May 06, 2009

Today we watch the last portal film that we missed last class.

Blanche (Hannah, Jing Ting, Julien, Medora)
Story
This group had a very abstract and fresh approach to the theme of portals. Expressing the concept of a character trying to chase destiny was very interesting to watch and tied in very well with the use of portals. This mainly because both destiny and portals deal with the supernatural, I thought this made them very compatible. Despite this, because the story was so intricate I don't think it was expressed clearly enough to make the storyline apparent. It was only afterwards during the discussion that I realized that the person in white was symbolic of "destiny".

Camera Techniques
The camera work in this film was very entertaining to watch. In all the other films, a portal was consisted of two two shots (entrance and exits) where a character goes through one door and exits another in a different location. However, this group utilized close ups and some point of view shots to make the "exits" more interesting to watch. By using close ups and camera rotations/movements the exits seemed more bizarre and took a second to comprehend exactly where the character exited. This was much more interesting than simple stationary long shots where it is immediately obvious where the character has exited. This was the only group that decorated their portals which I thought was very interesting and very entertaining to watch.

Editing
The editing was done quite well. In terms of music, the choice of music was very well chosen and fit the footage. In the few instances where there was a match on action shot, they two shots were edited seamlessly and flowed really well. Overall, this film was very entertaining to watch, especially through their good execution of portals, however the story has to be expressed more clearly.

Having finished watching the last group, this brought our portals unit to an end. Today we started on
our new unit which investigates Wong Kar Wai's unique filming characteristics. Having watched some of his works (In the Mood for Love and My Blueberry Nights), I had a general sense of filming techniques. Before we learning specifically about Wong Kar Wai, we saw a few clips on disjoint continuity.

Especially from watching Hitchcock's works, it was very interesting to see how he draws a relationship between two seemingly contrasting shots and how they in fact justify each other. One such instance was when a man looks into the distance in one shot, then cuts to a shot of a woman and a child. This suggests that the man is a loving and warm hearted man. But change the second shot to a woman on the beach, the audience's impression on the man is completely different. The same man, but two entirely different views. I thought this was very fascinating to learn and through learning about montage editing, I though it was a huge step into interpreting Wong Kar Wai's unique style of films.

The introduction to our unit was exciting but daunting nonetheless. With little knowledge on Wong Kar Wai's special style of film, the things that we learned today were completely new to me and exercised my ability to be "knowledge" about what I know already and draw connects between what I know and what I am learning; to be "inquisitive" and good "thinkers" and displaying personal engagement. Wong Kar Wai seems very interesting simply because its so different from most of the films that I watch. This unit will be a challenge but will be an enriching and rewarding learning experience.