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Assignment 4 reflection 3

Presentation review

After finishing the meeting for our presentation, I was so impressed by all of my classmates. My idea for the research project is about long take also called continuous take or continues shot, is a shot lasting much longer than the conventional editing space either of the film itself or films in general. What brings me to do this research is I had a discussion with Robin about this before and also I watched 1917 which surprised me so I have interesting to do this topic. It was so enjoyable to watch some smooth and skillful continues scenes.

Jack shared the elevator scenes which is similar to David’s. They both focus on scenes in a limited space. The area of elevator is a rectangle which needs measure specific to take place in. And also, Jack mentioned the lens coverage in elevator and showed us some example. The dialogue in elevator usually no long but give us the theme and information of the film. I was so surprised to this idea.  

When Ada talked about car chase scenes, I was impressed. I am fond of action movies and there were some exciting car chase theme in action movies such as Fast & Furious, Mad Max…She focused on which special shooting equipment may use, the movement of the car, camera movement and how to approach. There must be a lot of safety measures for a car chase. In Fast & Furious, there were a number of expensive cars by sponsor which created luxury visual. Some of the chase scenes, due to safety problem, may use visual effect. I watched some behind the scene of chase car scene before. When some directors shoot these scenes, they put the car on the moving trolley. The vehicle is not moving, but by the movement of the surrounding objects, it looks like the car is moving, but what is actually moving is the pulling trolley. That is an amazing idea for shooting car chase safety.

Each of my classmates showed their great idea for the research project. And thanks for Robin and Brian gave us some suggestion and advice.

Assignment 4 Reflection 2

This week we start our research project. It is quite hard to choose a topic but I already knew what I had interesting in. So maybe I will get in to the research soon.

Robin showed us some actors running scene in class. About the scene like this, I remember there was a scene in Rocky, Syllvestor Stalone was running on street and someone thought he was the actual athlete and thrower him something and he caught that. That shot was so nature which I thought was planned. Syllvestor Stalone was so professional that impressed me. 

I watched a lot of Tom Cruise action movie, a recurring element in his movie, he runs. On screen, it looks like he running so fast. In fact, filming a Tom Cruise running sequence can actually be difficult because it turns out the actor is super fast. Much faster than his co-stars.Action movies tend to be looked down upon by movie critics, in large part due to the fact that there is less “acting” going on, but according to the director of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, Edward Zwick, that’s not the case. He tells Screen Crush that even when Tom Cruise is running he has to act, because he has to look like he’s running at full speed, even though he apparently has to pull up a bit in order to run with Cobie Smulders.

With all the practice that Tom Cruise gets running in his movies, it’s not really that surprising that he’s fast. Eventually, if you do something often enough you can’t help but be good at it. Although, it sounds like Cruise is even better than you might expect. Edward Zwick says that Cobie Smulders is pretty fast herself, but Cruise leaves her in the dust when he’s going full tilt. That’s pretty impressive.

Assignment 4 Reflection 1

This week we talked about actors’ performance. Robin shared us some short clips to help us get more information of acting. That reminds me last year I played a character in my classmates’ short film which I found out that is so hard to be an actor. Somehow I just felt so awkward acting in scenes.  From that on, I stop judging some unprofessional actors’ performance. At some point, some people could be looked better when they was showed on screen. Some people has good looking but not photogenic. In my opinion, because I read a research about the different face looking at different focal length recently. In some focal length, it will stretch people’s face.  

Narrative means the central place in most films. Actors adjust the quality and energy of their gestures, voice and actions to communicate their characters’ shifting desires and dynamic relationships with other characters. At each moment of the film, actors’ performance are keyed to the narrative. The clip that Robin showed us was a man in a swimming pool scene. The actor was so talent to show us his movement, action and his best angle on screen. Every action was so detail. This reminds me Charlie Chaplin’s performance in City Lights(1931). He was so intelligent with his action. And I think the blocking is essential as well. Before shooting, director and actors will have a conversation about the position and the camera movement and do the rehearsal.

The quality and energy of actors’ movements and vocal expression are equally important in experimental cinema, for actors’ performance contribute to the mood or feeling conveyed by the piece as a whole. Through rehearsal and individual script analysis, actors find the quality and the energy their intonations and inflections must have to convey their characters’ changing experiences. Sharp, sudden, staccato bursts of words might be used to show that a character is alarmed, while a smooth, sustained, legato vocal rhythm will be used to show that the character is at ease.

Reflection 4:

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/qingxinzheng/2020/04/19/the-scene-in-the…nema-refection-4/

Reflection 5:

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/qingxinzheng/2020/04/19/the-scene-in-the-cinema-refection-5/

Reflection 6:

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/qingxinzheng/2020/04/19/the-scene-in-the-cinema-refection-6/

Scene analysis:

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/qingxinzheng/2020/04/19/the-scene-in-cinema-analytical-writing-for-assignment-2/

 

For this analysis, I have chosen a segment from 1917, a 2019 British epic war film directed , co-written, and produced by Sam Mendes. The film tells the story of two young British soldiers during the first world war who are order to deliver a message calling off an attack doomed to fail soon after the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line during Operation Alberich in 1917. This message is especially important to one of the soldiers, as his brother is taking apart in the pending attack.

The whole movie was accomplished with long takes and elaborately choreographed moving camera shots to give the effect of two continuous takes. The following scene I have decided to analyse is from the beginning of 1917 to two main characters leave the trenches in the film which time code is 00:51-08:12.

The shot begin with the beautiful peaceful flowers and plants form then the camera slowly move back to introduce us the two main characters, Lance Corporal William “Will” Schofield (George MacKay ) and Lance Corporal Thomas “Tom” Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman ). The colour in this shot makes people comfortable because of the greens. With a sarge wakes Blake up, the camera Starts to follow Blake’s movement slightly as a mid shot. As the camera following them, the mid shot becomes to wide shot shows us more setting which giving us the look of the war. More colour comes in shot different from the first shot it gets dirty because is the color of the muddy earth. The audience follow their leads with their speed motion and changes in conversation. Orchestral music as the background music. The scene begins util now is still serenity. 

The character was kept in the middle of the whatever the framing changes between mid shot and wide shot util 03:39, the position of characters changes. Blake is behind Will that gives us the information Will may older than Blake because due to the conversation, audience may be announced that Will is more mature than Blake. At this time, Will tries to lead Blake. The trenches on either side began to get higher. There are few solider come across in front of Blake and Will. The picture of the trenches changes from only two characters to more soldiers on the move. From their conversation, the audience get to know there has to be the push. Sam sets a tense tone.

As I mentioned before, two characters was kept in the middle of the framing util they gets in the trenches, the camera moves like a snake following their movement. The framing is a mid shot and the two characters keep changing their position from left to right or right to left when they turn corners. As the camera moves, turns a half around from their front to their side then turns behind them at last. In this shot, appears the fourth character who has dialogue. After that, we starts to follow Blake’s footstep. In this angle, it feels like we are personally on the scene, a part of this shot. Then at 04:47, this is the first time camera stop moving, here comes a sarge and he explains the thing then walks into the basement. At 4:51, Blake switch the centre with the sarge and have a short conversation with Will face to face. The framing is so great that the cinematographer uses his techniques of framing leading to get which character audience should focus on and the effective information he wants to share us. Immediately following, Blake and Will walk into the basement. The light source changed from the natural light outside to the dark warm light in the basement starts getting into something essential. The view is behind the two main characters but in front of General Erinmore. The soldier on General’s right hand side only gets a little bit lights but more shadow. The general, as the dominant figure in the scene, is in the middle between the two characters. The light on his face is from the ground.Light sources on both sides of the face provide contrast. The whole setting creates an atmosphere of war deliberation makes the audience getting in the situation.Repressed stratagems and rivalries. The soldiers behind General are out of focus, the cinematography require us to put attention on General. The shot starts to zoom in follows the motion of the General, the audience take a look on the map that starts to give the reason why the main character gets here. As the General asks, the picture back on his face. The scene from wide shot becomes to mid shot. At 06:30, General Erinmore turns , the audience get to see the front of main characters. They get the lights on which means they get into the plan and receive the order. As the camera moving on, there are different facial expression shows on the characters. At 07:13, their reaction to the order, they look at different place after saluting.At this time, Will’s psychological activities maybe why he should do this and Blake worries about his brother. Camera follows their movement when they have a conversation with the lieutenant. Before they leave, they gives us the frame of their back and shows us General Erinmore again that he provides us more message. Blake leaves first and then Will. We back to the ground and as their speed of motion more and more fast. The audience gets more and more nervous as they immerse themselves in it.

The director shot in real time to make the audience feel the urgency of the character with one take tracking. Sam superimposed the character building and emotion of the protagonist on the scene scheduling. The way that he film immerse the audience in a brutal and real war environment. Every minute and every second of the audience is real, breathing with the protagonist. Camera track the whole scene, revolves around the main characters. The machine position and framing change with the scene.The position of the protagonist changes with the panoramic, mid – shot ,close-up and different angles to shoot.Either the distance or the angle, Sam tries to break the flat space of viewing and shows the audience a three-dimensional free space of war.All of these need the cooperation between the weather, actors, cinematographer and setting in one take that could create a perfect effect. Otherwise, everything should start over. In terms of the sound effect, Orchestral music and cello movie soundtrack together in the lead rhythm and highlights the climax.

Although the war is cruel, the experience of the film was a feast for the eyes.

Reflection 6

In this week, we talked about focal length and review the knowledge point of depth of field.

About focal length, Lens focal length tells us the angle of view—how much of the scene will be captured—and the magnification—how large individual elements will be. The longer the focal length, the narrower the angle of view and the higher the magnification. The shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of view and the lower the magnification. 

The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges (focuses) or diverges (defocuses) light.

In a single lens objective, the focal length is the distance to the film plane, but since most objectives are a rather complicated set of lenses it’s not that simple.

That’s rather technical, but the most interesting characteristic of focal length is that it’s one of the decisive factors in how the angle of view of your lens is. The longer the focal length is, the narrower the field of view. The other decisive factor in the angle of view is the size of the film or sensor.

Lenses with a fixed focal length are also called primes, and lenses with a variable focal length are called zoom lenses.

The physical properties of a lens at a given focal length also affect the depth of field. A shorter focal length lens (say 27mm) focused at 5 meters, set at f/4 has a deeper DOF (perhaps from 3 meters in front and 20 meters behind) than a longer focal length (say 300mm), also set at f/4 focused at 5 meters.

  

There are both practical and creative consideration when making these decisions, so understanding focal length might be the most important visual tool for a director to comprehend.

A longer focal length, such as 135mm or 85mm in the diagram below, results in a narrower angle of view and greater magnification. Meanwhile, a shorter focal length, such as 24mm or 14mm, translates to a wider angle of view and less magnification.

In this first example, below, the camera is positioned the same distance from the subject and different lenses are used:

 

In the next focal length example, the camera is positioned at varying distances with different lenses, as indicated in each photo:

In summary, the lens mm number refers to the focal length or magnification. This can also be casually referred to as the lens size. Different manufacturers make lenses with different characteristics. So when I film something, I really need to think about what lens I want to use in the shot.

Reflection 5

In this week, we focus on eyelines. When shooting a film or video production, actors need to know where to look. Consistent eyelines affect continuity in editing, so it is important to consider eyelines in every shot. Eyeline match also refers to an editing technique that ensures continuity of the characters’ gazes. It gives the illusion that the two characters are looking at each other. In a scene with multiple shots of different characters interacting, it must be clear who is looking at whom.

I watched two example that Robin gave, the first is My Sex Life, or How I got into an Arguement (1996) which is a continuing shot that camera follows the character’s movement. The characters in the frame always change position or the other character that need to talk with. So the eyeline in the shot is very important that you need to lead the audience a correct way that what or whom they need to focus on. The scene was kind of interesting, I am digging with continuing shot these days so that is a good scene help me understanding eyeline in one take shot.

The second one is Full Moon in Paris (1984) which is different from the first. That is a mobile static shot. But the cinematographer deals with the camera position and the eyeline so well that audience would focus on the frame.

And Robin showed us Carlos as well that Robin described as a modern style of lighting which means the exposure not always on the face of the character taking. The mise-en-scene is so important and also the camera works. So far I still don’t have more thought about the scene but it is interesting. I need more time to watch it again and again.

The 180 degree rules exists to preserve screen direction. It’s an invisible line drawn down the center of a scene between two actors; a semi-circle extends half of a circle’s radius (or 180 degrees) around them. The rule preserves eyeline in a dialogue sequence, and, crucially, maintains screen direction (so that one character is always moving left and the other, right).

For me, I don’t think that is necessary to follow the 180 degree rules. I mean, there are some great directors break the rules as well. So in my opinion, just make sense in the scene that you shoot. Break the rules does not mean that you are not making sense. In some ways, shooting the scenes without following 180 degree rules is kind of fun.

Reflection 4

In this week, due to the situation, I could not practice with camera to do a scene so Idid a storyboard, shot list and floor plan. Although the script is short, there are not so much dialogue, after all the classes before that, I consider a lot to make it as easy but show the relationship and conflict between the characters. What I think about is: who is the main character we want to focus on this scene? What happened or what is going to happen between the characters? What story may about then? It was just a simple scene, when I submitted my work online, I also have a opportunity to see other classmate’s work. That was fun that you can see the same script bur people will film it in different ways.

And about decoupage, as I studied, decoupage is not editing. It’s fundamentally distinct from editing that it is more or less applied or realised through the editing process. The term was initially split into two meanings ‘decoupage’  and ‘decoupage technique’  the initial relating to concerns of film form whilst the latter was roughly defined as the process of cutting up the script from the narrative, a detailed plan for shooting complete with camera indications, stage directions and editing directions. The reflection I wrote before that I have a wrong definition of decoupage now so far I got what it means and still need more time to learn and think about that. So the easy way to think of decoupage is that means ‘to cut up’.

Montage and Decoupage are two very important terms which have been used throughout film history. Varying definitions, functions and methodologies of such terms have been widely theorised and practised upon within cinema.A key difference that I found is that decoupage seems to apply to a single unified space, whereas montage can apply to multiple spaces(parallel montage) or a single space. In the end the terms are largely context dependant on whose definition you refer to them with, although each author has attempted to define a particular the terms as a particular process, the terms themselves seem to be somewhat dependant on the individuals philosophical approach to filmmaking.

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/ ‎

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.