The scene I analyzed is from the Korean black comedy thriller ‘Parasite‘ filmed by Korean director Bong Joon-ho. Released in 2019. In the same year, Parasite won the Best Picture at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or. And won the 92nd Academy Awards for Best Picture in 2020. There are many wonderful long shots with implicit metaphors in the film. The film tells the story of a family of four people from the bottom of South Korea who are all unemployed vagrants until the son came to the rich boss’s home to apply for tutoring with a forged diploma. Afterward, the low-income family left the narrow semi-basement residence and secretly parasitized in the rich man’s mansion basement.
At the beginning of the scene, it is a close-up shot of multiple people. Every member of the family appeared in this shot, which made me feel the space’s narrowness. Then the screen switched to the world outside the window, which is a low-angle shot. The message I got is that although they live in the outside world, they are still lowly. After that, a person rode a car to light up their world, implying the arrival of hope. The next shot is a medium close-up of a group of people, and the director shoots from a high angle. But the son suddenly stood up and contrasted with the others in the scene. He might be the one who led them to change their lives. Later, Min Hyuk entered their home, the camera switched from the long shot to the close-up, and the director naturally let the new character appear on the screen. Besides, the Min Hyuk visited their home, and the director switched scenes. The first is a wide shot, allowing the audience to feel the living environment near the son’s home intuitively. The next scene is switched to the medium shot. I think the director’s handling of this dialogue is extraordinary. He used the shooting technique is shot-reverse-shot. When the son spoke to Min Hyuk, it was a low-angle shot used by the director. On the contrary, when Min Hyuk speaking the camera angle is high angle and using the over-the-shoulder shot skill. The director cleverly showed the difference in status between them. Also, the performance of the actors added points to the film. I will mention two examples. When the son talks about his life, he keeps his head down, and his eyes do not dare to look at the opposite person. The second is that when Min Hyuk wanted to ask him for help, he hesitated when he picked up the phone to show the son a message, which meant that he did not trust him. Also, what impresses me the most is that their dialogue is closely related to the shots. In the scene initially, when they sat down in the convenience store, the director gave a wide shot. And then, when they were chatting, it was a medium shot. Secondly, when talking about specific things, the director switched to a medium close-up. Finally,mentioning the son will apply for a job and make fake academic qualifications, the director switched the camera to a close-up. Meanwhile, the director also used Pan shot. Furthermore, when Min Hyuk talked about the hostess’s personality, the director zooms the camera closer. I deem this a clue given by the director; the purpose is to connect the future plot reasonably.
In the first class of week 6, we performed the analysis of exercise 4. First of all, our group chose scene 2 as an exercise. Because there are multiple dialogue scenes in exercise 2, we could have more choices in the shooting angle, such as s two-person dialogue scene and a three-person dialogue scene. This will be a new challenge for all of us. after that, we made a storyboard and shooting list based on the script. Simultaneously, we also discussed what type of lens to shoot and the shooting angle. Secondly, the most of the dialogue scenes, we have complied with the 180-degree rule. In addition to some lenses, we have discussed the use of the 30-degree rule. From reading some articles, I learned that the 30-degree rule is that the angle between the front and rear lenses should be greater than 30 degrees when shooting the same object. This approach may prevent the audience from diverging from the storyline. At the same time, it also keeps the audience from noticing the movie’s editing and ensures the movie’s continuity. Furthermore, if the camera movement angle is less than 30 degrees, the transition between shots may look like a jump cut. This rule also applies to different lens types. Therefore, when cutting from a wide-angle lens to a close-up lens. If the camera stays in the same position, it actually looks like a weird zoom effect, not a cut.
In the course on Thursday, we discussed exercise 3. Robin still shared with us the work of everyone and then discussed and analyzed them. The most impressive part for me is the clip from Jeremy. The clip’s beginning is a close-up shot of a mailbox, which directly catches the audience’s focus on the email. The email is a clue that runs through the entire short film. After not finding the letter in the mailbox, the actor walked on the road, and the director used the first perspective to shoot and move to see the surrounding environment. This makes me feel very cool. I guess this is to use the empty environment to show the protagonist’s emotional loss. Next time I want to imitate this skill to do a new exercise, I will attempt it in a new field. I look forward to it.
This week, our focus is still on the preparations before the shooting. Robin shared a script with us and shared two completely different storyboards at the same time. The first is to use a one-shot method to shoot, and the second is to use a large number of medium shots and close-up shots to show the dialogue scene. Besides, I also deeply understand that the preparation work that needs to be completed before shooting is crucial to the subsequent film, which is the basis for conducting a good movie. Before each shooting, I should carefully complete the floor plan, shoot the plot summary, edit the plot summary and shooting list.
On Thursday, the content of class again mentioned the knowledge learned last week and Monday. First of all, we analyzed two clips of the same plot. They come from different eras and different countries. But the state presented by the two films is entirely different. Such as the performance of actors, the camera movement, and the camera’s position. Moreover, I have extreme feelings about the performance of actors. I argue that the actors did not have many emotional ups and downs in the clip 1938, but the director added a lot of close-up shots, and the actors’ excellent detailed performances in the close-up shots could highlight the mood of the actress at that time.Besides, I deem that in the 1938 clip, the director emphasized the portrayal of the characters. On the other hand, in the 1941 clip, the director used a long shot to show the surrounding environment at the first scene and switched to the next mid-range shot through the character’s movement; there is asmooth transition from the environment to people. This is an efficient shooting technique for me. Furthermore, Tom Reilly mentioned in the big picture that scenes in movies are usually assembled from a compilation of shots. It is usually to shoot the entire extremely long shot. In ‘the wild bunch’ movie, I also found that the director uses an extreme long shot to explain the story’s environment. This allows the audience to better integrate into the movie. The plot of the film looks more reasonable.
In the week of four. We reviewed the theories learned in the previous three weeks and the previous summary. After that, an in-depth analysis of the interpretation potential and functions of the camera coverage. Robin tells us that it can be called decoupage in French. At the same time, our future learning will be closely related to this word. In addition, we watched several different clips and explored how to make the plain line interesting and attractive. The three key points are the actor’s performance, the action of the camera, and the actor’s position. First of all, the actor needs to show his excellent acting skills and infectious lines, making the audience more immersive. Secondly, accurately switching the camera angle and moving the camera position allows the audience to experience the movie differently, and the movie looks more sense of depth. I also deem this an important factor because the audience might experience the realism in the movie.Tom (2009) mentioned that the actors’ performance and the content of the film must look and feel real. If the film is not real, it will lose the audience and credibility. The third point is that actors move their positions appropriately during the dialogue, making the characters more dynamic and making the plot more interesting. Moreover, we also focused on researching different countries, cultures, historical periods, and filmmakers; there may be a common approach to coverage trends. On the contrary, the aesthetics and culture of each movie will be different under all different backgrounds.
Thursday, we focused on exercise two. Sharing with us everyone’s work in the class and then discussed and analyzed them one by one. I found that every work taken by students with the same script is very different, and during the comparison process, I have some problems that need to be improved, especially the shooting angle. Among them, I was most impressed by a self-portrait and the performance of his work. His shooting angle is in a low position, which makes me feel very novel.
