Wong Kar-Wai

One of the most visually entrancing filmmakers working today, Wong Kar-Wai is a man who creates films filled with dazzling images and characters with a sense of romanticism. Known for his broad ideas and unconventional techniques in the realm of filmmaking, he is an individual that refuses to play by the rules. He brings both Asian sensibility and French New Wave cinematic techniques to each of his stories. After finally making his return in 2013, with his Ip Man bio-pic The Grandmaster, it is clear that there is no other filmmaker like Wong Kar-Wai working today.

Born in Shanghai, China on July 17, 1958, Wong Kar-Wai moved to Hong Kong when he was five years-old. His mother introduced him to many different aspects of cinema ranging from the films of Hong Kong to 1960s French New Wave. After spending two years studying graphic design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic College in 1980, he enrolled in the Hong Kong Television Broadcast Limited course for production training and he learned the art of screenwriting. Kar-Wai took part in in an apprenticeship during this period which brought him to the attention of renowned Hong Kong producer Alan Tang.

Tang hired Kar-Wai to write scripts for various movies ranging from romantic-comedies to action films. Though they scripts were successful, and helped him to get a lot of work, it was clear that Kar-Wai wanted something more. Fortunately, it was Tang who ultimately gave Kar-Wai the chance to helm his first feature film.

Silent film evaluation

Coming up with the idea for our silent film was easier than we thought it would be once we realised that we had to make the narrative simple and easy to follow due to it being difficult to tell a story without using dialogue. We decided to do a modern take on a classic silent film narrative with a romance threatened by a third party. To add a comedic element to our story we replaced the classic femme fetal with Laurence as we knew it would be more difficult to make a silent film that would be taken seriously. It was easier to film than the normal films we’ve made as the necessity to over act and make the movements and expressions exaggerated made it easier for us to get our emotions across as it didn’t matter if the acting seemed forced or unnatural. I think we could’ve put more thought into the mise-en-scene as we just went out knowing what we wanted to film and not where. Us focusing too much on our narrative meant that we didn’t take into account the typical aesthetic of German expressionism such as low key lighting and the use of shadows. The editing process was fairly easy as we knew that we wanted our film to be black and white so that it looked more similar to the silent films we have looked at. We also wanted to add some dialogue using white text on a black screen as that is what they did in the classic silent films. We also added some old music that sounded like some of the music used in sunrise as our story was similar and we thought the use of non-diegetic added to the film. One problem we did have was that our camera ran out of battery before we finished filming which meant that we had to film some of the last shots on a phone which meant that the quality changed however it wasn’t too noticeable and didn’t have much of an impact on the final product.

Film evaluation

Film Evaluation

When producing our film, ‘Last Period’ we aimed to create a dramatic film about teenage life. We took our main inspiration from the romance between Renton and Diane in the film ‘Trainspotting’. The beginning of the planning of our film was a struggle as we all knew that we wanted it to be social realism however it took a while for us to think of an idea that would be interesting but not too difficult to film within the time frame we were set. As a group we worked well together as we get on very well and we know how to work with each other due to the fact that we were grouped together to create our first film for this course. From filming a horror film last time, we knew that we did not want to do the same again as filming at night made it difficult for us to all meet up due to some members of our group living outside of Nuneaton. Filming in the day meant that we could use time in lesson and after college. We also met on a Sunday afternoon in order to film the shots in a family member’s house, which we didn’t end up including in the final cut of our film. We worked together on all aspects of this film and thoroughly enjoyed writing the screenplay as it gave us a chance to create a vision of what we wanted the film to look like before we went out to film. This meant that any ideas one of us wanted to discuss with the group could be put forward early rather than leaving it until the last minute when we went out to film. As the screenplay was only two pages long, we also created a list of the places we knew we wanted to shoot and what scene of the film we wanted to shoot there. This gave us a huge advantage when we went out to start filming, reduced the stress on the two days we were out as well as making us work through things more efficiently as it meant we could shoot in the places that were close to each other so we got it filmed quickly.

Similarly to last time we created a film, we found actors but they all dropped out of it last minute meaning that two members of our group to have to step in. I believe that this made certain things more difficult as I had to film on a camera which I had never used before however harry taught me the basics and the shots didn’t end up looking too bad, even though I thought I was recording when I wasn’t meaning that we had to re film a scene that we were missing. However, not having to direct actors meant that we could get the scenes exactly how we wanted them as we didn’t have to explain our ideas to anyone else. Overall when we were out filming it went quite smoothly however due to the town centre being busy in the day we had to record the same scene several times in order to get the audio clear enough. As most of our dialogue was improvised we didn’t have to waste time learning lines and the interaction between characters seemed more natural. The camerawork was quite shaky as I had never used a camera like that before however it wasn’t too much of an issue as it added to the social realism feel of the film.

Editing the film was fairly simple as we knew what order the shots needed to go and which ones we needed to cut. However, the audio of the two phone calls, which gave the exposition for our film, was not as clear as we needed it to be. This meant that we had to spend most of our editing time adding subtitles which took a long time. I was unsure about this at first as I thought that it may make the film look silly however I think it added a humorous aspect to the film which I personally really liked. We also had some issues importing the shots that we filmed on Charmaine’s phone when the camera ran out of battery but we quickly overcame this by re filming it quickly in one of the lessons that we were going to use to edit. Using this time didn’t impact us too much as me and Harry had a free together on a Thursday afternoon which we used to finish the editing and make the film as good as we could.

Film script

Untitled 

EXT rough estate mid-day  

SHANE is walking through an empty rough estate and listening to hard drill music wearing tracksuit bottoms, hoodie and a cap.     

Shane's phone rings phone rings he picks up the phone   

SHANE 

Yo, 

FRIEND 

Yo, what happened? You didn't come back with us last night. Where were you? 

Shane pinches the top of his nose clearly in pain from last night before taking a brief pause  

SHANE 

Nah, I don't shag and tell. 

Friend laughing 

FRIEND 

Get in there! She was well fit.  

Shane smiles to himself 

SHANE 

Yeah man, I don't know if I'll see her again. You know them tings.  

FRIEND 

Yeah, I get you. 

Sighing  

SHANE 

So, how was your night? 

FRIEND 

Yeah it was great I met this girl and 

Shane shakes his head and cuts him off as he's about to go to the job center to job seek.  

SHANE 

Sorry mate I've got to go, I'm at work now, tell me when I see you later.  

Shane walks into the job center with his head down still in his tracksuit bottoms and hoodie. He is holding his head from last night clearly still hungover.   

EXT outside the job center 

Shane walks outside then sits on the steps sighing with his head in his hands, Shane gets a phone call from an unknown number. 

SHANE  

Urgh, hello? 

STACEY  

Hi its Stacey... 

Shane looks confused whispers to himself. Pressing his phone against his shoulder  

SHANE 

Stacey, Stacey, Stacey? 

Shane has a look of realization, puts the phone to his ear. 

SHANE 

Ohhhh Staceyy!! How are you darling?  

STACEY  

Yeah, I just wondered if you wanted to come over tonight? 

SHANE  

Yeah sure babe  

STACEY  

Cool, oh before I forget can you bring drinks? 

Documentaries

Broomfield

• Voice of god
• Gives his opinion
• Askes questions 
• Shows visual interviews with people involved in the life of the person in the story
• Participatory 
• Still images
• Pop culture
• Stock footage

Kapadia

• Pop culture
• Music that reflects the mood
• Still images
• Proformative
• Stock footage
• Live footage from shows
• Audio recordings
• 
  

Spectatorship in Inception and Winters Bone

How far do your chosen films demonstrate a constant shift between passive and active spectatorship?

Throughout the film Inception there is a lot of exposition due to the complex narrative structure.  The introduction and explanation of the dream world to Ariadne by Cobb means that the spectator has the whole concept explained to them causing them to be a passive spectator as they are being presented the information obviously and do not have to think deeply about it. The scene close to the beginning of the film where Cobb brings Ariadne into the dream gives a passive spectator enough information to have a basic understanding of the whole storyline of the film. We see Ariadne walking through the dream and questioning the setting and who the people in the dream are. These are all questions that an active spectator would be thinking however the director cleverly uses Ariadne as a way to get these questions answered quickly, making the film easier for a passive spectator to understand. If this scene was not included in the film then an active spectator would be lead to question it and the whole narrative of the film would be extremely difficult to understand. However, later in this scene when Cobbs subconscious begins to attack Ariadne and we see Mal go to stab her, the spectator must be active as they start to question why she did this and why Cobb got so hysterical about it. Another scene with obvious exposition is when the group are coming up with the plan for going into the dream and creating the multiple layers. The team are practically discussing the plan for the whole rest of the film, giving a passive spectator an idea of what is going to happen throughout the film. However, the ending of the film requires an active spectator to question whether the whole thing was a dream as the spinning top doesn’t stop spinning. A passive spectator may just assume that this means that it was a dream as Cobb says throughout that it is his totem. However, an active spectator may realise that the spinning top was Mals totem and that Cobbs children were his as he could never see their face in a dream but at the end he did, implying that this was real life.

                In the film Winters Bone there is a lot less exposition as the narrative is a lot less complicated so an explanation isn’t required as much. The narrative is just about a young girl looking for her dad as his bond means that they will get everything taken away from them. This is explained when the police officer came to Ree’s house. This is exposition but due to there being a lot less to explain as the film is nowhere near as complex and complicated as the film Inception, there is a lot less exposition. Throughout the film the spectator doesn’t really need to be active as the basic storyline of her looking for her dad is explained at the start and continues throughout. However, even though a spectator doesn’t need to be active, they may pick up on and question certain things that a passive spectator may not, such as the role of women in the society where the film is set and the significance of drug use. The relationship between the police and the people in society is also an interesting thing that an active spectator may question due to the cues like the way the people act when they see the police outside Ree’s house. They all seem suspicious and just want to get rid of them as soon as possible. These subtle cues would only be picked up on by an active spectator.

Blade Runner auteur theory

‘How far does ‘Blade Runner’ reflect the signature auteur features of Ridley Scott?’

 

Blade runner is the 1981 film adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s science fiction novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep. It was directed by Ridley Scott and produced by Micheal Deeley, Hampton Fancher and David Peoples wrote the screenplay. In Blade Runner Ridley Scott acts as the Auteur. Many of Scott’s films centre around a hero’s journey, with the main character focusing on escaping or finding something. For Alien it’s escaping the alien planet and the Xenomorph, for Gladiator its escaping slavery and avenging his family and for Blade Runner it’s tracking down and killing the replicants.  Black Rain is probably the most similar film to Blade Runner that Scott has directed as both are about detectives and heve a similar film noir style. Another similarity in themes of Scott’s films involves the relationship between strong men and their father or father figure. A clear example of this is when Roy Batty kisses and then kills his creator, Tyrell. This sign of affection shortly followed by the murder of a father figure is also present in Scott’s later film Gladiator, when Commodus hugs and then kills his father, Marcus Aurelius. Both scenes show this action with a close up, two shot showing a side on view of the characters. Both shots also show the son figure, Batty and Commodus, as being higher than their father figures by using a high angle shot. This shows them finally having power over their father figures as they confront and kill them. The similarities in themes show Scott as an auteur as his films could be easily recognised by theme.

                Scott’s style is also easily recognisable by his use of mise-en-scene. He focuses intensely on minute details in costume and set design. This meticulous set design is evident in Scott’s film Alien as the intricate Aztec designs on the white walls are very similar to the Aztec designs in Deckard’s home. Scott seems to like to use old style patterns and reinvent them to suit a futuristic, science fiction film. He also uses low key lighting and smoke in the films Alien, Black Rain and Blade runner to create a mundane atmosphere in the dystopian future as well as to create a sense of drama and mystery.  The second scene in Blade Runner is a perfect example of how Scott uses mise-en-scene to link his films together. The huge electric billboards in this scene are extremely similar to the ones in his film Black Rain. In fact the way the whole street is set and how it is shot is very similar in both films with a wide shot of a dark landscape with bright lights, smoke and lots of people shows that Scott’s style of a dystopian future as an auteur. In this scene there are also more subtle links to science fiction films that influenced Scott as an auteur. There is a link to Star Wars with the handles of the umbrellas used in Blade Runner resembling lightsabres. He also uses shocking close ups when showing gory scenes in both Alien, when showing parts of the alien, and in Blade Runner, when showing violence such as When Roy Batty sticks his thumbs in Tyrells eyes. This shows that as an auteur he likes violence and gore to be a focus point of his film. There usually isn’t a lot of it but when there is he uses shot types that force the spectator to focus on the intense scene in front of them.

                The characters that Scott includes in his films often follow certain themes too. Multiple films of his include an overly confident and cocky male lead such as Deckard in Blade Runner and Nick in Black Rain. He also often includes strong female characters such as Racheal in Blade Runner who we see kill Leon when he is beating up Deckard showing that she is stronger as a character than Deckard. We also see strong female characters in Scott’s films Thelma and Louise, Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus and Ripley in Alien. The abundance of strong female characters in Scott’s films makes them a key element of his style as an auteur.

                Overall, in my opinion it is undisputable that Blade Runner displays many signature auteur features of Ridley Scott to a great extent as he seems to mainly stick to the same kind of storyline and seems to prefer to direct science fiction films. His sets also have many similar features and his shot types such as wide shots are often present. However, some people would dispute the auteur theory entirely such as Park Chan-wook who says that he “Doesn’t really believe in the auteur theory” and Alan Parker who says that “Films are a collaborative art form”. He claims that because many people work on a film, a director cannot add their own vision into every film that they do as ultimately the decision as to how the film looks isn’t solely up to them. This is very true in the case of Blade Runner as when Scott edited the film it was four hours his contract with the producers stated that if the film was over two hours they could cut out whatever they want. This meant that Scott didn’t get to make the decision on the final cut of the film so couldn’t control exactly how it was presented.