Reflection 1

(This is a re-written reflection because the original one that I wrote that day along with another one were gone on my laptop unfortunately.) Today, my tutor Robin had a little conversation on Zoom because I haven’t been able to attend class for a week or so. The main reason why we would have this conversation was to have a general idea of my thoughts on the following assignments, which was the research essay. There was a class before this little zoom meeting that I attended, my idea was to have a research project on my favourite director Wang Kawei. After this class, I missed one again. To be honest, I am very appreciated to have Robin as my tutor for my studio. In spite of the fact that I have been missing out on lots of classes, I was still able to catch up on my studies with the help of my tutor. During the discussion, I’ve explained my idea of doing a research on the director Wang Jiawei. Then I heard that there were three other students from my class were thinking about doing the research work on Wang Jiawei as well; I could switch to another director James Wan, because he was also graduated from RMIT; however, Robin says that I can insists with my original idea. I’ve learnt a lot from this class, not just the knowledge and stuff, but also some methods to improve myself. I wanted to have a look at the interviews and film clips by Wang Jiawei to start my project; In the contrary, I was told to start writing a reflection on this zoom meeting right away. It’d be better for me to write down some ideas first rather than procrastinate things later in order to watch clips. 

Reflection 2

Today, I had another Zoom meeting with my tutor Robin, we had a further discussion on the specific topic that I’d be doing and some key aspects I’d be mentioning about; it’s supposed to be my assignment 3 I think, to present our first draft or plan to the tutor. Before we had this zoom meeting, I’ve already done some research about Wang Jiawei other than those information of him that I had already known. I’ve went through some interviews that different social media platforms had with the Director Wang; and I went over some classic film clips from his previous film pieces again to have a better analysis of his film. However, when I have explained the dot points that I’d like to do for the research project, Robin emphasised that I needed to focus on the concept of coverage. Then we’ve had a discussion of the concept coverage. Due to the fact that I was away for the class that introduced the concept of coverage, I didn’t understand this concept throughout this semester. I had to ask my peers from this class and google it on different websites that I thought had explained it very well. It turned out that I had a completely different idea of the concept of coverage. Then my tutor finally explained to me what exactly the coverage means in the field of films that I could finally understand what it actually means. The knowledge of concept is not only what I’ve learnt from this, I’ve also understood that when something doesn’t make sense to me or I’ve came across to new unknown concepts, I need to discuss my confusion with my tutor to sort them out; because those knowledge cannot be found online. Other than that, I should be more engaging on class and have more reaction to the questions that are raised on class. Hope one day eventually I could go back to school to have on-campus classes.

Reflection 3

This is a reflection focuses on the film ‘Fallen angels’ specifically. This film was produced by director Wang in his early film careers. It’s not hard to find that Director Wang likes to have extreme close-up on the actors, and the shots are usually shot shaky. He also used a lot of wide shots on the actors to demonstrate the delicate relationship between Yang (the female main character) and Ho (her ex-boyfriend), the use of wide shot can create a special atmosphere that makes the audience feel like, the two character are close in distance, however, their heart and soul feel apart. I believe the director is implying that the character in the film all have a sense of unfamiliarity and alienation. Another speciality that I discovered was that, I could see a lot of presences of mirrors in the shots throughout this film. The use of background music in this film is also extremely appropriate. The director illustrated the sense of apart and vagrancy of the characters to the audience by telling stories of these few characters and their life trajectory. It seems like that these five characters (angels) are living their own lives separately and lonely on their lifeline; but somehow their lifelines trace across each others’. There are somehow some relationship between one another. One interesting thing that I found was the canned pineapple, because this was not only mentioned in Fallen Angels, (he accidentally had the expired canner pineapples); but also was repeatedly mentioned in Chongqing Express, (by the same actor, eating the canned pineapples counting down the days his girlfriend left him).

Reflection 4

This is a reflection in relation to the research essay I completed. I panicked when I first read through the assessment criteria, because at that time, I had no idea what should I write, no topic, no specific research area. Then when we had one-to-one discussion with my tutor. I figured out a general idea and had decided my topic for my research project, which was about a famous director in China, Wang Kawei. Then I heard that there were about three other people that were doing this. I insisted my idea of doing the research project on Director Wang after consideration. I read some reviews people have about him, and watched some interviews people had with him. I went over to watch the movies I selected for the essay again and chose some of my favourite scenes to analysis the use of coverage. I sent my first two paragraphs and my overall plan to my tutor to see if any improvements or changes were needed for my essay. Once I got my feedback from my tutor, I went back to my essay and edited it. I added some more detailed explanation, and emphasised more on the concept of coverage. Most of the time I spent was going over and over to the short clips of the scene that I selected and figure out the use of coverage (camera angles, movements, focal length and shot size, etc) in those films. Then once I noted everything down, writing the essay became so much easier for me. Also another process that took a lot of time was reading interviews or reviews about him online, because I needed to filter the information and comprehend them well. At the first draft, I overwritten about 400 words more, then I edited it again and again, because it appears to me that everything matters, so that editing took some time as well. I am totally satisfied with my final work of research project. 

Reflection 5

This is a reflection that will be reflecting on this whole semester; how I did well, how my ideas about this studio has changed throughout this semester and how my study habits have changed. This might be a bit longer than my other reflections because there are so many that I could write about. I selected this studio as soon as I’ve spotted it on the studio selection lists; the particular reason for this was that I had learned some basic knowledge about camera language before, and I was very much interested in exploring these concepts bit further. Before university in high school, we were asked to write essays on analysis of different kinds of films, especially in the aspect of camera language (movement, shots, etc). When I actually get into this course, I discovered that although this course is basically about concepts of cinema studies (shots, mis-en-scene, camera angels, etc). However, because I’ve missed some  classes throughout this semester, I didn’t realise that this course was mainly discussing the concept of coverage, (or in French, decoupage) (the exact angle and position camera was placed when shooting the scene) also the intention of putting the camera the way it is. I got to discuss this with my tutor, that I finally got the idea of what coverage actually means. I thought of it a completely different definition and so much more complicated than it actually was. During each studio session, we would watch some classic clips and analysis the use of coverage in those scenes and why. The meaning of coverage is: lighting, what exact amount of space is planned in a scene (a wide shot or an extreme close-up shot on the actors), where the camera is positioned (from behind or at front), what the camera angle is (high or low), how the camera moves throughout the scene (pan or tilted), etc. All of these can compose the best performance for the audience to enjoy. Even though I’ve missed out a lot within this semester, but I’ve made it to catch up with everyone else. I’ve got a distinct understanding of the concept of coverage, from not only the theoretical perspective but also can try shooting some down as practical experience. (can only picturing them in my brain though, no one could be my actors, but still enjoy the process of planning every scenes in my head). Hope one day when I got the resources, (a nice camera or even with my iPhone, and people that are willing to take the parts to be in my little film clips). I’ve done a lot in my year one at RMIT and in high school, but I believe with the knowledge that I’ve learned in this course, I could make a short clip in a deeper depth and nicely-cut.

Reflection 6

This reflection is based on the reading of a chapter called ‘Face, body, voice, movement: Antonioni and actors’. This book mentions that film acting often operates with a set of technical constraints which are different to those in theatre acting. I pointed out this was because this somehow relates to the concept of coverage. Because the actors have to be in front of the camera and move within a limited frame in order to present themselves to the audience. And within this frame, there are still many potential variations, it mentions that the camera can be set from different angles to the actors and can move along with them, or set still; the distance between the actors and the camera can be different as well; (like long shot or close-up shot). This book gives an example of a opening scene from L’eclisee, and introduced a complex shot that starts off from above the actress’s head, who’s looking at another actor that stares beyond her. And it explains how the camera dollies back slowly to the left when the actress leaves the actor. This scene ends with the actress remains on the extreme left of the shot, leaving the whole space of the room within the camera. The author mentions the actress briefly glancing at the reflection of herself in the mirror, which is one of my favouring shooting techniques, because shooting with someone and their reflections in the mirror, can somehow reflect not only the physical appearance of themselves, but also their emotion changes within themselves. This can be relates to the research essay that I wrote, and a paragraph in that essay was discussing the use of shooting with mirror within camera shots.