MA Proposal

When i join to MA,I would like put emphasis on investigate ‘BaXiang people’. “BaXiang”,which means play for fun. It actually belongs to the ShangHai dialect of China. As the name illustrates the meaning, BaXiang is a definition of a crowd in society. The vast majority of them come from the social population. let`s change another words, the negative rhetoric for ‘BaXiang’ is ShangHai gentleman rogue. Because some of them are gangs, some are idle people, some are craftsmen.  ‘BaXiang’ culture starts at bourgeoisie of ShangHai before 1949. It`s an old saying of ShangHai slang, but now it becomes to “PlayBoy” for some reasons.To some extent, it interpretations people on the same truck. All in all, no matter where are they come from, what are their`s job, they have a common feature,which is as playing as an attitude of life. Due to the education of population`s level is keep increased in recent years, meanwhile, the quality of living standards also increased gradually. ‘BaXiang’ people is not Social marginalized anymore nowadays. It becomes to an attitude of living and people gradually changed their prejudices with them. It began to spreads to social family as a conceptual trend. As the trend of fashion goes more and more faster, while the scope also becoming more widely. It is no longer the privilege of the bourgeoisie and the scope of ‘BaXiang’ is not only belongs to gangs or gentry any more. The citizens of each country are using a kind of action combined with their country's culture to create a new way of ‘BaXiang’ to illustrates their attitude, or their lifestyle.

Aiming:   (Could be a question, you should not yet know the answer (I.E.must be theory/theme, not functional outcome ) The aim of my film will be to create empathy with what we would traditionally see as the “bad” character. The life of “BaXiang” People seems has a huge contrast with the busy society. But in some way, they lifestyle happens to be a catalyst for the development of street culture. This kind of lifestyle seems lazy but actually bring a strong ability of re-creation. For me, the most important thing is there is a strong attitude hidden behind in their lifestyle which might already have another appearance in people`s mind. Which can build a formidably personality. So that how can i dig them out and bring them into audience`s mind, also let them empathy to each other is my main aiming proposal in MA study life. Lets say If adults` lifestyle is transforming in this group, it not only means that their attitudes will change,  but also their children`s perception to world will change, which means street culture can be regarded as the mainstream of subculture, which means it could bring a brand new strong fashion of lifestyle. It sounds can really bring a lot of new fun, but at the same time, with the increasing of personal attitude,it also bring a lot of complex social problems. And all these social problems which supervened by these lifestyle happens around of us nowadays. I will pick the city like east of London, Birmingham, or Liverpool as my main discovery direction to find the street culture and ‘baxiang’ people in real life, then i will do my primary research with these people’s life style and make all these information become as dairy. Then i will paraphrasing the real things become to my work. This is the main purpose of my MA study life.

How can i break a rule:

Generally speaking, the way of how to use lighting could determines the visual effect on screen. No matter it is the angle or intensity of light, they both can put story into a special atmosphere in a certain extent. For most of time, lighting in film can re-creative another role of the character. For example, Like the French film “Leon, the professional”, the protagonist leon is an eccentric person, he was isolated to his life with only one friend, his plant. In fact, this is also an interesting place in whole movie. Before meeting the Mathilda played by Natalie Portman, leon was seemingly just like a normal killer for us, and this cold-blood job did not give us anything for the practical significance. Even if as a witnesses, he saw the whole maltreat process of Mathilda but still have no reaction.  He is always like his only friend which is that plant, living hard but also as insignificant. Doing every daily exercise on time and complies with every agreement, never drink beer, but milk, being rigorous to every single detail. His life is just like his personality, dull and dry. On the other hand, this guy becoming the only man who got the true trust and deep love from the little lady Mathilda. The whole story of the film is full of surprisingly romantic and warm, but the director has never gave any special lighting to build the atmosphere, the basic tone of whole story are dark yellow light until Leon said the last sentence before the death”The Ring trick from Mathilda”. It suddenly raise all the emotional climax of whole film to the end. Although the film never deliberately trying to use a special lighting effect to deal with the mood of the entire film, but this seemingly dark and ordinary light which made Leon looks like a peanut happens shows his legendary in the work. Is such a trivial people,such a seemingly dull life but bring a strong feeling of moved to us. This is another side of “bad” guy, it also could be another side of peanuts. Meanwhile,  it indeed has creates a unique part of all heroism type film but base on a cipher person. The existence of this film shows that heroism type film does not need to use special beauty lighting effect to creates the visual impact. To some extent, this sort of lighting way can really build the quality of the character like Leon. Which is ordinary but not mediocrity.

A popular technique in film lighting is to use a soft (diffuse) light source from the front and a stronger, more directional light from the back, so that your subject has a hot edge. The vast majority of works in the past usually use it to make a beauty, cool or heroism scene such as large backlit, cold and warm color contrast. Of course i will use all these techniques in my work. However, this is not the main effect of my concept. I would like to combine my style with the black part of life to represent my work. Because personally, life is not looks like the films in recent 20 years which always have a good ending. So i will put more emphasis on how to band the ugly side of life together with true life.  In order to make the story have more authenticity to let audiences receives a more stronger visual sense of substitution. I would like to chose the way which have more sensibility of daily activities to illustrate my screen effects. Even though this kind of lighting might looks dull and dry, but if with a solid storyline as far as I'm concerned, it will re-creative a very mentally strong film work which have another visual effect feeling. Due to limit of time and conditions, I make the concept of “BaXiang” more simply  and clearly in this semester of learning. Most of my works are trying to find a lifestyle to interprets the meaning of it. Skateboard is a very classic sport of these. It is really a trendy movement for young people, while skateboarding is the originator of the history of extreme sport. It already have been extended out of the skills, speed, athletic or other types of games which base on different function. But whatever which type they are, slipping, is the attitude they got. As far as I'm concern that the world of “BaXiang” people is not only skateboarding. Since it becomes to an attitude, it is suitable for all mankind, and skateboard is just one choice of them. In my opinion, the street culture is always a practice of contemporary art, whether it is street basketball, street football, hip-hop, rap etc. They all reflected in different levels of "BaXiang" attitude. It is worth to mention that there must be a lot of elite or folk master in these street culture of “BaXiang”. In other words, this attitude determines the life of this group of people must have had some funny witty story, and these stories will be the main aiming of my future MA study life. Meanwhile, street culture and new Cultural craftsman will be the biggest part of developing in my MA life.

How can i challenge existing assumptions? New culture craftsman is a good developing direction of mine. As a result of the demand of the consumer markets, the meaning of craftsmen has exceeds far away beyond the scope of our understanding. Craftsmanship is no longer a pronoun of tailor, watchmaker, sculptor. It can be a doctor of plastic surgery, interior designer, pastry division and so on. With the increasing pursuit of consumer, new cultural craftsmen are slowly becoming a professional trend. I will integrate the street culture and cultural differences between the East and the West to represent the significance of existed attitudes of “BaXiang” in my MA study life.

Key theory in my field (books and articles ) “what is cinema” is main book i had look during my course time. In order to build my work more close to cinema film, i found a very interesting point from Kracauer`s view: “Film has the power, at its best, to summon us back to reality, to remind us of what other media conspire to render invisible. Film, in Kracauer's words, has the power to effect a "redemption of physical reality." The Italian neo-realist tradition of films, for example, told stories informed by everyday life, about everyday people, and using non-actors on location -- they serve thereby to document their time and place, and to connect the dots between aspects of experience that are often not thought together. ” In this exciting classic, Kracauer not only developed a rich and detailed analysis of the nature of film and its relation to photography and other art forms, but he also develops an original and still relevant view of film's potential and relevance to our age. Kracauer is often recognized as one of the most articulate and influential (along with Andre Bazin) of realist film theorists. Realism in film theory argues that what is special and distinctive to film as an art medium is its capacity for capturing and presenting reality, even realities that can never be directly experienced in other ways. To the extent that realism is presented as a thesis about the sole feature of film that gives it artistic merit, it is a problematic view -- since one of the other distinctive capacities of film is to frame and interpret and shape the reality it depicts. What is most original and still worthwhile, though, in Kracauer's thought is his recognition that realism is a tendency of film and a latent possibility -- not all films are realistic and strict realism (e.g. a camera that follows someone around 24 hours a day) would be neither interesting nor artistic. Kracauer recognizes that the very best films are those that use all of the devices at the disposal of the cinematic art, but, he insists, when they do so in the service of the presentation of reality. Siegfried Kracauer's classic study, originally published in 1960, explores the distinctive qualities of the cinematic medium. The book takes its place alongside works in classical film theory by such figures as Béla Balázs, Rudolf Arnheim, and André Bazin, among others, and has met with much critical dispute. In this new edition, Miriam Bratu Hansen, examining the book in the context of Kracauer's extensive film criticism from the 1920s, provides a framework for appreciating the significance of Theory of Film for contemporary film theory. I am interested in the idea of “realism” in film, but whose realism should we look at? I want to show the real situation of the “bad boy”, not the view of the audience who judges them.

Context:

In British film, subculture is a common theme, but not showing the “bad boy” as good. Not empathising with the bad boy. Maybe the “bad” boy is not really bad, maybe the audience who judges them is too positive or subjective about their own situation,so that that`s why they “Bad”.  Maybe here is the gap between them and us but not “bad”.  According to i used to have studied graphic design and photography, so that i think i can complete the shooting process effectively. Although i do not have too much experience with film in my previous two undergraduate studies, but my photography course is enough to let me complete the basic shooting. At the same time, this two different arts course already give me some basic knowledge. But if I have to analyze myself from a theoretical point of view, i think i need to enhance  on other film technology except lighting such as con-structure and color. But from the most important fundamental technical considerations, I think the biggest gap for me is how to transfer my 2D shooting skill to 3D area. In other words, how can i turn a static shot into a dynamic lens and how to make a movement have a better view to illustrates my concept is the two big challenge for me.