[Weekly Update] December 13, 2021

If you are wondering why sometimes updates come on Sunday and sometimes come on Monday... Well, I usually have to work at least one of the two days, and it's never up to me to decide which day I have to work.

It's the end of the year, and many of you are probably also busy with work. Hopefully the holidays have been treating you well!

CHANNEL UPDATE

• Hope you enjoyed our latest video on Stand by Me Doraemon.  After our video about Crayon Shin-chan, I know I have to do one about Doraemon.
• For those of you who know the series, hopefully I did a good enough job at highlighting the heart of the story. And for viewers who don't know Doraemon, hopefully the films interest you. For a Japanese 3D animation done in 2014, it is genuinely a good looking film.
• For our next video, we have a smaller piece highlighting some beginner filmmaking equipments you should consider if you want to start making movies.
• While the schedule is not set, for January, we'll have 2 possible videos: One about the one and only Irish Kung Fu movie: Fatal Deviation. The other one about how the Chinese language is used in Hollywood.
• If you have any examples of non-Chinese actors speaking Chinese in film, let me know!

MEDIA TALK

• While I was working, I have Hawkeye running in the background. And in episode 4, I noticed they did the famous "Edgar Wright Cuts" not once but twice. And both times, it didn't work. It just feels off, and I can't even tell you why it is off.
• Edgar Wright Cuts is one of those director's signature that is often imitated, but rarely successfully done by anyone else. It seems simple at first, just a series of quick cuts that convey one piece of information at a time. But in truth, the composition, the motion and camera movement, the rhythm have to all line up. They have to be planned in preproduction. It's not something you can fake in the edit.
• I have a classmate who tried it out in film school, and even after 5 revisions, the snappiness is nowhere close.
• And that's what we'll talk about this week: Director's Signiture.
• Another famous director's signature, at least after Tony Zhou of Every Frame a Painting pointed it out, is the Spielberg Oner.
• For those of you who don't know, Spielberg's oner is a type of long take that combines multiple shots into one. So, instead of cutting from a wide to a medium to a close up, Spielberg would dynamically push the camera in.
• This sounds easy but that's because I only described the camera movement. The real difficulty is on the blocking: The way the actors move in a scene.
• Modern films often have actors standing or sitting face to face while talking. This makes filming very quick and easy, but also completely static and boring.
• Spielberg, however, would moves his characters around the scene, interacts with objects while talking. Characters would move closer and apart, all while the camera reframes around them. It is why Spielberg films often have a theatrical style to it.
• It is a style that is much more common back in black and white films. It's pretty sad that most modern films don't have this any more.
• Wes Anderson's trademark wide-angle shot with pastel color essentially made his career. Some may say his signature style has a life of its own. And judging by his commercials, I'd say yes. A lot of time I watch Wes Anderson movies for style, not the story.
• Of course his picture book style imagery works well with his picture book stories. So it is never a truly unmotivated style.
• And lastly, of course we have to end it with a Hong Kong director: John Woo.
• If you see a John Woo movie, you know it is a John Woo movie. His style is often difficult to sum up, but it can be described as "Too Kool for SKool"
• Really, when I think of John Woo, I think of shoot-outs with Over the Rainbow playing. I see metaphors that is lacking in any subtlety, like shooting through a mirror in Face/Off.
• The snob in my, of course, dislikes these metaphors that only a 14 year old would find deep. But I would be lying if I wasn't impressed by them when I first started showing interests in film. John Woo's style may be loud and lacking in depth, but it sure is sharp and iconic.

And that is the update! What is your favourite director's signature? I think most patrons know my favourites, so I'll tell you my least favourite instead: JJ Abram and his Lens Flare.

It kinda works for Star Trek. But... I don't know, his flares are also so clean but also overwhelming, it never feels like it belongs to the film.

To see a good use of lens flare, check out John Carpenter's Christine.

I'll see you in our next update!