What kind of film design aesthetics is hidden in the new works of directors such as Zhang Yimou and Jia Zhangke?

Speaking of film aesthetics, must first think of the movie posters directed by Zhang Yimou, or the works of outstanding designers such as Huang Hai.

Today, I will follow the most familiar directors and to interpret their new movie posters, and show you the relationship between the style and design of directors.

First of all, here are a few words about the concept and understanding of film aesthetics.

Film aesthetics (aesthetics of cinematography) is an important branch of film studies and artistic aesthetics. It is an emerging discipline that is based on film studies and aesthetics and studies the beauty and aesthetic issues of film art.

01 Director Zhang Yimou

Then we first take the new work of Zhang Yimou director , begins to analyze the design part of the film aesthetics. Everyone at knows that he has certain aesthetic requirements for his works. The most notable feature is that he will be based on the theme of each movie. From the composition, color matching, changes in light and shadow and the connection of the lens, they are all arranged just right, and they have a certain obsession with Chinese classical aesthetics .

starts with his movie LOGO, which is usually presented in the form of calligraphy , and the one who collaborates most is the most familiar teacher Xu Jing, who wrote the previous "Shadow" LOGO.

and his new work:

"One Second"

"One Second" This movie tells the mid-seventies, the memories and feelings of the generation in the era of film. In the era of material and spiritual scarcity, people I have unlimited curiosity and enthusiasm for the movie world.

So we see that the layout of the entire poster is divided into left and right. The main vision of is the half of the back with the tape in the right hand, while a group of people in the left picture are holding hoes, facing the loess and going to the sky. .

uses 's large area of ​​desert loess as the main background and color, and simply explains the time and related content of the story.

The expression form of the movie's name "One Second" is still presented in the form of calligraphy , with the background of texture and texture, continuing his design style of Chinese classical aesthetics.

, of course, in addition to this movie, there is also a new work:

"Above the Cliff"

. This movie tells the troubled times of the last century. In order to protect the underground party member Wang Wang, who obtained evidence of the crimes of Japanese Unit 731, he successfully withdrew from the Northeast. , Our personnel implemented the "Urad" action plan.

All the concept posters that came out of this movie created a tense and mysterious feeling. For example, the following poster design:

The main picture is the snowy forest at night, and the shadows of the trees are reflected through the moonlight. A silhouette of an agent holding a pistol was shown, creating a tense atmosphere of underground war. At the same time, the font of the movie poster is "above the cliff," and still uses the vigorous and vigorous brush conjoined character .

and another poster design, using red as the overall main color.

​​A gun was erected to form a steep cliff, and a man wearing a hat and a windbreaker stood at the end of the gun, as if about to jump off. It is consistent with the concept of the movie's name on the edge of the cliff, creating a tense, exciting, and thrilling atmosphere.

Finally, Zhang Yimou also has a new work:

"Strong as a Rock"

Although there are not many posters that have been released so far, we can see that the two are pointing at each other in opposition, and one is placed next to it and buried in the soil. Half of the gun, it also revealed from the side that the theme of this movie must be related to "struggle" .

Through the above movie posters, have you found the rules?

Zhang Yimou’s movie poster design pays attention to the obscure movie theme or part of the story meaning in the picture, and is good at applying Chinese classical aesthetics to any subject matter , Highlighting the love story of his works.

02 Jia Zhangke Director

If Zhang Yimou’s works show a spirit of great love, Jia Zhangke’s director is in the opposite direction. His works pay more attention to the life of small people in , and arouses public thinking from these perspectives. For example, his new work some time ago, "A Village's Literature" was officially renamed "Swimming Until the Sea Turns Blue".

This movie is a documentary, tells the story of a writer and a village, and a group of writers and 70 years of China. Therefore, in the poster design, restores the full picture of a village. uses falling rocks and undulating mountains to form a canyon. The road is built around this canyon. From the picture, it reflects the sense of a village with backward traffic and isolation.

and the following poster design:

is in line with the renamed movie name "Swim until the lake turns blue", so in the poster design, the blue lake water ripples, to reflect the whole movie theme. At the same time, his other new work "Unromantic", also broke a poster.

also recently revealed that Jia Zhangke, as the producer, participated in a movie focusing on the group of Japanese orphans in during World War II, :

"Meeting Nara Again"

. A man, a woman and an old man are walking in front of each other, and the house in the picture is also the architectural style of Japanese , which vaguely highlights the story of the movie.

​​So did you find it? Director Jia Zhangke is good at using 's abstract and concrete expressions. hides the story content of movie posters, and leaves a certain amount of foreshadowing and imagination.

03 Lou Ye director

Lou Ye’s work pursues survival and restoration, reveals the true state of life, and the whole work gives people the feeling of psychedelic . After the audience reads it, they will have a kind of seemingly far away from their own life, but The fact is that is close to one's own .

For example, his new work:

"Lanxin Theatre"

Judging from the exploded posters, there is no too many techniques to present the poster design techniques, but focuses on the charm of the stills themselves, .

is good at grabbing the most sensitive part of the character's expression, so that the picture forms a sense of conflict and association of .

Director Ang Lee’s style has a feeling of no tricks and . His work style is very changeable. The plot setting of some movie stories is not complicated, but after watching it, there is a feeling of sudden realization. In particular, he has a very high standard for art. This time, Director Ang Lee broke the previous style of work, and used "Gemini Killer" to shoot in 3D120 frames per second, 4K resolution format, and once again contributed to a bold, rare, first-class action movie of .

Therefore, in the poster design, we see the hand-painted background and character fusion expression form, and the characters in the screen are good at sharing a poster scene.

The roles of the two characters are opposed to each other, and the background is drawn by and is a representative building to explain the background. In addition, the hand-painted part of the building uses the reflection method to present the real-life architecture, which has a positive and negative visual performance, giving people a strong sense of impact. This design technique of can be seen in many character posters of this movie.

also has a form of expression like this sharing screen and overlapping , giving people a sense of visual contrast.

Even the posters made by fans of , is really unambiguous at all, which is enough to see how popular the movie is.

In recent years, comedy movies represented by Star Master have been loved by major holidays, and many rookie comedy directors have been born.

Let’s take a look at the most classic comedy director:

05 Director Xu Zheng

"囧Mom"

movie poster is presented as of various girls wearing turbans. The makeup and hair accessories of each girl in the screen are different, and the illustrator is used. , Form the overall layering of the poster from the refinement of color matching and clothing.

Xu Zheng wears the classic military hat that he often wears in winter in Northeast China, and rolls his eyes to look at the girls around with his old face flushed with cold, which is very dramatic with .

In the past two years, director Feng Xiaogang’s style of work has always been in the direction of Wenqing , telling the ups and downs of an era from the perspective of ordinary people, and the composition and color matching of the entire poster and movie screen, All have a certain appreciation of art.

Following "Fang Hua", Feng Xiaogang has released a new movie:

"Only Yun Knows"

Seen from the exploded poster, is used to blur and overlap the expression of to reflect a kind of mutual affection. Love film. The contemplative look of the male and female protagonists in the picture uses the Gaussian blurring processing effect of the silhouette of the other party's thoughts to explain the theme of the movie.

Director Wang Jing’s works are judged by the public, which seem to be “unreasonable” , but has a certain educational significance. For example, the following new movie is

:

"Not Ending"

. The poster design styles are all different versions. One is presented in the form of divided by characters, and the other poster design is It is presented in the form of ink painting , which depicts the silhouette of the figure with the texture of ink. The director’s work style introduced by

at the end has always had relatively distinctive characteristics, very realistic and inspiring, as can be seen from the two new works.

"Legend of Li Na"

This movie is about the legendary life of tennis player Li Na in order to achieve his father's dream of championship.

Therefore, the design of movie posters pays attention to the lighting and color matching of the screen. distinguishes the growth environment of different periods by color, and the font design matched with it is presented in the partial three-dimensional expression method.

The theme of another movie is similar to that of Li Nachuan:

"Chinese Women's Volleyball"

This movie records the subversive game of 2016, and will be a note of Hui Ruoqi. Probe the ball, let the audience hold their breath, a high-speed rotating volleyball, evoked the blood and youth of several generations of volleyball female players, showing the ups and downs of the Chinese women's volleyball team for more than 30 years.

So we can see that the main color of the entire movie poster is a retro nostalgic style of , with classic slogans, evoked the audience's memory boom.

After watching the new works of the above-mentioned major directors, I believe we have also gained a lot of experience. The design of movie posters represents the meaning of each work. It will present different forms of expression according to the theme, background and director style of each movie. However, we have to learn to find the commonality of these poster designs. It is to do as much as possible to make the feeling of seeing the person first after hearing the sound, then constantly understand the connotation of the film expression in order to make good works.

Of course, the design itself is interlinked. When we are doing poster design at , some movie posters' layout, color, and screen tension can all be used for reference and transformation.