ShotXShot Analysis: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

For my shot by shot scene analysis I chose to do a scene from Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, a Chan Wook Park film - actually it's two scenes, but the first one was too short to do by itself and the two are very related. Here's some context for the scene: the main character, Ryu (the guy with the green hair), has a sister who's dying from a kidney illness. In spite of his sister's requests, he decides that he's going to donate one of his kidneys to her. In the following scene he's being told that they can't transplant his kidney because he doesn't have the right blood type.

This shot gives the viewer a very intimidating feeling, which is supposed to imitate Ryu's feelings at this moment. Ryu is deaf, so he's having a hard time reading the man's lips. Additionally, he's probably nervous being in such a formal environment. The fact of what the man across from him is saying obviously makes all of those things much worse. Therefore, the straight, head-on framing of the shot makes the man seem as if he is staring you straight in the eye. It confronts the viewer. The lighting is also very soft and yellow-greenish, which gives the impression of a drab, rainy day. This is probably intended to give the viewer a sense of the tragedy of what is happening.

This shot, and the one following it, are in the film to convey to the viewer that Ryu is reading the man's lips and that he is intensely focused on them. The tightness of the shot and the sort of spotlight-like lighting on his face add to this feeling of intense focus.

Here is a shot of the man's lips, which continues with the drab lighting scheme.

This shot is somewhat unsettling because of the way that the man's head is partially blocked by Ryu's. It highlights the awkwardness of the situation; Ryu is trying hard to understand what the man is saying and also not to become incredibly angry, and the other man is annunciating his words carefully so that he will be understood. There is also a very shallow depth of field which also gives the viewer an awkward feeling since the out of focus subject (Ryu) takes up so much of the frame.

In this shot the camera racks focus towards Ryu as he lets his head fall into his hands. However, there's a cut just before Ryu comes into focus. This gives the viewer a feeling of an attempt at resolution that fails. It mirrors Ryu's attempt to sooth himself by burying his face in his hands.

This shot, being as out of focus and muddled by rain as it is, gives the viewer a sense of being totally lost. This feeling reflects Ryu's feelings after learning that his kidney cannot be transplanted.

This shot is basically identical to the previous shot so I won't comment on it.

In this shot and the ones following it, Ryu is apparently venting his rage over what just happened in a batting cage. We can tell that he's angry because he's breathing heavily and his body buckles after each hit. This shot gives a very claustrophobic feeling. Like the earlier centered shot of the man at the clinic, it is intended to give the viewer a straight, direct look into the character. Because of the closeness of the shot and the shallow depth of field his anger seems closer to us. This magnifies it in a way - makes it more intense. We feel almost as if he's angry at us. The greenness of the shot and the directionality of the light also give it a very stark, intense, almost sickening feeling. It shows how bleak Ryu's world is.

This shot continues with the green light and the claustrophobic feeling.

The film returns to the initial shot of Ryu's face as he swings his bat. This shot is pretty much identical to the first one - the screengrab is from the part where Ryu is swinging. You can see his anger.

This shot is a relief after the bleak, claustrophobic look of the previous shots. It's still rather bleak, but not quite as much so because there isn't as much detail on one thing and there is more variety in the shot. Ryu isn't on any of the third's lines. As with most of the other shots, I think Park is trying to make the viewer uncomfortable. He is intentionally going against established norms in filmmaking in order to unsettle and surprise the viewer.

This shot continues with the bleak look of the previous shots and adds to it a feeling of loneliness. With Ryu left as a tiny figure in the shot, we are left with a huge, empty space. From this angle we're also able to see how dark it is outside of the sphere of the single, sickly light. It is a very desolate shot.

Portrait Lessons

One thing I learned from creating my portrait assignment was that the specifics of how a film turns out can be somewhat unpredictable. What I mean is that when you make a film, you try to control all the variables that you possibly can - but ultimately you cannot control everything. Part of what makes a good film, I think, is its ability to account for and take advantage of those things that the filmmakers couldn't control. Certainly there are varying degrees of control, from filmmaker to filmmaker. At this point I wouldn't say I am good at either of those abilities described above.

For example, Matt Phillips was the DP for my film. He strikes me as very capable of doing that job and he seemed to know what he was doing the whole time - and I thought we communicated and worked very well together. Nonetheless, after shooting the film I noticed several technical problems with the footage. Several shots were underexposed. The composition wasn't always really innovative or interesting. Some of the shots that we got only one take of (because they required props of which we had limited resources) went on too long or were imperfect in some way. At the time I felt like we both did a good job of keeping our eyes on what we were doing, and yet there are these problems.

I guess that just tells me that next time I need to be more obsessive about every shot. I would say something about my classmates work, but I've already written too much. I'll just say that it made me wish I'd done a better job on my film.

Itchy Nub

Itchy Nub from Levon Peirce on Vimeo.

This is a short film depicting an average day in my life. In it, you will see the everyday routines that I routinely execute and problems that I face daily in an everyday daily routine sort of way. Nothing that exciting, really.

Director - Levon Peirce

Director of Photography - Matt Phillips

Levon Peirce as Levon Peirce

Music by Levon Peirce

Shot with a JVC GY-HM100U.

Sony and JVC Camcorder Comparison

In working with the two HD cameras, I found that in general the picture from the JVC camcorder was sharper. That is only a subjective observation, though. There are other, more obvious reasons that I prefer the JVC. The mere fact that it uses an SD card is a huge advantage to me. It means that you don't have to deal with the peculiarities of tape. You don't have to worry about timecode breaks, which means that you can review your footage any time you want. This has come in handy quite a bit. You also don't have to capture the footage when you're done shooting, you simply copy the files.

Simply using solid-state media has advantages over using mechanically operated media. For example, an SD card can be written and rewritten a virtually unlimited number of times. A tape can be rewritten as well, but it can create timecode breaks and, in my experience, it can often create errors in the way it records the image. That is, you might see strange colored squares all around the screen at various times. Another advantage of the JVC camcorder is its ability to shoot in progressive scan. The Sony camcorder will only record in 1080i, whereas the JVC will record up to 1080p. From what I've read and what I've seen with my own eyes, there is pretty much no debate over the fact that 1080p produces a better image than 1080i.

On the other hand, there is one advantage that the Sony camcorder has over the JVC that is readily apparent to me, and that is its easier access to manual controls. The Sony camcorder has a ring both for focus and for zoom, whereas the JVC has only one ring that must be switched in order to control either focus or zoom. Because the Sony is slightly larger it also has more space for buttons, which means that some operations that require multiple button-pushes on the JVC can be done with only one button on the Sony. But these advantages are rather small considering that they really only mean that, in the case of the JVC, you need to plan out ahead of time what you need to do. The advantages of flash-based media far outweigh this slight disadvantage in my mind.

Goals in Filmmaking

My overall goal in filmmaking is to create something that is both interesting and different on one hand, but also something that will appeal to someone. I guess what I mean by that is that I want to create films that are striking and sometimes even shocking in the way that they portray things, but I want them to be based - if very loosely - on a foundation of knowledge about visual art and what "works." This is something that, I think, is going to require a lot of work.

I've been making movies my whole life - from the time when I first got my hands on a camcorder, which was when I was around 10. Yet, despite all that experience I don't really have a good handle on how to make "effective" images. As I alluded to in my other post, I am able to make visual art (drawings, paintings, etc.), but even with that I have sort of fallen out of practice and it seems I don't have a good "feel" for it anymore. So I guess one of the main things I hope to get out of this class is "practice."

I want to get some momentum going so that when I start a film I don't feel like I'm starting from scratch - so that I'll feel like it's already moving from the beginning. This is the way I feel about music. I create music often enough and am actively engaged in it to the point that when I sit down with a guitar I already have a framework to think in and I already have energy and enthusiasm which merely needs to be directed. This is something that I would like to develop with regards to film. Of course, part of what it takes to achieve that level of proficiency in film is technical proficiency. So I'm hoping that this class will teach me some of the technical details that I am a little unsure of or of which I'm not even aware.

Ultimately, though, practice is the main goal. In my experience, practice is the key to any art. Practice teaches you the limits of the medium you're working in, and it teaches you what you like. It teaches you how what you do affects the result, and through this process you learn what your goals are as an artist and what you want to do that is unique. Of course I've had plenty of practice with film/video already, but most of it was unguided and not really aware of what was already out there. So I need some guidance as well.

My Visual Style or: Sentimental Tripe

As you will see throughout this post, my visual taste is largely a very common, very sentimental one. True, I like strange camera angles and startling juxtapositions and such, but I have to admit that for the most part my tastes are similar to others in that I like "pretty" images. You will see what I mean.

Above is a still from Ghost Dog. As clichéd as it may sound, one of the things that draws me to Jim Jarmusch is his ability to find beauty in the ordinary. There's something about shots like this (which often run rather long in Jarmusch's work, though this one is comparatively short) that gives you a feeling of having your eyes wide open. Even though you see images like this every day, when you see it on film it somehow makes it more significant. The basic concept is not all that different from Duchamp's Fountain. There's something hypnotizing about Jarmusch's work, and that's definitely something to which I aspire.

The above shot is from Jurassic Park, a film that I love and have loved ever since I saw it when I was 5. It has a few characteristics which I greatly admire, though I have seldom if ever been able to reproduce them in my own work. First of all, the lighting is beautiful - the way the light covers only the edges of Muldoon's face and leaves the rest barely visible, and the way the light is broken up (presumably by the leaves within the diegesis, though I'm not sure if that's how the effect was actually achieved). It also uses shallow focus to bring attention to Muldoon, simultaneously having the effect of looking very pretty (to me, at least). It also has a nice composition; the focal points generally fall along rule of thirds lines, and it also has a cool asymmetrical thing going which seems to lend some force to the image.

One thing I admire about Spielberg's work in general - though maybe it's more his cinematographers who deserve the credit - is the way objects in his film give the viewer an instant, powerful sense of 3D space. That's another thing that I've never been able to do in my own work.

This image is from Michael Clayton. Some context is needed to explain why I like this image. Just prior to this shot is a long stretch of time that is dominated by yelling and screaming and legal issues being discussed. This image is in very stark contrast to that - it's extremely peaceful and simple. It's like a breath of fresh air after the nastiness of the previous 30 minutes or so. Another way in which it is a strange juxtaposition is that the earlier shots are dominated by manmade objects - buildings, cars, expensive suits, sharp corners everywhere. An image of nature after all of that sort of brings it into perspective.

That's one of the things I like about juxtaposition; it sometimes allows you to see things in a different way than if you saw each of them alone. Sometimes this allows you to realize something that, although it was staring you right in the face already, you wouldn't have noticed otherwise. Besides all that, it's also just a very aesthetically pleasing image to anyone who finds nature beautiful.

This is a picture I took in Fort Walton Beach, Florida a while ago (before the oil spill). I was trying to get a closeup picture of this bird (an egret or something like that?) but it kept flying away every time I got close to it. One of the times it flew away I just happened to take this picture as it was flying, and I kind of liked it. For a while now I've been interested in the idea of images that capture things in mid-action. Its surprising to see things that way because we are used to seeing things happen all the way through, especially in films. It's also interesting because it gives you a different sort of view of motion. When you see something that is already in motion, you start to wonder about what motion itself is and what it means. Again, besides all that it's just an image that pulls at my heartstrings. The sunset making the waves look almost golden in parts, the gracefulness of the bird - these are things that I like but cannot really explain why.

This is another picture I shot myself, probably some time around 2005. It was taken in Madison, Alabama just outside of a Japanese restaurant called Edo. I've altered the colors a bit in Photoshop, but I didn't add or take anything away from it. Anyone who has ever seen my drawings or paintings knows that explosions and explosion-like images are a very strong theme in my art. It isn't hard to imagine that this image is of some huge explosion in the sky, though it's really just the sunset filtering through the clouds.

Someone suggested to me once that explosions are one of those kinds of images that are inherent to the human psyche. It certainly seems to me that whenever I start drawing an abstract image it almost inevitably becomes an explosion, though maybe that's just me. In any case, it isn't hard to see why an explosion in art can be construed as some sort of emotional outpouring. I believe that emotion is the core of all art. Even art that is seemingly emotionless is usually notable for its lack of emotion, so in a way it's referencing it. I think everyone wants to explode sometimes, and everyone (even pacifists) secretly thinks explosions are cool. An explosion is the epitome of energy, and art needs to have energy.

At this point I've already said a lot about what my personal aesthetic is, but I'll summarize it here. I like images that are full of emotion or that produce a strong emotional response; it doesn't really matter what the emotion is, only that it is strong. A lot of this has to do with what the human eye is naturally drawn to, although culture certainly plays a role in this as well. I also like images that are startling or strange in a way that causes you (if you're thinking) to reexamine the way you view things and maybe even the way you think about the world. I like to subvert people's expectations - to use them against those people in many cases.

Although, as I said in the beginning of this post, I am not that different from most people in that I like sentimental images, I don't believe that art should be about pleasing people. I believe that art should be about the new. By new I mean things that have never been experienced before. Sometimes that means introducing people to new pleasures they have never known before, but it also involves challenging them. Newness is what makes life worth living, even if it isn't easy. Newness can be painful at first, but ultimately it is rewarding.

I realize that I've written well beyond 250 words, but once I got started I found it difficult to stop. I apologize for that.

10 Favorite Things

I can't really think of a good introduction to this, so I'll just start.

Here are my 10 favorite movies, ranked relative to one another.

1. Jurassic Park

2. The Big Lebowski

3. Akira

4. WALL•E

5. Neo Tokyo (Meikyu Monogatari)

6. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance

7. Michael Clayton

8. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

9. The American Astronaut

10. Pulp Fiction