Memories of The Brick Hut is a Japanese animated film about an old man who returns to the underwater cabin in a diving suit in a diving suit in search of his beloved pipe, and as he dives deeper, the old memories follow. The film exudes a strong French atmosphere, the picture color match is very good, there is almost no dialogue in the whole film, but the use of body movements and symbols is natural, and the background music also creates a touching atmosphere.
Released in 2008 and directed and written by Japanese director Hisahito Kato, the film revolves around the theme of "family affection", depicting the most precious moments in the life of the elderly, bringing warmth to the audience and conveying a lot of practical significance. The total length of the film is about 12 minutes, although it is a short film, it is short and concise, not only won the 81st Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film, but also more than 140,000 people scored a high score of 9.3 on Douban.
Simply starting from the content of the short film, it is impossible to interpret the charm of this Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Therefore, today I will further interpret the charm and value of this film from the two aspects of "narrative structure and lens language". In the third part of the article, I will share the three ways of emotional expression used in this movie in combination with my own way of watching the film.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" >01, narrative structure: reality and memory are staggered, and the loneliness of the elderly is expressed through contrast</h1>
"Memories of the Building Blocks Cabin" uses the technique of timeline flashbacks. At the beginning of the film, the old man lives alone in the building block hut, because the sea level rises and floods the original house, so it can only continue to build like a building block. The pipe that accompanied the old man for a long time was lost in a labor, the old man looked for a long time, and tried to replace it with other pipes, but finally shook his head and gave up. So he decided to put on his wetsuit and return to the underwater hut to look for the lost pipe, and the story began.
The structure of flashbacks is often used to explain the story that has occurred before, and this narrative structure will disrupt the logic of the audience, so whether the plot is connected naturally can be seen in the cleverness of a director.
In this film, as the old man dives deeper and deeper, the precious memories of the past also follow, each room represents the memories of different periods, as an audience, at first it will be a little confusing, but with the development of the story, the main line is also clearly presented.
How does "Memory Building Block Cottage" express the loneliness of the old man alone through the switch between reality and memory, subtly increase the amount of information in the film, and enhance the value of this film?
(1) Switching between reality and memory: Memories of multiple different time and space are in sharp contrast with reality
The film opens with an old man's point of view, living in an island-like building block hut with pictures of his family in the frame on the wall, but he is the only one in reality. When it was time to eat, he closed the window, took out the cutlery, poured a small glass of red wine, there was a small fish on the plate, the noisy laughter in the TV set contrasted with the lonely scene in reality, although there was no dialogue, no exaggerated body language of the old man, but everyone could feel the loneliness from it.
Amplifying this loneliness is in the process of the old man wearing a diving suit to find a pipe. The timeline began to flashback, the old man dived to the first room, the moment he got the pipe, the picture flashed back to the memory of his wife helping him pick up the pipe, and the good memories made the old man reluctant to return to reality. He continued to dive, and then saw his wife sick in bed, he sat next to him to feed the medicine, the picture turned and flashed back to reality, leaving only a dilapidated bed in front of him.
Through this switch between reality and memory, he clearly expresses the loneliness of the old man, who used to be accompanied by his wife, and he can spend three meals and four seasons with each other, but in the end he is left alone, and this sadness seems to overflow the picture. This interlaced narrative structure visually conveys emotions and can strike at people's hearts.
The old man continued to dive, he successively saw the daughter married, the daughter took the boyfriend home for the first time, the old man and his wife when they were young, the plot began with the old age life, the middle through the middle of middle age, youth, childhood, and finally back to old age. In this process, people dive with the old man, not only see the precious memories, but also see the origin of this building block hut.
Under such a narrative structure, the director uses a simple and sincere method to impress the viewers, although there is almost no dialogue in the whole film, but through the shaping of the scene and the contrast of memories, it touches everyone's heartstrings, and I think this is the charm of this movie. The existence of building blocks and huts is not only the spiritual sustenance of the elderly, but also expresses the environmental awareness of global warming, rising sea levels, and people living on isolated islands.
(2) Contrast of cold and warm tones: Warm yellowish tones and cool blue-green tones convey different emotions
The film basically uses yellow and blue-green two shades, in the visual effect, yellow will appear warm and brighter, while the blue-green tone is cold, the old man dived into the seabed, the picture into a cool tone, and when the memory hits, the picture is connected to a warm yellowish.
Whenever the sleeping memories are opened, the picture dominated by warm colors will take people back to the sweet moment, the daily companionship of the old man and his wife, the old man and the daughter family taking family portraits, the young and the wife chasing each other, the romantic confession moment and a series of memories are immersed in happiness, and when the old man wants to touch the memory, the picture suddenly returns to the cold reality, things are not human, only lonely.
As a moviegoer, visual effects are the most vulnerable way to be shocked, and the use of color is more empathetic. In the film, the picture of the daughter leaving home by steamship is very much like the real life "children's mother's worries", and the sweet moments of the old man's family are like the daily life of many ordinary families, and it is through these details and changes in color that the film has more practical significance, and it is also "silent" to touch people's hearts.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >02, lens language: a large number of panoramic, long-range and still shots are used to render the atmosphere, making the film's mood more intriguing</h1>
The film "Memories of the Building Blocks Cabin" uses a lot of panoramic and long-range shots. For example, at the beginning of the film, from the panoramic lens to see the old man alone in the house, the wall hung large and small photo frames, indicating that there was once a lively, simple decoration in the house, monotonous furniture, narrow and cramped environment is somewhat depressing. Immediately after, a long-range shot, jumping out of the house to overlook the surrounding environment, the sea level rises, many houses are submerged, seagulls fly through the sky, and ships in the distance slowly sail by, which can be seen that this place was once a city.
In the film, a lot of still shots are used for the scenery on the sea, and the shots with the old man in the shot play a role in setting off the main body's rendering atmosphere, and in the shots where there is no old man, the calm and empty space effect is created through the still lens, rendering the quiet and sad atmosphere of the film. The director uses an emotional lens language to present the tone of the entire film: sadness, loneliness, loneliness, memory.
The book "Audiovisual Language" carefully describes the types and roles of scenery, like a large number of panoramic and long-range shots in "Remembering the Building Blocks Hut", placed at the beginning and end of the film, undertaking the functions of explaining the environment, writing lyricism, creating atmosphere, and ending the overall situation. It is the audiovisual language composed of these shots and so on that allows the viewer to have a good experience and perceive the emotions that the director wants to express.
In my opinion, the director's lens language is simple and sincere, starting from the perspective of daily life, starting from the story of the old man recalling the past, and naturally leading the audience into the film. Under the lens of the director, the emotions of the old man alone are magnified, the beauty of the past life is also infinitely longed, the whole film is haunted by a faint sadness, and the different types of lens language make the emotional expression of the film more plump.
This kind of camera presentation appears in many passages in the film. In addition to this, there are many symbols in this film that shape the depth and connotation of the film. For example, pipes, building blocks, and seawater, the use of these symbols not only serves as a main line to guide the audience back to the past, but also triggers intriguing deep thinking.
In the film, the pipe as the main line has appeared many times, for example, in different periods of the old man's life can be found in its traces, its symbolic meaning is actually to represent the old man's past memories, although the pipe is a thing, but it pins spiritual emotions. The old man carries it when he works, and when the daughter gets married and takes a family portrait, the object is not human, but the pipe still accompanies the old man.
Each floor of the building block hut represents a different time period, and when the old man dives to the lowest level, opens the door and looks around, everything is flooded by the sea, surrounded by the ruins of the house. Memories followed, when the old man was young, it was still land, the trees and flowers and plants were growing freely, the chimney of the house was slowly smoking, and he and his wife ran and chased around a big tree.
As time passed, the sea level gradually rose, flooding the houses, so people began to build houses like piles. Some people have left, there are fewer and fewer neighbors, the elderly family continues to live here, and the daughter leaves on a cruise ship when she grows up, which can be seen that the land at that time has been flooded a lot. The swallowing of seawater symbolizes that under the background of global warming, people's living environment is threatened, people gradually become an island, and cities become oceans, conveying a strong sense of environmental protection.
The use of camera language and symbols in "Memories of the Building Blocks Cabin" has shaped the depth and connotation of the film. It is not only a warm short film that recalls family affection, but also integrates environmental awareness and the spiritual status quo of modern people. Let this movie story be full of real power, the plot is simple, but the meaning is profound.
In my opinion, it is the presentation of these lens languages that makes this ordinary story meaningful, in the life experience of the elderly, there has been beauty, there has been parting, there has been loneliness, from which we can dig deeper content, such as cherishing the present and protecting the environment. The director conveys a lot of ideas with his heart, and these positive or lateral meanings need to be discovered by the viewers.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >03, combined with their own way of watching the movie, share the three ways of emotional expression used in this movie</h1>
A film conveys value and the practical significance of life to the audience through various expression methods such as character image and story content, and the most touching place is the spiritual connotation and inner emotion of the work, and the revelation of the true feeling of the work can cause the audience's emotional resonance. Therefore, the emotional expression of the film becomes particularly important.
So how should we, who have not systematically learned film processing, discover the director's emotional expression when watching the film, so as to reduce the missing of valuable content in the film?
The following will combine my years of experience in watching movies, combined with the plot of "Remembering the Building Blocks Cabin", and share the emotional expressions commonly used in three movies to help us understand the practical meaning of the film more deeply.
(1) Story content and character image shaping
Contents of the affair
"Memories of Building Blocks Cottage" tells a story about family affection, through memories, the final presentation in front of our eyes is a relatively complete story, the old man met his wife when he was young, the daughter slowly grew up and left home, the daughter brought back her boyfriend to marry, the family happily took a family portrait, the wife got sick and the two became old, and finally became alone. Through the story content, we can roughly understand the background of the film, and it is easier to be deeply moved and insert ourselves into the film.
As moviegoers, we need to understand the content of the story and know what the main idea that the director or the film wants to express can carry out the next analysis and thinking. The emotions displayed by the film through the content of the story can help viewers to have emotional resonance through similar experiences.
Character image
There is no dialogue in the whole film, and we don't know what happened at the beginning of the film, but the director through the shaping of the characters, the final presentation in front of us is a handsome old man, slow gait, figure out of shape image let people understand that he must have experienced vicissitudes.
The shaping of the external image of the character can help us understand the role, such as the domestic animation Nezha is a hanging Er Lang Dang image, when he shouted out "my fate by me can not help the sky", the image is a slender teenager, full of strength, through different images can let us initialize the character of the character. For animated films without dialogue, the shaping of the character image is particularly important.
As moviegoers, we can understand the character of the character through the image of the character, the space for imagination, and the multi-level interpretation of why the character should use such an image. What ideas does such a figure convey to us? Through these questions, you can help yourself divergent thinking and deeply interpret the film.
(2) The use of lens language and picture color
Lens Language:
The most impressive thing in the whole film is the process of the old man diving into the seabed and related memories, this time using a lot of motion shots, through vertical movement, our thoughts follow the old man slowly downward, resulting in a strong visual psychological change. In addition, there are a large number of panoramic and long-range shots to create the emotional tone of the whole film, and there is beauty in the sadness.
In the film, some push shots are also used, in the long-range or panoramic shots, the old man stays alone in the center of the picture, and gradually sees the face and expression of the old man through the push lens, highlighting the theme details and focus. It is these lens languages, the selection of character scenes, that are transmitted to another expression of emotion in the movie.
Screen color:
Scientists have repeatedly proved that different colors affect people's temperature perception, spatial perception and even emotions. For example, on the switch of the household water dispenser, the red sign representing hot water, the blue sign representing cool water, and the red gives people the feeling of enthusiasm. The color of the picture in the film also plays a crucial role in shaping the characters and expressing emotions.
In the film, the old man wears red clothes and green pants, which seems incongruous, with a strange but adds a few touches of color to the dusky tone, which can also reflect on the side that although the old man is lonely, but the good memories support the continuation of life, he is still full of hope for life. The turquoise color of the sea water belongs to the cool tone, it represents the cold, the intellect and reality, and what is transmitted to the audience is the memory of the past, the cruel emotional color of reality.
When recalling, the picture is pale yellow, representing a bright and joyful mood, and this color tone is a good expression of the good life of the past. From this point of view, the color tone of the picture is one of the important lyrical means, which can make the audience quickly enter the mood.
(3) Application of background music and symbols
The background music of the whole film is mainly piano playing, with a soothing rhythm and melodious melody. As the old man searches for a pipe, the rhythm of the music accelerates, the melody becomes brisk, and music is also an important means of expression, which is closely combined with the picture to form a unique expression of emotion.
The symbols in "Remembering the Building Block Hut" conform to similar pipes, photo frames, sea water, building block huts, etc., all have a unique role, as a moviegoer, we can not ignore the existence of these things, such as the piano in "The Pianist at Sea", the drawing board in "Stars on Earth" have a special meaning of existence, pinning people's emotions.
In a movie, in addition to the story content, the lens language and picture color can be used to enrich the emotional expression of the film content. Discovering the main lines and things that convey emotions in a film can make people get emotional resonance from them, and better understand the central ideas and positive values that the director wants to convey to the audience.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks:</h1>
"Memories of Building Blocks Cottage" This animated short film story content is thought-provoking, which contains intriguing meanings about family affection, environmental protection, etc., the use of picture color and background music are just right, adding a lot of color to this film, from the analysis of various forms of emotional expression, we will find more charm and value of this film.
Therefore, today's article will be interpreted from three parts: narrative structure, lens language and emotional expression, so that everyone can appreciate the charm of this Oscar-winning film.