Brief introduction of Noboru Shinoda.

Introduction of Noboru Shinoda —— The swan song of light and shadow

Unforgettable young people who bowed their heads and listened in the green wheat fields, red gliders spinning in the blue sky, cries and tears of burying youth, and all the light and shadow floating in Lily's world. These silent languages represent the name of a master photographer-Noboru Shinoda.

Japanese photographer Noboru Shinoda died of liver disease on June 22nd, 2004. Maybe not many people have heard of his name. Photographers often hide behind the scenes, obscured by the aura of directors and stars. But when it comes to Japanese director Shunji Iwai's Love Letter, The Story of April, Swallowtail Butterfly, Zhou Lili and Flowers and Alice, everyone can't help but mention the strong photography style with illusory and charming colors in the film, that is Noboru Shinoda. Director Isao Yukisada said: "Noboru Shinoda is like the sun, and those directors are the planets around him. If there is no sun, the planet will lose its direction. " This master of light and shadow aesthetics has become the standard tone of Japanese youth films with his strong personal style. In the 1980s, when Japan's independent creation flourished, he cooperated with major directors and created many impressive works. From Tatsumi Kumashiro, Shinji Sōmai, Yoichi Higashi, Makoto Wada, Isao Yukisada, Dayou Shengbo and G Rij to Shunji Iwai, there are many famous scenes in Shinoda's works, especially several representative works of Ji Junyan, which are most talked about, showing the unique texture brought by the unique backlight shooting and the slow jitter of the hand-held lens.

Noboru Shinoda's consistent principle and characteristics are strict working attitude, emphasizing the texture of the picture, insisting on perfect presentation, clear and rational thinking, and devoting himself to developing film imaging and photosensitive technology. Even if it doesn't meet the director's intention, he still won't compromise easily. He is strong and decisive, and facts often prove that he is right. With him in the work team, I feel that the whole movie is half successful. For him, photography is a job, an interest, a passion for betting and a temper of life. After long-term cooperation, Iwai's narrative technique is closely related to Noboru Shinoda's image style, just like Wong Kar-wai and Du Kefeng. Noboru Shinoda devoted himself to movies all his life and never regretted it. At the peak of his upright creation, he fell ill and died in a short time, leaving the world with shock and regret. His last two works are Crying for Love in the Center of the World (directed by Isao Yukisada) and Flowers and Alice (directed by Shunji Iwai). Losing him is not only a loss for the Japanese film industry, because he is an art in itself.

From Daily Life in Two Countries to Assassination of the Dragon and Horse

1952, Noboru Shinoda was born in Saitama prefecture. Her mother's family opened a cafe called "Daily Life in Two Countries" next to the cinema. Because of business contacts, she can watch movies for free. Since primary school, I have spent one day in the cinema with my brother every weekend, watching many movies starring Shintaro Ishihara and Akira Kobayashi.

In high school, influenced by the popular Beatles at that time, I once formed a band. Later, I was deeply shocked because I saw the 8 cm works taken by my classmates. I decided to take the road of movies. After graduation, I chose the photography department of Japanese University Art Department without hesitation, and then I started shooting short films, so I made many friends who will be active in the film industry in the future. By chance, I joined Kazuo Kuroki's team in my senior year of college and became the third photographer of Assassination of the Dragon Horse. The photographer of this film is Masaki Tamura, the director is Hiroshi Kawakami, and the second photographer is Kobayashi. They are all leading Japanese photographers. The experience with these super teams opened Noboru Shinoda's eyes. He experienced the difference between a studio and an independent film and was deeply inspired.

Ishikawa Shang Shihao

After graduating from college, Shinoda was promoted to Shi Hao, Sichuan, which is famous for its strictness, as his photography assistant. He once filmed Yoichi Higashi's The Third Base, and also assisted Sichuan in filming the documentary Three Mile Grave. Because documentaries work in a different mode from feature films, there is only one photography assistant, so Noboru Shinoda has the opportunity to train the skills of mastering the mirror. 1982 promoted to director of photography. He shot three works by Yoichi Higashi in one year, and was active in the fields of movies and advertisements. Mr. Chuan encouraged him face to face the day before, hoping that he would be independent. Since then, he has started a brilliant career as a photographer.

Starting from Love Hotel —— A Game of Film Sensitivity

Love Hotel 1985 in Shinji Sōmai is a good opportunity. The film used in this work is a high-sensitivity (sensitivity 500) film produced by Fuji (the sensitivity of Eastman film in the United States was only 200 at that time), so the picture quality is excellent.

Shinji Sōmai's works are characterized by one scene and one shot, sometimes one shot lasts for ten minutes. This film is no exception, with only 27 shots, which is a great challenge for photographers. Noboru Shinoda likes to push the railing and hold the camera, hardly using a tripod, which has become his special style. But the first time I used the push rail was because I made this film. Because the lens is very long, you need to push the track. For the first time, Noboru Shinoda, who starred alone, finished the film easily, thus becoming a master, and his excellent skills were affirmed. 1995, they collaborated on another film, Summer Court.

After the 90' s, the daylight model came out. At that time, most movies were made with light types. Because of the difference in color temperature, the performance of red has not been very good. After the film is developed, it often shows a red color close to amber. Therefore, after the advent of light film during the day, Noboru Shinoda actively tried to shoot with this film. At first, it was mixed with optical film, and the work that completely used optical film was Kazuo Inoue's Law of the Universe (1990). Noboru Shinoda, who is deeply interested in the film development technology, not only simply changes the film used, but also often tries the effect by changing the sensitivity. Although the printing factory was "unbearable", it was also inspired by his experimental spirit and put into research together.

Take the Summer Court as an example. Before the old man and the children met, Noboru Shinoda deliberately used the way of "enhancing the senses" to shoot, so the picture was a little coarse and had a big contrast, which contrasted the psychological distance of the characters in the play. Then get along well with the picture, and Shinoda let the sensitivity return to normal, so the picture particles began to decrease and the softness increased, which set off a warm atmosphere. Through such an attempt, Noboru Shinoda is like an urchin swimming in the world of light and shadow, and enjoys it.

Shunji Iwai's first drama "The Binding of Love" is also one of the representative works of Noboru Shinoda's film sensitive games. Because Iwai was so obsessed with the beauty of the picture, he spent a week filming before filming. Together, they decided the scene configuration of the space, the texture of the wall (the degree of reflection), the choice of film, lighting and art. When shooting formally, Noboru Shinoda chose the film with a sensitivity of only 50, and raised the sensitivity to 200. Noboru Shinoda doesn't shoot films with a sensitivity of 200 directly, because it will lose the sensitizing effect. He also deliberately chose Eastman film, because fujifilm's particles still can't come out after exposure, the change is not obvious, and it is not easy to change the sense of color balance.

Love and Art Nouveau (cinemascope)

When filming Shunji Iwai's Love Letter, Miho Nakayama separated Fujii from Hiroko. In order to illustrate the difference between them, Fujii's expression was photographed with a wide-angle lens, Bozi was photographed with a deep-focus lens, and the lighting and photography angles were changed. Another difficult scene in the film is that Bozi meets Fujii's bike passing by in the street. At first glance, this picture looks like a lens, but, as Shinoda once said, "Photography is sometimes a kind of magic, and the audience's optical illusion must be used." This scene is actually made up of body double, telephone poles in the street and the movement of telescopes.

In addition, a bird's eye view of Miho Nakayama in the hospital is also a very difficult shot. However, Noboru Shinoda handled this scene very successfully, so "Love Letter Hospital" became the proper term of Japanese film photography.

Shinoda Shinsei made Shunji Iwai discover the charm of Art Nouveau complex in this film. Generally speaking, Art Nouveau complex is usually used to show big scenes, but Noboru Shinoda found that shooting with this kind of compressed and deformed lens (reduced projection) can make him capture indoor scenery naturally without using wide-angle lens in a narrow room. At the same time, there is only one lens that can maximize the effect of 35 cm film. Even though this method was used when Noboru Shinoda and Kazuyuki Izutsu cooperated to record the oriental experience, at that time, most Japanese did not use this new art complex of 1: 2: 55. So, Noboru Shinoda also specially showed Shunji Iwai a movie "What I saw in the East", and Iwai decided to make the movie "Love Letter" like this after watching only one shot. This decision makes the picture of this film shine with touching brilliance and richer colors, which fully shows Iwai's inner enthusiasm and even becomes the standard tone of Japanese youth movies.

Fall in love with Iwai.

The director Shunji Iwai is the most familiar with Noboru Shinoda. The relationship between teachers and friends makes each other's creations more diversified. Although Noboru Shinoda loves movies, he never sticks to the form of movies. He regards digital technology as a challenge to return to the original point of film history. Because Iwai is good at DV shooting and Noboru Shinoda is good at movies, the combination of these two people is so wonderful. Iwai laughed and called them a "dream combination".

In addition, Sony once analyzed the films made by Oda and then reproduced them digitally, thus developing high-definition technology, which solved the problem that the resolution of digital images was still insufficient at that time. This great invention has finally made it possible for many directors who have no funds to shoot movies but have great creative energy to continue their creation, because the images shot by DV can finally rival the film effect. The co-production of Flowers and Alice is a masterpiece of high-definition shooting. Shinoda was about to start a new attempt when he collapsed.

It is said that Noboru Shinoda is very strict at the workplace, and many people have been yelled at. He always carries his own equipment, silently sets up machines, and strictly captures every movement of light and shadow, so that the decided picture must strictly adhere to the original design. However, when everyone is drinking together, he can completely get rid of his work and fully integrate. And every time after work, Noboru Shinoda will show his usual smile.

Noboru Shinoda left many classic pictures with his keen intuition like animals, which will remain in our hearts forever. He was respected not only because of his superb skill in moving mirrors, but also because of his passion for movies, which never subsided in his life. He is not afraid of new technology, constantly exploring possibilities, constantly researching and developing, and always enthusiastically helping the director to go back and forth to the printing studio. He studied the best performance of the film, constantly challenged himself, and stuck to the hard work of a photographer. Therefore, his fall was particularly sad.