Du Fu: Master of film lens language

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　　On a gloomy afternoon, dark clouds rolled and the storm was coming. "Wow wow" a few crows fluttered and were startled, and the camera flew to the eaves of the palace with the crow's perspective, only to see a few luxuriously dressed dignitaries under the eaves, embarrassed, and rushed forward.

　　Then there is a high-altitude bird-down shot, Chang'an City is in chaos, and the streets are full of fleeing Chinese.

　　The above is the foreshadowing of the scene presented to us by the first four sentences of Du Fu's "Mourning for the King and Sun". Before the narrative begins, let's viewers/readers feel that behind this is a former powerful dynasty that is suffering a catastrophe through the ages.

　　This kind of expression is very similar to the lens language of film masters such as Zhang Yimou, Tsui Hark, Wu Ershan, etc., before telling the story, it does not go straight to the point, (starting the big rocker arm or drone), but through the small details under the big panorama, the environment is set off first. Before the story unfolds, let the audience's emotions melt into the scene of slaughter, gloom, festivity, or passion, so as to catch people's attention.

　　For the audience, even if they haven't seen the plot begin, they already understand the main tone of the next movie, and their viewing emotions will be substituted in advance.

　　Popular movies in recent years, such as "On the Cliff", "Man Jianghong", "Fengshen" and "Outwitting Tiger Mountain", have all used such creative techniques.

　　In the past few days, I have repeatedly read works such as "Mourning for the King and Sun", and I can't help but feel that Du Fu seems to be a modern person who has traveled to ancient times, and the application of various film lens language skills has reached the realm of perfection.

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　　Not enough to get started?

　　Let's look at one more. Du Fu's "Beauty Walk" is familiar.

　　At noon on March 3, Du Fu carried a camera to the Qujiang Pond in Chang'an City to shoot a documentary called "The Banquet of the Nobles of Chang'an".

　　At the beginning, there is a big vision of "the weather is new on March 3rd, and there are many beautiful people on the waterside of Chang'an", showing the spring grassland by the Qujiang River, and the beauties are dressed in gorgeous clothes and laughing. Add a BGM that represents the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, and it will show us the excitement and luxury of the high-end banquet under the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty.

　　The audience will definitely want to see the details next, what do these beauties look like, how fashionable are they dressed, are they wearing low-cut clothes, don't worry, Du Fu knows what you think. After the panorama, Du Fu operated the camera to turn on the zoom, 3 times, 5 times, 10 times, and finally saw clearly, "the state is thick and true, the texture is delicate and even." Du Fu's camera continued to move, and a close-up was added: "Embroidered Luo clothes shine in late spring, and gold peacocks and silver unicorns are played".

　　The scene is grand, showing the atmosphere of the Tang Dynasty, and the details are brilliant and extremely exquisite...... Isn't this Zhang Yimou's usual blockbuster shooting technique?

　　Next, continue to describe the banquet scene? Wrong, wrong, Du Fu is not only a master of film lens language, but also a master of film script writing. For example, when we read Jin Yong's martial arts novels, when two masters fight, they must be mixed with other background introductions or narrations: "This road master inherits someone" and "Come up and fight desperately, it seems that these two people have a deep hatred".

　　The same is true for Du Fu, I saw Du Fu's camera suddenly turn to the left, aiming at the melon-eating crowd gathered next to Qujiang, only to hear someone in the crowd show off and say: "(pretending to lower your voice) Brothers, I'll tell you, don't tell anyone else." The one on the left who eats lychees is Mrs. Qiuguo, and the one on the right, the one with a very low career line, is Mrs. Qin. As the so-called "Zhongyun curtain pepper house pro, give the name of the great country and Qin".

　　The use of this lens turning point is convincing, showing Du Fu's superb skills as a "modern film master". This kind of interlude not only further points to the title of "irony everywhere" (alluding to nepotism and collusion), but also makes the narrative of the poem more flexible and changeable, avoiding monotony and tedium.

　　After that, the camera returned to the main position and continued to present the luxury and luxury of the banquet scene, all kinds of steamed lamb, steamed bear paws, steamed deer tails, roasted ducks, roasted chickens, and roasted geese were served like Guo Degang's name of the dish, and the people who ate melons were stunned. The so-called "purple camel peak out of the cui kettle, water spirit plate line plain scales", flying in the sky, running on the ground, swimming in the water, what strange to eat.

　　Suddenly, there was a commotion in the distance, and someone in the melon-eating crowd said, "A big man is coming." Du Fu wanted to switch cameras to help everyone see what was going on. However, at this time, Du Fu only had one camera position, so he could only miss the details. Then the scene is rendered, and the rendering effects of the scene are added in the later stage, which not only makes up for the lack of lens materials, but also further highlights the status of the visitor. Therefore, we saw a scene similar to the appearance of the villain of the Hong Kong costume movie, "Yang Huaxue falls on Bai Ping, and the blue bird flies to the red scarf", this way of appearance is comparable to the old fairy of the stars.

　　When this bigwig "dismounted and entered Jinyin", Du Fu hurriedly zoomed in and magnified the lens several times, so that the audience/readers could see clearly who was entering the banquet center?

　　After the shooting task was completed, Du Fu turned off the camera, and before leaving, he reminded the surrounding melon-eating crowd, "You'd better not get too close, let alone take out your mobile phone to shoot, if you anger the prime minister, it's not a joke." ”

　　Thousands of years later, many literary masters of the Ming and Qing dynasties gave this documentary a high score of 9.5 points on Douban, commenting: "Du Fu's documentary does not have a single frame of scolding, but after watching it, every frame is scolding." ”

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　　Stephen Chow's movie "Tang Bohu Dots Autumn Fragrance" has an extremely wonderful quick editing, Mrs. Hua and Hua An ask and answer one by one, pressing and answering step by step, and the camera quickly switches back and forth between their faces.

　　This kind of camera movement and editing technique can highlight the compactness and rhythm of the dialogue, which is a common expression technique in modern films, and has similar applications in films such as "People Are Embarrassed to Lose Their Way to Thailand" and "Outwitting Tiger Mountain".

　　Du Fu's poems also have many of these quick editing techniques, so that the audience can still read with bated breath and be brought into the story situation. Among them, the most typical case is the "Stone Trench Officer" that has been recited through the ages.

　　There is a passage in "The Stone Entrenchment" "Listening to the Woman's Speech", which is actually not the old woman's self-description, but the fierce and vicious official and the old woman's tight dialogue with questions and answers, but Du Fu used superb brushwork to hide the official's interrogation.

　　Understanding this, it is possible to outline the application of Du Fu's rapid editing technique in this place.

　　The camera hit the vicious official outside the door, and (gave a close-up of facial expressions) shouted and asked: "I knocked on the door for a long time, why did it take so long to come out?" Then the camera quickly switched to the old woman's face: "I'm old, and my legs and feet are slow." ”

　　The camera quickly cut to the official's face again: "Where's your man? Then the camera quickly switched to the old woman's face, and the old woman responded with tears: "My three sons have gone to serve, and two of them have died in battle. ”

　　The camera quickly cuts back to the officials teaming up again: "Aren't there any other men?" The camera quickly switches to the old woman's face: "Now there is only one grandson left in the family who is still nursing, and his mother." ”

　　The official interrupted her impatiently: "Don't talk nonsense, hand over quickly!" The camera quickly cuts again, returning to the faces of the officials, and close-up their fierce expressions. The old woman continued: "Although I am old and weak, please allow me to rush back to the camp with you overnight, and I can prepare breakfast for the troops. ”

　　Saying the wrong thing can be catastrophic.

　　Du Fu uses the technique of rapid editing, and the camera constantly switches between the official's questioning and the old woman's crying, creating a tense and depressing atmosphere. Each switch is accompanied by the shouting of the officials and the sobbing of the old woman, allowing the reader to feel the tension of the time.

　　At the end, Du Fu also used the modern film lens and sound effect expression language of "painting with sound", that is, "the voice of the night is overwhelming, like hearing and crying". It seems to be a direct description and does not express the poet's position, but it already tells the cruelty of war and the struggle of human nature in a silent way, as well as the poet's attitude towards this war.

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　　The above three cases are just the tip of the iceberg of Du Fu's use of modern film lens language. In fact, the long shots, close-ups, slow motions, long shots, push-pull-pan, lift-pitch, zoom-shots, flashbacks, subjective shots, freeze-frames, montages, voice-overs/narrations, etc., can all be found in Du Fu's poetry.

　　As well as the main narrative, flashback, interpolation, interlude and other expressive techniques, there are many in Du Fu's poems.

　　In "Troop Chariots", Du Fu uses the technique of spatial montage. By depicting the scenes of the expedition, the farewell of the family, and the scenes that may occur on the battlefield, these different spaces are cleverly connected. This kind of space jump and transformation enriches the content of the poem, and also makes the reader feel the cruelty of war in the process of reading, and vaguely expresses his dissatisfaction with Tang Xuanzong's reckless military force.

　　In addition, the beginning of "Troop Carriage" is a typical one-shot long shot. "The chariots, the horses, and the pedestrians have bows and arrows at their waists. "There's no jumping scene here, and then the camera moves on. As the camera progresses, we see the families of the soldiers - parents, wives and children, who hurried to see them off. As the camera continues to move, we see many family members "holding their clothes and stopping them from crying", pulling at the soldiers' clothes, stomping their feet and crying bitterly, trying to stop them but unable to do anything. Through this group of shots, the pain of parting was pushed to the top.

　　In "Beauty", Du Fu uses the expressive technique of third-person narration. The so-called "Ziyunliang family, scattered by grass and trees......" is a typical third-person narrative model.

　　In "Memories of the Past", Du Fu uses flashbacks. "There are no jackals on the roads of Kyushu, and the sunrise is not laborious when traveling far away" The past era is infinitely nostalgic, and there is no going back.

　　In "Spring Hope", Du Fu adopts a combination of subjective and objective lenses. "The country is breaking mountains and rivers" and "the spring grass and trees are deep" are external objective lenses, and "feeling the flowers splashing tears" and "hating farewell birds are frightening" are subjective lenses.

　　In famous works such as "Five Hundred Words of Yonghuai from Beijing to Fengxian County" and "Northern Expedition", there are a lot of narrations/voice-overs to help the audience better understand the background of that era. The so-called "Tongting's division of silk is originally from the cold girl." flogging his husband's family and gathering tribute to the city", Du Fu told us not to look at the well-dressed officials and nobles, behind it is the whipping and exploitation of the poor people.

　　In "Ascending", Du Fu uses a rocker arm or a drone to present a lot of large long shots and overhead shots. "Boundless falling trees and Xiao Xiao, endless Yangtze River rolling" can only be shot when standing on a high place and opening a large wide angle of 0.5 times.

　　Of course, more often than not, Du Fu is able to apply four or five or even more than ten kinds of cinematic lens language in a poem. For example, in "Tongguan Officials", Du Fu adopts the narrative technique of interspersing and discussion, the third-person narrative technique, the technique of combining the composition of long view + medium scene, the technique of contrasting shooting, the technique of flashback, montage and so on.

　　The students of the Central Film Academy should really hold a set of "The Complete Works of Du Fu's Poems" and study hard.

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　　After the hit of "Flowers", some people discussed the topic of the tone of the movie and TV series. Regarding the color tone of the movie, what Hong Kong style retro color mixing, oil painting style color mixing, cold and warm color contrast wind color mixing, etc., Lao Du also played perfectly.

　　"The head of Chang'an City is white and black, and the night flies and the autumn gate is called" uses the gray and dark tones of Nolan's "Batman The Dark Knight Rises", and "The Weather is New on March 3" uses the bright colors used in most feature films.

　　Two yellow orioles singing green willows, a line of egrets on the blue sky" is a contrast of warm and cold colors. Just like Zhang Yimou's film "Hero", the director shows a strong contrast of cold and warm colors through the clever use of color, such as the contrast between red leaves and white clothes, the contrast between blue sky and yellow ground, etc., which echoes the color contrast of "yellow bird" and "green willow", "egret" and "blue sky" in Du Fu's poems, making the visual effect more vivid and vivid.

　　"Huang Siniang's house is full of flowers, and thousands of flowers are low on the branches" is a bright and vivid color. This is in line with the use of color in many Hollywood and Indian song and dance films, with bright and vivid colors as the main tone, and the song and dance scenes in this kind of film are colorful and vibrant, which is similar to the flowery, cheerful and bright scenes depicted by Du Fu.

　　"Jiangtou Palace locks thousands of doors, and the fine willow and new pu are green" is a gloomy and sad tone. Just like the movie Schindler's List, this movie is known for its black and white tones and heavy subject matter. In the film, the black and white tones highlight the cruelty of war and the heaviness of history, which is similar to the gloomy and desolate atmosphere in Du Fu's poem "Spring Hope", both of which express a deep emotion about the fate of the country and the fate of the individual. The phrase "for whom is green" is similar to "the little girl in red", it represents a faint glimmer of "hope".

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　　Sima Guang commented on Du Fu: "The ancients were poems, which were more valuable than the intention outside the words, so that people could think about it, so those who said it were not guilty, and those who heard it were full of caution." In modern times, only Du Zimei is the most poet. ”

　　The truly clever lens language is not to show off skills, but to leave the audience with infinite reverie and reflection, that is, there is a lot of unexplained content outside the camera, which can be interpreted by the audience over and over again. For example, "Let the Bullets Fly", "Inception", "Farewell My Concubine", "Tang Bohu Dots Autumn Fragrance", "Journey to the West" and so on, are all such good movies.

　　PS: I know, you will definitely say that "Tang Bohu Dots Autumn Fragrance" is not suitable for this place. Then please take a look at my previous article "Spring Festival Film: <唐伯虎点秋香>What's so good about Stephen Chow?".

　　What I want to say is that Du Fu's poems use many advanced white drawing techniques, which are not simply describing things, but through refined brushstrokes, leaving readers with unlimited space for reverie and reflection. In films, the white drawing technique usually refers to the use of concise lens language to show the scene and characters without too much embellishment, so as to make the audience pay more attention to the story itself and the inner world of the characters. This technique emphasizes authenticity and naturalness, and avoids excessive artistic processing in order to present things as they are. This kind of artistic treatment of "deliberately not going deep into writing" is like Jia Zhangke's films, which leads the reader/audience to think deeply and feel the deep meaning behind the poem/film.

　　That is, Sima Guang emphasized that "it is more valuable than the intention is beyond words, so that people can think about it." ”

　　For example, the "Stone Trench Officer", which has been mentioned repeatedly, this short poem describes the scene of the officials catching people at night, without too much emotional rendering, just a simple statement of facts, but makes the reader feel the tense atmosphere of that era and the helplessness of the people. This concise and powerful narrative, like a white sketch in a movie, directly shows the true face of society. It is ridiculous that many people now criticize Du Fu for being "cold-blooded" when he wrote this article, but ignore the meaning behind this artistic technique. Where is this cold-blooded, this is "the eyes are dry and the bones are seen, and the world is ruthless" style of crying blood.

　　Later, Bai Juyi, the reason why he was able to leave the reputation of "the old woman can understand" was that he learned the realistic white description creation methods and expression techniques of Du Fu's poems such as "Three Officials" and "Three Farewells", and faithfully presented the people and events of that era like a documentary.