I think young people who love to have a movie dream should study first and foremost, not a blockbuster director, but a Korean director Hong Changxiu, because his movies are the closest to your dreams.
Hong Changxiu's films are simpler, more direct, and better-looking. His sarcasm and ridicule towards intellectuals are consistent. His movie budget is very small, usually hundreds of thousands of dollars, less than 100,000 dollars, if he does not use stars, it may be even less; the scene is very simple, cafes and pubs are the places where the most appearances; the content of the film is basically It's all about drinking and chatting, chatting and drinking. From the perspective of the form of the film, the most commonly used one is single camera + fixed camera + no-skill editing. The only thing that can be called a skill may be the push-pull lens.
That said, if we were to replicate his cinematic form, it couldn't be easier. However, the great thing about Hong Changxiu is that even a push-pull shot can be played by him with perfect mastery. Therefore, making a movie, this matter, first of all, is really not a matter of money.
Next, let's analyze a dialogue scene in a cafe in Hong Changxiu's 2015 new film "Right Now, Wrong Then" to see how he uses the technique of pushing and pulling the camera.
As usual, let's take a look at the setting of this dialogue and the characters involved.
The actor Xian Chunzhu (played by Zheng Zaiyong) followed the heroine Yin Xijing (played by Jin Minxi) to the cafe called "Poet and Farmer". The cafe has a signboard. Because of his cultural taste, ordinary cafes don't have such weird names, which means that the next dialogue scene may be unfavorable to the male protagonist, because literate people are often not easy to fool.
Entering the room, if we are careful, we will find that this wine bureau is arranged in a cultural atmosphere: on the left is a bookshelf, and the bookshelves are full of books, and there are many movie posters on the right and middle walls. The selection of posters is very careful. We can't see Korean domestic movies and American movies, mainly French and German movies. It can be shown that the owner here is a scholar, and the taste of movies is not ordinary. There must be research on movies. Interested students can search for it by themselves.
The setting of the indoor space environment plays an important role in the development of the next dialogue. Their understanding and research on the film of the film director, the hero Xian Chunzhu and himself, made the hero retreat in the dialogue.
The opening scene is a relatively positive shot. All five people are in the shot, the heroine is in the middle, and the others sit on both sides, forming a symmetrical composition.
In this scene, Hong Changxiu used a total of three push shots, which seemed to be random, but actually closely matched the story and the heroine's emotional changes. Let's analyze them one by one.
The first shot.
It matters who speaks first. The first person to talk to the male protagonist is the supporting actress 1. The line of sight of the two forms a diagonal line, the relationship between the characters is established, and the tension of the composition of the whole picture comes out. If not, if the male protagonist first talks with If the supporting actress directly opposite is speaking, the two people close to the audience will appear redundant, and the stability of the picture will be destroyed.
The opening dialogue was bland and was about the hero's speech tomorrow morning. The male protagonist pretended to be humble and said that he was not good at words. At this time, it was the first time to push the camera, which led to the heroine's grand introduction to the hero. She said that the hero was very good at speaking. When evaluating her paintings in the studio just now, he spoke very well, which benefited her a lot.
We noticed that the heroine was beaming at first, after all, she brought the male lead, and she was also a film director who was very interested in her friends. The most important thing is that this man is very interesting to her. Therefore, the recommendation of the male protagonist here is sincere, and even a little bit of showing off his boyfriend. After all, in a previous scene, the hero's naked confession to the heroine still captured the heroine's heart. It is also from this push mirror that the male protagonist fell into embarrassment step by step. In everyone's curiosity, the actor reiterated the evaluation of his heroine's paintings, which means that the heroine Xijing seems to be a person who doesn't know anything, but it is precisely because he doesn't know, he can know More. This sentence seems particularly bluffing, but it is actually a metaphor of the phrase "Great abundance is like a rush, and its use is endless" in Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching". Lao Tzu means that the most filling thing seems to be empty, but its effect will not be exhausted. The male protagonist said this sentence in reverse, and it was also very emotional. There is no problem with this sentence itself, it is more than enough to deceive a little girl who is not yet deep in the world. But the bad is bad. The male protagonist's evaluation of his own work also uses this sentence, which happens to be seen by the supporting actress. So the female supporting role seems to be discussing, but in fact, she points out mercilessly that the male lead not only said the same thing on other occasions, but also said it often. The male protagonist was exposed for the first time, with an embarrassed expression. But we also see that although the heroine is unhappy, it has not been fully expressed on the face.
Pay attention to the expression of the hero
Second shot.
The director did not embarrass the male protagonist for too long. Less than a second later, the second female supporting actor asked a more ruthless question. The male and female relationship between the male protagonist was a bit messy. The second supporting actress suggested that there are rumors that the relationship between the male protagonist and the actresses in the films he directed is unusual. The male protagonist used the diplomatic rhetoric commonly used by celebrities: Rumors are rumors, and I have nothing to say. Then the supporting actor made a sound to smooth things out. Men always like women, and the heroine also agrees. Until this time, the heroine still harbors fantasies about the hero and is still excusing him. But the next question of the supporting actress 2 directly dashes all the heroine's hopes of love. She subtly pointed out the marital status of the male protagonist, who could only admit that he was married. At this time, the second push mirror.
This time, there are two functions: First, the director guides us to notice that the heroine's expression has changed, and the unhappiness of being deceived by the hero has been written on her face. Secondly, push the supporting actress 1 and the supporting actor out of the frame, because the next thing is that there will be more separate dialogues between the supporting actress 2 and the actor. There is nothing to do with these two people. For the stability of the composition, the supporting actress and the supporting actor should be pushed out. .
The third shot.
The supporting actress asked him why he got married at the age of 23 and why he was so anxious. At this time, if the male protagonist can tell some touching scenes of bitterness, perhaps his relationship with the female protagonist may still have room for recovery. But director Hong Sang-soo will not miss the opportunity to ironically expose the hypocrisy and emptiness of intellectuals. He asked the male protagonist to say a set of very popular, high-sounding, uncreative rhetoric, why the state was not good at the time, and his heart was very desolate. At this time, the third time I pushed the mirror, the picture was pushed into a half-length shot of the heroine.
First of all, further guide the audience to pay attention to the emotional changes of the heroine. The heroine's expression is disappointed and sluggish, and she is almost indifferent to the man's rhetoric, which shows the complete failure of the hero. Secondly, the picture is pushed into the half-length shot of the heroine. Half of the second heroine is still in the frame, and the hero has been completely pushed out of the frame, which means that in the heroine's world, there is no such thing as the hero. .
The actor's explanation of his marriage may be true, or it may be some perfunctory diplomatic rhetoric, just like Jackie Chan's famous saying "I made mistakes that all men in the world make", but the most hurtful words are often true. and perfunctory.
After the male protagonist finished speaking, the camera pulled back, and all five people returned to the screen. Well, the conversation is about to end. Sure enough, the heroine left the scene because she needed a break.
In order to make this conversation more like a real life, the director did not end the conversation after the female lead left the scene. Everyone continued to drink a little wine together and said some words to comfort the male lead, which was very much like a party in life.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that, in order to make this fixed-camera super-long shot look less rigid, in addition to pushing and pulling the shot, the director made each actor speak with a head In fact, in real life, when we talk, we don’t have so many small movements of shaking our heads and hands. It can be seen that even if he likes fixed camera positions so much, the director is not unaware that movies are the art of motion.
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