Chapter Eighty-Six: Master-level Growth
In the Dictionary of Aesthetics, the definition of "lens" is the expression of film and television. Its unique aesthetic principle lies in the fact that it focuses on the mechanism of reproduction to stimulate the free emotions of the audience. Free emotion refers to the emotion that arises under the condition that there is no direct interest or affiliation between the stimulus source and the object of this emotion. In essence, the lens is the material level of film and television artworks, just as words are to literary works, and the performance on the screen is the most direct object of appreciation and aesthetics for the viewer. When the audience appreciates film and television works, they can only understand the connotation of the story from the limited range of pictures, which is the use of lenses in the shooting stage, so the lens aesthetics in film and television works are particularly important.
In order to be able to rebirth this classic movie in his hands or even go further, Wang Jie's cinematographer in addition to the original John Hill Wang Jie also specially hired Huang Yuetai and Zhang Yimou to take charge of the camera.
Wang Jie's first scene begins with a large panoramic shot, and the content of the picture is a luxury sports car moving high in the air with several steel wires. The next two shots are of the car being lowered and Charlie looking up at the descending sports car. The composition of Wang Jie's shot has a certain implication, that is, Charlie is completely oppressed by money, and it also implies that in the society at that time, money was supreme in people's hearts. It is worth noting that Wang Jie's lens was not shot directly at the subject. The footage shows another black luxury car with a sports car being lowered on the lid and Charlie's reflection. The two luxury cars were right next to Charlie.
Then, Wang Jie filmed the scene where Charlie worked. In that scene, Wang Jie first uses a panning camera to show the environment of Charlie's workplace. The opening picture is an ordinary car, which is the car driven by Charlie. The camera pans to the left to show Charlie's girlfriend and Charlie and Lennie (Charlie's work partner) on the phone. The footage shows Lenny and Charlie on the phone. They looked nervous. In order to present a tense atmosphere, Wang Jie adopted the editing principle of the principle of matching the language of the characters in this paragraph, so that the audience can better experience this strong atmosphere. Charlie and Lenny were actually on their own phones, talking about business-related content. However, through the ingenious design of the characters' lines, Wang Jie uses this editing technique to connect the single shots of the two people, making the audience look as if the two of them are talking directly to Lennie and Charlie. And the speed of the two people's speech is very fast, which exacerbates the tense scene effect.
Wang Jie used many beautiful panoramic shots of outdoor scenery in the filming of "Rain Man", which made the film a bit of a road movie.
In the scene where Charlie and Leimon go to the casino to gamble together, Wang Jie used a lot of moving shots to show the audience the atmosphere. When they go to the casino to gamble, they prepare for their image: buy shoes, buy suits, get their hair done. Here, Wang Jie used several fast movement shots to shoot shirts, suits, and shoes.
When photographing the suits in the store, Wang Jie used a wide-range, large-angle panning camera with the direction to the left. The next shot shows the store staff measuring Raymond's body. This shot is also a left-pan lens, and it is all from a horizontal perspective. So when these two shots are connected together, it is very smooth and unconsciously abrupt. It is also difficult for the viewer to perceive the editing of the shot. In fact, the highest level of editing is to make it difficult for the audience to notice that the footage has been edited.
Wang Jie also uses a quick pan lens to shoot shoes in the next two shots, the first shot is to the right, and the second is downward. This is followed by a close-up of Raymond's feet in leather shoes. The editing of these three shots is also crisp and neat. In particular, the close-up of Raymond's feet is followed by the down-panning shot of the shoes, which is quite crisp. In addition, this close-up is also very interesting, Wang Jie tells the audience that this is Raymond's foot by including Raymond in the mirror into the picture, and he is looking at the leather shoes he tried on on his feet in the mirror.
When Wang Jie filmed Zhou Yunfa angrily screaming hysterically and hitting his head with his fist because Zhang Guorong forced him to fly, Wang Jie did not use a panoramic shot to show the body movements of his entire body at that time, but used a close-up view to show Zhou Yanfa's facial expressions.
As a typical Hollywood film, narrative montage and a lot of dialogue between the characters are one of its characteristics. Unlike European art films, which like to use long takes, focus on scene scheduling and the use of montage of expression. Because there are too many dialogues and lines of the characters, Wang Jieduo adopts the shooting principle of triangular camera to emphasize the narration of the storyline.
Charlie, played by Zhang Guorong, ran away from home due to a feud with his father, and at the age of sixteen, he participated in the cruel business competition and became a selfish and ruthless person full of desire. In order to highlight his character traits, Wang Jie only shows 14 scenes of Zhang Guorong making phone calls, and he has to call first to inquire about his business and give orders to his subordinates whenever he goes; When attending his father's funeral, Zhang Guorong, who played an important role as a son, stood at the end of the crowd, at this time Wang Jie's lens was fixed in a long shot, Zhang Guorong was like an indifferent bystander After listening to the reading of the will and learning that he did not inherit his father's property, the picture presented a close-up of Zhang Guorong's shocked expression. The use of this series of shots shows the alienation and gap between Zhang Guorong and his father Zeng Jiang, and strengthens his mercenary character.
Zhou Yunfa plays the role of "rain man" Raymond is a simple and stubborn autistic patient with communication disorders and super mental arithmetic and memory skills. Simplicity and trust are Raymond's weaknesses, and they are also the weapons with which he teaches Charlie "family affection". Later, the desperate Charlie used Raymond's super memory to shine in the Las Vegas casino, in the noisy background music, showing the fast-cut movement shots of shuffling, discarding, and turning chips on the gaming table reflected Charlie's impetuous heart, and Zhou Yanfa's expression was always wooden, and he knew nothing and obeyed completely. After winning, Charlie became more and more excited, and the emotional contrast between the two became bigger and bigger. In front of the gaming table, Wang Jie used a 22-second push shot, from the middle scene of Zhou Runfa to a close-up of his face counting cards, highlighting Raymond's innocence, he is like a mirror, reflecting the restless hearts of other people who are eager for quick success and deceiving trust, and also causes the audience to reflect on the concept of family affection.
The character traits of the two leading actors are shaped by relying on Wang Jie's precise lens language. With successful character positioning and reasonable emotional development of the characters, only then can a story with a serious theme and great feelings be told.
The red car in "Rain Man", the bright sunshine on the boulevard outside the nursing home, the golden wheat field, the bright sky, and the green pasture on the way to Los Angeles, the flashing neon lights in Las Vegas, and the soft lights in the high-end hotel, Wang Jie uses bright warm colors, all of which are paving and hinting at the bright ending of the brothers finally regaining their family. Wang Jie's use of light and shadow also corresponds to the gradual harmonious change process of the emotions between the two protagonists, showing a situation that gradually brightens: on the first day of Charlie and Raymond's journey, there was an argument on a dark and rainy night; In the rest of the journey, Charlie began to obey his brother's request and helped him back to the car after he was standing in the middle of the road causing a traffic jam, and a few rays of sunlight shone through the haze in the cloudy sky; When Charlie satisfies Raymond's need to watch TV, the sky in the lens is filled with a warm red sunset; And when Charlie prepares maple syrup for him before the pancakes are served, as his brother is customary, the picture is already blue sky and white clouds, and the light is abundant and soft. Wang Jie's light changes from dark to bright in this group of similar shots, and the psychological distance between the two protagonists changes from far to near, and the emotions change from light to thick.
Wang Jie also adopted a careful setting when designing the composition of the film: when Zhang Guorong first came to the sanatorium to contact Zhou Yunfa, Zhou Yunfa hid outside the door in fear, and the two protagonists did not even appear in the same picture, let alone communicate. After the trip began, the two slowly made eye contact and physical contact, and the distance in the camera became closer and closer, until finally the brothers hugged each other head to head, and became intimate. The physical distance from far to near has externalized the reduction of the psychological distance between them, and a series of changes are promoting the emotional development of the two to regain sibling affection. Wang Jie In most of the picture composition of the film, Zhang Guorong often looks tall and heroic, and when filming Zhou Runfa, he uses a slightly inclined camera position, which shows Raymond's weakness and helplessness, and at the end of the film, Raymond boarded the train and appeared taller than his younger brother for the first time, which is also Wang Jie's use of lens philosophy to show the improvement of his brother's status in his younger brother's heart, that is, the promotion of the status of sibling affection in Charlie's heart.
The lens is the soul of the director, and the use of lens aesthetics to stimulate the free emotions of the viewer can complete the expression of the director's subjective concept and reflect the theme appeal of the film to the greatest extent. Love, family affection and friendship are the most likely to arouse the audience's strong free emotions in all Oscar images, but not all love, family and friendship images can trigger strong free emotions, and most of the Oscar images that show love, family and friendship can only trigger the audience's homeopathic aesthetic effect in an intuitive way of sensory stimulation, and only a few extremely special video clips can cause extraordinary free emotions.
Wang Jie's "Rain Man" has "a few very special clips that can arouse extraordinary free emotions". In the middle section, Wang Jie uses a series of simple fixed shots and front and back shots to show Raymond singing the song he sang to Charlie as a child; Screaming hysterically at the sight of piping hot water; He kept saying "Charlie Babbitt must not be hurt". Wang Jie's plain lens language "narrates" Raymond's deep love for his younger brother: even though he is a patient, even if he has been away from home for more than 20 years, he still has warm memories of being with his family when he was young.
Through the filming of the drama "Rain Man", Wang Jie has truly achieved a lot of accumulation, and after the filming of many films, Wang Jie is not just a simple and crude plagiarism, he already has his own style, which shows that Wang Jie has walked on the road of a generation of masters.