Mise-en-scence
Film “mise-en-scence” is subdivided into cast scheduling, camera scheduling and film scene scheduling.
Cast scheduling
- Lateral scheduling: the actor moves horizontally from the left or right side of the shot.
- Forward or backward scheduling: the actor moves forward or backward to the camera.
- Oblique scheduling: the actor moves forward or backward to the oblique angle of the lens.
- Up or down scheduling: the actor moves in the opposite direction from the top or bottom of the screen.
- Oblique up or down scheduling: the actor moves up or down in the oblique direction of the camera screen.
- Circular scheduling: the actor makes a circular motion in front of the lens or around the lens position.
- Amorphous scheduling: Actors move freely in front of the camera.
The director chooses the actor scheduling form not only to keep the spatial relationship between the actor and his environment perfect in composition, but also to reflect the character’s character and follow the action logic of the character in a specific situation.
Camera scheduling
The motion forms of camera scheduling include push, pull, shake, follow, move, rise and fall. According to the lens position, there are front shot, back shot, side shot, etc.; according to the lens angle, there are flat shot, back shot, down shot, up and down shot and rotation shot. Generally speaking, a number of convergence lens, shot in the same form of motion, will give people a sense of fluency. Shooting from the angle of turning up and down, it will give people a strong sense of opposition.
Film scene scheduling
Film scene scheduling is an organic combination of actor scheduling and camera scheduling. The two scheduling complement each other and are based on the character behavior logic determined by the plot development, character character and character relationship. In order to make the shape of the film image have a stronger artistic appeal, the following three methods can be flexibly used to deal with the film scene scheduling from the needs of the plot: in depth scheduling, repetitive scheduling and comparative scheduling.
Examples
Slumdog Millionaire
In “Slumdog Millionaire”, the film starts with a close-up shot. The suspense tone is set from the beginning, and the lens is slowly panned. From the shoulder of the protagonist jema to his facial expression, there is an over shoulder shot. Gema is emphasized as the background, and his tense and uneasy expression is depicted in detail. A burst of smoke, the scene became blurred, the smoke dissipated, turned to the police close-up, arrogant and condescending look. From the color, this group of lens is mainly yellow, giving people the visual impression of expansion and restlessness. Interestingly, I find that when the camera is aimed at the protagonist jema, the yellow is more vivid and more pure, which gives people a mild, introverted and stable psychological feeling; when describing the trial police, the yellow is a little dark, I think the mixed dark yellow is the director’s hint of unbalanced rights.
Next, the screen displays the words and questions, and then switches to the scene of a pile of banknotes, and then shows the scene of the previous day’s answering scene, and then a close-up of a pair of banknotes. Then the dazzling white light brings the protagonist to the answering scene again. From the close-up lens of Gemma to the dynamic lens of spreading banknotes, the repeated content appears frequently but with different visual effects The rhythm and the beauty are not replaced by the miscellaneous rhythm.
In the two scenes of “Slumdog Millionaire”, the relationship between the characters is well shown by using multi angle shooting method, dim light and the position of the characters. At the same time, it plays a role in rendering the atmosphere of the scene. The film’s brother sherim at first saw that the heroine and his brother Gemma have a good relationship, and he joined the gang, so he let his brother leave him. He used the way of profiteering, from the first two people fighting together to the elder brother holding a gun at his brother, and the relationship between the two was deduced to the extreme.
The position of the characters in the film directly determines the relationship between the characters. The elder brother stands and plays an overwhelming role. The tone of the whole light in this play is dim, which effectively controls the appeal of the image. Although the style of the whole lighting is dim, the face of the characters adopts relatively bright lighting, which makes the expression details of the characters more clear and further attract the attention of the audience, thus enhancing the appeal of the scene atmosphere.
Visual Metaphor
The definition of metaphor in movies: the metaphor and symbol of image symbols is a process from concrete to abstract. It has the characteristic of “multiphase”. Through the interpretation of the image symbol beyond the concrete meaning, we can explore the deep meaning abstracted from the concrete image.
In film works, the elements of metaphor are diverse, including objects, rituals, sound, story scenes, etc. The use of metaphor can convey the theme implication implicitly and vividly.
Examples
1 . Zootopia
Zootopia explores the deep-seated conflicts between prejudice and race in contemporary society. For this idea, traditional films need complex story structure and character setting, as well as exquisite performance, in order to interpret, express and understand. And in this cartoon film suitable for all ages, the main creator constructs through metaphor.
With the exquisite world outlook and animal identity, the idea is expressed very smoothly and easily.
The surface theme of the film is Judy rabbit’s dream of becoming a police officer, which metaphors the struggle process of the contemporary small people; the deep main line is the distrust generated by the inherent nature of carnivores and herbivores, and the class confrontation caused by racial discrimination and inherent prejudice in contemporary society. Two levels of clues, corresponding to the audience of different ages and cultural basis, can interpret the corresponding story content. This universality, experience and directness are the unique narrative charm of animated films, and also the basic means to simplify and refine complex themes in animated films.
In zootopia, the growing process of rabbit and fox metaphors the conflict between the pure personal dream of human society and the defects of social culture. All visual elements serve the metaphorical theme, in which visual metaphor plays a guiding role.
Take Judy rabbit’s visual design as an example. Director bull is the plot obstacle for her to realize her dream. The visual effect design of this group of opponents can be regarded as classic from the perspective of visual metaphor in the whole film pattern.
First of all, in terms of visual size, the small personal dream and the large social prejudice form a very readable visual metaphor. Secondly, in order to deepen this prejudice and difficult artistic expression, all plots and scenes with Director are expressed in an oppressive and limited camera atmosphere. The typical scene is the scene where Judy expresses to the director that she wants to participate in the search work. The former scene is a bright and hopeful atmosphere, In the latter scene Judy is shrouded in a huge shadow. The contrast between loss and despair is vividly expressed in visual metaphor.
2 . Sheep Without a Shepherd
The sheep in the movie “kill by mistake” represents a lot of meanings, from scapegoat to redemption, and it is also the representative of a kind of social animal power. There are eight scenes of sheep in the film. Each appearance of sheep pushes the film to a climax. It is very meaningful and worth thinking. In addition, the English name of “kill by mistake” is “sheep without a shepherd”, and the theme song of the film is called “the lost sheep”, which echoes with the plot. The lyrics in the song are also clues of the film case, and the form is very novel.
The first appearance of the sheep was when Li Weijie was giving alms in the temple, and a sheep was followed by the monk. At this time, the sheep represented Li Weijie’s kindness and awe, and was a symbol of purity.
Sheep’s second appearance was when her daughter was invited to the warehouse by her classmates. At this time, the daughter’s heart was helpless and miserable. After being raped, he was also threatened by a video and asked to accept insult again. But there was no other way than obedience.
The third time the sheep appeared was when Li Weijie sank sucha’s car into the lake. At this time, a shepherd drove a group of sheep by. When the shepherd looked up, the car had sunk into the lake. Therefore, only this group of sheep witnessed all this, like a viewer, watching what Li Weijie had done, and also like Li Weijie’s own internal examination of himself.
Li Weijie and his family were suspected of being questioned by the police. Li Weijie had a dispute with the police. The police angrily pointed a gun at Li Weijie, and finally turned his anger to the sheep on the side of the road and shot and killed the sheep. The sheep here means for sin. Instead of Li Weijie, the sheep die, which paves the way for the great reversal.
The sheep here did not really appear. It was Li Weijie’s eldest daughter who was in school. The teacher was saying, “sheep have poor eyesight, they are easy to stray from the herd and are eaten by large animals.” The poor eyesight of the sheep shows that the only sheep who witnessed the crime of the male owner seems to be staring at all of this, but in fact, he did not see the process clearly. This also plays a certain role in suggesting that the people who testify to the male owner actually do not see the truth. Sheep are out of group and easy to be eaten by large animals. This shows that sheep need to be in groups to survive better With the help of these witnesses, things went smoothly.
The sixth time was when the police opened the coffin for autopsy, and the corpse in the coffin turned into the sheep that was killed by the police. The sheep here saved Li Weijie again and helped him escape successfully.
Seven times, Li Weijie was acquitted because he could not find any substantial evidence. After regaining his freedom, Li Weijie came to the temple again to give alms. At this time, a sheep passed by. This sheep represents the resurrection, but it is not the resurrection of man in essence, but the kindness of Li Weijie’s heart. Although Li Weijie was released, he knew that he was guilty, so Li Weijie chose to surrender himself.
Film Asthetics
Film aesthetics should be a kind of film theory, and it is a relatively advanced form in its theory. He focused on the study of film history, film theory, film specific text about beauty and how to produce beauty. It is a science about beauty and aesthetics in film art.
The research category of film aesthetics can be summarized as follows at least
- The research object of film aesthetics is firstly the aesthetic characteristics of film, the aesthetic law of film art, especially the film language, film thinking, the assumption of transcending time and space in film art and the aesthetic form of film.
- Film aesthetics should also focus on the cultural and philosophical thinking behind the film works and the aesthetic relationship between the audience and the film art.
- In view of the fact that film aesthetics involves not only the film works and development history, but also the social ideological trend, ideological significance, philosophy and culture, and various technologies are closely related, it is necessary to distinguish the context in which the concept of film is used and what kind of text it is expressed.
Examples
1 . Shadow
In the film “shadow”, the use of ink and wash, Tai Chi, guqin and other elements will enable the audience to capture the subtle aura of Chinese style without consciously paying attention to these pictures and music. This is precisely because of the “original image” formed by these elements in Chinese culture for thousands of years.
Different from the famous murals and oil paintings in the west, Chinese traditional ink painting has a special charm. A piece of rice paper, a brush, water and ink, black and white, light and dark, thick and light, white and imagination, a kind of oriental charm originated from minimalism.Freehand brushwork is seldom reflected by color forms. Compared with other bright colors, black is mysterious and deep, and blank is elegant and remote. The two are in line, which makes the object not as clear as the things in front of us, and provides room for imagination and thinking.
The whole film of shadow is a painting of ink and wash.The design of ink and wash style weakens the background of the times. We can’t judge where and when the story happened. Everything is simple, only characters and stories. In this environment where everything tends to be fuzzy, we can’t distinguish the true from the false, and we can’t find out the real and the virtual. Everything is “empty”, that is, everything is “there”, so this story can take place in any place, in any age, just like the true, false, virtual and real is not an eternal topic. The freehand brushwork of ink style makes people think. The audience is attracted by the black and white artistic conception. Subconsciously, they are brought into that historical era. They abandon all miscellaneous and follow the plot to experience the purity and tranquility with Oriental beauty.
2 . Avatar
The design of Neville characters in Avatar is that they have green skin, long ears, often pigtails and tails, tall and slender, with bright eyes. They are good at running and jumping in the jungle. They use bows, arrows and spears such as hunting in ancient times, domestication of animals as mounts, collective living on a big tree, these scenes are quite similar to primitive people. The design scene of the film is very imaginative. The shape of Hallelujah Mountain is familiar to people, but no prototype can be found in reality. The design of space shuttle and helicopter has a sense of future in Pando On La planet, the emitting fluorescent plants are like huge luminous sensors. The beautiful floating trees are like fairies. These three-dimensional scenes bring a novel experience of watching the film. The magic alien space makes people have endless yearning.
Color Composition
The central idea reflected in the film through the description of the main colors. This is a process in which the author observes and thinks about life for a long time, accumulates rich materials, and then selects, cuts, selects and refines the materials with film thinking, so as to transform them into themes. The composition of theme color occupies a dominant position in the film. It controls the characters, plot, details, dialogue, performance, structure, and even various means of expression in the film, so as to serve the embodiment of the theme color, and present it to the audience with the artistic integrity, harmony and unity of film color.
Its color must be clear, but its expression must be implicit. Usually through contradictions and conflicts, character character and fate, through the development of the plot, details of the description, naturally revealed, through the elaborate step by step bedding and color design, step by step to show the theme.
In addition to the theme color in the film, all other colors constitute a foil. The theme color goes deep into the inner world of the characters in the film, not only on the surface, but also on the form. It serves the plot, the characters and the whole film.
Examples
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Slowly advancing the long lens or long-time camera frame, the characters in the middle of the picture, and at this time, the home decoration behind the characters has become a part of the picture that can not be ignored. Naturally, the audience will gradually extend their eyes from the characters to these scenes which are not the protagonists. Everything is pleasing to the eye. You don’t even have to freeze the picture down to appreciate it carefully, because the director has given you enough time.
Color rendering the overall atmosphere of each scene, for example, when the lawyer is about to be killed, the scene is eerie gray green. There are also many times when the character’s clothing and the surrounding environment are harmonious, or the extremely disharmonious contrast is made to form a sense of character breaking into the scene to render a certain plot. For example, when Dmitry chases Agatha in the hotel, he is dressed in black, and his strange face is suddenly caught in the middle of the pink gold scene. Generally speaking, bright or sweet warm colors are the main tone of Budapest hotel.
In addition to the director’s personal preferences and make the audience feel happy. The use of rich colors also helps to highlight the drama of the story, that is, the audience can perceive through the color that Wes’s story is unlikely to be real, and to a large extent, it is integrated with the elements of legend and fantasy. This fits in with the absurd details of the story.
In Budapest Hotel, although it is a comedy, but it depicts the tense plot and the sad theme of the collapse of a beautiful world, the use of these bright colors is a striking contrast to the characters’ inner panic, helplessness and heavy special effect. In fact, the warm and bright colors in the film may also be the best way to render the charm of a charming era, at which time even prison guards could not bear to stab and check the beautiful snacks.
Then there are the impressive, symmetrical, clean and accurate five five opening pictures in the film, as well as the visual impact brought by these regular and coordinated pictures. As the symmetrical lens moves forward, the audience seems to hear him saying, “Hey, pay attention! Here I am emphasizing it Every frame of the film lens is extremely exquisite, and almost every picture can be cut down into a perfect painting.
A large number of parallel push-pull lenses are used to represent the panic of the characters, or to depict scenes different from the normal. The abnormal state of the scene is often the image of the characters’ inner anxiety and depression. However, the people in these unexpected situations are calm on the surface and calm in tone, as if everything is up to fate and has nothing to do with me. A large number of moving long lenses are used, or the camera frames are fixed. The characters enter the camera slowly or are fixed in the center of the picture for a long time, which produces a feeling of examination, intrusion, abruptness, boldness, embarrassment and farcicality, as if the actors and the audience can feel the existence of the lens all the time.
Rhythm
The so-called film rhythm does not mean to grasp the time relationship between the shots, but the continuous time of each shot and the set of attention movement aroused and satisfied by it. This is not an abstract rhythm of time, it is a rhythm of attention. It doesn’t mean that if the shot time is long, the rhythm will be slow; if the shot time is short, the rhythm will be fast.
The rhythm of the film is to use various techniques to produce different levels of contrast effect. Its function is to guide the audience’s attention and stimulate the audience’s emotion
Long and short shots, fast and slow rhythm are only relative concepts. In the “slow” atmosphere, “fast” is the emphasis; in the “fast” atmosphere, “slow” can also be emphasized. Use fast and slow contrast to create rhythm.
The rhythm segmentation of the film:
- Narrative rhythm (plot structure, story density, narrative skills)
- Performance rhythm (mood change, body language rhythm, character scheduling, dialogue rhythm)
- Modeling rhythm (lens length, scene change, camera movement and scheduling, light, color, special effects and special effects photography)
- Sound rhythm (voice, music, sound)
- Editing rhythm (shot frequency, cohesion skills, space-time continuity, viewpoint change, attention direction)
Examples
Tuner
For the film “tuner”, excellent narrative skills and the use of lens is one of the important factors for its success. For a micro film, in order to arouse the audience’s desire to watch and enhance the sense of bringing in the film in a short period of more than ten minutes, a good script suspense setting becomes the key to open the film story. It is not difficult to find that the film skillfully uses the technique of flashback, putting the ending of the story in front to arouse the curiosity of the viewers. With the piano sound played by the hero and the depressing picture atmosphere, the audience can not help but think actively about the identity of the protagonist and the events he is experiencing, which successfully catches the audience’s attention.
At the same time, the director timely uses the shot scheduling, with the plot itself to further increase the sense of suspense. In the background music of the piano, a large number of close-up shots are alternately switched, showing the naked upper body of the hero, the man’s face lying on the sofa, and the skirt and hem of the people standing behind him.
Several groups of close-up not only contrast the weird atmosphere of the current situation, but also increase the absurdity and tuning of the environment and things the hero is in from the visual psychology The reason why the teacher played the piano naked and who were the two bystanders in the close-up shot? All kinds of questions caused by the irrationality successfully completed the setting of the suspense tone of the whole film in one or two minutes. The beginning of the flashback is actually the end of the film’s horror. The whole opening structure is not only exquisite but also thought-provoking.
Due to the special time limit of micro film itself, it is necessary to adjust the narrative structure to ensure that the film can enter the climax quickly. Therefore, the description of the climax and the climax itself is particularly important and can not be delayed. In the process of the movie, the director uses the actor’s skill of dressing up as well as the protagonist’s dangerous dialogue The self disguised self praise and the boss’s slightly unhappy anxiety and worry words quietly implied the danger and killing opportunity that followed.
The climax that followed took up more than half of the time of the film. With the advance of the motion lens, the subtle relationship and psychological rhythm between the male chief tuner and the old lady client are changing subtly. As soon as the male master tuner entered the old woman’s room, the camera made a slow and gradual progress inside the door. The depth of the camera lens created a frightening atmosphere for the overall environment, which made the audience have a psychological distance from the scene in the room, and slowly pushed the emotional festival to the extreme.
Moreover, the film borrows the classic suspense setting technique. The camera is aimed at the old woman standing behind the tuner with a gun for a long time, waiting for the sound of his piano to come to an end. This kind of long-term waiting makes the audience and the tuner’s internal feelings of panic tend to be consistent. Until this time, the director skillfully narrative, slowly show the panorama of the story in front of the audience, recall the strange playing scene at the beginning, and finally make the audience understand that the beginning of the film is the ingenious connection of the end. The director makes good use of shooting techniques to place the end of the story at the beginning, thus forming a closed-loop structure with the end connected from the beginning to the end of the story, which successfully supports the suspense of the whole film, which makes the audience marvel.