5 elements of Cinema

  1. Sound
  2. The Medium of Film
  3. Site, Space
  4. Audience
  5. Screen

There is always a template. A 3 act structure in a story. However in Expanded Cinema, the audience in this expanded cinema gets rid of the structure, the spoon feeding of the story and they finds out the ending themselves. The audience would be more active rather than passive.

Doug Aitken
Doug Aitken (b. 1968) has created a body of work that explores the evolving ways people experience memory and narrative and relate to fast-paced urban environments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUfn1X2i_cM

Chapters of Black Mirror

  1. Departure
  2. Losing Baggage
  3. Tropical Conspiracy
  4. New Condition

The location at which the installation and performance art is held on a vessel in an open sea.

Main actress and other performers performs live on screen with 3 screens around her. The story goes in a way the actress travels from one point to the other.

The character is on an unexplained journey from one place to the other via plane, car and on foot. The character only interacts with herself as she leads a life of a journey alone.

Why use a vessel in an open sea?? Boat cause maybe it is a mode of transport. Maybe a metaphorical mean of isolation? Like a lonesome boat in vast sea. Hence, location as to where the installation is held is important. In addition, the artists statement of her works are important as the audience of that country he presents to may not get the context as it is not relevant to them.

Making reference to an old film which the song is constantly played throughout is ‘Only have eyes for you’.

Why he uses that song? It is a very old popular song. And covers of this song by others makes this popular. Spectators will find familiarity when they drive past that video screening

History of Avant Garde film

1920s have limited resources and cameras were not easily accessible unless you have resources and money. Whereas, 1960s is a period of change. Feminist movement, Cold war, Technology is on the rise, cameras are more easily available.

Ruyi showed us a couple of clips and asks us for the emotions we felt through watching these clips. And as usual, since the emotion is subjective to each film, everyone had different thoughts and feelings for each clip.

Ralph Steiner

 

For this clip, there was a mixture of emotions for me. It was soothing and at the same time uncomfortable.

I believe the artist was intending to match the movement of the gears to the music or vice versa, and many of the time where I felt was soothing was when the gears or mechanism fit perfectly with the music. (The OCD in me is acting up)

However, I felt uncomfortable at times because the mechanism and music don’t go well together. IT IS OFF BEAT. Or when the note is prolonged, I’d expect a ‘clunk’ sound but it did not give me that satisfaction. ( The OCD in me is acting up again)

Hans Richter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b972EQOOEoY

Visuals can be music as well, even without music. In our heads we would have created a sound that goes with the moving images. We see music.

Stan Brakhage
“Film is like poetry rather than visual arts.” – Stan Brakhage

Brakhage uses material experiment in his films where each film is like mark making. The film strip acts as a canvas and not medium for story telling.

Multiple Screens Experiments

With the use of multiple screens, audience is immersed and bathed in your work in that space; or even overwhelmed by the information provided given if that is the artists intention.

Omer Fast

What you will look when you walk around the story. The authority of the story is question. Different modes of story and reconstruction of the Journalism whether the recounting of stories are reliable.

Left side of the screen doesn’t match with the soldier’s story. It makes you question Omer Fast as well as the Soldier’s account.

The message Omer Fast may be trying to express is that what the media shows to you can be very deceiving. Actors casted, exposes the lies . It is a take to mocking journalism as the abrupt cuts of the videos, locations of scenes and audio is all fake and post edited to how Omer Fast wants it to be.

Other than sexism, the female figure on the right is not using any word in her singing. She is evoking sounds that expresses what she is feeling inside. The male figure on the left has words to express himself and he does it with ease, and with a live audience listening to him. Women are not suppose to perform live infront of an audience as it is against societal norms of where she comes from.

For this class assignment, I watched this film with Kam Yit Ling! :D,

Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

Chronological order of the movie: Very inconsistent and irregular.

Q: Do you think the way this film is told works best for your story (in regard to the Alter Ego Assignment 1) ? How would you re-tell the story?

Yit Ling –  Flashbacks of the relationship between Emily and Alexy can be incorporated. Whereby Emily constantly shows affection to Alexy, would help in the story line of my film to build the history between them, so that the viewers can be more engaged in their relationship.

Yi Ling –  Flashbacks of the relationship between my grandmother and I can be added into the film as we reminisce about my childhood. I think the characters in my film in this case ought to be realistic with the age when it comes to flashback. Like when the flashback scene comes on, a child version of me and a younger version of my grandmother ought to be there.

Q: What makes this narrative (Last Year at Marienbad) work?

– The story centrals around Frank’s point of view about the female protagonist. Hence, it entwines the past, present and future of their relationship together.

– Metaphorical interpretations of their hallucinations/ potential conscience brings about depth of the characters and their inner struggles.

Q: Does this non-linear narrative work for other films

-Sci-fi, Fantasy and Thriller films would go very well with this form of narrative, such as The Time Traveller’s Wife,

Interstellar

Alice Through the Looking Glass.


What we like about this film?

– The cinematography is amazing. Everything seems aligned perfectly.

-We liked how they connect one of the hallucination/past memory with the present scene with the same dialogue, but different scenario. For instance when Frank was counting in the room with the female protagonist as he try to incur memory out from her in the past, the scene changed into the ball room scene where the female protagonist’s husband was counting the cards.

-Flashing of the 1 second scene whereby the female protagonist is holding her shoe, when she is in fact in the bar tells us that she might have remembered something about the past she can’t recall.

– The multiple reflections of the female protagonist in the mirror can be interpreted as her different selves in the past, present and future.

– The triangle arrangement of her own reflection can symbolize loss and confusion of her current situation, as well as the past she don’t recall.

Doubts about this film we had:

– We do not understand the purpose of having the freeze moments, whereby only one person moves. The movements are focus and exaggerated.

– We do not understand why they kept repeating the dialogue over and over again in different scenes.

– Frank always used past tense to talk to the female protagonist, so we had this illusion that Frank can travel through time. However , if it is really the truth, why would Frank lose to the female protagonist’s husband in the gambling game? Is he a psychopath who is trying to enforce certain ideas onto the female protagonist, or is he trying to mold her into the memory he believes in??

 

Alter Ego Assignment 1


Script/Plan

“When you were younger…”

Themes:

  • You cannot go back to the past, so live in the present.
  • Treasure the ones around you while you can.

Characters: Me (Current) + Grandmother

Reason to meet: Granddaughter visits grandmother.

Place for them to meet: Grandmother’s living room.

Incident to set up/respond to: Granddaughter reminisces about her past. She recalled her grandmother used to comb her hair as she sat on that couch when she was little.

Scene set –up: After taking a bath, Yiling walks to the living room to get her comb. Yiling sees Grandma sitting on the couch resting and this reminded her of the old times.

Dialogue:

(To be confirmed because not certain if grandmother can remember the script. If not will just improvise on the spot to get a more realistic and documentary type of an actual dialogue between me and my grandmother.)

Y – Yi Ling; G – Grandmother

(The dialogue will be in dialect)

Y : Ah ma, comb my hair for me?

G : aiyo so big already still want ah ma to comb hair for you ah?

Y : *while G was combing Y hair* Ah ma do you still remember how was I like as a child?

G : Aiyo last time when you were a little girl………(talks in detail about my naughty incidents as a child for maybe 40 seconds)……….and now you’re so big girl already. Wah time passes so fast…

Y: Ah ma, you do know that even though I was so naughty to you last time, I love you a lot right? Even now so.

G: Aiyo, I know hahahaha.


Explanation

The above is the dialogue I had initially wanted to carry out between my Grandmother and me. I had the idea to have an intimate conversation with my grandmother by talking about my past, which her expressions and her memories of me would bring her character out better. Be that as it may, much improvisation had to be carried out to head in the direction that I wanted instead of following the script I had planned out word for word.

Through this dialogue, there is a tight relation between both characters: My Grandmother and Myself.

I felt deeply that this dialogued recorded cannot be replicated or reproduced by anyone except for the both of us. Stories may vary when asking a different person who shares the same memory, but this story only makes sense when told by my grandmother and questions imposed by me.


In Depth Character Profiling (Updated)

ah-maajpg

My grandmother’s whole life is dedicated to taking care of the house and providing a home for her children, as well as practically taking me under her wing ever since I was born because my parents had to go to work. Her love language is more of ‘Acts of Service’ rather than ‘Words of Affirmation’. Hence, towards the end she replies my expression of love towards her with a mild chiding tone and shy chuckle.

me

My character in this dialogue is more of a reminiscing and a questioning one. Unlike my grandmother who is always at home and hardly steps out of her house, I am constantly on the move with time. My childhood is something I cannot revisit, and it will only be a fragmented piece of memory. Hence, this conversation with my grandmother about my past, adds another perspective on the same memory I had. In addition, it feels heart-warming to hear from my grandmother’s perspective of her memory of my childhood self.


Methodology

I added some clips between the dialogue footage not only to spice up the stagnant one-frame-middle shot, but to set the scene of where the dialogue was set up.

slide2

Such as my grandma’s HDB Flat scene, clock ticking (in my grandmother’s house), the swaying Bougainvillea flowers planted by my Granddad before he passed on (appears when Grandma and I were talking about him) and the ‘Block 321 Clementi Ave 5’, which is the neighborhood area of where my grandma stays at.

In addition, the clips are included to provide visual aid instead of having the viewers to just imagine something they might have never seen before.

slide1

Such as the process of her preparing food for me and the food that I loved to eat as a kid, exactly as the way how she prepares them.

For this part, I was inspired by a certain scene in The Virgin Suicide, where Trip and Lux were in the auditorium:

I liked the idea of how the narration in the lecture are in sync with the actions between Lux and Trip. For instance, at the 0:13 mark when the narration in the lecture says, “One high pressure and one low, coming into contact with another.”; and that is when Lux and Trip’s elbows touched. Hence, I was inspired by that scene and I added to the food scenes when the food my grandma listed out appears onscreen simultaneously.

Something that I have observed when I was adding subtitles to the video, is that how the subtitling was done really sets the atmosphere of the dialogue and film as well. While editing, I was pondering between translating the conversation for what it means in formal English, or should I translate it for what it is: Informal and light hearted conversation between a grandchild and a grandmother. As you can see, I went for the latter.

I included ‘Using Motifs to express Themes’ a couple of times in this project.

slide3

Clock Ticking footage and the Block Number 321 footage to express my theme:

  • You cannot go back to the past, so live in the present.
  • Treasure the ones around you while you can.

Both motif involves numbers. The clock showing that time is never stopping as much as we reminisce, and that ‘321’ is a form of counting down to the days we have left.


Difficulties faced

  1. Staging the dialogue according to the script was not easy at all because my grandmother character was MY ACTUAL GRANDMOTHER and directing her character to memorize the script was not plausible, so I tried to direct her in a way that our conversation is headed in that direction I wanted. Hence, the final product was more of a documentation of my daily conversation with her and I really liked it because: One, it was on a real account; Two, it was hardly staged because I just told my grandmother to talk to me as per normal and Three, I got to know some new things about how my grandmother sees me as a kid.
  2. I had a lot of extra footage, and cutting it down to grasp the main essence and the part about expressing my characters through the dialogue was not easy. Because I found that many parts were critical and I had to give up quite a handful of precious dialogue that would emphasize on my grandmother’s character. Thus, abrupt cuts were seen.
  3. I started to use Adobe Premier Pro for the first time to fully edit a video and it was quite stressful because I had a mental image of how I would want the video to look, but I was not able to achieve it because I wasn’t familiar with the software. But I believe with more practice and video tutorials online, I think I would be better than I was this time. 🙂

 

Theme

Theme = Emotion = Audience Connection

Theme is not a one-word explanation like ‘Happiness’, as it doesn’t tell much about the film.

For instance, the movie that captured our hearts and made me into a sobbing mess in the theaters: Inside Out

The overall theme for the movie is :

‘Sadness is required to make Joy better’

Having a good theme would not only make emotional connections with your audience better, but also the message stays rooted in the audience’s mind after the movie.

A Theme = The Controlling Idea = The Message

The controlling idea is that everything (Dialogue + Scene +Props tie down to 1 idea.)

It is also essential that the Theme of the movie/film CANNOT have Conflicting Themes! For instance, Riley in the movie Inside Out cannot talk about politics in the film because it has 0 relevance to the theme of the film and that it will confuse the viewers. Thus it is important that when setting the theme for a film, we ought to revise the circle above to ensure that our themes and subthemes in the film are not conflicting.


Another example is used to figure out the theme of the local film during lesson:

Singapore Dreaming (and yes… the entire film is available on YouTube YES~)

The themes the class has contributed for this film is :

  • Limbo of common folks to be the elites
  • The pursuit of wealth + success (Paper Chase)
  • Gender Roles in Asian context (specifically Singapore)
  • Negativity is transmittable
  • The need for upward social mobility
  • Ego is what breaks relationships.

What are other ways for us to present our themes for films?

  1. Through Characters, it embodies the theme.
  2. Motifs
  3. Dialogues
  4. Setting

Using Characters- Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Windows

Using characters, this film illustrates the urban relationship behind closed doors. The main character sees the real bitterness of his neighbors through his own window.

Theme?

You will not know how person feels or think on the inside, and the exterior image they show you may be just a façade to hide their true feelings and emotions.

Choice of music in this film also shows the theme of this film, which evokes fragility & loneliness exhibited by characters in this film.

Using Motifs – Saving Private Ryan

In the film, there is a scene where the colonel was directing his troop towards his map as to where Ryan can be found. In the midst of explaining, the compass in his hand was shaking. The soldiers looked at the colonel’s hand and gave him a warm smile before the proceeded to look for Ryan.

The motif in this film is the Compass.

The colonel was nervous about the search or was suffering from physical injury from the war, but still insisted to search for Ryan with his entire troop. In the process, there was this conflicting moral ambiguity he was battling. The shaking compass was a motif to show the moral compass of the colonel along with the troops.

Theme?

Is it worth giving up the entire forest for a single tree?


Yit Ling, Clara and I (Group mates for Final project in Sem 1 <3) went to watch The Silence of the Lambs afterwards to try to apply what we have learnt during lesson, and sieve out the themes involves in this movie.

Themes?

>Repression from misogynist in a “male job”
>Women can handle male dominated jobs as well
>Hard work pays off
> Good things goes to those who fight for it 

Hence, a Theme is consistent throughout a movie and it sets the overarching story of the entire movie; the lesson learnt at the end of the movie.

First week of Semester 2~ *Inhales Exhales* I can already smell the assignements piling in already… LETS GO~


Stories and Your Identity

For today’s class, Ru Yi taught us what makes a good story.

Finding your own voice.

  1. Stories you care about
  2. To boot:
  • The kind of stories you are best qualifies to tell
  • The kinds of character that particularly attracts you.
  • The situations you find especially intriguing
  • A journal to record them all ( Words, Dialogues that attracts you etc.)

And then Ru Yi showed us a video of novelist, Chimamanda Adichie‘s speech : The Danger of a single story.

After watching listening to her speech, I have learnt that as a child, she created stories based on what she was exposed to in American books; in which she has no first hand experience of as a Nigerian child. For instance, eating apples in winter and drinking ginger beer. As a child she was vulnerable and impressionable. Soon, she changed and started writing about things she recognizes on first hand. She then realized that many of us including herself then that media’s portrayal of people and their single story kind of forms what a specific group of a person ought to look like, this has resulted in what they have become to the rest.

So the overall point that I have extracted from this video is…

“Don’t make ‘One Story’ be the ‘Only Story’.”


In order for a good story to be created, we need to have characters that are impressionable. Hence there is a need to define the need of your characters.

  1. POV (What the character’s believes in)
  2. Attitude (Intellectual Decision)
  3. Behavior / Mentality (The way in which a person behaves in response to a particular situation)

Hence, I watched Kill Bill Volume I for the first time, and had a go at dissecting the main character: The Bride (and yes she wasn’t given a name, they bleeped her name when mentioned in the film by other characters)

Here is the trailer for the movie! 🙂

*Spoilers alert

scanThis is the dissection of ‘The Bride’ in Kill Bill Volume I I have attempted in. 🙂

I have learnt that character dissection is very important because it helps the character in the movie to connect with the audience in terms of familiarity and evoke a feeling to care for the character. This enhances the plot of the film.

 

Our group or as known as Ling Teh Kam-pany (Derived from our names), consists of Kam Yit Ling, Clara Teh Ke Wei and myself, Seng Yi Ling. And here, we present to you our very own movie trailer for our final 4D assignment of Year 1 Semester 1…

Movie Title: Yi(t) Ling
Genre: Fantasy + Psychological Horror

3 Act Structure

Beginning (Act 1)

Yi Ling is a shy and quiet person. Once focused on a task, she is far from being distracted. Sadly, she is ostracized by her classmates as she seemed rude and had a stuck up attitude. Her classmates disliked and gave her a hard time. Until one day, her new classmate Queenie decided to befriend her.

Rising action

To her dismay, Queenie sold Yi Ling out to fit in as she got ostracized by their classmates when she was seen hanging out with Yi Ling. She ganged up with her classmates and forced Yi ling into room rumored to be haunted for fun’s sake. When Yi Ling managed to open the door after much struggling, she was transported to another dimension where there were doors which led her to places as a ghost tailed her.

Middle (Act 2)

Encounters with the ghost tells Yi Ling that the ghost wants her to stay in this dimension and never go back. The spirit was motivated by loneliness which both characters shared and was enraged when Yi Ling refused to stay.

Ending (Act 3)

The ghost is in actual fact a manifestation as her alter ego. The other dimension filled with doors was a symbolism of change Yi Ling faced in her life. And the only way Yi Ling can get back to her world is by killing a part of her: Her Alter Ego.


References

We watched many horror movie trailers as a form of research and shared our experiences and views on past movies we’ve watched that could be of assistance to our movie trailer! 🙂

Crimson Peak (The Ghost was constantly present, but not shown blatantly.)

Black Swan (Killing of her Alter Ego)

The Babadook (Ghost was a manifestation of main character’s fears.)

The Boy ( Placement of background music.)

Placement of background music was very on point here – it had us 3 covering our ears and half shutting our eyes in fear to watch the trailer. The initial beginning of the trailer has a soft mellow piano tune when the female lead approaches the mansion, and the drastic change of music when they revealed The Boy to her sent shivers down our spine. The sudden change of music instantly let the viewers know what atmosphere the trailer aims to set: Simple life of the girl -> Horror of her lifetime.

Blair Witch Project (Handheld camera shots to show desperation and fear.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D51QgOHrCj0

Coraline (Travelling into another dimension, and use of different colour for different world)

In Coraline, the saturation of her world is low and colours are dull like the reality she lives in. In the other dimension, she enters a door where saturation is high and colours are vibrant and lively like the life she yearns to live in.


Editorial

Blackout shots – Blackout transition shots are a recurring motif. It is used as a representation of time lapse. When used in our trailer, the following scene will be of another place and another time. In addition, length of transition creates suspense and indicate a tonal shift in the scene.

Color  – Adjusting of color to establish different dimensions were used. In the real world, colors are more saturated and was brighter; whereas in the other dimension, saturation was kept to a minimum and brightness was decreased to emphasize on the stark differences in both worlds, so as to make it more spooky.

Background music and audio – Music were used to build up the anticipation and gives the audience the emotion they ought to be feeling a specific sections of the trailer. For instance, mellow piano music at the start to give a soothing feeling, and high pitched fast paced music at the climax when main character was being chased down.

Parallel Universe – At the scene (0:45) where the main character exit onto the parking lot, the composition has a mirror image reflection on the extreme left of the shot, to enhance the parallel universe feeling.
Staircase scene shows main character running up the stairs away from the Ghost, but she remains on the same level as the stairway in the other dimension is an infinite loop (0:58 – 1:09) .

Shots Established

Still Shot was used at the start of the trailer, where a serene feeling is given of the school environment. (0:09)

Fast Pan + POV at the scene where main character looks around perplexed at the new dimension she entered (0:49) .

Dolly In and Out scenes are present at the scene to show the ominous door (0:30) and the scene where zooming in on her expression to show that  she is perplexed after opening the door to another location (0:48).

Mid-shot was used at the scene where main character is pleading the classmates to let her out. (0:40)

Handheld shot when the main character is running up the stairs. (1:01)

Low Angle Shot at the scene where 3 Classmates (Dawin, Jon, JiaQi – Thanks guys!) were gossiping about the main character. (0:22)

Trucking Shot was used when classmates (Thanks Queenie and Debbie!)were pushing the main character inside the haunted room. (0:35)

Close-up Shot was used when main character was wrenching at the door handle when she is locked in (0:41). And the part where the main character’s phone is ringing (1:25).

Canted angle shot are present when phone is dropped amidst the struggle when pushing the main character inside the haunted room (0:37), and the scene where the ghost is wrenching the door to be opened (1:14). This is to create drama and suspense.

Slow Pan is used at the transition scene where the main character looks into the mirror and the reflection looks back at her (1:39-1:42).

Challenges Faced

  • We tend to forget that the trailer is 2 mins and thus, eventually worry that our trailer does not convey our plot properly; but at the same time we don’t want our trailer to be a 2 min summary of the movie (given that it is a MOVIE trailer).
  • Finding an appropriate location which conveyed the intended feeling was not easy. Our main character’s setting is in a school environment and hence the school was used. But for the horror aspect we had to find narrow and dark areas within campus and that was difficult. Given that we even trespassed ongoing construction sites in school.
  • Suitable. background. music. was. really. hard. to. find.
  • Miss Ruyi mentioned that our logo and lobby music was not very appropriate for our Horror trailer, but our group felt that the logo was a good representation of our efforts as a group and the elevator music gave it a merry feeling. This will create the drop of emotions when the horror aspects of our trailer is revealed. 🙂

Feedbacks and Critiques
  • Bar chart results obtained from Ms Ruyi’s Google survey for our group were more towards the positive end of the spectrum.  (thank you!)
  • Sound effect can be toned down to hear narration of the alter ego better in the end.
  • The starting music doesn’t match with the rest of the trailer , perhaps a non jazzy music that foreshadows the story?
  • Show that the alter ego and the main character are two compelling personalities/ people by including more interactive scenes between the 2. Perhaps by voice over of dialogue between 2 person or a struggle between the 2.
  • Yi Ling can act! (Yi Ling says thank you >~< )
  • There were different shots to show the mood of the character.
If u guys have any constructive criticism or comments that we’ve missed out, do leave a feedback down below! WE APPRECIATE IT ?

Initially I was pretty apprehensive to do group work for assignments as I am a rather ‘lone ranger’ kind of person, and having to do group work would mean that there is potential conflicts etc. But I was proven extremely wrong as I felt that our group worked really well together and even bonded closer as friends! 😀 I am very blessed to have worked with Clara and Yit Ling for this project, and I couldn’t have asked for better group mates~
Our first and hopefully not the last group photo as Ling Teh Kam-pany :D

Our first and hopefully not the last group photo as Ling Teh Kam-pany 😀

Thanks lovelies 😉

For today’s lesson, we learnt about framing the moving image!

girl-with-dragon-larger-negative-size

Q: So why is a moving camera important?

Our class discussed and gave several answers!

  • A moving camera allows the viewers to see the actor’s facial expression & movement, it tells us where to look.
  • It gives a sense of flow, space and continuity.
  • It helps audiences to absorb information: Natural state of movement instead of stiff and flat framed images.
  • Gives different perspective to/ of a subject: Gives dimension and it is less boring.
  • The camera has character! Slow panning shows cinematic environment, up and down angle gives dramatic effect.

3 Things that move: Object, Camera and Audience POV.

  • Camera movement is very important, it makes things more exciting
  • Panning.

Panning Shots

Why do Cameras pan?

  1. It gives the geographical location of the character.
  2. Introduces landscape of that place.
  3. Expresses meaning non literally/literally.

Slow pan: Gives off a serene feeling

Fast pan: Dynamic shot

Whip pan: Dramatic feeling

Tilting shot

  • Exists in shots simulating the male gaze (where they scan a hot girl up and down)
  • Gives a sense of authority. Like in the movie, Grand Budapest, where the doorman and the manager were conversing from a higher ground and level ground, to show the status of the characters.
  • Gives opinion and critique of the situation.

Tracking Shot

Allows the viewer to see in the perspective of the character from behind, or follows the by moving alongside the character.

So when do you use panning or tracking shot to follow a character?

Panning is more 2D and flat, whereas tracking shots are more dynamic by following the character.

Handheld Shots

Handheld Shots are often used in Horror and Thriller genre movies.

Handheld camera shot is a video production technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator’s hands . The shots are shaky, as though we are running to escape together with the character in his POV.

Example of movies with handheld shots are The Blair Witch Project ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=girSv9UH_V8)and ‘The Celebration’ . ‘The Celebration’ goes against traditional Hollywood movie shooting process and the shots are all handheld shots and are in natural state. It gives a documentary-like feeling and seem less fictional.

Dolly in and out shots: Zooming in and out of the shot.

Crane Shot: Using a Jimmy Jib camera to shoot the process, the shots are airy and floating, like giving a bird’s eye view in the sky.

Here is a video of the type of shots to get a better idea of the shots used in movies! :

A video that I think consist of a variety of shots is a music video, Growl by EXO! (fan girl shrieks)

The Music video is entirely conducted using Tracking shots, so there must be no room for error; otherwise the whole video has to be retaken. I believe the camera for this music video is taken using a handheld camera as the shots taken are very dynamic and moves all about the place. However, the shots are very stable instead of shaky and unstable like hand held cameras, so I believe a stabilizer was attached to the cameraman to allow smooth shots when he was shooting the video.

It also consist of Panning shots ( at 2:48 minute mark), Dolly in and out shots (at 2:37 & 3:23 minute mark)

 

Assignment 3 was pretty fun to do as I tried to apply what we’ve learnt during lessons with Ms Ruyi, and having to work with subject matter which didn’t have facial expressions was quite a fun challenge to me!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I carrot about you

Title: I carrot about you

Genre: Romance + Tragedy

Logline: A modern day vegetable love story.

Synopsis using 3 Act structure:

(Exposition/Introduction) Cassandra the Carrot has lived a long and lonely life in the fridge. The other ingredients in the fridge has already gotten their partners: a dozen of eggs, a pair of apples and a pair of pears .

(Rising Action) One day, The Hand reached out and placed Cassandra on the kitchen counter. In awe because Carrot has yet to seen the warm outside world for a long time, she was happy. Then suddenly, The Hand placed a grocery bag beside her where she met Carl the Cabbage.

(Stakes getting higher) Carl and Cassandra fell in love at first sight. They were different from their own species and were very intrigued with each other. The other vegetables despised and talked behind their backs about their uncommon and odd relationship. But they didn’t care. They were in love.

(Crisis) One evening, Carrot was taken away from Cabbage’s embrace by The Hand as she was no longer fresh enough to keep. And Cabbage was placed in the cold dark fridge by The Hand. Out of misery and desperation, Cabbage rammed himself against the fridge door repeatedly to save the love of his life, in the process, damaging himself.

(Falling Action) Upon seeing the damaged cabbage when The Hand took the fishcakes out of the fridge, The Hand decided to cook the Carl . The Hand took Carl to the chopping board and he saw the remains of his lover: Cassandra’s peeled skin and carrot top. Carl’s heart was torn apart, like how he was being torn by The Hand.

(Resolution) Little did they know that they were cooked and served in different dishes, the bodies of Carl and Cassandra were reunited again on the dinner table.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Expressions

My video does not include narration nor visible facial expressions. HENCE, I attempted to include expressions for my subject matters by the use of angle, proximity of the subject matters and the expression marks usually used in manga and comic books.
I used the 3 pink lines on each 'cheek' of my subject matters to indicate blushing.

I used the 3 pink lines on each ‘cheek’ of my subject matters to indicate blushing.

Mood and Atmosphere of situation
Camera Angles: Canted angles are often used  to indicate dramatization and shock during the Crisis stage where Carl and Cassandra were separated at the sink, as well as when Carl was damaged after he got damaged in the process to save Cassandra.
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The two lovers were separated by The Hand by the sink

Timing of each image: Heavily inspired by La Jetee’s use of timing for each image to give the mood and situation of each scene, I set the timing for the images to be short (2 seconds) to indicate speed of each scene. For instance the scene where Carl was being taken away by The Hand from Cassandra, and the scene where he was brutally ripped apart by The Hand.
The process where Carl was taken away by The Hand was quick. Hence the image timing was quick too.

The process where Carl was taken away by The Hand was quick. Hence the image timing was quick too.

And I extended the timing for the images (~7 seconds) for the scenes where time seem to stop, to sink in the moment. Such as the scene where Cassandra and Carl were in love and admiring each other.
Time seems to pause momentarily for them as they fell in love

Time seems to pause momentarily for them as they fell in love

Reoccurring Motif: Inspired by the film American Beauty where the color Red was a reoccurring motif, I decided to use the red mug with the Chinese character ‘囍’ as the reoccurring motif. ‘囍’ means double happiness where it is usually used in traditional Chinese weddings. It acts a semiotic in my images to describe the mood of double happiness when Carl and Cassandra meet.

Time seems to pause momentarily for them as they fell in love

Time seems to pause momentarily for them as they fell in love, represented by the red mug.

The mug was seen again in the scene where Carl was kept in the fridge, but this time, the Chinese character  囍 was halved as he is now alone and not with his other half: Cassandra.

 囍 is halved in this scene where Carl is viewed upclose

囍 is halved in this scene where Carl is viewed up-close.

Lighting: I edited the refrigerator photos to a blue-ish lighting to emit a sterile and lack of warmth environment, and increased the saturation level of the subjects that experience warmth/love in the fridge such as the coupled fruits and eggs. This is to emphasize that amidst the cold and lack of warmth environment, the coupled subjects obtained their warmth from their partner’s love. Whereas Cassandra the carrot does not have the warmth lighting like the rest as she is alone and at that moment unloved.
Blue-ish tone of fridge

Blue-ish tone of fridge

Pears in love has warmer tones as compared to the blue-ish background

Pears in love has a warmer tone as compared to the blue-ish background

Background music (BGM): 
BGM chosen are non lyrical and usually includes instruments and white noises. I didn’t want lyrical BGM to distract the viewers as the words may create a different meaning. I wanted to choose a BGM that conveys the mood of the situation, and that was the main point for me.

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Use of Wally Wood’s 22 Panels to create Variety
Depth
Depth in Wally Wood's 22 Panels

Depth in Wally Wood’s 22 Panels

One big and one small object in Wally Wood's 22 Panels

One big and one small object in Wally Wood’s 22 Panels

Cassandra is often in the distance and blurry whereas the coupled subject matters are up close on the right or left, to create depth. My intention was  to create an implied line, to emit this feeling where Cassandra is looking from afar in slight envy of the loving fruits.

Depth is created here as eggs are closer to the camera while the other veggies and fruits are further behind

Depth is created here as eggs are closer to the camera while the other veggies and fruits are further behind

Contrast

Contrast in Wally Wood's 22 Panels

 

Use of dark foreground in Wally Wood’s 22 Panels

Contrast in color and tone is often used in the images in my video so as to allow the viewers to focus on a certain area only. This contrasts creates variety in the images and prevents them from looking flat and non- emotive.
Bright central subject matters against a dark background

Bright central subject matters against a dark background

Subject matters in the foreground are much darker as compared to central subject matters.

Subject matters in the foreground are much darker as compared to central subject matters.

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Conclusion of Assignment 2
It was quite a challenge for me to portray the feelings of my subjects as they were non- living and expressionless. I have learnt that the use of timing of each image, lighting, angle and music to give emotions to my subject matters and every tweak or post photography edits changes the mood and atmosphere the original image could convey! Ru Yi suggested that I should have removed the blushing effect  and startled effect over the subject matters as the music and color contrast was already pretty much self explanatory :0 . Nonetheless, it was a real fun for me in this project as I was able to be my own director and portray my expressionless subject matters the way I want to create a narrative story!
Cheers!
Seng Yi Ling

Today in class we learnt about what makes a good story!

Miss Ruyi showed us a video of filmmaker Andrew Stanton on TED TALK on what he thinks make up a good story, and I find that highly inspirational and I was blown away by how much thought was placed into story making in films and animations.

Link to watch the video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxDwieKpawg

I have learnt from the video that:

  • Story telling is knowing when to insert your punchlines.
  • Stories in films give us affirmation that our lives have meaning.
  • A good story is able to transcend through past, present and the future.
  • ‘Make Me Care’. By evoking emotions of audiences to care about the characters, it engages the audience’s heart and minds.
  • Make a promise to the audience that watching your film is worth their time. It acts as a pebble pulled on a slingshot, it propels one forward in the story.
  • Story form without dialogues are very innocent. Well absent information draws the viewers into the story and capture our hearts. An example of a film without dialogues is Wall-E !MV5BMTczOTA3MzY2N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTYwNjE2MQ@@__V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_
  • ‘Unify Theory as 2+2’ make audiences think and ponder instead of feeding direct information to them.
  • Character with a spine (story/goal) gives depth to the story.
  • When thing goes static, the story dies.
  • Global tension exists to help the story.

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Like Dory’s bad memory in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory where her memory was a constant worry for the audience to reach a final resolution to the films.

  • Drawing a (tragic) backstory of a character also helps to build a good story. Like Woody in Toys Story where he is selfless, but his back story is of him being very selfish in the past.
  • Having little secrets in the story, the plot is driven forward as the audience would be curious of ‘the secret’ shared by the characters.
  • Use what you know. Express values of what you truly feel. It is the truth and it is genuine, which I believe audience can feel. After all, your story is unique and not replicable.

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Understanding types of genres also aids in story telling.

moodboard genre

A film can be exciting when mixing of genre is involved. (e.g. Action + Thriller) But eventally as a whole, the movie ought to have a primary genre.

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Like ‘Her’ by Spike Jonze, it is a mixed genre of romance and sci-fi, but the primary genre of this movie is Romance~

The use of ‘The 3 Act Structure’ is very relevant and aids one to organize their story boarding in films.

3-actThe setup (Exposition) consists of the facts the audiences need to know, like the establishment of characters an motive

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Personal Input:

A movie I had watched recently that I felt was… bad and a total waste of my money and time was …

mechanicposterYES. I had really high expectations of this movie initially because the male lead was Jason Statham, the actor in one of my all time favorite action movie, ‘The Transporter’.

Using ‘The 3 Act Structure’ to breakdown the action-thriller movie,

(SPOILER ALERT)

The Introduction and Exposition was rather clear, he was a highly paid for assassin who faked his death so he could lead a ‘normal life’. And in the midst of enjoying civilian life, his identity was found and was given a job he didn’t want to continue anymore.

The Rising Action at the Conflict stage began when he escaped to Thailand to seek refuge from an old friend. Long story cut short, his plan was ruined when some damsel in distress seeks for his help, who turned out to be a spy who was held hostage by the employer who wanted the male lead to carry on his assassin job.

And this is when the plots starts dwindling… the following scenes were so fast paced and everything that came after seemed rush. He traveled to 3 different countries to execute missions in 36 hours… did he teleport through a portal or??? I felt that sexual tension was exploding between the characters even though there was no proper build up to their relationship. Now, I felt the build up was essential even though it was not a romance film as he took up the assassination job which he avoided for years to save her: someone he ONLY met for 2 days…

I got bored really quick as the only thing that kept me alive in the cinema was the gory fighting scenes and the constant flashing of the male and female lead’s hot bodies. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STORY?!

The falling action in the resolution category was that the female lead was saved and they lived happily ever after. THE END. *roll eyes* SO PREDICTABLE… At that point I just wanted my 1 hr and 40 mins back.

Amazing casts were in this movie, like Jason Statham, Jessica Alba, Michelle Yeoh etc. But the plot and script just killed it all.

Even though there was The 3 Act Structure in the movie, I find that the process of buildups and transitions were very badly handled. But of course, this is purely based on my opinion while comparing it with other films I have watched. Sorry for the spoilers and unplanned movie review.foot-in-mouth

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Food for thought I had during today’s lesson was ‘ Does good looking actors/ characters help to drive a story?‘ I had dual perspective on this… Yes, because good looking characters help to keep the audience’s attention. And No, because attention is so drawn to the visual appearance of the actor, the plot of the story is casted aside and that defeats the purpose of the entire film because… if you want to look at good-looking actors, just go stalk them on social media right? Why bother paying so much to watch a movie?? Unless the whole use of good-looking casts is for publicity reasons. #SadTruth

Thanks for reading!!

Cheers,

Seng Yi Ling.

Longed for him. Got him. Shit.

This was our 6 word story class assignment for today and we (Group members: Queenie, Yit Ling, Zoelyn, Hui Min and Myself) were given some time to portray this short story into photographs using what we have learnt in class today!

I have learnt that framing is very important as it determines how the audience is able to get the full experience of the emotions and message the director wants to convey.

Lead room/ lead space

full_1341_62441_LeadRoom_1

Character looks to the right and has a lot of space to his right. This allows the audience to assume that the character is going towards that direction.

Rule of Thirds ( applies to close up, mid-shots, full body shots)

img_0011_thirdsRule

Golden Ratio of the rule of thirds puts character the director wants to focus at the intersecting line. Allowing the audience’s eyes to be drawn to the character, creating a hamonious balance.

Framing

In_the_Mood_Essay_Current_large

In the movie, ‘ In the mood of love’, the door frame/ widow frame is often used as a frame for the main character. This is because our eyes to be naturally drawn towards open frames,The inclusion of a light source such as back light or lamp brings about attention due to the contrast of lighting between the dark hall way and the main character’s position.

Another movie , ‘Ida’ the main character is always framed at the corners of the screen, going against the rules of third even though she is the main character.

Ida (3)

This is highly intriguing to me because without knowing the actual reason why the director chose to shoot the scene in a specific manner, I would have assumed he is bad at filming.  But the reason for her being at awkward areas of the frame is because of her story. She is framed out of place. Just like her situation where she feels out of place as she is a Jewish nun. The breaking of conventional framing rules are exceptionally meaningful in this case where the way the character is filmed links to his/her story.

Lines

Horizontal lines gives a sense of peace and serenity.

Vertical lines gives a sense of stability and power

Diagonal lines gives a sense of dynamism, instability and is often used in futuristic films

Types of shots

Full body shot should have head space and legs of the character should not be cut at ankles, otherwise he will look awkward.

Mid body shot should be cut at the waist of the character.

Close up should be cut at the shoulder. It is recommended if director wants to focus on the main character’s facial expression, close scrutiny of details. Close-up shots of main character should not be cut off at the eyebrows or chin area, otherwise expressions are more difficult to be read and character will look awkward as well.

Macro Close up shot signifies importance of the object

Canted angle is when the shot is tilted at a 45 degrees angle.

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Like in Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire film’, scenes shot at 45 degree angle seem more chaotic, dramatized and intense.

Out of focus shots gives a sense of losing consciousness.

Shame movie out of focus~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Longed for him. Got him. Shit.

“Longed for him.” Rules of Third are applied here . Down up angle, close up shot to create a feeling of admiration and focus on facial expression.

Close up shot of subject matters to emphasise on expressions. Line of perspective created by railings at the back allows viewers to draw their attention to both. Rules of Third are applied here too.

Close up shot of subject matters to emphasize on expressions.
Line of perspective created by railings at the back allows viewers to draw their attention to both.
Rules of Third are applied here too.

Stairway acts as a line of perspective and railing acts as a frame for 3 subject matters. Full back body shots are used.

Stairway acts as a line of perspective and railing acts as a frame for 3 subject matters.
Full back body shots are used.

 

Subject matter on the left is cut off half way to create a feeling of mystery. Rules of third are attempted to be applied here whereby the two subject matters on the left are the main focus

Subject matter on the left is cut off half way to create a feeling of mystery.
Rules of third are attempted to be applied here whereby the two subject matters on the left are the main focus.

Got him. Subject figure on the right is in the center to create focus, and subject figure on the left is still cut in half out of frame to create the feeling of mystery.

“Got him.”
Subject figure on the right is in the center to create focus on her facial expression, and subject figure on the left is still cut in half out of frame and out of focus to create the feeling of mystery.

Shit. Rules of third are applied here a well. Subject figure on the left is out of focus. Railing in the back creates an implied line to draw viewer's attention in the direction of the second subject figure on the right. Subject figure's expression are in focus to draw attention to facial expression.

“Shit.”
Rules of third are applied here a well.
Subject figure on the left is out of focus.
Railing in the back creates an implied line to draw viewer’s attention in the direction of the second subject figure on the right.
Subject figure’s expression are in focus to draw attention to facial expression.

Found this class assignment to be very entertaining and helpful in making me understand the types of framing, composition and shots that can better help convey the story the directors want to portray. I believe that now after this lesson, I would pay more attention to the types of framing an angles in films , and question myself more often as to why the director chose to shoot the scenes this way! 😀

Cheers,

Yi Ling.