Starting to Brainstorm

Over test block, I watched four of Wes Anderson's films and began to brainstorm some basic ideas for my upcoming film project. Here are some notes I made about some possible ideas I could include in the film:

- Mum telling her story, reading from a book; I’m acting it out

- Girl running away from home, falls in love with a boy (??)

- Letter to parents saying she doesn't know when she’ll be back but it will be soon

- Use record player as suit case !!!!!

- Maps out where she's going and leaves it for someone to find her, gives clues

- Quickly backtracks childhood

- Big lollipops

- Playground

- Board games

- Someone missing or being chased

- Mapping out a plan

- Trains

- Wide shot of girl standing in front of the moving train

- Making a sandwich/food before she leaves

- Adventures and growing up

- Record player

- Cork notice board

- Costumes from vintage/op shop - shoes = jellies, glasses/sunglasses

- Film outside home, Mt Tamborine, beach/rock pool/creek

- Radio/voice recording

- Old telephone, phone call

- Paintings/poetry

- Retro, 60s feel

Wes Anderson: Some Screenshots

Compiled List of Anderson's Signature Style

Over the past few days, I have been researching the signature style of Wes Anderson and have watched a few of his films, including The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom and the start of The Royal Tenenbaums. From this, I have compiled a list of all the similar aspects of Anderson's films.

Narrative

- Father and son relations, dealing with the death of a parent, fathers trying to connect with sons, suns trying to connect with their father, a boy in need to a father, fathers/sons trying to connect with each other, boy latching onto a father figure

- Romantic (and awkward) sub-plot

- Plans and visual explanations (e.g. a character mapping out a plan)

- Someone dying/had died

- Bitter sweet endings

- Stories are not told chronologically

- References to old music, theatre, literature, paintings or photography

- Ridiculous situations presented as normal, everyday happenings

- Human values of kindness, respect, truth, balance

- Magical realist world

- Quite melancholy but full of hope

Style of Acting/Characters

- Main character is usually male

- Flawed, extremely charismatic, confident

- Attract a group of people to support them

- Eccentric

- Women are there to save men from themselves or act as a motivation/prize

- Expressionless characters

- Adults generally behave like children

- Hyper-intelligent children and children who dress like adults

- One character obsessed with their current project/mission

- Outsider characters that are struggling to come to terms with adulthood, longing for their past or are stuck in a space where they don't fit

Colour/Lighting

- 4/5 main colours used throughout the entire film

- World building colour palettes

Setting

- Picturesque locations

- Houses are usually rectilinear

- Background of the shot is usually loaded with objects

Costumes/Props

- Uniforms/similar costumes

- Letters and other writings

- Suitcases

Sound and Dialogue

- Quirky dialogue

- Emphasised/loud sound effects, e.g. the water dripping or sugar being dropped into coffee

- Mid to late 60s pop music

Shot Types

- Flat and symmetrical

- Symmetrical/centred shots of characters, emphasised through medium and wide shots

- Shot types make a serious situation seem funny (also movement and music)

- Extreme wide shots

- Close ups of letters/other writings

- Perfectly centred

- Shots of conversation from POV rather than from over the shoulder

Camera Angles

- Birds eye view/directly above

Camera Movement

- Tracking shots

- Extreme and quick zooms

- Whip pans and tilts

Editing

- Most shots are of a long duration

- Lots of onscreen writing

- Slow motion

- Split into episodic chapters which are displayed as title cards onscreen

Symbols/Motifs/Common Themes

- Suitcases: represent the ties biding families together that is always carried with us

- Binoculars: power is magnified, symbolically looking into the future, and you are seeing a mini-movie which is a metaphor in Anderson's films: they are movies about making movies

- Trains: used to literally move the plot forward and showcase the 'dollhouse' set

- Sunflower aesthetic: symbolises the connections between sun, fire, warmth

- Themes: death, forbidden love, fatherhood

Other

- Storybook 2D illustrated look

- Title is physically in the movie

- Retros 60s feel

- Inspiration from French New Wave and Francois Truffaut

Common partnerships

- Owen Wilson (actor)

- Bill Murray (actor)
- Luke Wilson (actor)

- Robert Yeoman (cinematographer)

- Mark Motherbaugh and Alexandre Desplat (music)

What to Research

Their Style - Signature Elements

- Visual language

- Meanings and themes

- Narrative

- Characters

- Symbolism, motifs

- Colour

- Editing

- Cinematography

- Common partnerships, e.g. actors, editors, music, etc.

Other Notes

- Make a folder with as many photos as possible that represent their style

- Can include videos in the powerpoint

- Better to do a powerpoint with videos in it rather than a video as the video might go out of time

- Draft can include an appendix of what will be in the powerpoint

Draft of due after test block (Monday) - FULL DRAFT

Auteur: Wes Anderson

Films:

- The Grand Budapest Hotel

- Moonrise Kingdom

- The Royal Tenenbaums

- Rushmore

Signature Style:

- Use of perfectly centred shots and symmetrical compositions

- Primary colour palettes
- Futura font typography
- Films often split into episodic chapters which are displayed as title cards on screen
- Symmetrical shots of characters are often emphasised through medium and wide shots
- Top-shots (shots from directly above) are very common when focusing on an object
- Shots of conversations between characters are shot from POV rather than from over the shoulder and the characters are placed in the centre of the frame
- Unnatural camerawork, e.g. stationary pans, dramatic zooms
- Retro (60s) feel
- Mise-en-scene loaded with objects
- Characters wear very similar costumes

- "Sunflower aesthetic" - symbolising connections between the sun, fire, warmth)

- Human values of kindness, respect, truth, balance

- Often magical realist world with youthful characters

- Based on outsider characters that are struggling to come to terms with adulthood, longing for their past or are stuck in a space where they don't fit

- Films are quite melancholy but are full of hope

- Generally works with the same cast and crew
- All music comes from Mark Mothersbaugh or Alexandre Desplat
- Common themes of death, fatherhood, forbidden love

https://www.slideshare.net/scarrison678/auteur-theory-wes-anderson

What Defines an Auteur?

Bibliographical details:

Auteur Theory. (2015). Retrieved May 16, 2017, from https://sites.lafayette.edu/fams202-sp15/2015/02/17/auteur-theory/

- Important that the director writes the screenplay

- Use same cinematographer, editor, actors, crew, writers

- Have final authority over every single element

- Distinct style that viewers can distinguish when watching their films

- Recurring thematic aesthetic

- Can be an auteur without necessary being a good director

Ringu vs The Ring

- Ringu relied on the backstory for the major horror effect on viewers, however, The Ring relied on supernatural and special effects, as well as additional horror themes

- Ringu didn't reveal the backstory of Sadako to viewers and kept her face hidden throughout the entirety of the film, however, The Ring revealed the backstory of the character and showed her face

- In Ringu, Sadako had psychic powers and was accused of being a fraud, and was later killed by her father, but in The Ring, Samara was accused of the hallucinations that her mother was having and was therefore suffocated by her and throw into the well

- Sadako climbed out of the TV more slowly and purposefully and only her eye was shown instead of her whole face. The emphasis on her fingernails and on the Ryuji's reaction was more meaningful and the slower pace created more fear and tension. However, Samara climbed out more easily and quickly with special effects, leading the scene to be less scary and more stereotypical

- Rebecca and Noah argue a lot in the beginning like typical ex's, whereas Reiko and Ryuji don't

- The Ring relies more heavily on film stereotypes

- Both films have a message about the harm of technology, however Ringu is based off the threat of the atomic bomb, whereas The Ring is based off a more practical and everyday harm of television and radio to our health (as established by the conversation right at the beginning)

- The pace of Ringu is much slower than The Ring

- Ringu is a psychological horror, whereas The Ring focuses on special effects and action 

Japanese Colour Theory / Hollywood Colour Theory

Japanese Colour Theory

Blue: Wood

- Everyday life

Red: Fire

- Life

- Anger

- Danger

Yellow: Earth

- Courage

- Beauty and refinement

- Aristocracy

- Cheerfulness

White: Metal

- Death

Black: Water

- Mystery and the night

- Feminine energy - evil and a threat or provocative and alluring

Hollywood Colour Theory

Blue: 

- Peace and calm

- Sadness

Red:

- Energy, excitement, danger

- Love, passion

- Anger

Yellow:

- Happiness, joy

- Hope

- Cowardice

White:

- Angels

- Purity and cleanliness

- Peace

Black:

- Power, control, intimidation

- Funerals, death

Lesson Notes

Did Japan completely recreate cinematography or use same meaning as Hollywood? - e.g. does high shot mean same thing? yes. - SIMILARITY

J-Horror & Symbolism in Ringu

Last lesson, we received the film sequences that we will be analysing in our essay and we chose which pair that we would like to watch. I chose Ringu and The Ring as I prefer horror films to action. I have watched around three quarters of Ringu so far and will be finishing it next lesson, and I have noticed already how different it is to the typical Hollywood horror film. 

Ringu is a Japanese horror film about a news reporter who is investigating the deaths of four teenagers, which occurred after they watched a supposedly cursed video tape. The journalist finds the video tape, watches it, then receives a phone call straight after that informs her that she has exactly one week to live. The film follows the reporter and her ex-husband as they try to find the origin of the cursed tape and solve the murders.

In order to get some background information on the film, I have researched J-Horror:

- J-Horror is more psychological, rather than murder, gore, etc.

- Based off traditional Japanese stories or mythology (of the main religions of Shinto and Buddhism), especially ghosts, possession, exorcism, shamanism, etc.
- According to Shinto, millions of objects within nature are inhabited by spirits who can either be friendly or aggressive

- Common themes include:

      - The universe is governed by rules

      - The rules of the universe are beyond human understanding

      - Modern society offers no protection from ghosts or spirits
- 'Yuurei' come into being when people die violently through suicide or murder: explains Sadako
_ Yuurei ghosts are women with a white face, long black hair and wear a long white robe which trails off into a mist where the legs should be
- Sadako is a type of Yuurei ghost called onryou, which means that she wants revenge for something bad that people did to her
- Sadako's movements are based off Butoh, a Japanese dance form which was created in Japan after World War II
- Ringu is very similar to the Japanese ghost story, Bancho Sarayashi, which is about a young girl who was also murdered and thrown into a well

Symbolism of Wells in Ringu:
- There is a deep connection in Japan between wells and troubled women
- Lots of stories in Japan about women being murdered by men and being thrown into a well, and about women committing suicide (over a man) by throwing themselves into a well
- The fact that the well in Ringu is deep and dark symbolises female power

Symbolism of Water in Ringu:
- Foreshadows appearance of Sadako
- Symbolise the resting place of spirits
- Symbol of purity
- Pathway to the underworld
- Juxtapositioning of the ghost and water makes it scarier to Japanese audiences

Symbolism of White in Ringu:
- Death
- Cold
- Angels/spirits
- Youth
- Reverence

Chinese Colour Theory and Hero

The film, Hero, directed by Zhang Yimou, is an action film surrounding martial arts in ancient China. It is split up into four main sections of the film, each of which are dominated by a different colour: red, blue, green and white.

In Chinese colour theory and throughout the film, Hero, red represents the element of fire: passion, anger and jealousy; blue portrays a more childish theme; green is generally negative and represents unfaithfulness; and white represents purity.