took only one month to complete the filming, but it is undeniable that he and his team did create a unique style that belongs to Wong Kar-wai. Since then, Wong Kar-wai has been in occupy a place in the field of international film. Yujie have a similar research topic as mine which really suprise me, it illustrates the huge influence that Wong karwai brings to our generation in China, however, we did have different perspectives for Wang karwai. The other people have mutiple manifestations which also inspired me. For Esther’s project, she’ planning to do the research about how double personality is expressed in movie, she took Black swan and A beautiful mind as cases to study. In addition, Jenna would like to talk about The God Father and A better tomorrow, she will shoot a clip based on the parallel action in The godfather. For Michael’ plan, he’s going to do the research about the backstage of the film Inception by Christopher Nolan, science fiction film like Inception uses a lot of CG techniques, Michael will compare it with the real shooting. I’m excited to hear so much ideas from my classmates, everyone’s doing topic what they are really into in, research things you love is always rewarding. 

In this week’s study, we learned about the movement of the lens and its different intentions. We saw clips about handheld shooting and steadicam in class, which are also expressions of party characters and scenes. These two shooting methods have completely different effects. The handheld camera will make the frame feel unstable, but at the same time it will also make the audience more immersive. Usually when shooting people’s movements, chasing, and slapstick scenes, the handheld shooting method will be used. However, steadicam increases the stability of the picture, maybe you will pay more attention to the character’s mood, dialogue and other details in this way. These two shooting methods are not good or bad, they are just to express different atmospheres and effects. There are multiple ways of camera movements during filming. In the clip from Notorious, the camera first pans the entire ballroom environment from a bird’s-eye viewer. At this time, the audience can see all kinds of people appearing in the picture, but it’s hard to grasp the point at that time. Then, the camera started zoom in until you can see the key which tightly holding by the actress. It definitely presents the subjective consciousness of the main character, the process of zooming in is also slow, detailed, but exciting. The scene of this character after this detail description became metaphorical. For the clip in Skyfall, there are many shots for the commander ‘Q’. He is still through the whole command process, however, the camera pans around him at eye-level angle, creates a calm image of him, which also make a sharp contrast to the nervous and flustered Bond in the mission. During the process that I film someting , i uses hand-held shooting a lot, for the technical issues that I don’t have any stabilizer to help with it, the biggest inconvenience that brings to me is the lack of pictures diversity and the impact forece. In oder to make complete and excellent film, the use of camera movement can never be ignored. 

In this week’s studies, we discussed about the actor’s performance in front of the camera. This is a quite interesting topic for me, I have took part in many shooting projects before, the acting was always a difficult obstacle for me. Facing the camera will make me feel uncomfortable. I will magnify some of my psychological changes and it is difficult to express naturally. However, getting into the role you play is crucial to the quality of a film. From Forgacs and David’s(2011) article, they illustrate some concept of acting and filmming form the director Antonioni. In his films, he stayed away from performance and actors, but focused on other aspects, such as his destruction of traditional narrative structures, their treatment of time, architecture, space, and inanimate objects implied by nature. In Antonini’s post-60s film narrative adopts a kind of visual minimalism, strongly focusing on the appearance of things, the surfave of the world as he see it, and a minimisation of explanatory dialogue. ‘Acting is one of the means the director can use to express idea, whether figurative or strictly conceptual’, ‘The film actor must work on the plane of psychology but on that of imagination’(Forgas, David. 2011), however, the imagination is opened by themselves. There are many forms of film acting, but the limitations of technical issues make every details in front of the camera significant. Antonioni’s film is full of metaphors, it has elusive plots, striking visual composition and a preoccupation with modern landscapes. He is a careful and dedicated director. His narrative style is not based on characters, which does not mean that characters are replaced by the inanimate environments. On the contrary, in such an indifferent, anti-social world, the characters in his lens showed another kind of vitality and tension. 

Forgacs, David, 2011, ‘Face, body, voice, movement: Antonioni and Actors [Excerpt]’ in Rhodes, John David (ed.) & Rascaroli, Laura (ed.), Antonioni : Centenary essays, Palgrave Macmillan, New York/Basingstoke, pp. 167-181. 

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http://www.mediafactory.org.au/xinyuwu/2021/04/20/analysis-of-scene/

Advanced analysis of THE GREAT GATSBY
The image that “The Great Gatsby” left me the image of luxury and feasting when I watched the movie for the first time, reflecting the United States’ heavy makeup under the capitalism and financial world. It is precisely because of the color of these pictures. When you understand the summary of the story, you have a better understanding of the background of the times and a deeper understanding of the film. When Gatsby first met Daisy in this scene, before entering the door, Gatsby and Nick used the speed of language to shoot forwards and backwards, speeding up the rhythm of the picture. The way to pretend and show Daisy’s back is to use the middle shot of the flat shot to express Daisy’s beauty in the simplest way, makes the audience obsessed by her. Turn to the fascinated expression of Gatsby, and show Daisy’s beauty, it also makes the audience truly addicted to it. This kind of composition brings a deep sense of substitution to the audience, and also achieves the complete unity of form and content. The great Party scene in the film portrays an entertaining celebration in Gatsby’s home. It was a usual event in West London during the Gatsby reign as people from every corner of the city could reunite with Gatsby during the weekends to party and celebrate their achievements. The camera that recorded the scene hanged to different angles to focus on the targeted part of the image. For instance, when the cars arrived at the scene, the central part of the rear camera focused sideways, and its coverage was brought closer when the cars were getting closer for the people to alight. The film’s angles were taken from both the rear and the front have been used to give the best image quality and to show the movements representation. Close-up have also been intensively used I creating the happiness emotions in the party. Both the long lens and the close-range lens have been used in making all the audience smile and happy. The full shot has been subjected for all the people from the heads to their toes. The aerial full shot has been used to capture a massive number of people who attended the party. Movement from one scene to the other accrued simultaneously with no graphical video lags being experienced. When Gatsby is departing with Nick in the event, Gatsby is zoomed in using the long shot frame holding a glass of wine, and his image quality  to get clearer with the zooming. The film has also integrated one shot towards its climax. In the duration of 58:05 when two characters are involved in a fight, the changes in the secondary background tends to be ignored. The transition of time results to the lens flair, light and shadow changes.