BLOG#3 Relationships between Shots

Yes, the little boy in the film was beyond adorable and very funny.

The film I chose is Ohayo (Good Morning)directed by Ozu Yasujiro in 1959. Our professor also introduced a part of the film to explain the concept of graphic match in the last lecture. Although a minute seems a very short time to identify different shooting and editing strategies, I found a variety of those choices that the director made during 8:00 to 9:00 of the film. At 8:00, a lady comes into a frame walking, behind two boys who are watching TV. She is not focused or zoomed in specifically as every subject and object stays on focus. She takes a glance at the boys which provides viewers a clue that she wants to say something to them. The camera zooms into her as she is sitting down on chair, which is medium shot and a continuity editing strategy. I think the director was fully aware of the color coordination in the scene (and throughout the film) because the curtain, pillow on a couch, poster on a wall, scarf that the man wears, socks the lady wears, light stand, and finally the lady’s lipsticks are all red. They certainly provide the sense of unity in composition of the setting. Two boys stand up and walk to the window(camera position stays the same), and call a boy who lives across the street. That is where viewers can see the boys’ point of view through shot-reverse-shot as the boys and the other boy are having conversations. Sound from TV is a sours sound and diegetic sound in addition to the dialogue that the boys are having. As the other boy across the street closes the window and sits down, the camera moves into the boy’s room which is a two shot where the boy and his little brother sit across from each other. Here, I identified the utilization of depth of field. There are two boys in the foreground, furniture in the middle-ground such as a shelf and a lamp, and a room across the hallway in the background. Though the shot is simply two boys getting ready to hang out with other boys in their neighborhood, there are well constructed details and information about the set found in the shot. Next, viewers see that the boys are standing up and walking towards the door. Then, there is a change of a camera position as viewers watch boys coming out from the door. Therefore, it is a same action captured from different positions of cameras. In the next shot, viewers see the boys’ back in front of the front door putting shoes on. It provides a smooth transition to next shot which their mom will ask them where they are going.

I ended up watching a full movie. After watching this, I realized I somehow had no interested in watching any old Japanese movie growing up in Japan. The movie was very funny and interesting especially the part that kids are crazy about farting intentionally when somebody pokes their forehead with a finger and one child always ruins his underwear trying to fart. The film contains remarkable scenes of compositions, editing, and visual sensation as well as describing how people in Japan lived their lives and what they wanted in the 1950's. Watching this movie was eye-opening experience for me to explore more about Japanese classic movies. I highly recommend all of you to watch Ohayo(1959). It's entirely available on YouTube.