Film Form
ATS 1305: Contemporary Film Studies
Assessment Task 1: Film Form Assignment
Name: Chong Sarah Man – Yee, 22882618
Film Form on Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002)
“Film form, in its broadest sense, we mean the overall system of relation that we can perceive among the elements in the whole film” (Bordwell and Thompson 49). In this formal analysis, I will be considering film form in relation to the film Hero directed by Zhang Yimou. Large aspects of film form such as mise-en-scene, shot, editing and sound can be seen vividly in the fight scene between Nameless (Jet Li) and Sky (Donnie Yen).
Figure 1
Figure 2 The setting of this scene is at a tea house as seen in Figure 1. An anamorphic scope of 2.35:1 is used. The background of the scenes are emphasised with the anamorphic scope such as the tea house in this segment and the mountains and the rivers in other segments. Parts of this segment are filmed with a straight-on angle to give a closer feel to the audience. The elements of props are focus deeply in this scene- such as the sword, the spear and the musical instrument. The dull colours of the overall scene makes the sword and the spear stand out which is also seen clearly in Figure 2 when the scene is in black and white. The use of black and white is to show the audience that the battle scene in the characters minds. Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 To emphasise the character’s facial expression and the details of gesture, the camera zooms in to Sky’s face. From Figure 3 to 4, we can clearly see Sky’s eyebrows becoming more slanted and his face tenser. This is portrayed noticeably as the camera zooms in from a medium close-up shot to an extreme close-up shot as seen in Figure 5. Also, the calmness in Nameless facial expression shows that he is confident and fearless whereas scenes of Sky’s spear vibrating shows a frightened self.
Assessment Task 1: Film Form Assignment
Name: Chong Sarah Man – Yee, 22882618
Film Form on Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002)
“Film form, in its broadest sense, we mean the overall system of relation that we can perceive among the elements in the whole film” (Bordwell and Thompson 49). In this formal analysis, I will be considering film form in relation to the film Hero directed by Zhang Yimou. Large aspects of film form such as mise-en-scene, shot, editing and sound can be seen vividly in the fight scene between Nameless (Jet Li) and Sky (Donnie Yen).
Figure 1
Figure 2 The setting of this scene is at a tea house as seen in Figure 1. An anamorphic scope of 2.35:1 is used. The background of the scenes are emphasised with the anamorphic scope such as the tea house in this segment and the mountains and the rivers in other segments. Parts of this segment are filmed with a straight-on angle to give a closer feel to the audience. The elements of props are focus deeply in this scene- such as the sword, the spear and the musical instrument. The dull colours of the overall scene makes the sword and the spear stand out which is also seen clearly in Figure 2 when the scene is in black and white. The use of black and white is to show the audience that the battle scene in the characters minds. Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 To emphasise the character’s facial expression and the details of gesture, the camera zooms in to Sky’s face. From Figure 3 to 4, we can clearly see Sky’s eyebrows becoming more slanted and his face tenser. This is portrayed noticeably as the camera zooms in from a medium close-up shot to an extreme close-up shot as seen in Figure 5. Also, the calmness in Nameless facial expression shows that he is confident and fearless whereas scenes of Sky’s spear vibrating shows a frightened self.
References: Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Print. Filmography Hero. Dir. Zhang Yimou. Perf. Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Chen Daoming and Donnie Yen. Beijing New Picture Film Co. (China), EDKO Film (Hong Kong), 2002. DVD.