Historically and Globally Informed Digital Media
Celine chan zi xuan
Journal Assignment 1
Chosen Film Movement
Hong Kong New Wave
Film movements
Hong Kong New wave
Why I decided to try HK new wave
I have always heard of Wong Kar-Wai and have seen videos of people trying to copy his style. However, I have never been interested in trying to do the same thing for my films, or even interested in finding out more about him. However, after seeing the work he has done and his unique style, I decided that I wanted to try something out of my comfort zone and explore the movement. I also felt that this movement was perfect for the film idea I had in mind, as it helps to portray the sentimentalness of films and also helps to elevate different moods without the reliance on dialogues.
The Film
It all started with a fish tank
Before the story or concept came to mind, I knew I wanted to incorporate a fish tank into my film.
The film
Story Ideation
Initial Story Ideation
The first idea surrounded the theme of Chinese New Year as it was nearing that event. I wanted to try filming the video during my visit to Malaysia as I felt the Malaysian vibes were something Singapore could not replicate. I initially wanted to do Wes Anderson and Wong Kar-Wai as I liked the vibrancy and cheerfulness of Wes Anderson and the sentimental part of Wong Kar-Wai. However, the idea of filming overseas within such a short span of time was not ideal, plus my story was not fully developed at that point in time. Hence, I decided to forego it as I did not feel confident about telling a story that did not have my heart in it.
The film
Story Ideation
Subsequent Story Ideation
Not feeling confident about my initial idea, I had to come up with a backup plan. Normally I’m the type of person who sees things first before thinking, and that was exactly how the second idea came about.
As I was contemplating what to do, I suddenly thought of my boss who recently lost his baby, and the whole experience being at the funeral. It was my first time feeling sad for somebody’s passing, especially for someone I didn’t know. However, when my boss was telling the story of how his son passed, you could feel the love with how he described his son and how sorry he felt for his son’s suffering. What broke me was when he looked over at his son in the casket, wanting to touch him for the last time, but separated by a glass. His love for his son inspired me to want to tell his story one day. And that one day happened to be today.
The film
Story Ideation
Subsequent Story Ideation
With that inspiration, visions of how the film looked started forming in my head, and I just knew it was too good not to be done.
I immediately started storyboarding the visions, and that’s how this film came about.
Storyboard
Toilet Scene
Office Scene
Storyboard
Montage Scene
Scenes that were’t used
Storyboard
Montage Scene
Storyboard
Scenes that were’t used
While they weren't used, you can tell from the vision that the main idea was to show loneliness and keep the couple seperate
Storyboard
Fish tank scene
Mock shoot
The film
Story Ideation
Final Story Ideation
The story follows the tragic tale of a couple who lost the love of their lives; their unborn child.
Through this film, we watch as the couple struggle to accept the loss of their baby, both grieving in their own separate ways. As the days go by, the couple struggles more and becomes distant. While trying to get back on their feet and return to their normal lives, they can’t help but get distracted, causing them to do things abnormally.
With each passing moment, they are reminded of their baby. The mother starts to question whether she is good enough, if she is a bad mother or even a good person. Her identity is disorientated, time feels so slow now, and her heart is empty. With all the gossip and rumors, she finally has enough, and she breaks loose. She trashes the room, the room containing all memories.
The film
Story Ideation
My Thesis
This film contains a very heavy topic that needs to be expressed through intense emotions, hence by using Wong Kar-Wai influences, I hope to be able to express that through minimal dialogue, lighting, and camera angles to show a different side to SG’s media scene.
The film
Concept
Story Ideation
The film goes through the 5 stages of grief, showing the journey of the couple as they mourn over the loss of their baby. It aims to relate back to the audience on how they could be sharing that same heavy feeling/going through the same phase as the protagonist, and it aims to assure them that it is okay to feel this way.
The film also surrounds the concept of bubbles, where it shows how as the protagonist goes through her journey of grief, she’s stuck in her bubble, unable to move on.
The bubble represents our hopes, dreams, and passion. Not wanting to burst the bubble means not wanting to let go of that dream.
However, the longer the protagonist chooses to stay in her bubble, the more she hurts herself and others. Hence, this film encourages the audience to think from a new perspective, that maybe bursting the bubble instead of chasing it, is the answer to unlocking their dreams. To be able to take that first step and burst the bubble, is allowing themselves to break free and expand their horizons.
Influences
Colours
I decided to use vibrant colours to evoke different emotions throughout the film.
For example, red evokes feelings of madness and hysterical, purple portrays the delusions of the protagonist, blue represents sadness, warm orange and yellow display happiness, and green and yellow evoke feelings of discomfort.
Influences
Influences - Camera Angles
dutch angle
Wong Kar-Wai often uses Dutch angles to evoke certain feelings. I used dutch angles to create feelings of disorientation.
Influences - Camera Angles
I framed the female lead in the fish tank to show her being stuck in her bubble, creating her own perfect world, whereas the male lead is outside, to show that he has moved on and in actual reality.
Framing my talent in between bars to show how trapped he is
Framing
Wong Kar-Wai creates feelings of separation through deliberate framing of talents, which was what influenced me to frame my talents.
In the film “In the mood for love”, the characters are seen in a car together, which shows their chemistry and love. However in this shot, they are divided by their seats to show their seperatness.
Influences - Camera Angles
experimental
Wong Kar-Wai often experiments around with different shots and angles. This allowed me to not plan the shots meticulously for my shoot, and to just go with the flow. I found this angle by accident during filming and I thought that it looked interesting.
Influences - Camera Shots
Step-printing
One prominent feature in Wong Kar-Wai’s “Chungking Express” is his method of using step-printing to slow down time and show disorientedness. I loved how he turned “shaky and unusable” footage in today’s context to something that can be used meaningfully to evoke emotions. In this case, I used it to represent flashbacks, and to also allow the audience to fall into this “dreamy trap”.
Influences - Music
Wong Kar-Wai often uses great music to enhance feelings. Just like in “Chungking express”, happy and ”Christmas-sy” music was used to evoke feelings of joy and happiness the protagonist felt. The concept of how the music make you feel versus it fitting the theme of the scene was something new to me. If I had chosen a song for this scene, it would have been more upbeat and happy to show the busyness of the store, hence what Wong-Kar Wai did was really interesting. Finding this piece of music and using it to represent the feelings of loneliness and nostalgia was quite spontaneous and I didn’t think it would work.
Influences - Improvised Acting
Wong Kar-Wai focuses on emotions a lot, which is why he does not plan his scripts deliberately. He likes to allow his actors to improvise in order to receive that natural feeling. While I wish I could say I allowed my talents to improvise so that things would be natural as the only reason, the other part was because I did not know how to direct, and hence improvising allowed the talents to direct themselves.
In the fish tank scene, because my script was too “Channel 5” ish, the actors improvised on the spot, which I felt did give a better result in the end.
Influences - Lighting
Warm light from study lamp
Purple Fish Tank light
Red RGB light in red room
Orange house bar light
Lighting is one of the essentials when it comes to HK new wave. Due to limited equipment, I decided to make use of practical lights to light my scenes. Just like Chungking Express, I got inspired to use the fish light that I already had in my fish tank. I also decided to use practical lights like a lamp and my house bar light. Other than that, most of my scenes were done outdoors, hence using natural lighting in the space provided. Some planning was done to ensure that my outdoor lighting was right, for example in the reveal of her pregnancy, I had to wait for golden hour so that it would help make the scene a bit warm and heartwarming.
Influences - Inspired
Knowing that Wong-Kar Wai likes to use music to enhance feelings in scenes, I felt that I could use sound effects to do the same and to even guide the story in a better way.
In the toilet/car scene, the scene was meant to show Ting and Colby coming back from the hospital, but because the medicine bag that I used was not visible in the shot, I decided to add the ambulance sirens in the end to show that they were near the hospital, and to also show a sense of urgency in the scene.
In the raging scene, I initially wanted it to be fully raw with no music to show the intensity of Ting’s feelings. However, I felt that it was a little too bare, hence I decided to use the baby’s heartbeat to intensify the feelings of rage and anger. And finally, using a flatline to represent the end of the baby’s life/Ting’s mourning phase/Ting’s will to live. It could be interpreted in many ways.
Influences that I did not use
One thing that I failed to use was Wong Kar-Wai’s usage of voice-overs to narrate the story. Not only was it difficult to come up with a voice-over to narrate the concept of loss/bubbles/grief, but I felt that it disrupted the flow of the film and distracted viewers from the emotions. Hence, I decided to forego the idea and keep the film a bit more silent.
the end!