Wong Kar-Wai's Technical Code
In 1642, the Dutch Amsterdam Shooters team funded and asked the painter Rembrandt to create a group portrait. Rembrandt accepted the order and painted the famous "Night Watch". After inspection, the employers gave negative comments one after another, especially regarding the large areas of darkness and dramatic light and shadow in the painting, thinking it was an "artificial dark painting."
("Night Watch" by Dutch painter Rembrandt)
" Blossoms " also received similar comments when it was first broadcast. It's just that as the plot progressed and the female characters all excelled, this voice weakened. There is no standard answer in art anyway, but there is a code for Wong Kar-wai’s technique. Let's break it down in detail:
1. Lighting: The lighting of "Flowers" is very different from the bright white light of ordinary TV series. Regarding light, Wong Kar-Wai pursues the subtle feeling of sparse shadows and slanting shadows, rather than the sweeping view of the rooster's singing. The picture of "Flowers" has a very large light ratio and a large area of shadows. The aforementioned Rembrandt light was also used when setting the light position.
Regarding lighting, lighting is only the foundation. The deeper skill lies in hiding. How to block and how to control the dark parts is the key. With appropriate contrast between light and dark, the picture will be more layered and three-dimensional.
2. Single-camera shooting: Compared with single-camera shooting, multi-camera shooting can significantly improve shooting efficiency. British director Ridley Scott once said that as long as he is given enough camera positions, no matter how big it is, He can also shoot war scenes in half a day, but while seeking efficiency, some camera positions must have worse conditions.
When shooting with a single camera, the director can carefully design each shot and have more precise control over composition, lighting, actor positioning, and camera movement, ensuring that the best camera position on the scene is used for each shooting. , which is why the actresses in Wong Kar-Wai's shots are so radiant and charming.
(Stills from the TV series "Flowers")
3. Foreground occlusion: "The secret is a flower, and if there is no secret, there is no flower." Just holding the pipa can attract people's unlimited imagination. Foreground occlusion is the way to achieve this method. Using a variegated foreground and placing the protagonist between the front and rear backgrounds not only creates a dreamy atmosphere, but also creates a voyeuristic perspective, giving the viewer a sense of immersion.
Sometimes we will see multiple actors reflected in the picture. This is shot with an angular mirror as the foreground. It is intended to show a kind of self-care, as well as the complexity of identity and the multi-faceted personality. This kind of framed composition reminds people of the winding paths and layers of southern gardens.
(Stills from the TV series "Flowers")
4. Upgrade -frame shooting : In layman's terms, it is a slow-motion effect. Time is the theme of Wong Kar-wai's creation. Slow-motion can lengthen the unit time and at the same time bring a special beauty to the picture. When elevated shots of empty mirrors such as rain, snowflakes, and smoke appear in the picture, "all conditioned phenomena, like bubbles in dreams, like dew, like lightning," will come to mind.
5. Wide -angle lens : As opposed to telephoto lenses compressing space, wide-angle lenses stretch space. Wong Kar-wai is fond of shooting with wide-angle lenses in his urban films, because when using wide-angle lenses, you will find that the actors are in a narrow space. They should be very close, but they look far apart. This also coincides with the relationship between people in urban life. The distance between people, hearts and hearts.
(Still from the movie " Fallen Angels ")
6.Handheld photography : In Wong Kar-wai's early films, there were often scenes shot with handheld cameras. Of course, this was also limited by the shooting conditions at the time. Handheld photography will cause the picture to shake, and that shaking emotion is exactly in line with the restless, confused, and lost mood of people in that era.
7. Editing : Wong Kar-wai’s movies start with editing. There is a legend in the world that Wong Kar-Wai doesn't have a script for his movies. In fact, he started his career as a screenwriter. However, after becoming a director, he got used to having a framework first, and then improvising based on the actors and on-site conditions. Wong Kar-wai will shoot a lot of material on site, leaving a variety of possibilities for the future.After the
material collection was completed, it was on the editing table that the film really began. Many things that were not thought out clearly during shooting need to be organized in post-production, so we will see that Wong Kar-wai’s films have two obvious editing watermarks - narration and subtitle cards. He used these two tools to connect the differences between shooting and filming. Unclear story line.
Wong Kar-wai has injected half a century of film-making skills into the TV series "Flowers". I am afraid that it will make many drama directors think about life. If you go my way, I will have nowhere to go.
Wong Kar-Wai’s video signature: “Downgraded printing” + “Slow-motion shooting”
After the popularity of “Flowers”, the most talked about word about Wong Kar-wai’s technical style is “frame extraction”, and many short video platform netizens are rushing to imitate it. , all boasted that they used the "frame extraction" technique to shoot short films in Wang's style. This is actually a rumor. The term "frame extraction" is incomplete. "Downgrade and print" + "slow-motion shooting" are the complete secrets of Wong Kar-wai. The conventional frame rate of
is 24 frames per second. When filming, Wong Kar-wai will reduce the frame rate to 12 frames, 8 frames or even 4 frames per second. This is "downgrading" (which is what everyone thinks of frame extraction). When recalling the creation process of "Happy Together", Wong Kar-Wai's regular photographer Du Kefeng said: "At the beginning, no one wanted to repeat our signature style, but it turned out that it was too painful not to repeat it. We rotated the speed in the lens, starting from the normal speed. To 12 frames per second or 8 frames per second..."
(Screenshot of Wong Kar-Wai's interview)
Due to the reduced frame rate, the shutter speed can also be reduced accordingly, which gave rise to another of Wong Kar-wai's skills - slow-motion shooting. There is a corresponding relationship between frame rate and shutter speed, that is, the shutter speed is generally the reciprocal of twice the frame rate. When shooting at a conventional 24 frames per second, the shutter speed is generally 1/50 second. At this shutter speed, the characters The movement is relatively clear. When the frame rate becomes 8 frames per second, the shutter speed can be reduced accordingly. When the shutter speed drops to a relatively low level, the movement of the characters will be blurred, resulting in an obvious smear effect. This is the so-called "slow shutter".
knock on the blackboard, when the frame rate is reduced, the picture will freeze; when shooting with a slow shutter speed, moving objects will produce a smear effect. So when you watch Wong Kar-Wai's film and find that the picture is stuck one after another, and the characters are smeared, don't doubt your network card. It's Wong Kar-wai who is adding his image watermark.
In addition, if you only downgrade without adding frames, the picture will be fast forwarded, which is often called "downgrade photography". Because the regular playback rate is 24 frames per second, if 12 frames per second are used for shooting, then the two-second picture will be displayed in one second during playback, and the action will be twice as fast. Therefore, in order to play back at normal speed after downgrading to
, it is necessary to "print" additional frames in the later stage. Each of the 12 frames captured will be copied once and become 24 frames. In this way, there will still be lags and smearing during playback. effect, but the screen will not fast forward.
In this way, "downgrade printing" plus "slow shutter shooting" is Wong Kar Wai's full-process imaging solution.
If you decrypt Wong Kar-Wai's image code, you will find that it is not difficult to learn the technology, but improving the aesthetics is the key.
Wong Kar-wai's image style: form is content
As a film image stylist, Wong Kar-wai narrates through images, and form is content.
uses the "downgrade" technique to cause the lag of the picture and the progression of space, which can arouse the psychological excitement of the audience, forming a trance of time and space dislocation, and a sense of alienation and disengagement. The use of "slow door" to produce a smear effect can show the movement trajectory and sense of speed. The protagonist moves slowly, while the people around him move so fast that they become blurry. The two form a strong contrast, which can express the loneliness and loss of the characters in the space. Is the formation of the image style
entirely due to aesthetic considerations? In fact, there are many compulsions hidden inside. For example, when "Chungking Express" was shot in Chungking Mansions, there was no shooting permit, so you could only take candid shots. Candid shots couldn't be lit, so you had to use slow shutter speeds to ensure exposure.Wong Kar-Wai's film may not be enough as he continued to shoot. When filming "Happy Together" in the distant American continent, the film was all used up, and in the end he could only take still photos. If this is regarded as a "downgrade", That is "degrading" to the extreme.
(Still from the movie "Happy Together")
A good movie can tell a story or not. Wong Kar-Wai's movies fall into the latter category. Emotion replaces plot. The focus of the movie is no longer on the direction of the story, but on time and memory. .
Time has gone and will never come back. Wong Kar-wai wants to record and relive these lost times. Our feeling of the passage of time comes from memory. When the present continues to become a memory, we realize that time is flowing.
This is in line with the views of the French philosopher Deleuze in the book "Time Image". The story no longer follows a linear narrative, and the characters' actions fall into aimless wandering. Time no longer moves forward at a constant speed, but can freeze or flash back. When time enters the garden of memory with bifurcated paths, it will go in all directions. Time bifurcates at every moment. The past, present and future exist at the same time. The uncertainty of memory brings poetry.
(Stills from the movie " Days of Being Wild ")
Wong Kar-Wai draws frames and Ang Lee fills frames
After "Flowers" became popular, there was a hot topic on the Internet: "Wong Kar-Wai draws frames crazily and Ang Lee fills frames crazily."
mentioned earlier that "frame extraction" (that is, lowering the frame rate) will cause a lag in the picture. So what is the effect of Ang Lee's "frame filling"?
The human visual system can process 10 to 12 frames of images per second and perceive them individually. Due to the persistence of vision phenomenon of the human eye, any higher rate will be regarded as motion. Therefore, the frame rate used in the silent film era was 16 frames per second, so that the pictures people saw were smooth. The reason why
later became 24 frames per second was because of the emergence of sound movies, and the sound tracks also needed to be recorded on film, and 24 frames per second was the lowest frame rate that supported the playback of clear audio on 35mm film. This standard has been implemented for almost a century. However, this is only a standard that weighs commercial interests and film effects, not an upper limit.
Over the years, film practitioners have mostly sought breakthroughs in audiovisual, performance, narrative, and philosophical thinking. Few people have touched the frame rate. Ang Lee, the breakthrough player, made his first breakthrough in "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" Increased frame rate to 120 frames per second. The 24 frames per second of the
movie is far inferior to the human eye viewing the real world. According to Ang Lee, the human eye can see 800 to 900 frames per second (of course, there are also opinions that the critical value of the human eye viewing the screen at 100 frames per second). Therefore, increasing the frame rate will make the picture clearer and the movements smoother, more like the real world that our eyes usually see.
Movies are the art of dreaming, and Ang Lee’s ambition is to make us wake up and dream. Of course, technological innovation requires continuous trial and exploration. Maybe it is not yet what Ang Lee wants, but technology must always be given a chance. In fact, Ang Lee is the wild one, filming same-sex love, wife-swapping games, wearing no clothes, and cannibalism on the sea. Of course, the wildest thing is that he has the face of an honest man.
Wong Kar-wai who loves sunglasses and honest man Ang Lee, please continue to make movies.
(Photo of Wong Kar-wai and Ang Lee)
Kong Ting
