Friday, January 29, 2010
Whip it (2009)
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Infinite windows in windows: Mother (2009)
This scene is captured from Korean movie Mother (2009), by director Joon-ho Bong. Interesting, isn't it? Could you make one as well? Share with us.
Monday, January 25, 2010
happy or unhappy couple? Costume of Four Christmases (2008)
These two set of costumes show they are a couple and also how they feel about upcoming events.
The fist shot is particular interesting because everyone is facing another direction, and make whole scene more powerful.
The Brothers Bloom have a light hand!
Disclaimer: Professionals, do not attempt.
The Blair Witch Project copycat
We all know The Blair Witch Project: A group of people want to make a movie, so they decide to shoot something extraordinary and never been captured on film before. The ending, usually something more extraordinary happen to themselves and is captured by their cameras.
According to this standard, we've been seen many "The Blair Witch Projects":
Humpday (2009):Two straight guys have sex
Paranormal Activity (2009): Ghost in a bedroom
Chronicle(2012):superpower caught on digital video camera
We know the cliche, the question, could we make one ourselves? What is your "The Blair Witch Project"? Please share with us.
According to this standard, we've been seen many "The Blair Witch Projects":
Humpday (2009):Two straight guys have sex
Paranormal Activity (2009): Ghost in a bedroom
Chronicle(2012):superpower caught on digital video camera
We know the cliche, the question, could we make one ourselves? What is your "The Blair Witch Project"? Please share with us.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Inglourious Basterds (2009) : how to cross the line
Quentin Tarantino has been known for breaking 180 degree rule of editing. Here, it is crossing the line and make two subjects on the same side.
The smart composition is that he let their cigarettes pointing toward different direction. This provides this easily-confused composition certain indication of orientation. When examining it closely, we may find that the woman is actually holding cigarette with her left hand, while the man use right hand. In addition, their eyes provide some clues as well.
Without those arrangements, in this type of reverse angle shots, we may see two characters in similar place of frames with almost identical gestures. Simply letting characters use different hand to pose the same gesture make the scene interesting.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
How to include someone who isn't there into a conversation? Post Grad (2009)
Similar idea may be applied to cinematography, in the scene, when father and son are discussing the son's future, the deceased mother, who is also an important part of this family, is included by having her photo placed on top of a bookshelf.
Another item to be included is the admission letter from a university, since they are arguing whether they should open and read the letter. Where's the letter? It is placed to where no audience will miss.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Shots framed by people: An Education (2009)
These two shots, both are taken from the film An Education (2009), have an interesting cinematography. The hero and heroine in these two shots seem to say that they only have eyes on each others even when they are surrounding by other people.
Wanna to make a similar one yourself?


Wanna to make a similar one yourself?
Establishing shot of An Education (2009)

This well-executed establishing shot of the movie An Education (2009) presents a modest house of Jenny's family opposed to David's glamour sports car which we have already seen in the film earlier. It also attempts to balance two objects, the house and the sports car in similar purple tone visually.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Breathless? Got milk?
In Godard's breathless (1960), just before our wanted hero and heroine in the movie headed to their final ending, she went to get some milk, and he drank milk.
This particular act, a thug drinks milk, seems eventually become a classic scene in films. Similar scenes appear in a films repeatedly. For example, Coen brothers seem to be addicted this action, we found this in their early work Bloody Simple, and lately No country for Old Man.
Question: how would you include that man or woman drinking milk in your film? And what do you plan to achieve by that?
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
1:1 Project - Watch one, make one!
Often friends ask me why I watch so many films and write about them, and what the purpose is.
This year, I seriously think about these questions. I think analyzing and writing about films only have two purposes. One is the learn how to make films from those previous work, the other is just for fun. The latter one actually includes many of different type of writing, such as film critics in newspapers or medias for audiences to choose which to watch, traditional literature critics that could be seen on serious academic journals which the the main reasons is add extra fun when watching and discussing them afterall.
I tried to calculate how many films one could have watched in his/her life, it is possible to do so since each feature film is roughly has similarly predictable length. Then I figured out it is meaningless to attempt to watch all films in the world as some film collectors may secretly wish for. Most important, to obtain "fun", it isn't necessary to watch that many films. Watching two or three films won't make me happier, only more tired.
In the end, watching for making films sounds most convincing for me. Therefore, this is my new year resolution for this year: 1:1 project. I challenge myself to make some still photos or clips which are inspired by every film I watch. And I invite any renegade minds to sign up this deranged assignment with me!
This year, I seriously think about these questions. I think analyzing and writing about films only have two purposes. One is the learn how to make films from those previous work, the other is just for fun. The latter one actually includes many of different type of writing, such as film critics in newspapers or medias for audiences to choose which to watch, traditional literature critics that could be seen on serious academic journals which the the main reasons is add extra fun when watching and discussing them afterall.
I tried to calculate how many films one could have watched in his/her life, it is possible to do so since each feature film is roughly has similarly predictable length. Then I figured out it is meaningless to attempt to watch all films in the world as some film collectors may secretly wish for. Most important, to obtain "fun", it isn't necessary to watch that many films. Watching two or three films won't make me happier, only more tired.
In the end, watching for making films sounds most convincing for me. Therefore, this is my new year resolution for this year: 1:1 project. I challenge myself to make some still photos or clips which are inspired by every film I watch. And I invite any renegade minds to sign up this deranged assignment with me!
Traffic and Cinematography of filtering
In Traffic (2000), director Steven Soderbergh worked as cinematographer himself, and used filtering to present distinct looks for different story lines. The scenes of judges family are overcasted by blue tone, and story in mexico often shot in a light color style. Check two shots below:


Now it's the time to try the same technique to enrich our storytelling, please shot at two scenes in different color style to hightlight their distinctions. Post your works below, and explain a bit if you like.
Now it's the time to try the same technique to enrich our storytelling, please shot at two scenes in different color style to hightlight their distinctions. Post your works below, and explain a bit if you like.
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