How a Video Essayist Becomes a Filmmaker
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- čas přidán 6. 08. 2024
- From Kubrick to Ozu, Bresson to Tarantino, Wes Anderson to Hitchcock, and much more, Kogonada’s video essays provide comprehensive breakdowns of the formal elements such filmmakers use in their work. For him, video essays offered a way of reconnecting with his love of cinema, outside the world of academia. His first feature, 2017’s Columbus, marked an impressive marriage of the form he studied in his essays with a compelling storyline. In this video, I’ll look at how Kogonada’s essays informed his feature film and, in dissecting one of my favorite scenes, illustrate how studying films and finding what is personal is just as valuable as examining the broader discourse around them.
//CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro - How a Film is Composed
00:32 Columbus
01:49 Kogonada
03:14 Bank Scene
05:16 Broader Consensus vs. What Moves Us
06:32 My Favorite Scene
09:06 Outro - What Moves You?
//SOURCES:
Columbus (2017)
The Making of The Royal Tenenbaums Doc
Empire of Light (2022)
Kubrick // One-Point Perspective on Vimeo - vimeo.com/48425421
Hands of Bresson on Vimeo - vimeo.com/98484833
Way of Ozu on Vimeo - vimeo.com/157221223
Tarantino // From Below on Vimeo - vimeo.com/37540504
Wes Anderson // From Above on Vimeo - vimeo.com/35870502
IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast with Kogonada
Late Spring (1949)
Belfast (2021)
The Fabelmans (2022)
//MUSIC:
Pretty Lights by Fog Lake
Little Black Balloon by Fog Lake
#videoessay #kogonada #columbus - Krátké a kreslené filmy
My favorite film. Period
Literally just finished rewatching it for the 6th time. My 2nd favourite.
Great analysis video! Kogonada is one of those special directors that has intent behind every frame and camera move we see. One can only aspire to be as thoughtful behind the camera.
Yeah, I completely agree. This film especially is one where you just kind of have to marvel at how meticulous he and his cinematographer, Elisha Christian, were at constructing each frame.
Please, Keep on making these videos. These are soooo good.
The width of your knowledge and the way you share with all of us , is simply great.
Thanks for such a kind comment! We definitely plan to!
As someone from Indiana who'd been dying to make a movie for ages I was SO MAD to learn I'd missed this movie when it was being shot. Indy ain't Hollywood and who'd to say when we'll see something like this being made here ever again? :(
Oh that's so awesome! Seeing the architecture in this film really makes me want to go to Indiana to see it. It must be so cool to be that close!
@@fromtheframe Meh. The rest of the state is boring as hell and pretty unremarkable, and conservative, all conspiring to why movies aren't really made here. The state gov did approve tax breaks for studios so stuff can be made out here, but once again, what I said before.
We're dull in terms of history, culture, and scenery, so stories being set here are probably out (the state motto used to be "Crossroads of America", and the local joke is you drive through here to get to somewhere better lmao)
And as for the conservative part, VP Pence was our former governor, and we've passed a lot of anti-LGBT bills/policies recently, which I'm sure makes us look like an appealing locale to Hollywood if all major companies pulling out of Georgia after that abortion bill back in 2019 is anything to go by.
Also, our weather is awful. It can change about 5 times in a day, which I'm sure would make maintaining continuity for outdoor on-location shoots a fun time.
great video, i absolutely love Columbus, it's my favorite film.. i even made some sort of a video essay \ documentary trying to express why i love cinema and used the same scene you used here with casey and jin talking about her mother and how she fell in love with this building, how it calms her, it's a perfect scene for me and it encapsulates exactly how and why i fell in love with cinema
Thank you! Yeah, that scene blew me away the first time I saw the film. The emotion from it really sneaks up on you.
This channel is excellent, I hope to see you on nebula soon
There are definitely some great channels I admire on that platform, so this is such a great comment. Thank you for your support!
great essay! Well presented. Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wonderful insight and excellent video on a brilliant film.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for this essay ❤❤
Thanks for the comment!
As a member of the general audience, its always surprising to see how much efforts the artists, directors, actors put in their performance wrt the framing, color choices in the film, background, etc.
But I cant help but wonder how they feel when the audience doesn't notice this. I know they make movies for the sake of expressing their artistic interests and its doesnt matter to them much if the audience consciously notices these details or not. But the movies IS made for the viewing pleasure of someone else, right ? so can they truly say it doesnt matter to them what the response is ? and how do they feel if the audience celebrates and notice only the more mundane things they did and not some other high effort stuff ?
Or are some movies made for the audience and some for the critics/movie connoisseurs/awards only ?
That’s an interesting question. I think however surface-level or deep you want to look into a film is entirely up to you - the viewer. Places like CZcams, Twitter, Letterboxd, etc. have opened up film analysis to a much broader group of people, which is great, but it is also interesting to see how different or varied people’s “reading” of a film can be. Sometimes they may be drastically different from a filmmaker’s intended meaning, but does that make them wrong? I would argue no - interpretation is entirely subjective. No matter what a filmmaker’s intention was, once that film is released it is really up to each individual viewer to find the meaning they see fit. In regards to all the choices made in the filmmaking process (i.e., color, framing, style, tone, cutting, etc.), I would argue that THIS is where the filmmaker can sort of guide an audience’s interpretation. Viewers are quite smart and our understanding of filmic language has gotten really good. This opens up an opportunity for filmmakers to both use the filmic language we’ve come to understand, but also more importantly to exploit our understanding of these things. For example, if a movie is composed almost entirely of static frames, but suddenly a shot has camera movement, the filmmaker is using form intentionally to convey meaning. Ultimately though it is entirely up to each viewer to read into the film as they see fit, and I think that’s what is so great - it’s really up to you.
For me personally, i think its supposed to make someone FEEL a certain way
My favorite types of films are where a filmmaker does something so specifically personal that they reach the deepest parts of your mind things only you have noticed it makes you feel a certain way idk
Great video!
Thanks!
I watched this immediately after recently watching Columbus. Great observation. I had similar thought process as you while watching this.
Pachinko was my first intro to Koganada and what a unique visionary he is. And then I watch After Yang and I was even more surprised at how different all 3 of his projects were yet all of them are very quiet stories.
I found similarities in themes with Columbus and The Menu in a weird way on how they both use a different craft/artform to comment on filmmaking/ storytelling and how intellectual exercise eclipsing the emotional experience is death of passion.
Yeah, I am really such a fan of the work of Kogonada, and it was through him that I started exploring the films of Ozu. Great point about the link between The Menu and Columbus. That’s something I hadn’t even noticed!
Are we doing video essays on video essays now?
We've truly reached the laziest form of art.
I mean….if you watched the video, that’s not at all what it’s about. It’s covering the film Columbus, which was the directorial debut of Kogonada (someone largely known prior to this for his film essays) - hence the title “How a Video Essayist Becomes a Filmmaker.” From there it kind of delves into looking at how film analysis can be done on both an intellectual and also instinctual level - something that interested me when I heard Kogonada’s take on this topic. I think he kind of explores this in a compelling way within the context of architecture, which is something I wanted to examine.
I understand that every video posted on this channel can’t please everyone, but at the end of the day all I can do is make videos about what interests me and hope maybe someone else gets something out of it.
My username is better than yours