This reflection is about decoupage, I will express some of my understanding of it. It’s different from montages and editing. It’s a detailed plan that includes the script, actors, and change of shots. For some film creators, the concept of a movie can be considered as two processes, the location of the camera and the editing of the image. However, the concept of coverage is to combine the two approaches as a whole. My understanding of it is the form of completion of the entire movie. The director’s expression of the entire story needs to show everyone all his ideas. Therefore others can understand him and to execute. It’s different from editing in that it’s coherent. For example, two cameras are shooting a picture from different angles. In the movie it is possible to put these two pictures together and present a complete plot. In detail, a person coming from downstairs to opening the door may be two shots clipped together, not one long shot, but it is a coherent decoupage, which can make the audience feel a kind of space Coherence, not editing. At the same time,The time coherence. It is can use clocks, calendars, etc. to show the continuity of time before and after the movie. Even if it is flashback or interruption, the difference in time can be expressed through the state of items or characters, so as to achieve the effect of consistent time. 

The crucial thing I have learned that is storyboard. I have had experience for writing scripts, that is difficult but it is very significant for a movie. I have also seen that a director will drew every picture that he envisions, so that each frame can achieve his perfect ideal effect. At the same time, for the shot list I have n’t studied this before and have n’t practiced it that. I regard as a list of what order and position each shot should be. I have taken a TV studio class before, and there will be a list of what kind of pictures will be broadcast at each time point during the rehearsal. I think there may be have some similarities. As it was shown in part 6, storyboard can help the director better achieve the picture he wants to shoot. When you can drew the picture you want to shoot, the camera op and the actor could understand your idea better. I think the shot list and storyboard is a very worthwhile way to learn in filming. It allows me to learn how to execute and shoot in a planned way, and when the director writes these, it will be clearer and easier to execute than expressing the idea to others.

Because I missed the first week of class, I concern I will write my reflection from the second week. I am more impressed by the position of the characters. For example, when the camera is not moving at a certain position, actors sometimes need to bend over or adjust their position to achieve the best results when considering whether they can enter the picture. The method I learned in class was to put tape on the designated position, so that the actors can find the appropriate position more easily. On the other hand, teamwork is very important when shooting a scene, everyone should participate. Direct should have conversations with camera operator as well as keep in touch with actors. The actor is very important in the scene, so the director needs to communicate with the actor at all times so that the actor can show their best performance. The shooting time is also very important. For example, when there is a strong demand for daylight, it is necessary to coordinate the time of the actors and other staff members. During the actual shooting in class, I experienced that some small details are also important. Such as, when the actor is outside the door, how to ensure that he opens the door at the right time to enter the picture, which may be the job of a  director assistant.

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/jiahui-wang/2020/03/29/reflective-writing1/

Analytical Writing

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/jiahui-wang/2020/03/30/reflective-writing2/

https://www.mediafactory.org.au/jiahui-wang/2020/04/01/reflective-writing3/

This clip is from one of my favorite movies, that is Farewell My Concubine, the director is Kaige Chen.This clip tells about the main character Dieyi Cheng breaking into a scene he wanted to destroy when his partner Xiaolou Duan announced that he would marry someone else as his wife.The first few seconds of the clip are the close up of the character, and the latter is cut into the medium shot, however it is can see that the expressions of the main characters and the background characters are cheerful, and the lighting is also created indoors, which can make the audience feel a relaxed atmosphere. 

It also used high angle shot when switching to medium shot, here I guess the director wants to express the idea of seeing these characters from a God like perspective. There is a feeling that every character is actually small in the context of anxious times. But the atmosphere changed after Dieyi’s appearance. The lens first shows the back of the Dieyi. From the back view, we can see that the other two characters’ smiles disappeared immediately when they saw Dieyi. The next shot was a full shot of a distant view, and was not placed on dieyi’s face. The lens is fixed in a position to let the he come to the camera. For about ten seconds, the lens did not move. It inserts footage of Juxian shoes falling, while also showing her panic. This is also the subtlety of the lens, not through the expression of the character, but through the expression of some objects to show the character’s emotions. There are a lot of shots at the same location behind, occasionally interspersed with Dieyi’s close up, however it will return to the beginning of the shot where Dieyi appeared, I think the director here may want to express a bystander’s vision, let the audience integrate in this scene, as onlooker, the camera becomes the audience’s eyes.

In the week 13 exhibition, the film light studio was display our investigative videos to audiences. For my point of view, I hope that the idea we convey to the audience is our group’s exploration of light, a contrast between bright and dark. At the same time, Using the effect of light to express the mood of the character. If I want to improve this work, maybe the first aspect I will add more content to the story to make that more exciting. Like the conversation between the protagonist and the psychiatrist in Joker, the character is in the shadow, it is very soft, but it makes people feel very gloomy. Meanwhile, I wish that I have a more daring and diverse attempt, not limited to shooting at home or in studio. It is can choose outdoors, such as steps with lots of stairs, or long aisles. After completing this video, I learned the importance of teamwork, but for a teamwork work, it is need a director or cinematography to make decisions. Therefore, if I have a chance to complete a media piece in the future, I want to take charge and to do it on my own. This way I will have the opportunity to learn what I am really good at and not good at doing. 

During exhibition, I also watch other groups works, some of them are amazing. First is a taxi scene, the whole scene is like blue-green filter, with two characters, drivers and passengers. The passenger’s facial contour is soft light, very much like natural light, and half off the face has a part of the shadow. The driver’s facial shadow is heavy. I think they tried to use lamp and LED to create natural light, and they also use good color modulation in the editing. This is my favorite work, I think it is very good. In the previous presentation, the investigative videos they showed were that imitating many movie clips, and the effect was very good. In addition, the second is a video of a girl in make up. It was shot in a dark environment, and I think was using blue and red gel. The video shows the environment from many angles, such as looking at the girl’s face through a mirror, also one picture is use high angle shot and the medium shot. Many pictures are clipped together, but they don’t look weird. I think this set of lighting effects is not as natural as the driver’s group, their work is an artistic style. Combining red and blue gel of light gives people an unreal feeling, but the overall performance and the use of light explain the mood of the characters and the overall tone of the video.

When I watched as a viewer, because its screen is larger than on the camera and computer, many of the deficiencies are easier to display. So this also tells me to do every detail more better, such as editing. When I sat down in the exhibition, it was like an audience in the cinema, I could see the details of each video piece, and the overall effect was very shocking. After the end of the semester, I really feel that I have gained a lot more than before. Because at the beginning of the course, I was very interested in film light. But at that time I was only have a curious attitude and no rigorous thinking. However after this semester of study, and each of the shooting in the lesson, not only learned a lot of instruments, but also really understood the role of light in the film. It can show the director’s thoughts and express the content of the story. Now whenever I see a movie clip, I will think about how the light of this scene is set up and could I shoot the same picture in the future. I hope that these experiences can be applied to future studies and works.

For the class 16 in which we experimented with a Night Interior, I think we still have something can  be improved. Such as when the first shot was taken in Delors, I thought it would be better if the light could be softer. It might be possible to add a black board to the right, or use dedo to shine the Delors, or may add the white gel to the dedo for the scene. Or we can change white clothes for the costume, and the scene may look more natural. I think the second shot is better. the light for this shot is more natural. 

Exercise 5 and exercise 8 have something in common, they were all shoot in a hard outdoor environment, using more shots put together. For example, shooting a scene in which two people are close up in a scene, there are also two shots of the medium shot. But the two exercises are still somewhat different. There are three characters were shot simultaneously in exercise 5. And two of them are in the shadow and one is in the sun. This is more difficult, so we may need to use a white board to reflect the sun in the shadows, so that we can see the facial expression of the character more clearly. Moreover, it can see exercise 5 is because it is shot outdoors, so there have a large noise, which is also a difficult problem in shooting outdoor scenes. But I really like the one shot in Exercise 5, which is to photograph him and two other characters from the perspective of Mullins. We can see the clear sunlight from the shot, and there is a very strong contrast with the shadow in the corner. Also in Exercise 8, the character come out of the elevator and see a distinct contrast of lighting.

For the final exercise, I think there are many point which I need to learn. When the director wants to shape a character’s scene at the window, it also shows the character and the rose next to him. This is a more contrasting picture. Because the characters are dark, the color of the red rose is very bright.So in the layout of the scene, the background is a black board, because it is necessary to cover some unnecessary light sources, while at the same time leaking half of the natural light on the left side, but blocking it with a black cloth, so it will not appear too hard. In the character’s Put a white board on the left and pretend to be a window. Use dedo to shine on the whiteboard and flowers. We can distinguish it from the character, and then use another dedo, but more soft light hits the character to create a balanced picture. I think the disadvantage of it may be the setting of that window. If people sit on the edge of a real window, it may look more natural. 

One of the most impressive videos we took in class was the scene that called “Emmaline Dreams of Playtime”. In order to create a nightmare atmosphere, we chose a red gel, which seems to have a feeling of being out of reality. We took two shots to shoot this scenes. First scene is that the key light is on the face of the Rain, and in the second scene key light is on him left side. And use the white board to fill the light and shoot his clear image. However on the other frontal of two people shot, his image is unsharp, in the dark. I think the effect is quite good. However, I think there is some shortcoming that it may be better if the background of the positive shots of two people can be darker. Because it may be more like it would be in the nightmare of Emmaline. This exercise also gave me some inspiration about how to shoot the scene which in the dark. Or how to create a feeling of horror and sensorineural. Because I have always been interested in the use of filters. So I think the lights that have been added to the filter will be very different. But sometimes I think it will be less natural after adding the filter, so how to achieve the natural effect after joining the gel is what I really want to explore.