To be or not to be a Zhang Yi Mou film?

The most like a Zhang Yi Mou film:
The shot which is the most like a Zhang Yi Mou film is the shot when the empress sits on the platform with her feet on the drums. The colours of the drums are similar to the colour of the clothes of the empress, showing that the kingdom belongs to her. The empress was wearing a pink dress and pink symbolises caring, acceptance and tenderness. The pink dress looks like the costumes the characters wear in Zhang Yi Mou films. The empress is placed in the centre of the frame. In that scene, the camera tilts from low to high. This shows that she is very powerful and mighty.  

The least like a Zhang Yi Mou film: 
The shot which is the least like a Zhang Yi Mou film is the shot where Shi Fu sits on the ground and Walking Rain came to tell Shi Fu that Fixed Shield was captured. In that scene, Shi Fu and Walking Rain were wearing school uniform and it doesn't look like a Zhang Yi Mou film. The characters should wear Chinese costumes as it is a Chinese film. In addition, Shi Fu should be more important than Walking Rain, so he should be placed higher in the frame instead of sitting on the ground. 

Reflection - Making our Zhang Yi Mou Film

How did viewing of Hero change the way you are shooting your production? How is this shoot different from the last one?
Before watching Hero, I didn't know that the director needs to decide on the costumes, when they have to shoot the film and a lot more things. We had to think about where to shoot, when to shoot and the costumes and props before shooting to make a enjoyable and good film. I also understood that every single role is very important, director, cinematographer, actors, script writer, etc, are always needed in every film.

Not only about where, when and the costumes, the lighting, framing, shot sizes, colours are very, very important, too. They can change how the audience think about the film, for example, the audience could have different thoughts on what each colour means in Hero. Red may symbolises love or death and blue may symbolises sadness or romance. Therefore, when we are shooting our production, we have to think clearly and carefully about the colours we are going to use and what the colours show. In this shoot, we mainly focus on the colour. According to the story of our film, we decided on what colours we are going to use in the film. In the last one, we did not really focus on colours. We did not think about what colours we need to use. In the script of our film, we decided that the assassin who changed his mind and support the empress is going to wear clothes that has the same colour as the clothes the empress wears, to show that he is now on the empress' side. I understood that the preparation before shooting the film is really important and mistakes should always be avoided.

Since this is a Zhang Yi Mou film, we need more fighting scenes and also Chinese style clothes, props and places to shoot in. For the last shoot, we only wore our school uniforms, but in this shoot, we wore Chinese robes. However, none of us have Chinese costumes at home and I went to the drama studio at school to borrow some Chinese costumes. 

In our film, there are parts that are not successful and had to be re-shot, and there are also parts that worked well and successfully. For example, we sometimes can't hold our laughter and that scene has to be shot for many many times, and after practicing for a few times, we can finally shoot that scene successfully. 

We learnt a lot more about cinematography in this unit and we tried to use lighting, different shot sizes, colours and framing in this film. We knew that we sometimes need to shoot one scene in different angles, so when we are editing, we can use different shot sizes to tell the story clearly and easily.We also became more careful and cautious about what we need in our shoot. 

Now, we had more experiences of shooting and editing our own films. I am glad that I can make a Zhang Yi Mou film and learn so many new things.

Reflection on Film - Hero

                In these few lessons, we watched the film "Hero" directed by the famous Chinese director named Zhang Yi Mou.

                Before watching the film, we learnt about cinematography. Cinematography means "to

write movement", and is the art of telling a story visually with images, light and colour. A cinematographer can use different ways to tell a story, such as shot sizes, composition (where the subjects are placed within the frame) and also lighting. 

What do the colours represent?

                In this film, there are many changes of colours. Red, blue, green, and white had been in it. Each colour represents different moods and characters. I think that red represents the characters' passion, while blue means the characters are cold. Also, red also means that the characters in the film died, as it is the colour of blood. In one of the scenes, when the characters died, the sky turned a bit red. Additionally, the colours of the background in the film sometimes represented who was more powerful. In one of the scenes, which the man and the emperor fight, there were many green curtains in the place where they fight. The man was wearing a green costume, so the audience would know that he was more powerful and had a bigger chance to win at that time as the background showed the colour green.

                This is a martial arts film so there are a lot of scenes which the characters fight. When they are fighting, there is contrast in the colour of the clothing they are wearing and the background. One of my favourite scenes was the characters fighting in a place filled with autumn leaves that are yellow. They were wearing red clothes and the red stands out in that scene. The colour of the leaves gradually turned from yellow to red. That was a really beautiful and gorgeous scene.

What shot sizes are used and why?

                There are many different types of shot sizes. In this film, extreme long shots are always used to show where the characters are in. They always changed from one place to another, therefore to tell the audience where the characters are, the film used a lot of extreme long shots to show the background.

How does the composition of the shot tell us something about the situation?

                One scene that is the most unforgettable is when they show how far the emperor and the man were apart. They put the characters far apart, and shot the scene using an extreme long shot. This shows how difficult it is to approach the emperor. 

What is the lighting telling you about the character?
                Sometimes, the characters' faces are a bit blue. It is telling me that they are cold and unemotional. The lighting tells me the personality of the characters or what the characters feel at that time. 

                I think I am a thinker in these few lessons. I tried to think about why the shot sizes and colours are used in the film. However, I didn’t really talk much and express my ideas during the lesson. 

Y8 Film Lesson 15 17-10-2013

                 We had our 15th film lesson today. After finishing our edits, we did the screening and gave feedbacks to all the films.
                 When we were editing, my partner and I wanted to mute one of the clips' sound since the sounds are not relevant to the film. We asked for help and our teacher taught us to lower the volume of the sounds. Our teacher told us that we could come to the classroom during break or lunch so that we can have more time to edit our films. However, we didn't go during break or lunch. We finished editing at the last minute. We should have used our spare time to edit our films.
                 We then commented on each other's films and told what they did well and what could be improved. I have learnt a lot in this unit.
                

17th October,2013

Y8 Film Lesson 14 15-10-2013

          Today in film class, we finished all our shooting.

          First, we shot our film outside the classroom, on the corridor. We haven't finished all our shots that needs to be shot in this place and went to the cafeteria for another shoot.

          Ms. Rosati then told us to finish all the shots in one place first before moving to another location. This is more efficient and will save a lot of time setting up the cameras.

          We also learnt to do different shots in different angles even if it is only one scene. 

          We are going to do our editing next lesson and also the screening. Looking forward to the next lesson!

15th October, 2013

Y8 Film Lesson 13 10-10-2013

           The film my group shot during the previous lessons were edited in the lesson of 10th October, 2013 by one of the group members and me.
           While editing, we discovered that we sometimes didn't know how to control things in Final Cut Pro, such as muting the sounds, which at last one scene in the film ended up with voices of ourselves discussing about the video.
           After finishing the editing, our teacher played all the edited films and we gave comments to each other's edited film so that we can improve on it.
           Since this is not our final edit yet, we are still going to improve our film and end the film shooting next lesson. We had a fun time shooting and editing in film lesson!

10th October,2013

Y8 Film Lesson 12 8-10-2013

                         Today, we are filming some other scenes. This time, I had to act as I am one of the characters in the film!
                         First, we had to find the right location according to the script to film. We needed to find a place which is dark. After thinking for a long time, we finally went to the practice room, where you can practice piano and other music instruments. The room is dark enough that we can't even see each other. Then, in the script, one scene needs red eyes effect. We borrowed some red lights for the effect. 
                         After this lesson, I found out that making a film needs a lot of props and preparation. We must think of every single part of the script and prepare for it. Next lesson, we are going to finish our film and also the editing.