FSI : Film Scene Investigation

Vignette effect in Haywire (2011)

2012-05-07T01:23:00.000-07:00

The visual cinematography of Steven Soderbergh's Haywire is astonishing. I am always amazed by how Director Sodergbergh master the art of digital filming. Yes, his work left obvious trail revealing those are authentically digital works, however, unlike other film shot in digital, those display the feature of digital film in a good way, just as it shown in the film Haywire. Particularly vignetting effect in this film provides the overall texture of the visual presentation of it. Here are some examples.

also, some classical frame-in-a-frame shot

And here's are some nice wide-angle shots for a horizon movement. Notice that the in the first one, a street light is used to highlight the person of interest in that shot.

Here's one of my favoriate silhouette in the film

Black and Red in Broken Embraces (2009)

2010-03-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

The picture on the wall is also a great foreshadow of future car accident

The huge painting behind could serve as foreshadow of later filming scenes about cooking

The music in Broken Embraces (2009): I'm here of Blackwatch

2010-03-31T20:17:00.000-07:00

If you watch the frame from film Broken Embraces carefully, you can see the label on the Vinyl, saying: Blackwatch ft Mykel, I'm here.
So here's the music from what you see.

I'm Here (Original Mix) - Blac...

Would Roy Lichtenstein drop happy tears seeing this?

2010-03-02T14:32:00.000-08:00

Roy Lichtenstein's 1964 pop art work- Happy Tears becomes the title and poster art of the latest Demi Moore movie, which is directed by Roy Lichtenstein's son Mitchell Lichtenstein, and only shown in 15 theaters^[1].

[1]boxofficemojo.com

Informant! (2009) : upside down

2010-03-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

It looks like all you have to do is flipping the image, so could you make an interesting upside down still photography or clip?

Video games in film

2010-02-25T08:53:00.000-08:00

Couple Retreat (2009)

Orphan (2009)

Guitar Hero seems to be the most popular one!

costume design of Couple Retreat (2009)

2010-02-22T08:31:00.000-08:00

I can't help but notice the overall exotic tone of the movie. With these costumes, it puts enough bizarre new age feeling in it.

In above shot, Marcel's outfit is like a lama monk's robe.

Here, each couple wear similar costume with different colors during their therapy sessions. In the end of the movie, each couple will be awarded with different animal sculptures, which reflects their own animal nature. Sounds like Kung Fu panda, isn't it? Could you guess which animals they would become?

Do you sleep like this?

2010-02-20T01:24:00.000-08:00

* Coco Before Chanel (2009)

*Head in the Clouds (2004)

Finger!: Bright Star (2009)

2010-02-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

In movie, Bright Star (2009), poet Keats put his finger underneth beloved Fanny's sleeve to express his love.

Jane Campion is not the only diretor use this device, director Rian Johnson arranged the same device in a 2008 movie, See also The Brothers Bloom have a light hand!

Could you do this? A door to door shot in A Serious Man (2009)

2010-02-10T14:14:00.000-08:00

This is a scene captured from 2009 film The Serious Man by Ethan and Joel Coen. This shot introduced two doors at once. The mismatch of the door and the door frame results two different similar spaces presenting in a single tide shot. Here audiences can see a guest shows up in the front door and then is leaded to a kitchen without any camera movement.

Now here is a challenge for all of you, could you make a similar shot? Post your best take in the comment of this entry.

Penelope Cruz in Broken Embraces Love Scene

2010-02-03T12:50:00.000-08:00

For some reasons, that reminds me of a Rene Magritte's work:

Whip it (2009)

2010-01-29T19:07:00.000-08:00

*the color of actress' bras trim matches to the actor's jacket.

*the costumes show the similiarity of mother and daughter.

*Nice kiss scene after this shot. The uniforms uniform these two supporting roles.

*This is one of the best shot in the film. The "love" between mother and daughter literally is showed.

Infinite windows in windows: Mother (2009)

2010-01-26T22:12:00.000-08:00

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.

happy or unhappy couple? Costume of Four Christmases (2008)

2010-01-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-25T09:54:00.000-08:00

This is one of the best hand touching scene I've ever seen. In the movie The brothers Bloom (2008), Bloom tries to seduce his person of interest by sliding his thumb underneath her cuff when they shakes hands.

Disclaimer: Professionals, do not attempt.

The Blair Witch Project copycat

2010-01-25T09:18:00.000-08:00

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.

Inglourious Basterds (2009) : how to cross the line

2010-01-21T10:07:00.000-08:00

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.

How to include someone who isn't there into a conversation? Post Grad (2009)

2010-01-20T10:29:00.000-08:00

How to include someone into a scene when they aren't there? In the when photography was still a luxry, people brought the pictures of their deceased families to a set when they were taken family photos by photographers. In this way, they can have those family members in their photos as well.

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.

Shots framed by people: An Education (2009)

2010-01-18T23:41:00.000-08:00

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?

Establishing shot of An Education (2009)

2010-01-18T22:41:00.000-08:00

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.

Breathless? Got milk?

2010-01-14T15:28:00.000-08:00

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?

1:1 Project - Watch one, make one!

2010-01-12T18:05:00.000-08:00

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!

Traffic and Cinematography of filtering

2010-01-12T18:01:00.000-08:00

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.