自省

我是真心覺得Bolex 16mm的這個作業很困難，至少對我來說。因為底片很貴，一卷2分50秒就要60塊美金，每分每秒都要計較。在前製的時候我連一個take究竟要多長也難以決定 (通常這種事都是等剪接的時候才想，實在是太偷懶了)，加上最近看了幾部一樣是16釐米的實驗電影，我才意識到自己究竟有多習慣電影作為一種敘事的媒介而不是一種藝術形式。深刻的反省中。

Lumière & Co. - Theodoros Angelopoulos

Feb 2nd, 2015
Wei Lee

Inviting forty-one international filmmakers to create a short film using the same equipment used by the Lumière brothers is a wonderful idea to celebrate the first centenary of cinema. It is interesting to see how these great directors work within the limitations imposed by the film’s producers, although some of them like David Lynch seemingly broke the rule on purpose. As technology advances, obviously the way how people make and view films dramatically changes. I was reminded of the iPhone commercial parody in 2008 where David Lynch gives his opinion on the immersive movie experience that phones provide. Nevertheless, comparing to the great majority of filmmaking are digitized today, I found these pieces made by the original Lumière Brothers' hand-cranked cameras are more meaningful and entertaining than digital cinema.

The film that interests me is the piece made by the Greek film director Theodoros Angelopoulos, who films a scene from Homer's Odyssey and plays Ulysses himself. Showing a title card in the beginning, Ulysses ponders: "I am lost! In which foreign place have I landed? (Je suis perdu! Dans quelle terre entrangère suis-je encore arrivé?)". Intertitles were a mainstay of most early films. The first time when I watched this segment, I felt it was very natural that Angelopoulos applied this tradition. Nonetheless, later I thought about it more I figured the reason why Angelopoulos adopted title in this piece might have multiple meanings. Angelopoulos not only applies the tradition of silent film and theater, but also uses titles to distinguishes an act of a film, as titles are mostly used to supply an epigraph in modern days.

In addition, this segment reminded me of Angelopoulos' Ulysses' Gaze, which was also made in 1995. I believe the piece from Lumière and Company works as a continuity of Ulysses' Gaze. Without a doubt, Angelopoulos made a fundamental connection between the ancient epic poem and the cinema by actually putting in on film. Moreover, like other filmmakers in Lumière and Company that had people staring into the camera, Angelopoulos also had Ulysses notice the the existence of camera, which hacks back to 100 years ago when people were not familiar with movie cameras. Angelopoulos chose a particular moment in the Odyssey, that of Ulysses' awakening on the shore of Ithaca after his return. Ulysses wakes up on a beach, looking around without realizing where he is, and then walks toward the camera. This time, Ulysses has landed in the foreign land of cinema.

The way how Angelopoulos filmed this piece is also similar to the theater. There is only one take without any camera movements or special angle. Some people argues that Greek myth that doesn't really work on such a limited canvas, but I contend that making a longer piece to interpret a metaphor is completely unnecessary.

作品集

我的網站上線了！雖然很多人可能已經從Facebook看到消息。未來的作品會持續在網站上更新，內心的各種垃圾話還是會寫在部落格。

來玩：
https://weilee.squarespace.com/

[存檔] 導演語錄

廣告影片是一項商業活動，但當然又不僅止於此。除了商業目的，廣告影片大量收編了戲劇藝術、影像藝術、文學、音樂、舞蹈、心理學、社會生活實況、社會事件和問題、全球化或地方化，成為它的體裁。焦慮的人多半對此感到擔憂，他們擔心所有這些正派的體裁都被收編，變成商業牟利的工具。但我願樂觀地相信，正是這種收編，才使得這些亟待關注的體裁，能借重早已無所不在的商業活動，得到更廣泛的傳播、交流、磨擦、衝撞。透過廣告影片，我們這個儼然就要失去歷史感的荒謬年代，彷彿得到了某種獨特的記載文法－－每一部廣告影片，都像是這個荒謬年代最風騷的歷史文本。 - 羅景壬, 2012

近況報告

忙裡偷閒記錄一下近況跟內心劇場裡的廢話，有空再整理成完整的文章。

1. 雖然非常喜歡敝校理論跟實作並進的課程，但真的開始之後不得不說實在豪累啊。開學第一天院長致詞時，給我們的九字琛言為“批判思考，永保創造力”。從此之後這句話遍地開花在每個老師寄來的email裡。他們從來不說"Have a nice week"，而是"Have a productive/ creative week!"。有時候壓力也是滿大的。
2. 加入了學校成立的影像記錄團隊Red Dog Productions，當初不管人家有沒有徵人便一股腦的把履歷寄去，沒想到很快就得到了面試跟工作機會。現在還是覺得很幸運。
3. 因為念媒體理論的關係，最近每天都在跟結構主義的Ferdinand de Saussure, Roland Barthes, Claude Levi-Strauss等一票人物在腦海裡奮鬥。邊讀邊覺得這些人的智商一定比我還高兩百倍（覺得敗北）。但結構主義很有趣啦，期末論文應該會想往這塊發展。
4. 紐約的公共建設永遠背叛你的期望。