I don’t know if any of you students feel this way. If you know how to operate the software and some basic audio-visual languages, but still can’t shoot videos, then you are still missing one and a lot of film viewing. The accumulation of these photos can teach you the sense of the lens and allow you to intuitively see the visual effects brought about by lens splicing. So you are still missing one step, which is to pull the tab. So how to draw a film? Let us learn how Yang Chao, the director of the movie "Yangtze River Pictures", draws a film:
Pulling a film is a kind of repeated viewing, pausing, slow playback, frame by frame. Watching movies, neurotic movie watching activities.
This kind of movie watching activity is not to discover the secrets of the play, performance or theme. Those secrets can be obtained either from the script or by watching it several times.
It’s not for a deeper and more enjoyable viewing experience. I would rewatch the car ride in "Fury Road" or the Fall of Zion in "The Matrix" or Adjani's weird bed scene in "Obsessed" many times, not to mention the rape and revenge scenes in "I Spit on Your Grave". Even all the scenes featuring Fan Wei in "Ma Dashuai" are very healthy and refreshing, and spiritual activities that are pleasant to the body and mind, but these are not movies.
The purpose of pulling the film is to discover the secrets of the film director.
The core secret of film directing is audiovisual language (montage). That is, how he uses images to decompose and reorganize time and space. Sounds very high-tech. In fact, it’s how he took the photo.
Instead, what did he take.
An easy misunderstanding in film-making is to focus on content-level things such as plot, performance, art, etc., instead of focusing on the underlying content, the basic formal structure of the film-the audio-visual language.
Audiovisual language is the bottom line, core skill, and basic internal strength of a film director. You can call it anything. Anyway, that's the most important thing. I call it "Small Wuxiang Gong". If you master the Xiaowuxiang Gong, you can perform Shaolin's seventy-two, no, 7,200 stunts, or Tianshan plum-breaking skills, all appearances (plays, performances, art, music), Everything can run on this platform and must run on this platform.
To put it at the extreme, if a director's audiovisual language is mediocre, then the depth of the content is questionable, or it may not last.
However, this does not mean that audio-visual language is only created in master art films.
Even in the most popular commercial films, there is audio-visual language and the director’s secrets. To prove this point, let's pull out a short clip that everyone is familiar with - "After a one-night stand" in Stephen Chow's "The King of Comedy".
After Cecilia Cheung saw the money left by Stephen Chow, she thought that Chow was just treating her as a lady, so she left professionally and went out.
A very beautiful shot of the relationship between front and back, simple and clear.
Cut to the next shot and Cecilia Cheung is already outside the door. Editing saves the process of opening the door and walking out. This leaping speed has surprised me. The image efficiency is extremely high.
This shot is even more surprising. Stephen Chow was already peeping from the hiding place in front of the window - no explanation was given as to when he would get up and come to the window! This is a very important lead-the-viewer moment! We were slightly surprised. Surprise from audio-visual language. Because of the order and rhythm presented by the director.
At the same time, this is another front-to-background relationship shot, shot accurately. There are no lines, but the spatial relationship formed by the iron bars on the window, the temptation of love and the shrinking mentality, are presented without any hindrance.
She is gone. He turned back to face himself in the mirror. Regret and reluctance. Note that even at this time, the director did not forget to bring in the details of the characters' lives. Those photos and the characters' expressions formed an interesting tension. This is not a TV series with a face-to-face performance, this is the audio-visual language of the movie.
This is an even more shocking jump. Jumping directly from his face to hers. Move the camera and she's gone. Two lonely expressions. We thought that was the end, but we didn't expect that very soon, in the same shot, following the direction she was walking, mobile photography moved him out.
This is the drop of this shot. This is the scheduling ability of a long lens, but it is crisp and clear. The ups and downs of the plot are directly presented in audio-visual language.
The above shots are simple forward and reverse shots, so I won’t go into details. This is the moment when the director has no choice but to shoot according to the pattern. It's normal, no one can be creative and changeable with images all the time.
Here we go again! This lens is amazing. She walked out of the screen, which was originally just a cutscene to explain the action. Unexpectedly, the director did not stop after she left the frame, but used a small lift to lift the frame within the same shot.
It’s like this! What is this for? He has no expression. What are you taking pictures of? Shoot the waves. What are you doing to beat the waves? Feeling. Use waves to express Stephen Chow's mood. The first time I saw this I was extremely shocked. This is an art film.
My mood has not calmed down yet. Immediately cut to the seaside road, there is a simple and clear relationship shot. Too fast! So handsome! How much unnecessary process is saved! He went out, went downstairs, and ran without saying a word. In a heartbeat, he caught up with her. The audience felt one surprise after another.
She pretended to be relaxed.
He was hesitating.
Jump cut! A surprising jump cut! The presentation of this hesitation does not rely entirely on performance, but relies on a jump cut to express his hesitation. This audio-visual language is simply not too cool.
Finally confessed. At this critical moment, this crucial sentence, how will the director present it next, relying only on his and her performances? This is the director's big test of the entire paragraph. Whether the audio-visual language can radiate the light of the film is at this moment.
It turned out to be a panoramic dance with neither person expressing any expression! ! Who took the shot? Whose small phaseless skill? Is Stephen Chow so awesome? Then
the camera moves past him and rushes towards her. This confession, "I'll support you," turned directly into a moving shot, rushing towards her! This feeling cannot be expressed in words, so it can only be expressed through images. This is the movie, this is the MOVIE.
Getting closer.
Getting closer. How would she respond to this tender confession? All drama, suspense and emotion are transformed into images.
A touching look back. It’s not about how good the acting is (of course it’s not bad), the key is the sequence of shots, the way the image builds up to this moment, no matter who plays it (as long as it’s a natural film performance), it’s all moving.
Oh, this is actually the case. The opportunity has disappeared, it is so difficult to get close.
She is gone. He was dejected. This time it was finally the ending. The shot was very long. After she came out of the painting, he stood still. This scene is exactly the same as the first shot of the previous scene, and it also implies in the image that it is over.
(Of course it is not over, the biggest blow is about to come)
If the audience still had any suspicion in the previous scene, this car window moving lens left him just now The family clearly tells us that this is over and they failed to love each other.
We finally let our guard down and prepared for the next scene.
The director fooled us. A direct blow to our souls.
She was crying like a dog.
We were caught off guard. I was instantly shocked and moved.
This is an extremely concise and accurate audio-visual language. This is a film technique to lead the audience, deceive the audience, and implement a sudden attack. This is the Tianshan plum-breaking hand.
Attention! If the scene was cut to a point where the crying was not in the middle, but started from scratch, it would be completely over. If we are prepared, we will not be moved.
This is the most critical point. This is a great shift in the universe.
Is it a good performance? qualified. True enough. There are too many people who can perform to this level. But there are not many genre films that can divide the camera to this extent, lift the actors up with audio-visual language, and reach the peak of empathy.
This is the pull tab.
By pulling the film in this way, you can discover the secrets of film directors, and you can also become a film director yourself.