Journal+Entry+1+-+Stephen+Chow

The director I studied last year was Stephen Chow. Stephen Chow is famous for the slapstick comedies that he uses within his films. At the same time, his usage of lighting, sound/music, and cinematography could be a great usage for our upcoming film “The Blind Date”. The storyline for “The Blind Date” revolves around a main character named Frank. Frank has anxiety problems so his friend Ben tells him to go on a blind date. Because Frank got extremely nervous, his blind date Lauren gets offended and leaves him in the middle of the date. Frank’s anxiety problems eventually leads him to go to a psychiatrist’s office. It turns out that Lauren is his psychiatrist. Frank accidentally offends Lauren on her looks, and leaves the appointment. Lauren later goes to a plastic surgeon’s office to get her nose checked. She bumps into Frank when Frank turns out to be her plastic surgeon. At the end of the film, Frank and Lauren go on separate blind dates in the same restaurant. They bump into each other and sat together. The other two people that Frank and Lauren originally was set up with sat together. The blind date between Frank and Lauren is implicated that it is going well. __ Lighting __ __:__ Stephen Chow really likes to use contrasting lights to specifically show the mood of the characters. I thought that this could really help for my film to portray the mood and personality for both the characters. For example, I wanted the lighting for the first blind date to be a bit dark. This was an inspiration from Stephen Chow’s film //God of Cookery//. In this film, Chow’s usage of lighting helps show the character Chow’s mood from being the God of Cookery and down to becoming a normal unknown person. In order to portray the tone of the film, I want the lighting to make the mood of each scene become extremely distinct, and lets the audience know what the character’s feeling not only through their expressions, but through lighting as well. __ Sound/Music: __ For “The Blind Date” I want the music used to be light hearted. I was thinking that the comedic tunes that Stephen Chow uses in his films to portray funny moments could be used in the scenes where Frank and Lauren meet outside of the date. Not only could this represent the awkward tension between them, it could also imply the attraction that they have towards each other. The theme of my film is to portray the changes for Frank and how he overcomes his obstacles of anxiety and social awkwardness. The music could be used to make the transitions. __ Cinematography __ __:__ Chow’s cinematography is used to highlight the comedic tone within his films. Since my film is more towards romantic comedy and not just pure comedy films, I’ve decided that the cinematography could be designed in a way that would show the plot advancement. There are various aspects in which cinematography takes place in the film. I don’t think I will be using awkward shots such as worm eye views and shots between the legs because these were more towards films that only have comedic tones. However, I still wanted to use the perspective zooms that Chow uses in his films. This is used to exaggerated emotions that the characters would use.