Relationship Between Shots

Blog #3

Wong Fu Productions has become known as clean and emotional. They make short films on YouTube. Actually that is an understatement. They make emotional rollercoasters that you as the audience do not know you are riding until you hit the drop. I have always admired there work and there editing everything is clean and extremely organized. Getting all the shots is one thing, but the painstaking artistry comes through editing.

One short from Wong Fu that I love is These Four Walls. The main character is a paper pinwheel. Yes, a paper pinwheel. From the very first shot you see a wonderful pan from the title to a window, which fades to a pan of a different room. Right from that shot the title rang through my head “These four walls” I felt the four walls I felt the obstacle. Then another fade closer to this little pot. And something wonderful happens, it grows! The Pinwheel grows out the like a seedling. The entire sequence of shots following seems like a time-lapse video of plants growing. When you watch a time-lapse video of plants growing there is a slight shake to the video and the plants, it almost feels like the plant is struggling to grow but against all elements it defies gravity and grows upward. So is this Pinwheel. Throughout all of these shots there is a very pleasant piano playing in the background. The piano sets the mood. When watching this I don’t feel sad or mad, but this pairing of a growing pinwheel, and the piano music makes me feel inspired. Really a great pairing for the overall feel of this short.

 This pinwheel travels. It travels to see landmarks and landscapes. You can tell that the pinwheel travels for the camera movement in each shot and then the cut back to the pinwheel. All of the shots that shows the pinwheel’s point of view mimics the human eye movement. The some of the shots in this film are slightly shaky, I think this makes the pinwheel alive. We can look at something and it seems stationary, but it is not the blood is always gushing through our veins, and our heads are always in motion trying the take in every visual aspect of our environment. There is always slight movement, something that tells us we are alive. In the case of this film, so is this pinwheel.  Overall every editing choice from the color to the shots is always executed for purpose.