The analysis of different films about a phenomenon compares and contracts their formal qualities to bring out the desired meaning of the scenario. Guanxi as one of the social phenomena in China refers to the basic dynamic of relationships with a personalized networking of influences. The Chinese culture turns out based on Guanxi approach in bringing people together in a social setup. Three movies have ended up identified over YouTube describing Guanxi phenomena in the society. Guanxi: Chinese culture explained, the Chinese and Guanxi and lastly introduction to Chinese Guanxi are the movies for a comparative analysis in this paper. The paper analyzes three video clips about Guanxi phenomena obtained from YouTube.The formal qualities and their effect on the viewer of Video 1: Quanxi, Chinese Culture Explained Guanxi, Chinese Culture Explained is a five minutes video clip directed by Owen and Xuez and was posted on 14th October 2013. The clip features an explanation of Guanxi by a character that uses illustrations using lovely and hand drawings alongside speaking to explain the Guanxi phenomenon in accordance to the Chinese culture of strong social relations. At the beginning of the film, the framing technique used in the opening scene is a hand of an instructor at the center and writing material on the rear left. That hand and the writing materials remain at the center and left of the camera respectfully during the entire screening with a few instances to the end of the camera when the section of instructor’s face appears. Owen and Xuezi were using this framing technique at the beginning of the video as a fore shadow to the viewer on what the clip will end up featured. The viewer can know that the movie is about explanations of Guanxi involving one character (the instructor) who will accompany the explanations with drawings and writings. As the movie come to almost to an end, Owen and Xuezi used framing as the viewer sees a camera pulling away from the instructor’s hand and the pictures of Confucius ends up framed by the window frame just about him (Owen and XUezi). The framing choice used by the director shows a series of emotions to the viewer ranging from positive feelings about the social phenomenon of Guanxi. Centering the writing instructor’s hand attracts the audience’s attentiveness to following the main concepts about the explanations. The second formal quality that Owen and Xuezi majored while shooting of this film is the angle of shooting the video. The instructor seats at a lower point from the camera focusing point that gives a slanting inclination of the instructor from the audience. The angle at which the instructor views the paper is high giving almost a bird’s eye. The drawings also seem slanting from each other. Individuals turn out viewed on the lower side of the paper while diagrams for institutions such as schools and companies end up seen at high angles (Owen and XUezi). The use of high and low angles in the film shows the power differences between people and institutions in the Chinese culture. It turned out expected for people who are supposed to come together to form institutions to have good social relationships. Institutions like schools and Companies represent a good relationship in the society that are powerful in meeting objectives than individuals representing weak relations as they at seen from low angles. The director used the impact of movement in the entire movie. The director used the fast and slow movement of the instructor’s hand while picking writing materials, drawing and writing on the paper (Owen and Xuezi). The slow movement in writing and drawing by the instructor shows the notion of stressing on main issues about the explanation. Fast movement that dominates in most of the writings shows the aspect of catching up with time because the video is a short one of almost six minutes. The Chinese people are time cautious in their dealing; this is why the director uses fast movement to ensure that the film direction fits in the set time limit of the presentation. Additionally, the director has also used costume in the description of formula qualities of the film. The instructor’s hand has a bangle bracelet to represent the relationship between health and human body in the Chinese culture. It is an appreciation of Chinese culture of caring for the human body signified through makeup and jewelry.
The director used non-stop cinematography in the movie by the use of animation through the combination of hand-drawn images and the spoken instructor’s explanations. The use of differing frames in the successive shot gave an illusion of movement during the projection of frame successively, but in a rapid manner. The director shot hand written drawings in a combined movement that went per with the instructor’s explanations (Owen and Xuezi). The use of stop-frame cinematography in combining hand-drawn images and the instructor’s direction led to the movie scenes as lively. The audience could easily relate the relationships between the hand-drawn images and the concept of Guanxi in the Chinese culture as real issue.The formal qualities and their effect on the viewer of Video 2: The Chinese and Gaunxi The Chinese and Guanxi a three minutes video clip directed by CT Johnson and ended up posted on 7th October 2013. The clip features an illustration of the relationship of Chinese culture and Guanxi by a character who illustrates the phenomenon using drawings and writings. Both Chinese and English language alongside speaking explains the Chinese culture and Guanxi phenomenon. CT Johnson uses different angles/shots in directing and presenting the movie. The good use of shots and camera angles makes the movie very pleasant to the audience. The director used mise en scene beautiful by the careful crafting of the scenes. The movie has good examples careful camera work in the movie. For instance, at the beginning of the film CJ Johnson make gorgeous shot using a higher angle and put the writings and drawings at the center of the screen at the beginning of the film. At some incidences in the movie, the shot places the explanation of the Guanxi in English on the left and English on the Right (CT Johnson). The use of English in the explanation is the show of Chinese move towards globalization. China is in the process of moving away from seclusion through encouraging interaction with the European lifestyles. There are incidences in which CT Johnson uses eye-level by bringing out the drawings and writings close to the viewer. The closeness of the writings and drawings is for attracting the attention of the viewer to the main ideas under explanation. The movement of the camera close to the drawings and writings is to increase their sizes for proper viewing by the audience. Creative camera movements used by CT Johnson involves several techniques. CT Johnson applies a pullback dolly shooting to isolate the major writings and drawings according to the explanations. Additionally, CT Johnson when directing the film displays a good job with the editing. The editing used was formal using odd angles and cuts in displaying a real setting. The diagrams and drawings seem beautiful to the viewer through the use normal cuttings in most point of the video. Editing was excellent as seen from the slow morphing from multiple drawings and writings in one frame to the shooting of the main ideas under explanation by the instructor. CT Johnson cut to feature Confucius is a show of the relationship between Guanxi and Confucianism (CT Johnson). The director calls the attention of the observer on the historical aspect of the Chinese people of social relations from Confucianism proponent. The editing done by CT Johnson offers a chance for intrigue and relationship about different scenarios and characters for featuring in the video. Editing was one way of focusing other incidences, issues and characters in history that formed the basis of Guanxi in the Chinese culture.
The director also uses the issue of color in the direction and presentation of the film. The movie uses natural colors throughout the natural colors (CT Johnson). The use of blue coloration in the movie for writings and drawing was a way of bringing out the notion of unity and harmony in the society. The use of blue color when illustrating the Guanxi in the Chinese lifestyle ended up chosen by the director to bring the importance of harmony and peace in the social relations. The viewer is able to understand the Guanxi issue clearly by the concept of peace and harmony represented by the blue color. Additionally, the director chose blue color for the instructor’s writings and drawings as a sign of culture. Guanxi defines the culture of the Chinese people of good social relations. The blue in the explanations of the instructor represents Guanxi as a culture for the Chinese people.The formal qualities and their effect on the viewer of Video 3: Introduction to Chinese Guanxi Introduction to Chinese Guanxi is a five minutes video clip directed by Go China Consultancy and ended up posted on 7th October 2013. The clip features an illustration of the relationship of Chinese culture and Guanxi by a character who illustrates the phenomenon using drawings and writings both in Chinese and English language alongside speaking to explain the Chinese culture and Guanxi phenomenon. The movie under the direction of Go China consultancy uses voice over whereby the viewer hears the voice of a talking narrator explain the topic about the introduction to the Chinese Guanxi. Only the hand of the narrator doing writings about the main ideas concerned with the introduction to Chinese Guanxi ends up seen by the observer. At the beginning of the video, a voice of the narrator alongside the writings about Guanxi introduces to the viewer about the mode of presentation of the ideas in the film (Go China Consultancy). The writings about the main ideas in the explanation end up written in both Chinese and English. The use of English language in the illustration shows a shift in the Chinese lifestyle to accepting the Western lifestyle. Go China Consultancy fosters towards expanding the audience to involve viewers from other parts of the world. The featuring of a woman on the left clothed in a Western lifestyle attracts the views beyond the Chinese culture. The issue of Guanxi ought to end up appreciated even by the European countries in business networking for greater outcomes. The use of eye-catching pictures seen at an eye-angle attracts the audience to follow the unfolding of the film. Moreover, the voice-over together with the writing attracts the audience with visual impairments to gain from the movie through keen listening of explanations. Voice-over leads to the concentration to the main ideas by the viewer while other scenes turn out hidden to depict the formality of the topic under discussion.
Go China Consultancy has used colors in depicting different meanings to the viewer during the direction and presentation of the movie. The director uses black color in showing explanations about Guanxi as assign of formality. Black color for writings represents formality of the information and audience. The viewer is able to understand the instructor is addressing the meaning of Guanxi to a formal audience. The movie is about a formal topic that may end up heard by official leaders from different socio-economic institutions in China. The director uses the black color for the writings to show the formality of the audience (Go China Consultancy). The explanation of the Guanxi culture in the Chinese lifestyle is a culture that ought to end up adopted in the Chinese institutions. Moreover, there are incidences in which the writings for the word Guanxi turn out highlighted in red coloration in the illustrations. Red color represents power and the director highlights the word Guanx in red color to stress the power that the society gains through good relations. Go China Consultancy uses different shots in providing information about Guanxi across the scenes. The shots used are clear that gives full shot of the blackboard used by the instructor from the behind. The camera follows the instructor’s hand to feature only the written explanations in the scene. The narrator’s hand remains at the center of the camera from behind to help the audience follow every idea about Guanxi. In addition to that, the mise en scene of the video shows the careful placement of scenes in the frame helping in the easy viewing of scenes by the audience (Go China Consultancy). At the beginning of the film, Go China Consultancy uses the frame in a wonderful manner in introduction the topic under discussion and the gorgeous framing ends up seen to the end of the video.
Works cited
CT Johnson. “The Chinese and Guanxi.” Online video clip. You Tube. 7 Oct. 2013. 12 Dec. 2014. From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICyaG53r49k&list=PL9j6BJeMydW5ijXMyvQg rR DSLxk-rjYd_&index=2
Go China Consultancy. “Introduction to Chinese Guanxi.” Online video clip. You Tube. 27 Jun. 2014. 12 Dec. 2014. From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7YzXL23FO4&index=5&list=PL9j6BJeMyd W5ijXMyvQgrRDSLxk-rjYd
Owen and Xuezi “ Guanxi: Chinese culture explained.” Online video clip. You Tube. 14 Oct. 2013.12 Dec. 2014. From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2GBL- IfY3Q&index=1&list=PL9j6BJeMydW5ijXMyvQgrRDSLxk-rjYd_
