3D II : In class tutorial - Biped system

Week 2

I learn the Biped system in 3ds max in last tutorial class. I feel like this is more simple for me compare to Maya...

I also try to make some simple pose by using this biped system.

But sometimes I'll confuse when come to copy pose and paste pose process, but I think I still can practice more to overcome this problem.






I start to do my assignment 1 with sad walk cycle. I observe the reference video to confirm that the key pose for one step walk.

I also sketch out the poses to know the roughly timing for a walk.
When should the head move to left ? When should the hand swing...etc.

Questions

1. The type of video output format that Malaysia accept ?

Phase Alternating Line (PAL)
PAL is the predominant video system or standard mostly used overseas, In PAL, 25 frames are transmitted each second. Each frame is made up of 625 individual scan lines.

[from http://ihffilm.com/videostandard.html]

[more info : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL#PAL-M]

2. Why cinema using 7.1 speaker system ? What does 7.1 means ?

7.1 sound is eight-channel surround audio system. It adds two additional speakers to the more conventional six-channel (5.1) audio configuration. 7.1 surround system splits the surround and rear channel information into four distinct channels, in which sound effects are directed to left and right surround channels, plus two rear surround channels. [from Wikipedia]

7.1 surround sound, "7" represent the number of channels that are present in a soundtrack or the number of channels that a Home Theater Receiver can provide. This channels reproduce a full range of audio frequencies, from high frequencies to normal bass response.

Another channel only reproduces the extreme low frequencies. This extra channel is Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel. The LFE channel is designed in home theater receiver or DVD/Blu-ray disc soundtrack specifications with the term .1. This is due to the fact that only a portion of the audio frequency spectrum is reproduced.

[more info : https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-1-in-surround-sound-1846777]

3. Why there are hole on cinema's projector ?

The screen in cinema have the front left, center, and right speakers behind them, along with a few subwoofer (speaker that used by LFE channel). There are tens of thousands of tiny holes allow the sound from the speakers to come through the screen.

[more info : https://www.soundandvision.com/content/inner-workings-inside-movie-theater-screen]

3D II : Assignment 1 Update - walk cycle

Week 1

In this semester, I continue my 3D class for further studies and learn the new techniques about 3D animation. (3D I class more about modeling.)

The lecturer assigned us to animate a 30 s walk cycle out from the biped system in 3ds max. As we are not so familiar with the biped system yet, we need to look for walk cycle references to imitate the pose and action of the character.

I found a lot of references on Youtube. There are several kind of walking style such as happy walking style, sad walking style, tired walking style and etc. Male and female have different walking style. Sometimes, the character's outlook or personality also will affect their walking style.

Female walk cycle
Source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2iBC-JeDFg

Sneak walk cycle
Source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpPcUILEuiY

I look for example that contain different views so I can see the pose of the character more clearer.
Finally, I decide to choose three style walk cycle that I want to do which are sad walk cycle, sneak walk cycle and joyful walk cycle.

Sad walk cycle
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFVxkyFtCIQ
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mf4ACLFduk

Sneak walk cycle (picture shown above)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpPcUILEuiY

Joyful walk cycle (time 0:30 - 0.35s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVJkMm7QFx0

3D class exercise : Chess set modeling tutorial Part 1

I follow the link shown below to do my chess set modeling tutorial.

Chess set modeling tutorial :
http://tutorial-z.com/chess-set-modeling-tutorial/

First, I start to do the chessboard by a box.

Then, I continue with Pawn and Rook.

I take quite a long time to do pawn because I can't understand some of the steps that show in the tutorial. I don't understand which direction I need to extrude in or out. Sometimes it turns into a weird shape so I need to undo it or delete the whole thing and redo again.

Practice makes perfect. As I keep practicing to use 3ds max while doing the pawn, I start to familiar with the function of this software. It's quite smooth for me while doing the hook. I do not face much problem.

But then I found a problem when I want to duplicate my pawn into a row. I accidentally chamfer some edges of the pawn. This affects the smooth edge of the pawn outlook.

I try to select those vertexes and apply target weld to merge them together but didn't work. The chamfer cannot be cancel. 

So I plan to delete the whole thing and do it AGAIN.

AGAIN.

3ds max Daylight system

IN CLASS TUTORIAL : DAYLIGHT SYSTEM

I learn how to give some lighting to the object in 3ds max. The lecturer ask us to create a simple teapot first and he also show us how to set the material of the teapot by material editor. Then we can put the "sun" above the teapot to see how's the lighting.

I need to set the daylight parameters properly. Sunlight sets as "mr Sun" and skylight sets as "mr Sky". We can set the position of the sun which is the light source manually or according to the date, time and location that you are located.

After done, I change the renderer to NVIDIA mental ray. It is difference from others renderer as we can see the display screen shows it renders fractal by fractal.

The output :

The Teapot

Besides, I also try this techniques on another object that I created, the Phoenix.

I extrude all the shapes that I wanted out from a box.

Set the daylight system properly.

Set the material of the object.

The output : 

OK, teapot win.

Update 3D Asgn 1 : Bouncing Ball Part 2

In Class Exercise : The Robot

Mr Simon teach us how to create a simple model by using 3ds max. He ask us try to create a robot after he introduced and explained some basic tools of the software.

This is my robot, The Tea Waiter.

It will help to serve the guests by pour tea or sending the pastry.

I'm quite slow in learning software, so I will screenshot or drop down some notes when my lecturer shows the steps.

About assignment : Block Modelling

I use the techniques that I learned in robot tutorial class to create the place that my ball will bouncing on such as extrude. I create a box first and set its segment as 4. Then I start to extrude it become the shape that I wanted. 

The result shown below :

Perspective view

Front view

I used around one and a half hour to create this block. It is quite systematic for me as I already estimate and count the number of  boxes that I want to fit into the block. So I just select the number of segment that I needed and extrude it out.

My laptop becomes hotter and hotter when I'm using 3ds max. I'm quite worry when I animating the bouncing process. Normally I will save and close the software when I realize that my laptop start lagging. So that it will be cool down. This takes time.

Update 3D Asgn 1 : Bouncing Ball Part 1

References & Inspiration

I watched some videos from Youtube first before I work on my storyboard so that I get some inspiration.

Screenshots from Youtube video. Links as shown as below :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_s14uq5lLI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya0XpzdOQaU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJW7hhi1mF4

Sketches & Storyboard

Then, I start to work on my storyboard. I sketch out the block shape that my bouncing ball will be jumping on. I roughly count the number of boxes that occupied so that it will be easier for me to extrude when I do in 3ds max. Besides, I also estimate the route of ball so that I can arrange the movement of ball and make the whole process in 30s.

Storyboard (Part 1)

Storyboard (Part 2)

The concept of my design is the journey of the ball to clear mission by passing by the whole block. Inspired by Mario.

First impression of 3D class

Before I enter to Utar, I thought we have to make a real model in 3D class. But after 1 year of studying, I know that animation courses need to learn a lot of software to create our animation, characters or artworks. As my lecturer, Mr Simon said, student always think that they cannot handle this subject very well when the classes just started. So do I. The 3ds Max software looked very complicated and I'm so worry about that. As I still even cannot use the Photoshop and After Effect very well.What I expect to do in 3D class. (Picture 1)What we really do in 3D class. (Picture 2)

Picture 1
source : http://www.zcool.com.cn/work/ZMTc2MTk4NA==.html

Picture 2
source : http://www.cgsmooth.com/2010/12/footballsoccer-ball-3d.html

The classes are full of software and I prefer more hand work like picture 1. But things cannot always be fulfilled, I still need to learn those software. I'll do my best.

********************************************************************

What is TGA ?

According to my research, TGA is Truevision Graphics Adapter. It also know as TARGA, Truevision Advanced Raster Graphics Adapter. It was the format of TARGA boards, the first graphic card that support high colour display. Normally TGA image files match those of the NTSC and PAL video formats as the graphic cards was intended for professional computer image synthesis and video editing with PCs.

The Incredibles - Feminist Film Theory

Introduction

Disney cartoon can be said to be feminist cartoon, especially the Disney princess series. From the Snow White in 1937 until the latest, Frozen, these cartoon always passing the message of girl should be strong and kind. Not every princess need a prince or somebody to rescue her. Girls can think and make their own choice, where they start to be independent. But today my topic is not about the princess, I would like to discuss another film from Disney Pixar, The Incredibles. There are some female characters that show different characteristics in feminism.

Theory Discussion

Feminist film theory is a theoretical film criticism started in 1920s. This film theory focuses on women’s expression of her own subjectivity. Then, this film theory matured in late 1960s, after radicalized feminist movement of sexual liberation and political debate of female representation. The feminist film theory analyses the social or historical position of women, which is subordinated and social relations of patriarchy. Woman does not have a place in earlier society. They had been oppressed and exploited. They are under male domination, been controlled by father, husband or son. In this case, feminist theory films are viewed as reflection of society. It shows the ideological and social construction of women in that time.

There are four theories in feminist film theory which are oppression, stereotyping, objectification and patriarchy. Oppression is women being prolonged cruel or unjust treatment for a long time. They been controlled and repressed by men. Stereotyping is a thought of generalization to certain group of people no matter good or bad. In this case, women always being seen as a weak side, they cannot defend the men. For example, woman is born to reproduce children, if she does not do so, she is wrong. Objectification in feminism means looked women as object. Women often seen as a kind of advertising or incentives to attract men's attention. Patriarchy is a social system which males are the dominant and in control of everything. It is very popular among the Asian countries as males hold the dominant power from political leadership to households.  

Synopsis

          The Incredibles is an America computer animated superhero film produced by Pixar Animation Studios, and released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2004. This film is written and directed by Brad Bird. The story is about the family of Incredibles. After the marriage of Bob and Helen Parr, who known as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. The government forces the superhero to hide their superpowers and become normal people due to several lawsuits over peripheral damage caused by their crime-fighting activities. Then, Bob and Helen have no choice but to live like a normal family with their children, which are Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack. Bob is not happy with this life and his white-collar job. He longs for the glory days as superhero. One day, Bob finds a message for a mysterious woman named Mirage, who convinces him to become superhero again and give him a mission to destroy a robot. But actually all the things is planned by Syndrome, who wants to avenge Bob. The Incredibles family need to learn how to against the enemy to save the world. At the same time, they need to overcome their own troubles.

Theory Application

Helen Parr / Elastigirl

Normally, we can look at various female representation in film and compare them to seek out the final resolution of “preferred” female representation. One of the main character in this film, Helen Parr, who known as Elastigirl as well. She is Bob’s wife and mother of Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack. Helen is a strong female representative. Before she gets married, as a superhero, she is brave and strategist. She has to finish the robber on the rooftop quickly, so that she will not be late for her own wedding. As a wife, she controls her husband sometimes so that they can keep their family low profile and their “supers” identity will not be discovered. She also tries to talk to Bob fist instead of just quarrel with him in the living room. She investigates her husband carefully so that the harmony of family can be maintain. As a mother, she needs to take care of her family well. She plays a good housewife jobs. She prepares the meals, cleans the house, fetches the children from school. When her children are in danger, she also put their safety at first. She hugs Violet and Dash in her arms when the airplane exploded. She also appeases them not to panic when they fall into the sea. These shows that she is a dominant and independent woman. She knows what to do even though her husband does not by their side. Her superpower is elastic body. This superpower indicate that she is flexible to all incidents or challengers that she faced. She is a family oriented woman. She is protective to her children. She makes her own choice to look for Bob at Nomanisan Island. She also decides to stands with her husband to fight the robot. Helen is the representative of strong female.

Violet

The second female representative is Violet, the daughter of Bob and Helen. Violet is shy, obedient and lack of confidence. Her characteristics just like her superpower, the invisible power and force shield. She is shy, so she uses her invisible power to hide herself so that no one can see her. She always covers half of her face with her hair. She did not dare to speak with the boy she likes. She even doesn’t like people talk about what she likes. For example, in dinner time, when Dash says about the boy Violet likes in school, Violet is not happy and starts to quarrel with Dash. She always listens to her mother, Helen. She does not use her power because Helen said so. When Helen asks Violet to use her force shield to protect the airplane, she starts to panic. Because she remembers that Helen asked her not to use the power before. She also not confident to do it. She does not believe in herself. But slowly, Violet changes. She practices to use her power when they hide in the cave in Nomanisan Island. She forced to use her power to protect Dash when they attacked by Syndrome's guards in Nomanisan's tropical jungle. But then she realizes that she can do it. She overcome her low confident by saving her brother. She starts to control her power well. She also saves her family by force shield at last when the helicopter falls towards their house. We can clearly see Violet changed and become more confident to herself. She puts her hair back with hairband and starts to talk to other friends. She even invited by the boy she likes to watch movie together. Violet shows us that women should be confident and take charge to their own life. 

Mirage

The third female representative is this film is Mirage, the femme fatale representative. Mirage is beautiful, sexy and mysterious. Her slim body and bright silver hair makes her looks more attractive. She works for Syndrome to find the superheroes and convince them to work for Syndrome without knowing the truth. At last, those superheroes die. We can see that Mirage is an attractive and seductive woman, especially one who will ultimately bring disaster to a man who becomes involved with her. She is beautiful but dangerous. She knows what she wants. She is clever as she can convince the superheroes to work for them. In this film, Mirage also makes her choice to help the Incredibles. She understands that Syndrome is wrong and she decides to betray him to help Mr Incredible to rescue his family as well as the world. In this case, Mirage as a femme fatale character did not get serious punishment like those femme fatales in earlier time film. It is because women are not allowed to fight for what they want. When they did, they will categorise as femme fatale and will get punished. But in this film, Mirage has the chance to change. She decides to do the right things which is helping the Incredibles.

Conclusion

          In a nutshell, this film shows several female representatives to bring out the message of woman should make their own choice for their future. Helen choices to stay with his husband to fight for what they love, Violent choices steps out her comfort zone to change and be more confident, and Mirage choices to change her vision and fight for what is correct. People always said that animation is just for children, but how many people can really understand the deeper meaning of it.

Bicycle Thieves – Italian Neorealism

Introduction

Film is not just an entertainment, but also a way to express feelings and thoughts. The filmmakers can speak out their ideas to the audience through their films. There is a kind of film that brings put the conditions of historical cases, which is Italian Neorealism. Italian also known as the Golden Age of Italian Cinema. It is a national film movement that describe the difficult economic and moral conditions of post-World War II in Italy. It represents the changes in Italian psyche and conditions of daily life, including poverty, oppression, injustice and desperation.

Theory discussion

            The World War II destroyed the Italy national cinemas and affecting the economic stability of the cinema industries. The Nazis destroyed pre-war European economy and sets up their own economic threshold. But by the end of World War II, the Nazi economy was eliminated. The Marshall Plan which is the European Recovery Program is operated to rebuild the European national industries. This allow the production to go on a large scale. For Italy, due to the early surrender, the production facilities were pretty much intact.

            Cesare Zavattini was the theoretical founder of Neorealism in 1942. He suggests a new form of Italian Cinema that repeal contrived and planned plots, he wants to use real people and locations so that direct contact is established with contemporary social reality. He looked at plots as a fake structure of “everyday life”. The professional actors in Italian Neorealism film are complimented the falsehood. This kind of film unconditional emphasis on the ordinariness of today, today and today.

Synopsis

            Bicycle Thieves or known as Ladri di biciclette in Italian is a 1948 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. The story starts with the Rome after World War II, a poor father, Antonio Ricci is desperate for work to support his family. He manages to get a job of posting advertising bills. Unfortunately, his bicycle was stolen on the first day he starts to work. He has no choice but to look for his bicycle with his son, Bruno, or else he will lose his job. Finally, Antonio has no choice but to steal others bicycle but he was caught.

(Source: https://filmandphilosophy.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/bicyclethieveslarge1.jpg)

Theory Application

            This film used mixture of professional actors and non-actors to emphasize the real emotions of the people that suffered in this era. The scene when the film is just started, a group of men gathered around and try to look for a job from a job distributor. I am so shocked when I know that the only professional actor is the job distributor. Others are just non-actors, which means they are the ordinary people even the main character, Antonio, too. I can see they are desperate to get a job to survive in their life. Antonio even lied to the job distributor he has a bicycle so that he can get the job. This shows that after the World War II, the economic is being affected. The people is hard to get a job and this also makes them become more poor. The people who experienced such miserable life do not need a planned plot also be able to involved in those scene as this is totally what happened in their life every day.

            Besides that, the scene when Antonio discuss with his wife, Maria, to get a bicycle. They need to exchange their bed sheets at the pawn shop to get money and uses the money to exchange Antonio's pawned Fides brand bicycle. And there is a shot shows the sheets being added to a mountain of bedding pawned by other families. This shows that the people in this era are very poor, they are willing to pawn anything they have just to survive. The can be proved when the shot that shows the pawn shop is crowded with people.

            About the setting of the film especially the location, we can see that the surrounding is a post-war environment where everything is destroyed in the war. For example, the scene when Antonio meets his wife, Maria, the place that she gets water, the place only fenced with thin wires. The country is being rebuilding, thus old and new buildings can be seen throughout the film. In addition, the scene when Antonio is chasing the suspected old man, the church is crowded with people and they provide barber services and free food for those people. All these shows that the people are suffer after the war. They live in poverty and desperation. People may lose their home, job or family in the war.

         This film also shows socially-conscious and humanistic POV. The film is simple in construction but rich in human insight. For example, the scene when Antonio wants to catch the thief but the neighbourhood around there stop him and blame him. Although Bruno fetches a policeman to search the thief’s apartment but they cannot find anything. The policeman tells Antonio that it is difficult as Antonio has no witnesses and the neighbours are certain to provide the thief the alibi. This shows that this kind of unfair cases always happened in the post-war era. The vulnerable people do not get any help even the police. People simply so something so that they can survive no matter right or wrong. This is unfair. Just like the thief, steal somebody bicycle without getting any punishments.

Conclusion

    In a nutshell, Bicycle Thieves reflect the greatest strengths of the Italian Neorealism which is emotional clarity, social morality, and brutal reality.

The Maltese Falcon – Film Noir

            Film noir is a term coined by French critics, Nino Frank, in 1946. It is a type of American films that “invaded” French cinemas after World War II. Film noir emerged from a period of political instability, which is around 1941 – 1958, the time of WWII and the Cold War in United States. This was a time of represents insecurity as the Americans question their national identity.

The term of noir means dark and black. So film noir is generally refer to dark film or black film. It features a world of criminals, dark and violence with characters’ central motives are usually greed, lust, ambition and drench in fear. The film shots in black and white. Visually, film noir looks dark with lots of shadows. It has high contrast lighting or we called as low key lighting. It also consists German expressionistic which we can see the oblique vertical and horizontal lines in film. The scenes in film noir are usually lit for night. It always has some locations like alleyways, cramped corridors and etc. to create the sense of distorted, silence and oppression. The setting normally is city-bound, comprising of rain-washed roads and dimly-lit interiors. On the other hand, about the thematic of film noir, it usually looks dark, cynical and pessimism. The film usually features a narration with corrupted characters, fatalistic themes, hopeless tones, blurred morals and intellect. It is a tales of criminal motives or we should call it “crime film”. There are some main characters normally appear in film, the femmes fatales, doomed heroes or anti-heroes, and detectives who tough, smart and cynical. Time flies, film noir also evolved. This movement has changed into a genre lately. We called as post noir or neo noir. Slowly some neo noirs are shot in colour and began to change the trends of the characters and treatments, incorporate more iconic and thematic development especially the female anti-heroes and femme fatales. But film noir slowly decays due to the technological advancement in colour film stock, the public’s fascination of sensational crime stories and noir sensibility among contemporary filmmakers. These reduce the number of audience that interested in film noir.

            The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 film noir directed by John Huston based on the same name novel by Dashiell Hammet. The story takes place in San Francisco in 1941, a private investigators Sam Spade and his partner Miles Archer meet their client Ruth Wonderly. She claims that she is looking for her sister who run with a man named Floyd Thursby, whom she is to meet. Archer decides to follow her that night and help to get her sister back after they received a substantial retainer from her. Unfortunately, Archer has been killed that night. Spade has no choice but to find out who is the murderer or else he will become the target of police. Then he slowly finds out that truth of the Maltese Falcon. Wonderly is actually men of the fat man, Kasper Gutman. She wants to kill her partner after they found the Maltese Falcon so that she can pockets it by her own. In order not to be reported to the police, she also pretends weak to win Spade sympathy. But Spade, despite his feelings for her, and turn her over to the police because she is the one who kills Archer.

           This film, the Maltese Falcon, has clearly interpret the ugliness of human nature, people will do anything to achieve their goals no matter good or bad. It is a good example of film noir that features the darkness of world and reality. For example, Sam Spade. Sam Spade is not a totally good kind as a private investigator. He is a typical businessman. He just does somethings that will get advantages. This shows when Ruth Wonderly (Brigid O'Shaughnessy) pays him a substantial retainer so that he can help to look for her sister. He also did not help his partner, Archer to find the murderer at first, he does so because he is being suspect by the police. In order to save himself, he needs to find out the truth. Another example is Spade’s secretary, Effie Perine. She follows Spade’s instructions blindly, do not care about the truth. She helps Spade to lie to the police officers. This shows when Effie receives the phone call from Brigid, but Spade asked her to tell the police that is Spade receives the call instead of her. This is not the truth.

            For visually technique application in this film, there is high contrast lighting or low key lighting in film. This create the sense of mystery for the film as the environment looks dark with lots of shadows. We also can see in the angle that everyone has a dark shadow, means that everyone has a dark side. German expressionistic shows in this film as well. We can see the oblique vertical and horizontal lines in the design of mise-en-scene. For example, in Ruth Wonderly’s room, she wears a cloth with vertical line and the background shows the shadow of window frames in horizontal. Same concept, the scene when Spade wears a blazer with vertical lines and the background shows brick walls with horizontal lines.

            In thematically, the setting of this film looks dark and there is suspicious anywhere. Every characters have their own intention, you can trust no one. A pure good character will not exist in film noir. The narrative diegesis of this film full with corrupted characters, fatalistic themes and blurred morals. For example, the character of protagonist, Spade and femme fatale, O'Shaughnessy. Spade is often side-lighted to enhance the profile from one side and leaving the other half of face in dark, thus pointing to the moral ambiguity of this main character who is neither a good person nor completely bad. O'Shaughnessy is active and smart. She knows how to use her sexuality benefits as a woman to get what she wants. In order to achieve her aims for the Maltese Falcon, she does not hesitate to deceive anyone include Spade, she even killed Archer. But usually such femme fatale character will pay for what they have done before either through death or submission to the patriarchal system. In this case, O'Shaughnessy is caught by police as Spade gives her up.

            As a conclusion, we can see how film noir articulated the repressed needs of America culture. It is real in portraying human fears and desires because it shows the truth of darkness of the society. Audience can identify the issues of corruption, redemption, and loyalty of people easily.

In the Mood for Love - French Impressionist Cinema

Today, I would like to discuss about French Impressionist Cinema, which also called as the first avant-garde or narrative avant-garde. It is a term applied to a group of French films and filmmakers in 1920s. After World War I, French filmmaking never fully recovered. The industry tried to recapture the audience by imitate Hollywood production methods and genres. Then, they emerged a movement which is Impressionism that consist of young directors such as Abel Gance, Louis Delluc, Germaine Dulac, Marcel L’Herbier and Jean Epstein.

French Impressionist Cinema is a movement popular from 1919 to 1928. It explores psychological causes of the film. It gives the narration considerable psychological depth and revealing play of the character’s consciousness. It also concerns about the mental state of characters, either is in dreams or fantasies. This impressionist manipulates plot time and subjectivity by showing the flashbacks or memories in film. There is some visual depiction of metal states via cinematography and editing, which are use of irises, distorted visuals, point of view (POV) editing and camera movement. The filmmakers use irises, superimpositions and masks to indicate the characters’ thought and feeling. The visuals are distorted or filtered or vertiginous the camera movement to show the effect of dizzy or drunkenness in film. POV and rhythmic editing are used in film to show the experiences of particular situations of characters. In French Impressionist Cinema, camera movement is smooth. It can be brought about by frame mobility. For example, the camera can be tied to cars, wheels, bobsleds or cables. Unfortunately, French Impressionist Cinema was trigged off slowly due to lack of interests by mass and also rising of cost of production.

(Source: http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/ab3219/in_the_mood_for_love.jpg)

In the Mood for Love is a 2000 Hong Kong film directed by Wong Kar Wai, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. It is a love story between Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li Zhen (Maggie Cheung). In Hong Kong in 1926, Chow Mo Wan, a journalist, rents a room in an apartment of a building with his wife. On the same day, Su Li Zhen, a secretary from a shipping company, rents another room next to him with her husband. They become next-door neighbours. Then, they find out that their spouses having an affair with each other spouses. This is where they begin their delicate relationship.

According to David Bordwell’s theory, French Impressionist Cinema can be shown in four main aspects which are camerawork, mise-en-scene, optical devices and characteristic editing patterns. As I mentioned above, French Impressionist Cinema focuses on exploring the psychological causes of the film. That means the film shows the audience what actually the characters think and feel. In the film, In the Mood for Love, there is several scenes that showing the mental states of character via cinematography and editing. The director, Wong Kar Wai, uses the irises, superimpositions, and masks to indicate characters’ thought and feeling. For example, in the scene where Su Li Zhen (as “Su”) finally receives a phone call from Chow Mo Wan (as “Chow”) who disappeared for a few days, then she goes to meet him at the hotel room that Chow rents before so that they can work together on the martial arts serial for the newspaper without attract attention from others neighbours. This particular scene has some shot that shows the character’s feeling. When Su is on her way to meet Chow, there is a close up of her in the car to show her expressions. She looks very eager and anxious. Another part is when Su reaches the hotel, and she goes up the stairs then goes down then goes up again. This editing shows Su is struggling whether she wants to go to meet Chow or not. It also emphasizes her eagerness in this particular scene.

Besides, mise-en-scene also plays an important role in this film. In the scene where Chow is smoking in his office, the audience see him from back first then the camera will focus on the smoke that drift above him. The visuals are edited to show the sense of dizzy of character. The smoke represents Chow’s annoyance. His mind is cloudy like the smoke as the relationship of Su and him is unclear and complicated. It is a visual communication with audiences.

There are number of POV editing and rhythmic editing to show character’s experiences. The scene when Su goes to buy noodles at the noodles stall and Chou eats noodles at the same stall. This shows that they are both lonely person who do their things alone and eat alone without accompany of their spouses. Another one is when Su cannot go to meet with Chou for a period as her has warned by the house owner. She has no choice but to pretend to join the mah-jong game among the neighbourhood. This scene goes in slow motion to show that this is a hard time for Su. Time goes slowly, she is not enjoying the mah-jong game but she has to pretend to look happy. All these scenes are accompanied by the background music, Yumeji's Theme. It makes those scenes look like repetitive and similar.

In this film, the director also manipulates plot time and subjectivity which is flashbacks and memories. The scene where Chou is looking for something in his apartment in Singapore but he cannot find the thing he wants. Then he saw a lipstick stained cigarette butt in his ashtray. The actual timeline is Su goes to Singapore and visit Chow’s apartment secretly. Then she smokes a cigarette, that’s why the lipstick stained cigarette comes from. Then she calls Chow, who is working for a Singaporean newspaper, but she remains silent when Chow picks up the phone. She takes away the slipper that she left in Chow’s Hong Kong apartment last time when she leaves. This is the reason why Chow is desperately searching for something in his room at first. He is looking for Su’s slipper that he brings along to Singapore from Hong Kong as a momento.

In conclusion, the director, Wong Kar Wei, uses a lot of techniques to show the psychological and mental of characters. He uses a different way to interpret the love story between Chow Mo Wan and Su Li Zhen. He focuses on the spouses that being cheated compared to the cheating one. They don’t even show up the face. Even today, when a director wants to show a character’s feeling in some abnormal state of mind, French Impressionist techniques of camerawork and editing which are the blurred imagery, superimposition, slow motion, accelerating cutting and etc. are used.