Wong Kar Wai

One of the most visually entrancing filmmakers working today, Wong Kar-Wai is a man who creates films filled with dazzling images and characters with a sense of romanticism. Known for his broad ideas and unconventional techniques in the realm of filmmaking, he is an individual that refuses to play by the rules. He brings both Asian sensibility and French New Wave cinematic techniques to each of his stories. His mother introduced him to many different aspects of cinema ranging from the films of Hong Kong to 1960s French New Wave. Tang hired Kar-Wai to write scripts for various movies ranging from romantic-comedies to action films. Though they scripts were successful, and helped him to get a lot of work, it was clear that Kar-Wai wanted something more. Fortunately, it was Tang who ultimately gave Kar-Wai the chance to helm his first feature film. He wanted to add romantic elements and dimensions to the characters that he would create. To help with the script for As Tears Go By, Kar-Wai brought in filmmaker Jeffrey Lau to come up with ideas that played into Kar-Wai’s fascination with romance and living for ones self. The film not only launched Kar-Wai’s career but also gave his actors a chance to branch out. Established set designer, and jack-of-all-trades, William Chang created dazzling color palettes and aided with the editing of the film. One thing that also helped Kar-Wai stand out amongst his contemporaries was his approach to music. He found ways to use pop music, such as a cover of Berlin’s Take My Breath Away from the 1986 Tony Scott film Top Gun, to as the centerpiece of the romance between Wah and Ngor. 

Kar-Wai decided to do something far more ambitious than his first film. The first film of an informal trilogy, and set in 1960s Hong Kong, Days of Being Wild played into the themes of loneliness, longing, and heartbreak. In the film a cruel and wandering playboy, York (Leslie Cheung), seduces two different women who both become victims of his cruelty and indifference. Each of the three main characters’ embark on different emotional journeys over the course of the film, including the playboy’s quest to find his biological mother in the Philippines. To explore the ideas of melancholy in the film, Kar-Wai incorporated voice-over narration techniques featured both in French New Wave cinema and in films of American filmmaker Terrence Malick. Kar-Wai also gained a new collaborator in Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle, who was already known for his unique approach to photography. Their friendship would turn into one of the best director-cinematographer collaborations in modern cinema. Despite the addition of Doyle, and the support from executive producer Alan Tang, the production was not an easy one for Kar-Wai. The brief kidnapping of actress Carina Lau nearly halted the production. Further delays occurred due to Kar-Wai’s desire to have multiple takes of a love scene and his frequent deviations from the script in search of something more loose and natural.

his films will probably include 
- romanticism 
- heart break
- living the way they want to live life
- voiceovers
- time
- pain
- suffering of love
- existentialism  

Film Evaluation

My short film is a shocking thriller aimed to make the audience watch with anticipation and excitement. My film is about a young woman named Robyn, who is lonely and love-deprived and has not been socialised correctly. She does not understand love and seduction, so therefore in an attempt to create a bond with a beautiful girl that she sees at the train station one morning, she stalks her and follows her through the town centre, and finally has the courage to ask her to take a walk with her. Robyn and Delilah, the other girl, go for a walk through the fields and lay down together, talking and flirting. Robyn, an outcast and introvert does not understand the means of safety, which leads her to believe that she must carry a weapon around with her to protect herself, and to keep her away from potentially dangerous/scary situations. As the girls chat, Robyn gets the wrong impression and goes in or a kiss to which Delilah kindly refuses - but - because of Robyn's nature and unsocialised condition, she takes out a weapon on Delilah and chases her, taking hold of her and bringing the knife up and forces it down upon Delilah's back. The next morning, Robyn is at the train station and missed the train again and see's Deliah walk past her just as she did the previous morning leaving the audience to wonder if she did kill Delilah, or if it was all a trick playing her mind. My aim for this film was to create a cathartic experience for the audience member and to create a fake portrayal of Robyn as a character, to show the audience the message of my film which is to not judge a book by its cover, and to never trust people you don't know.  I believe that my film could have been improved in many ways; one of which would be to focus on pre-production a lot more before filming as I had many issues with the plot, scenes and visuals.  I found that when filming the scenes the first time around, many of the scenes seemed pointless and mundane, whereas in refilming there was more interaction between the two characters and more opportunity for interaction between the two characters and for character development too.  Another problem I had when filming is that the scenes did not stick to the script and were mostly improvisation, however, to fix this issue I did have to rewrite an entire script which helped with filming, but was time-consuming and put a set back on my filming and production. If I were to do this again, I would take into consideration my time limit, scene list and shots, script idea and plotline and characterisation. I would rethink as to which areas are suitable to film in and would make sure that my scene lists were detailed enough and well planned. Overall, I think that my film and overall process and division could have been a lot more precise and less time consuming, and next time would take my time limits into consideration a lot more than I did originally.

Shooting script

Shooting script document

Screenplay

FADE IN:

INT. A GIRLS BEDROOM – MORNING  

ROBYN wakes up and climbs out of bed whilst grumbling. She stumbles along her dark bedroom and goes to the bathroom and starts running the shower.

INT. HALLWAY – MORNING

Robyn puts on a black backpack over her black bomber jacket on top of a black hoodie accompanied with a black t-shirt, black ripped jeans and ties up the laces to her black walking boots. She exits the house.

EXT. TOWN STREET – MIDDAY

Robyn looks to the ground as she walks through the street passing various shops and cafes. She makes her way to the train station, but as she arrives, the train leaves the platform. She throws her head into her hands and sighs, looking up to the sky and brushing her hair behind her ear, looking around frustrated.

A girl DELILAH walks past her, and Robyn hears the music playing from Delilah’s earphones. Delilah is listening to WALKING ON SUNSHINE (KATRINA AND THE WAVES.) Delilah has blonde hair that is kept put of her face with a pair of sunglasses placed on the top of her head. She is wearing colourful bright clothing with a flowery backpack.

Delilah walks through the train station car park, and around the corner out of sight. Robyn follows suspiciously, keeping her distance but watching Delilah intensely as she makes her way through the town. Delilah turns a quick corner and is again out of sight. Robyn runs after her and as she turns the corner, she bumps into a boy MYLES, who is wearing blue jeans, a black t-shirt and a black hoodie.

MYLES

(Out of breath)

Sorry!

Robyn raises her hand in an apologetic wave and continues to run after Delilah, catching up with her again but keeping her distance. She watches Delilah walk up a hill, and follows her on the opposite side of the bridge, crossing the road whilst Delilah turns the corner onto a small road lined by houses on either side, passing by the local fish and chip shop. Robyn follows, turning the corner behind the chip shop to find that Delilah has disappeared. Robyn turns around suspiciously, scanning the road for Delilah, but she is nowhere to be found.  Robyn walks down the small road and looks to her left, where she see’s a flash of colour through the bushes. Robyn parts the bushes and begins to walk through them as the branches scrape across her face and body, and she sees yellow paint on a branch beside her. She looks confused, and sees a metal fence that has been prised open. She pokes her head through the gate, and watches Delilah walk into the building like she had been there before. Robyn smiles and follows her, walking towards the abandoned factory.

INT – ABANDONED FACTORY – MIDDAY

Robyn sees Delilah making her way up a flight of stairs to the first floor. The room is large and scarce. There is a singular brick wall that comes halfway into the middle of the room, leaving the entire room open. The perimeter of the room has windows, some are smashed and others are still intact but dirty. The walls are covered with colourful paint and graffiti.

                                                                           

Robyn follows her up the stairs, and hides behind the wall as she watches Delilah. Delilah stands in the middle of the room and places her backpack on floor. She stands back up and takes her earphones out of her ears, and unplugs them from her phone. She lays her phone on the floor, and WALKING ON SUNSHINE continues to play (non-diegetic.) She crouches down and opens her backpack to reveal red, yellow, blue, green and pink spray paint cans. She walks to a wall and begins to randomly spray paint in no particular order or pattern, just painting for the fun of it. Robyn looks around the room but keeps hidden as she admires the graffiti around the wall that Delilah had done previously. She looks back to where Delilah was stood, but she, along with her belongings, are gone. Robyn comes out from hiding and looks at the wall where Delilah had been spray painting a sun and miscellaneous clouds.

CUT

INT. ROBYN’S BEDROOM – NEXT MORNING

Robyn opens her eyes and smiles. She runs to the bathroom, has a shower, heads to the hallway and ties up her boots wearing the same outfit as the day before: a black backpack, a bomber jacket, a hoodie, a black t-shirt and ripped jeans.

EXT. TRAIN STATION – MIDDAY

Robyn waits at the station excitedly, tapping her toes and holding on to the straps of her backpack, looking around the station for Delilah. The train arrives, but Delilah is not seen leaving the train. Robyn sighs and slumps slightly, turning around and walking out of the station. She looks up and sees Delilah turning the same corner as before, and Robyn skips excitedly towards her, following her towards the factory once more.

INT. ABANDONED FACTORY – FIRST FLOOR – MIDDAY

Robyn watches from the side again as she sees Delilah take out her earphones, and YOU MAKE MY DREAMS (REMASTERED – DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES) plays (non diegetic.) This time, Delilah carries a bucket of bright pink paint. She holds the paint outwards and begins to spin as paint flies everywhere, and Robyn and Delilah laugh. As the bucket empties, Delilah puts her backpack back on and takes the bucket with her and leaves.

Robyn walks into the middle of the room where Delilah was stood. She crouches down and touches the wet paint with her finger and stands back up. As she leaves, she walks through the paint, leaving behind pink footprints as she leaves.

CUT

INT. ROBYN’S BEDROOM – NEXT MORNING

Robyn opens her eyes and jumps out of bed. She runs to the bathroom, has a shower, heads to the hallway and hurriedly ties up her boots wearing the same outfit as the day before: a black backpack, a bomber jacket, a hoodie, a black t-shirt and ripped jeans.

EXT. STREET CORNER – MIDDAY

Robyn waits at the corner of the street that Delilah has turned down for the past two days and waits with high levels of anticipation for the colourful girl to appear again so that she can follow her once again into the abandoned factory to watch her creating her art again.

As Delilah Returns to the corner and turns down the street Robyn crosses the road and follows her across the road and down the street into the factory again following her up to the first floor via the staircase.

INT. ABANDONED FACTORY – FIRST FLOOR – MIDDAY

Delilah stood in the middle of the large empty room sets down her bag. Robyn starts to approach her. Robyn gets closer and closer but Delilah and still does not turn to see her. Robyn touches her on her shoulder and she turns to smile at her. They hold hands and start to spin as Delilah starts to disappear and Robyn is wearing her colourful clothes spinning alone. She was Delilah all along but could not see her true worth. 

Orson Welles

Orson Welles created 13 films:

• Citizen Kane 
• The Magnificent Ambersons 
• Journey into Fear
• The Stranger
• The Lady from Shanghai 
• Macbeth
• Othello
• Mr. Arkadin
• Touch of evil
• The Trial
• Chimes at Midnight
• The Immortal Story
• F for Fake 

Welles struggled with the studio's on all of his films, a lot of the time they were recut against his wishes. He was a visual showman and used miss en scene and magic within the background to to amaze moviegoers. As an auteur, he uses smoke and mirrors, high key lighting and low key lighting, chiaroscuro, and deep focus where everything in the shot is in acceptable clarity. 

An example of smoke and mirrors being used is in The Stranger, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Citizen Kane, and Touch of Evil. 

Amy compared to Kim Longinotto's theory

The documentary 'Amy', by Asif Kapadia shares a lot of similarities with Kim Longinotto's style of work, in particular - Divorce Iranian Style

Winter's Bone Notes

• Men have ultimate power over women
• The town is influenced by drugs, shown when Teardrops wife offers Ree a 'duby' 
• Took two years to find the location areas, real areas
• Hardly anything created by set designers 
• Shot in pedestrian places 
• Rural, rustic looking locations
• The costume design was done by doing a clothes shop with people in the community and at charity shops etc, nothing was brought new 
• Super 8 camera used during the scene where the trees are being cut down 
• It takes active spectatorship to understand why no one trusts Ree 
• No non-diegetic sound so the audience must be active to understand the mood and must feel emotion for themselves 
• Half shadow face to show the serious characteristic of Teardrop. 
• Teardrop is more intimidating and scary that the policeman and scares him away by showing a gun, indicating he will do something bad 
• Teardrop puts himself infant of the gun and Ree and takes ownership and protects her 
• Active spectatorship to try and understand what the policeman did and why teardrop has some sort of power and hold over the policeman 
• Everyone in the community seems to know what happened to Ree's father apart from her 
• the lens flare shows the low budget and production used for this film, gives a more realistic film to the film
• Teardrops swearing shows the language that the entire community uses 
• the mies-en-scene in teardrops home shows a lot of drug use and animal resemblence