[Field Report] Johnny English Reborn (2011)

Intro:

Martin: Today, we are gonna examine the film we selected, Johnny English, which is filmed in 2011. We select this film not only because we are fans of Rowan Atkinson, the main actor of Johnny English, but also how the production team shot the film, I have never seen a movie that is making me feel like it’s funny and making me nervous at the same time 

So why don’t we jump right into it?

 

Question: Could you please break down a bit for the audience of what the story is about

Dave: so, we’re going to divide the HK part on the movie into 3 scenes. 

 

Dave: The first scene describes about…  Ling, the anti-protagonist, stole the key to Vortex. Johnny realizes this and starts to chase him inside the ChungKing mansion.

Martin: How the building is seen and experienced in reality?

Dave: We went inside the ChungKing Mansion, we see it’s a tiny and confined space. 

By using the lift we looked at each floor briefly and saw that the floor structure is similar, in which it is small and the confined space is very efficiently used for alleyways. 

 

Dave: How the building is presented/shot in the film?(what’s the contrast?) 

Martin: It’s actually very similar to the movie. In the movie, the producer uses many close up shots and shaky camera movements that highlights how confined the space is on the floor of the building. It also creates a sense of disorientation.  

 

The building is presented as a tall structure with narrow corridors, dim lighting, and a maze-like layout that makes it easy for someone to get lost.  The architecture and cinematic presentation work together to create a sense of chaos and danger.

 

Martin: Why is the space presented in that way?

Dave: It’s presented that way because of 2 things:

Firstly, it wants to feature the compactness of the building and how Ling takes advantage of that on his escape attempts. He was able to jump around the walls and alleyways without hindrance. In fact, he even managed to leap over Johnny, who was pursuing him.  

 

Secondly, it is meant to reflect the danger of the situation Johnny finds himself in. As an intelligence agent in a foreign land, he has to adapt to this new environment. By highlighting the building’s confusing layout, the producers are able to create a sense of tension.

 

Dave: Alright, I think that wraps up the first scene, now let’s discuss scene 2 on the rooftop. Could you tell me what’s the scene about Martin?

Martin: So… Scene 2 is about Johnny chases Ling on the roof of the ChungKing Mansion, whereas it also feature some parkour action. Eventually, it came to a little climax of the scene, where you would see Ling jump across the gap between the Chungking Mansion. Then, it ends when Ling goes down the bamboo scaffolding.

 

Dave: Could you tell the listeners a little bit more about how we experienced the space in reality?

Martin: When we visited the ChungKing Mansion, we are literally holding our breath as soon as we looked up over the buildings. It has 17 floors, and later we find out it’s actually about 180 feet straight down from the rooftop to the bottom of the building and gap between the buildings is about 16 feet. 

However, we couldn’t access the rooftop. We also saw bamboo scaffolding on many parts of the city.

 

Martin: (how the building is presented in the film?)(what’s the contrast?)

Dave: The film is shot on the rooftop of the ChungKing Mansion, you would see it is actually surrounded by several very tall, fancy high-tech buildings. That’s what we weren’t able to see on the ground.

 

And you would see a lot of usual things and activities on the rooftop, like there are AC units, people drying their clothes on the sun, storing spare parts such as ladders.

 

So.. about how it was shot, for shooting the climax of Ling jumping across the gap between the buildings, you would see it’s a compilation of high and low angle shot of the ChungKing Mansion, and 4 shots in total of slow motion are used.

 

Finally, 

 

Dave: Why is the building/space presented in that way?

Martin: There are many things going around in this scene, they all work together to emphasize how Johnny copes creatively in the new environment to chase Ling, such as using the ladder to go above a small room on the rooftop.

 

And the reason of using a compilation of shots is to let you get a sense of how grand and tall the building actually is in reality, and how desperate Ling is escaping from Johnny.

 

The bamboo scaffolding scene, where the bad guy goes down from the building using the scaffolding. So on this part, the camera angles are used to further emphasize the scale of the buildings in HK.

Additionally, bamboo scaffolding which are exclusively used in HK tells us the big contrast of technology used in Western buildings as well

 

Dave: Alright, I’ll describe the final scene. 

Dave: As the chase continues, they chase down through the Hoi Fai Road Garden, and they reach the waterfront of Victoria Harbour, where Ling gets on his boat and Johnny seizes control of a private yacht.

A boat chase happened, and they had a fight on a square concrete in the middle of the sea.

Martin: (how the space is seen and experienced in reality?)

Dave: It’s not really a garden as such but a bit of greenery lining the small promenade.

When we visited the waterfront of the Victoria Harbour, we could see a lots of old barges and cranes, and behind them is the ICC. 

Dave: (how the space is presented in the film?)(what’s the contrast?)

Martin:  Different shots give us a sense of they are going to chase in the Victoria Harbour, where bustling commercial activities are taken place behind it. But the contrast that we noticed, is that there are only a few of those barges and cranes are presented in the Victoria Harbour. 

 

The boat chase scene is also fast-paced and intense in the film, with the camera following Johnny and Ling as they race across the water. The use of handheld cameras and quick cuts creates a sense of urgency and danger, as the boats navigate through the harbor. 

 

The boats themselves is also highlighted, one being a small raft boat and one being a white yacht. It contrasts with the traditional tanker boats, making the audience focus more on the fight scene and how intense it is.

 

Martin: Why is the building/space presented in that way?

Dave: After taking the boat, they had a boat chase on the sea on the middle of a bustling ship commercial activity. It wants to highlight how Johnny adapts in that bustling environment. Especially the boats being fast, it has the danger of colliding with other boats right? So it further fuels excitement, as like the other scenes.

 

Ending:

So, that’s it for today’s podcast. 

Thank you Martin. Thank you Dave.

We hope that you enjoy it, and have a great day!

Dave Henokh, Liong 3035902415

Martin, Lee 3035929839