Director Matthew Vaughn's works are not many, but since Stardust, people have noticed his unique handling of comedy elements. X-Men: The First Class is the most interesting movie in my mind, but its directing effect is better than that of veteran Bryan Singer, which brings unique vitality to this superhero series. In this film, he took his personal imprint to the extreme.
But when it comes to so-called "commercial" movies, let's take a look at why this "Kingsman" is one of the best commercial masterpieces in recent years.
Application of aerial camera lens
The coverage (material coverage) of large investment films is often comprehensive. It means that no matter how bad the script is, there will be foreground, middle, close-up and multi-lens materials. However, the most important thing about this film is all kinds of aerial photography, which gives the audience a very direct visual shock. Whether it's the snowy mountain in the film, the headquarters in Kinsman, or the final global human struggle, the use of aerial photography makes the situation instantly better. Usually, this kind of aerial photography is widely used in epic films such as The Lord of the Rings and Stardust, but its appearance in this film about agents has a very special shock. Especially when it is combined with comedy elements, it brings a unique impression to the audience. A large section of the cast list is dedicated to the aerial photography team, which is enough to reflect the director's attention to aerial photography materials, and this must be a well-thought-out choice.
Silk-smooth lens design
Birdman lets the audience experience how much fun smooth lens movement can bring. The rhythm control of action movies has always been a big problem, and there are not a few bond series that hold back. It is rarely as concise and clear as the Bourne ultimatum series. The director of this film made good use of consistent camera movements to speed up the passage of time. For example, after Uncle Colin was stunned by Luke Skywalker trained by the male master, the director of SHIELD accelerated the production of sim cards, and Uncle Colin was in a coma. These are the movements of the lens from the bottom up. Although it doesn't make sense from a spatial point of view, different events are connected in series by the same lens movement, which makes the audience feel very comfortable and has a sense of fluency, making the passage of time less sudden. Some transition shots are also quite smooth. For example, at first, the snow-capped mountains in the glass ball directly crossed the real snow-capped mountains; From photos of girls who need to be seduced to real people. Very neat.
The speed of lens movement is also well controlled. For example, Eggsy was besieged by gangsters at home, and when he started parkour, the camera followed his movements smoothly, and his good skills were fully reflected. I must have done a lot of drills in the early stage. The speed at which the lens is pushed in and out also has the effect of shaking the burden. For example, the first shot of the man as an adult is a close-up of the Kingsman badge, and then he is slowly pushed into the foreground to present the fact that he has grown up; Also, the conversation between the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Obama started with a close-up of the former's face, and then slowly pushed away. When his lines ended, the audience just saw Obama's back and shook off the burden. Let the audience know all kinds of information invisibly.
The use of slow motion is just right, not to the point of madness (you are the one selling black copies). I only use it occasionally to show my nervousness. At other times, it is a fairly neat and quick clip. For example, in the end, the fight with the man and the man with steel legs, if there is no cool slow mirror with double kicks, I really don't know how much it will taste.
Rhythm control and music coordination
In fact, two hours contains a lot of information, but it doesn't feel long. I think it has both the merits of plot design and the function of dialogue. Literary dramas have funny proportions to adjust the atmosphere, not to mention martial arts dramas. In fact, there are really many places where the whole film makes people's heart beat faster, such as:
Snow mountains divide people.
Back into someone.
Lawyer training
Interview diving show meat
Skydiving in an interview
Call your mother during the interview.
Pat the dog during the interview.
Resident evil 5: The Curse of the Church.
... and so on
There is joy in the play, sorrow in the play and joy in the play. The audience's adrenaline has been secreted and their attention has never deviated. The positions of several key plot points are handled well, neither too far back nor too far ahead, which makes the risk rise a little. Cross-editing in many places also enhances the tension, such as exploding satellites/trotting to kill the enemy/cool logistics and clever machines. This part constantly switches in three movements and reaches a climax.
Henry jackman's music also complements each other. Except for a few places that steal the limelight, most of the time the foil is in place. Other music choices are also "out of line". The cruel church drama adds a lot of absurdity with the help of background music; It should be a bloody brain explosion drama, but it has become full of evil interest under the background of magnificent March. What is the ordinary road? Never heard of it.
Action drama arrangement
How can a movie about an agent have no action scenes? I think the best scenes in the film are skydiving and church scenes.
It's not like skydiving hasn't appeared in big movies. Like Iron Man 3, Godzilla, Transformers. What surprises me about the skydiving scene in this movie is that at such a high altitude, you can still cut the distant view and close the scene, even in a short dialogue scene, you can also cut various angles and create dramatic tension with editing. How much effort it took to plan this in the early stage. Especially for high-altitude scenes, because there is no chance to rehearse many times, we have to design the lens angle, and there are security issues, not to mention recording at the same time ... It's really a headache to think about it. It may have used a lot of post-effects, but it is still great from the production point of view.
This church play is very good. But don't forget, anything that looks enjoyable takes a long time to design, especially when so many people are involved. You have to tell every extra what to do, right? You have to design whether each extra actor will be stabbed or shed some blood (the special effects makeup department is getting bigger and bigger). You have to design the best shooting angle in a seemingly chaotic scene, right? You have to let the actors rehearse for the camera to see if there is any conflict, right? You must keep everyone safe, right? Not everyone can handle this workload. Action designers must have taken great pains.
And underwater scenes. Let's not talk about how that man can hold his breath while exercising. How many departments will be involved in underwater drama! How long will it take to rehearse in advance! How long will it take! (Because it is often for the safety of actors, a beat stops for more than ten seconds. )
Such action scenes abound (uncle Colin's bar play! )。 Although the director has a unique approach, such as rhythm control and music selection, it is definitely a skill to coordinate so many things so well and unify their styles.
Anti-spy film
At that time, Matteo, the director, was dismissive of Days of the Past because of King Kong Xia. He said that he wanted to make an "interesting spy film", and if he didn't make it soon, others might get ahead of him. This film can be regarded as full of tribute and banter to spy films.
The first is plot design. The handsome agent who saved Professor luke skywalker came up and died. This man failed Kingsman's final exam; Uncle Colin was shot directly; The man and mother really want to chop the baby to death (sharping or something); And the brain fireworks after the corner ... are reasonable, but they are also unexpected. Let the audience experience suffering in the emotions of nausea/joy/tension/shock/sadness/MengMeng/,and completely break away from the stereotype of traditional spy films.
Someone asked the director why he wanted to play an actor with a newcomer. He replied, for example, if you choose Xiao Lizi to play the actor, the audience will definitely think that he will be fine in the end. The audience doesn't know what the result will be. Samuel jackson's villains are also unconventional. It's not as profound as the villain in Bond's movies, but he is a street wind, swearing at every turn, with a strange accent and dizziness, and he vomited before he died ... simply.
Dialogue humor is accompanied by various kinds of coldness. Black Bond, black jason bourne, at such a cool moment when the secret elevator sinks, spit out "How long will this garbage sink?" ......
These choices have reached the director's promise of "interesting spy films" and are also his deliberate choices. As the hero and heroine say, "this is not that kind of movie."
label
Although there are many action scenes, each paragraph is organically connected with the story, and there is no fragmented sense of showing off skills, which is attributed to the director's control of the overall rhythm and many factors of the story itself. No matter how crazy it seems, this is essentially a film about growing up. The audience will always follow Eggsy. The echo before and after the egg tail also reflects this growth incisively and vividly. The unique combination of action+blood+comedy is the most interesting movie-watching experience in recent years. "Commercial movies" are so enjoyable and humanistic, which is an extreme.
Tucao:
1. Uncle Conan's watch patent was breached.
Uncle Conan's glasses patent has also been broken.
3. A magic bow tie will really make you live together.