April+Story

//**April Story**// **- Shunji Iwai (1998)**

1. Iwai has a lot of unstable cinematography in his films. Most of the shots in his film seem like they are filmed from hand held cameras to the audience. For example in April Story, whenever Uzuki is moving, the camera is always shaking as if someone is behind her filming.
 * 10 Choices of Style:**

2. Iwai uses a lot of piano music as background music in his films to create a smooth tone. These background music are non-diagetic because Uzuki cannot hear the piano music in the film. Iwai also has previously scored music for several of his films.

3. Most of Iwai's films either refer back to or is about the school life of the younger generation of Japan. The main protagonist of the story is usually a character that has had some pivotal incident happen to him or her during their high school years.

4. Iwai uses a very warm yellow orange lighting when the protagonist is outdoors. He makes the lighting in the scene seem like the sunlight that is shining onto the character's face and lightening the entire face.

5. Women in Iwai's films are usually portrayed as inferior to men or to fate, and never once has a woman seem to be the dominant over men. In April Story, Uzuki chases her beloved classmate to Tokyo even when he doesn't know who she is.

6. Iwai has a very impressionist style and touch to his films. The tone of his films are always very light, and there is not big ups and downs to the plot structure. For example in April Story, there is no obvious three act structure, even the theme and plot is hard to identify because it seems like to the audience that Iwai spent one hour telling the normal life a Uzuki in Tokyo. This style is very impressionistic because it is rather abstract for the audience to perceive what exactly Iwai is trying to convey through his films.

7. Iwai's films always shows Japan's country side or smaller towns. Even though April Story is based in Tokyo, Iwai never shows the busy streets, instead quiet and small houses are shown. He makes this choice in order to contribute to a impressionistic tone and atmosphere of the film.

8. Iwai has a lot of wide establishing outdoor shots in his films. Most of these shots are shots of rural fields or empty streets. These establishing shots provide the audience a better understanding of the context and setting of the films

9. Iwai rarely uses extreme close up shots of a character's features in his film because that will disturb the peaceful and calm impressionistic touch. If there are extreme close up shots, then it will seem very abrupt to the audience, hence the flow of the film will be disturbed.

10. In Iwai's films, the camera is constantly moving no matter if the actual character is moving or not. He made this choice on cinematography in order to give the audience a feel that they are at the scene and near the characters.