What is Lo-Fi?
This may be the most pretentious thing I ever write, but hear me out. What is it about movies that hooks you? Is it the story? Genre? Maybe the Cinematography, maybe it’s the actors, or the costuming, set design, etc. For me, it’s one scene.
It’s the moment the story transcends entertainment, feeling as real as the person in the room next to you. These moments in cinema can be described in many ways: surreal, heartbreaking, suspenseful, relatable, etc. This is where Lo-Fi begins, by hooking you into a story that has blurred the lines between reality and entertainment.
How is that expressed through composition?
Derived from Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ma” shot, these shots are shown in relatively still frames, while encompassing the emotion through blocking in the scene. It’s here where an audience member is able to surrender themselves to the story, seeing themselves directly in the characters perspective. An example best shown to me in the movie “Her,” written and directed by Spike Jonze. When Theodore takes Samantha to the beach for the first time, we see a moment shared between young lovers that we can all relate to: the need for comfort. In this moment, every person is vulnerable as we listen to Theodore’s character express how love has affected his life. This scene is what convinced me to be a filmmaker.
Okay? What are you getting at?
Whoops, what I mean is this: Lo-Fi is the expression of emotion through serene composition. Allowing an audience to surrender themselves to the character and world around them. To me, this is an essential part of storytelling. It’s in these moments where we can really be gripped to understand life in a new way. Although, I haven’t made enough films to know for certain if this is the correct definition, it is my working philosophy. ‘
What is lo-Fi Filmmaking?
The idea of Lo-Fi Filmmaking is simply the creation of art within your relative means. Art can be made with $0 as much as it can be made with $1,000,000; it’s about understanding the story you’re trying to tell and searching for the ways around you to realize the vision.
Okay, then what is a Lo-Fi Shot?
Here’s the pretentious part: I don’t really know. To me, it’s described as serene surrealism, using master shots, as a way to hook an audience into a world or an emotion. An example of this would be the film YiYi, written and directed by Edward Yang. When watching that movie, it’s almost immediately present how vivid the composition of each frame is. With each shot feeling like a window, or a painting of Taiwan. I think developing that style of filmmaking into American cinema, to me better reflects the nature of the world we currently live in. My favorite shot is the Master shot. I think that it’s window into a story and should be examined more closely. Telling stories through a series of Master shots would be a cool idea.
To conclude, Lo-Fi is a work in progress, through storytelling, experimenting, and experiencing, I hope to find a more concrete definition of the idea. Perhaps I’ll update this thread as I go.