BISFF Correspondence 通信计划
为了跨越种种障碍，开辟更多交流空间，我们设置了“BISFF Correspondence 通信计划”，对部分国际单元的参展作者进行系列访谈，这些访谈将在作品放映后发布在联展各个媒体平台。
De dag die wit was｜The Day That Was White｜白色的那天
Wannes Vanspauwen
Belgium｜Dutch, Flemish｜0:14:41｜2021｜Chinese Mainland Premiere
Q&A
Director导演：Wannes Vanspauwen
Interviewer&translator采访、翻译：张振娇Zhan Zhenjiao
Q：In this 10-minute film, old man, ethnic minorities, couples, children, models and photographers, making up a highly heterogeneous group, were stuck in a specifically limited space to wait. What opportunity made you create such a story?
在这段10分钟的影片里，老人、少数族裔、情侣、孩子、一家三口、青年男性、模特与摄影师构成了一个高度异质的群体，聚集在一个有限而特殊的空间里等待，是什么契机让您想要创作这样一个故事？
A：When I was a child, my mother and I were cruising along the highway, and on the other side, there was an extensive traffic jam. What was remarkable wasn't the congestion itself but the way people responded to it. They were out of their cars, setting up barbecues on the asphalt, laughing and connecting with strangers, creating an unexpected festival in the midst of chaos. It was surreal, almost like stepping into a parallel world.
That incident sparked a profound curiosity within me. It made me wonder how individuals respond to these unexpected incidents. This childhood memory became a seed for the film's concept.
I was drawn to the idea of exploring how a single event – a misty traffic jam in this case – could serve as a catalyst for bringing together a motley crew of characters, each with their individual narratives but unified by a shared experience. It provided a unique canvas to delve into some of the complexities of the human condition, the unpredictability of life, and the shared threads of our existence. It's fascinating to see how extraordinary circumstances can emerge from the ordinary, turning a mundane highway journey into an exploration of humanity.
小时候，有次我和妈妈在高速公路上开车兜风，公路对面发生了严重的交通堵塞。堵车本身并不稀奇，但当时人们面对堵车的方式给我留下了非常深刻的印象：他们下了车，在柏油路上搭起烧烤架，与陌生人谈笑，仿佛在这一片混乱中意外创造了一个节日。这是超现实的，几乎就像进入了一个平行世界。
这段经历激发了我的好奇心，让我开始好奇人们面对这些意外事件时的反应。这部影片的设定则萌芽于这段童年记忆。
由此，我开始想要探索某个特定事件（在这部影片中是一场“雾蒙蒙”的堵车）如何成为一种催化剂，把形形色色的人聚集在一起，每个人都有自己的故事，同时又被聚合在这段共同的经历中。从这个特定的事件切入，我们可以深入探究人类境况的复杂性、生活的不可预测性，以及将我们的存在串联起来的线索。观察不寻常的情况如何从平常的生活中浮现出来，并从一段平常的公路之旅中探索人性，这真的非常有趣。
Q：Is the fog in the film real? How did you film it?
影片中的雾气是真实的吗？您是如何拍摄的？
A：Yes! It’s real! But it’s done with fog machines. The visual aesthetics, particularly the fog, played a crucial role in shaping the narrative. We needed it to be tangible, almost like a character in itself.
We started off with numerous tests to get the right look and feel for the fog. We tried multiple approaches, shooting outside in natural conditions and inside in different environments. However, none of these initial attempts quite achieved the desired effect. Eventually, we decided to shoot inside a large hangar, filling it with fog machines. This allowed us to have a controlled environment where we could manipulate the fog and the lighting to our requirements.
The breakthrough came when we decided to place lights directly into the mist. The diffusion of light through the fog created an ambiance that perfectly embodied the feeling of uncertainty we were aiming to portray. To further enhance the realism of the scene, our art director sourced trees and a guardrail. These elements worked in harmony with the lighting and fog to transport our set from an indoor hangar to a foggy, atmospheric highway.
是的!它是真实的!不过我们用了喷雾机。视觉美学（尤其是本片中的“雾”）在构建叙事框架中起着至关重要的作用。我们需要它是有形的，好像它有人格一样。
为了让“雾”在视觉和感觉上都足够合适，最开始我们进行了大量的测试。我们尝试了很多种方法，比如在自然条件下进行实景拍摄，也尝试过在室内模拟不同环境进行拍摄。但最初的这些尝试都没有达到预期的效果。最后，我们决定在一个大型飞机库里拍摄，并在里面装满了制雾机。这为我们创造了一个可控的场景，可以按照我们的要求来操纵雾和照明灯光。
而后我们决定将灯光直接放置在雾中，一系列问题迎刃而解。光在雾中的漫反射创造了一种氛围，完美地展现了我们想要描绘的那种“不确定感”。为了进一步增强场景的真实感，我们的艺术总监布置了一些树木和一条护栏。所有这些元素、灯光和雾气的有机统一，将我们从一个封闭的飞机库带了到一条雾蒙蒙的高速公路上。
Q：How to understand the spatial field boundary in the specific scene of "fog"? It seems to make the infinite space become temporarily limited.
如何理解“迷雾”这个特定场景下的空间边界？它似乎让无限的空间暂时变得有限。
A：Yes, the fog for me paradoxically takes an infinite or large space – the open highway – and makes it feel confined and limited.
In the presence of fog, the characters' field of vision, and thus their perceived world, contracts dramatically. The world beyond the fog is still there, but it is hidden, unknown, and inaccessible - much like their immediate futures or the resolution of their individual stories. They are 'stuck' not only physically in the traffic jam, but also within their limited understanding of what lies ahead.
It creates a dialectic between visibility and invisibility, between the known and the unknown, the finite and the infinite.
Spatially, fog has a paradoxical quality. It occupies a definite space but does not confirm to its traditional boundaries. It blurs the demarcation of beginning and end, encapsulating the limitless in a temporary boundary. It allows us to be in a place, and yet not fully be there, because our vision, our knowledge of the space is limited and obscured.
By distorting the characters' spatial field and shrinking the infinite into the finite, for me it embodies the human condition of being simultaneously trapped within the 'known' - the tangible, the present, the finite - while being aware of a greater 'unknown' - the intangible, the future, the infinite.
是的，雾对我来说是矛盾的，它占据了一个无限或者说是非常巨大的空间（开阔的高速公路），但同时又让这个空间变得幽闭而有限。
在有雾的情况下，人物的视野以及他们所感知的世界都会急剧缩小。迷雾之外的世界仍然存在，但它是隐藏的、未知的、难以触达的——就像他们即将面临的未来和每个人故事的结局一样。他们不仅在物理意义上被困在这场堵车中，而且对前路的认知也是有限的。
这创造了一个可见与不可见、已知与未知、有限与无限之间的辩证关系。
在空间上，“雾”具有一种矛盾的性质。它占据了一个明确的空间，但很难在传统意义上确定其边界。它模糊了开始和结束的界限，将“无限”封装在一个暂时的边界中。它让我们置身于一个地方，但又不是完全身处那里，因为我们的视野，我们对空间的认识是有限和模糊的。
对我来说，通过扭曲人物的空间场域，将无限缩小为有限，它体现了人类如何在被囿于“已知”（有形的、现在的、有限的）的同时，意识到更大的“未知”（无形的、未来的、无限的）。
Q：How did you find all the actors? Do they need to bring their own cars (there are a lot of cars in this film after all)?
您是如何找到所有演员的？（影片中每组人物都是坐在车里或车旁的，）演员们需要自带道具（车）吗？
A：When I first started writing the script, I already had a clear vision of who I wanted to bring these characters to life. It wasn't solely about finding experienced actors, but also about including some of my friends, acquaintances or people who I knew would fit perfectly into these roles. The cars seen in the film were sourced from various places - some were rented, we struck a deal with a local garage company, and others were borrowed from friends and family.
在最开始写剧本的时候，我就已经清楚地认定，我要让这些角色看起来足够鲜活和真实。因此，我不光是要寻找有经验的演员，其中也包括我的一些朋友、熟人，以及我觉得非常适合这些角色的人。影片中的汽车是从各处搜集来的——有些是租来的，我们与当地的一家汽车修理厂达成了协议，还有一些是从朋友和家人那里借来的。
Q：The film provided many curious scenes. For example, what did the flower pattern on the driving mirror represent? Why did the black woman put the mannequins on the road? What exactly is the liquid dripping on the windscreen?
影片中有许多让人好奇的场景，比如，车灯上的小花图案代表了什么？那位黑人女性为什么要把假人模特摆在路上？最后滴落在车窗上的是什么？
A：These scenes are of course open to interpretation, to allow viewers to find their own meaning. But I can tell what it meant for me! The flower pattern on the driving mirror came with the car, I liked it and it gave the car some character so we decided to keep it. The women with mannequins is a clothing designer who lost her cargo (the mannequins) when she stopped her car abruptly. The mannequins could be seen as representations of the woman - frozen, immobile, and inert in the midst of a busy, confusing world. But placing them in the middle of the highway might also be seen as a defiance, a bold claim to exist, to take up space, even when everything seems to be in disarray for her. And the liquid on the windscreen is bird poop!
对于这些场景的理解当然是开放性的，观众可以有自己的理解。不过我也可以讲讲它们对我来说意味着什么——汽车后视镜上的花朵图案是那辆车上本身就有的，那个图案赋予了这辆车一些特别的个性，我很喜欢，所以我们决定保留它。至于那位突然停车“卸货”（一堆假人模特）的女性，她是一位服装设计师。那些假人模特一定程度上也代表了这位服装设计师自己——在一个忙碌、混乱的世界中，一动不动、呆若木鸡。但把它们放在高速公路中间的这个行为，也可以看作是一种蔑视，一种存在并占用空间的大胆主张，即使这时候在她看来一切都很混乱了。最后落在挡风玻璃上的液体其实就是鸟粪啦!
more infomation：https://www.bisff.co/selection/The-Day-That-Was-White