The Last Emperor

The film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1987. At the 60th Academy Awards, the film won nine Oscars. The last emperor Pu Yi had a dramatic life. He experience highs and lows of life, from born noble and master of China to became prisoner in the jail. In the end, the last emperor became a poor worker. 

color

The film use two yellow and white hue, yellow hue used in the forbidden city, Pu Yi live in there and enjoy his emperor high-grade of life. The emperor play the tennis with princess Wan Ron. First scene is a long shot to explain they played tennis. However, film cutter show the everyone's close-up shot. Why did not use full shot firstly? . The full shot express characters's position in the frame. If the tennis match is not real, every actor hard to act very spot on. 

Revolutionary army rush into the forbidden city, they start to drive the emperor. the emperor bowed farewell to his english tutor. So the long shot for go far away emperor. The english tutor has a mid shot. The vermillion walled building still  appear the film.

Light 

Vittorio Storaro is photographer  in this film. He know how to use the light. Side light can increase scene. Especially, when the emperor back to the summer palace, the light project not only  to his face but also to the dragon chair. Making a charming and glory atmosphere, but the place do not belong to the emperor.

References:

IMDb. (1987). The Last Emperor . Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093389/?ref_=nv_sr_1. Last accessed 4th Dec 2015.

The conformist

The conformist is a political drama directed by Bernardo Bertolucci in 1970. The film talk about a man who do the things like to follow the environment. He do not consider  himself. The film is too old, but the metaphor have a deeply influence until today.

Bertolucci use massive shot with filter. However, the filters make the photography of  film add lots of marks. In the beginning, long shot and smooth tracking shot make a comfort atmosphere.

Light and shadow

In a scene, Marcello hold a flower to his fiancee's home. The shadow of curtains make a clever line on the characters. Vittorio Storaro explains that he used a 'form of cage' on the characters(David,2012). 

It is a very interesting picture. The director demand to waggle the droplight. Thus, a flicker scene very fascinating.

Filters

In the film. three color filters be used,  blue, yellow and white. In the start, protagonist walk alone the street that is blue filter. The couple kiss and hug each other that make a warm and sweet atmosphere. It is yellow. The professor and his wife was killed in the forest it is white filter. The feeling makes a helpless and miserable.

Mise-en-scene

A unforgettable scene that is dancing. I can say that is a perfect Mise-en-scene. Dancers make a round and go out the restaurant. And the camera shooting outside people from window inside. The entire rhythm so fluency.

In this film I've seen many of beautiful shot. such as tilt tracking shot and held the camera by hand to follow up. I really respect the director and photographer that can make a great film in 1970.

Reference:

David, Z (2012) The Conformist – A Visual Master Class, Available at:http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2012/the-conformist-a-visual-master-class/ (Accessed: 30th August 2012).

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

Today we watched The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou in class. The film directed by Wes Anderson in 2004. You can find his shooting style firstly. Anderson put the camera in the centered. The video 'Wes Anderson centered' shown by Dr David. Anderson compose lots of symmetry and put the most important thing in the middle. His shooting style break many conventions. Directors avoid symmetry as it feels stagey(Jonathan, 2014). Robert Yeoman is Anderson's chief cameraman. They cooperate to shot many classical films.

The humor points not high-ranking but it is really so funny. For example, an old man want sign for Steve but when he sign three poster, he noticed that is a no end thing.

The classical shot of the film that is Steve introduce his boat. Anderson made a huge cross-section ship to the audience. However, according to Yeoman, the scale of model is too big to shot the whole boat (Kyle, 2015). He is an artist that makes many impossible to possible things. 

Reference: 

Joanthan, C (2014) The Perfect Symmetry of Wes Anderson’s Movies, Available at:http://www.openculture.com/2014/03/the-perfect-symmetry-of-wes-andersons-movies.html (Accessed: March 19th, 2014).

Kyle Buchanan (2015) How Wes Anderson’s Cinematographer Shot These 9 Great Scenes, Available at: http://www.vulture.com/2015/01/how-wes-andersons-cinematographer-shot-9-scenes.html (Accessed: January 8, 2015).

Review of film: The Darjeeling Limited

The Darjeeling Limited is directed by Wes Anderson in 2007.  I have watched two movies by Wes Anderson. The first one is The Grand Budapest Hotel. Three brothers reunion again because they go to their dad's funeral. They want to experience a spiritual  travel. Three brothers take a child funeral in India. Via a montage method transfer three brothers back to their father's funeral. Because two funerals make an echoed, the boy and father both die in peter's arms. I watched the film first time,  never known what will happen in the next time.

For the audio-visual art, soundtracks and the colors give me very deeply impression. Wes Anderson is a unique director that can make a common film and full of metaphor and information. 

I want to talk about frame of the film. The film can find filming style by Wes Anderson. The main subject in the middle line that is bold innovation. No matter photographer or director is used to put the actor  in the one third of the line. However, Wes Anderson breaks the rule and gains the good effect. Many people say that Wes Anderson is a next Woody Allen. 

Other one is rotation shot. The photographer stay at a position and rotate the camera to every main subject. The process of rotation is blur, because scenes need fast and  accuracy. These kind of shot can express multiple subject's behavior in a short time.

The last one interesting shot is tracking shot. Photographer shoot the shot outside the train and follow the steps of subject . These kind of  tracking shot has many examples. Some of these give me unforgettable impression. 

References:

IMDb. (2007). The Darjeeling Limited. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0838221/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. Last accessed 4th Dec 2015.

Group Project

Hi, I am mark. Today I talk about two films influenced me. Firstly, the film is Jiro Dreams of sushi, which directed by David Gelb in 2011. Jiro Ono is a sushi master and owns a Michelin three star restaurant. The film director is also a photographer, thus he use camera to shoot the film more accuracy. I enjoy the visual style of the film. Using lots of high-speed camera and close-up view in this film. In my works, I want to try different angel. The film editing catches my eyes. However, the film cutter does not know Japanese, 200 hours videos need to be translated. Many film-editing techniques help me in the future works.

Another work is the big blue, which directed by Luc Besson in 1988. People want to constantly dive challenge; it returned the sea as a result. The film structure is narrative, from childhood to grow up. The name like the film, huge blue color blots out the frame, letting the movie fill the visual aesthetic sense. The sound of saxophone combined with the dolphin makes a visual and audio feast. Fantastic movie soundtracks need to fit the picture and atmosphere of film.

My work

This documentary is talk royal food .  the emperor eat what kind of  food and how to make it in the past.

Review of film

Jiro Dream of Sushi, is directed by David Gelb, it published in  2013. The film of lead is a sushi master , an old people operate a restaurant that is a Michelin restaurant.

Whole the film use lots of high speed camera and close-up view. Following the shot go to the subway and find the leading role. Via  the tube move station by station, starting to emerge whole life of leading role. There is a smart narrative technique.  The documentary has a rational narrative structure. How to make a narrative structure in documentary. In addition, Film soundtracks play a crucial in a contagious documentary. I follow this question to read some documentary book<Documentary Production>.There are five steps make a narrative structure. 

1.Decide the concept

2.Case studies

3. To evaluate  Truth/ Construction, aesthetics/interpretation.

4.Via case studies solve it development the script.

5.Innovate the guideline and make a working hypothesis.

I follow this question to read some documentary book.