BISFF Live recording ①
Q&A
1.Roller Coaster
Q: In Roller Coaster, the pandemic is an important background. How you came up with the idea of connecting the mid-life crisis with the pandemic to present that sense of powerlessness and unfreedom?
《过山车经过的岛》中，疫情是一个重要的背景。请导演谈谈，是如何想到将中年危机与疫情联系起来，去呈现人们的那种无力感和不自由的？
A: We tried to use something symbolic to carry the outburst of emotion we wanted to express. We originally wanted to produce this story because it was my co-director who first proposed it. After riding the roller coaster at the amusement park, he saw two strange middle-aged men collecting photos of them on the roller coaster at the photo kiosk, so he wondered what kind of stories they would have and how they would behave in real life. We are very curious about what kind of situation they may have encountered. Of course, although we 90's and 95's have not yet had a well-developed mid-life experience, our parents around us have already been at this stage. I personally also like the Danish director Thomas Vinterberg very much. There are many such middle-aged male images in his works. These combinations have provided us with a lot of experience and guidance. We found that the feeling during the pandemic is a relatively depressed state, with everyone sharing a common emotion of wanting to break through. With this kind of sentiment, we thought that maybe a middle-aged male character would be very suitable to carry our kind of emotional expression.
我们想要用一种象征性的东西来承载我们想要表达的那种情绪的爆发。我们最初想要做这个故事，也是因为我的联合导演他最先提出这样的一个故事。他当时在游乐园坐完过山车之后，在取照片的地方看到这样两个陌生的中年男人在取他们在过山车上的照片，于是他在想两个男人会有怎样的故事、在现实生活中他们可能出现了什么样的状况，这让我们觉得很好奇。当然，虽然我们90后95后还没有一个很完善的中年体验，但是我们身边像我们的父辈，他们已经是到了这个阶段。我个人也非常喜欢一个丹麦导演托马斯·温特伯格，他的作品中也有非常多的这种中年的男性形象。这些综合给我们提供了很多的经验和指导。我们觉得疫情期间的感受是一种比较压抑的状态，大家都会有一种共同的想要突破的某种情绪。在这种情绪的表达下，我们想到或许就是一个中年男性的角色是非常适合来承载我们这样的一种情绪表达的。
By Zhang Jingchen（Roller Coaster）
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2. A Year Apart
Q: During the film selection process this year, we saw many works about mourning and bereavement, and we were actually curious whether this was related to the pandemic in the past three years. A Year Apart also deals with the same theme of coping with the death of a loved one. Is the creation of this work also related to your feelings about experiencing the pandemic? Why did you choose this theme?
今年选片过程中，我们看到了许多的有关悼念、丧亲之痛的作品，其实也在好奇这是不是和过去三年疫情有关。《新年旧日》处理的也是如何面对亲人去世这一主题。这部作品的创作是不是也跟你经历疫情的感受有关系，为什么会选择这个主题？
A: This theme is based on my mother, and the starting point is also related to the pandemic, because I am from Taiwan and usually live in the Mainland. Due to the inconvenience of traveling during the pandemic, I was actually unable to see her for three years. What kind of time is three years, I don't think it's too long or too short. But when I went home for New Year’s Eve this year, I found that there were many contradictions and strangeness in our lives. I felt like I was the Other to intervene in her life, and from a state of incomprehension or self-blame towards myself, I slowly understood what my mother’s life might be like when I was away. With this imagination, this is my starting point.Of course, more attention is paid to the daily life of middle-aged and elderly women. For example, my mother, as the eldest daughter, dedicated her life to her parents, younger siblings, and her husband and children after she got married. She has never been the subject herself, and almost no one cares about her feelings. However, I started working outside shortly after she retired, and then the pandemic hit. In a short period, her life lost its direction and focus, as if it was a common trait among women of the previous generation, a void left by everyone. So I decided to capture this moment and catch my mother’s daily life when I was not with her. As Guan Gong, who was told about the joys and sorrows of his fate, disappeared at an inadvertent node, she gradually regained her true life. I think it’s also an expression of love and respect in my understanding of time and life.
这个题材是以我母亲为原型，然后出发点也是跟疫情有关系，因为我是来自台湾，平时生活在内地，因为疫情来往不便，我其实有三年的时间没有办法跟我的母亲见面。三年是一个什么样的时间，我觉得它说长不长，说短不短，可是我在今年过年回家的时候，我就发现我们的生活之间有很多的矛盾和不熟悉，我像是他者一样去介入她的生活，从一种自己的不理解或对自己的一种自责的状态慢慢去理解我妈妈在我不在的时候她生活的样子可能是什么，然后我就开始有了这个想象，这是我的出发点。
当然更多还是关注在中老年女性的日常上，比如我妈妈身为长女，从原生家庭就将生命奉献给父母弟妹，结婚后又奉献给丈夫子女。她的生活里自己从不是主体，也几乎没人在乎她的感受。然而在她退休不久后我就在外头工作，紧接着疫情到来，短时间里她的生命失去了方向和重心，彷彿是上一代女性的共性，所有人都离去的空白。所以我决定把这个片刻拍摄下来，拍摄我不在妈妈身边时妈妈的生活日常，随着被倾诉命运甘苦的关公在某个不经意的节点消失后，也逐渐重拾真正属于自己的生活。我想这也是我对时间、对生命的理解上所表达的一种爱跟尊重吧。
By Ocean Chin （A Year Apart）
3. All About Shaochang
Q: "All About Shaochang” is a short film about a family secret, with the director's family members playing themselves. The audience is curious about the director's origins and creative process: Is it documentary or fiction? Is there a script?
《少昌》这部短片有关一个家庭的秘密，由导演的家人来演他们自己。观众对导演拍摄的起因和创作过程感到好奇：这部短片到底是纪实，还是虚构？有没有剧本？
A: This film was made for a very simple reason. I am too confused. Indeed, this person has not appeared in my life since I was a child. One day someone suddenly tells you that you were born as a substitute for another person, and your emotions suddenly become a little unbearable. So I actually use this reason to try to find a place for myself, both at home and in the world. But after I first went home and interviewed them, I was sentimental and couldn't write a script smoothly. In the end, I simply recorded everything that happened to them in one month and wrote it down like a diary. After I finished writing, I had an idea in my mind, and I thought it would be better to let them perform it, because for me, this thing may be more like a very precious private video.I really hope that when I am very old and I look back at this thing that caused me pain in my youth, I can look at the attitude and emotions of everyone in my family towards this matter from a very objective perspective. So, if they come to act, it will be very precious to me. Another practical reason is that my dad is very old, and I really hope to capture some of his video materials within a limited time, so I am used to taking pictures of him directly from my freshman year on my homework until I graduate school. I wrote most of the lines into a script and then showed them to my family. I even rehearsed most of the play once, but I found huge difficulties during the rehearsal. Their emotions broke down very easily. But to my surprise, everyone was very dedicated and they really followed every word. They completed all the performances with my script and lines, and even gave a lot of surprises that were not in the script. I was very flattered.
拍摄这部影片的原因很简单，就是我本人太疑惑了，确实从小到大没有这个人出现在我的生活里。所以当有一天突然间有人跟你说，你出生是另一个人的替代品，情绪突然有点支撑不住了。所以我其实是借着这么一个由头去尝试给自己找一个位置、不管是在家里还是在这个世界上。但是刚开始回家采访完他们之后，我非常痛苦，没有办法很顺利地写一个剧本出来，最后就干脆记录他们发生在1个月里的所有事情，像写日记一样给写了下来。写完之后脑子里灵光乍泄，就觉得不如让他们本人来演，因为这个东西对于我本人来说，可能更像一段非常珍贵的私人影像。
我很希望在我很老的时候，再翻回来看这个年轻时给我带来痛苦的东西时，能够以一个很客观的角度来看家里每一个人对这件事情的态度和情绪。所以，如果他们来演的话，对于我本人来说很珍贵。还有一个现实原因就是我爸的年纪很大了，我特别希望能够在有限的时间里面捉住他的一些影像资料，所以很习惯地从大一开始拍作业直接拍他，一直拍到研究生毕业。
台词大部分都是我写成剧本，然后给我的家人们去看的。我甚至排练过一次大部分的戏，但是在排练的时候发现了巨大的困难，他们的情绪非常容易崩溃，但是很出乎我的意料的是大家非常敬业，真的就是一字不落地、按照我的剧本和台词来完成了所有的表演，甚至给出了很多剧本里没有惊喜，我本人非常受宠若惊。
By Xu Peiyao (All About Shaochang)
4. When a Rocket Sits on the Launch Pad
Q: Similar to Xu Peiyao's All About Shaochang, When a Rocket Sits on the Launch Pad seems to be a work that walks between different methods of documentation and fiction. Please talk about how you constructed this work.
和徐佩瑶的《少昌》有相似之处，《火箭发射时》似乎也是游走在纪录和虚构不同方法之间的一部作品。请谈一谈你是怎么构建这个作品的。
A: It is an extension of my 2021 graduate work Eagles Rest in Liangshan. There was a very small interview conversation in the middle, and one of the protagonists talked about this matter. Girls of the Yi ethnic group are negotiated into marriage at a very young age, and may face such a choice after their first menstruation. This is the same story that everyone sees in the film. So when I returned to Liangshan in 2022 to see the subjects I had photographed before, I actually didn’t plan to take any photos but just brought a camera and two data cards. After I went there, just at a dinner table, I saw this girl and she was particularly sullen, I asked her why and she said that her mobile phone dropped into the water. Then I suddenly thought that this might be a good story to build a film, so this one was completely unprepared. I did everything from filming to editing all by myself. I coincidently learned about such a story point, re-established the fictional reality image before this point occurred, and then recorded the afterward. After that, I mixed it into a short film like this mixture of plot and documentary.
这个作品是我2021年的研究生毕业作品《鹰栖凉山》的延伸。这中间有一段很小的采访对话，一个主人公就聊到了这个事情，彝族的女孩在很小的年纪会谈婚论嫁，在第一次月经之后就可能会面临这样的选择，这也是大家在影片里看到的故事。所以我22年回到凉山去看之前的那些拍摄对象的时候，其实本来没有计划拍任何东西，我只是带了一台相机，带了两张数据卡，去了之后就在一次吃饭的桌上，看见这个女孩她特别闷闷不乐，我问她为什么，她说手机掉水里了。然后突然想这个可能是一个很好的故事，从这个点去建立一个电影，所以这个片子完全就没有准备。我一个人拍完，一个人剪完，所有东西都是我一个人做的，很巧合地了解了这样的一个故事点，重新建立了这个点发生前的虚构的现实影像，再去纪录这个故事点之后的事情，把它杂糅成这样的剧情和纪录混合的短片。
By Liu Bohao（When a Rocket Sits on the Launch Pad）
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5. How to Imagine the Unimaginable
Q: "How to Imagine the Unimaginable” is a particularly contemporary work. It responds to many problems in today's era of the proliferation of images and rapid advancement of algorithmic AI technology; it also touches on a very important issue: using databases and algorithms as generation mechanisms. Can AI creation give birth to some kind of imagination? Or is it human imagination that is the real imagination？
《如何想象不可想象之物》是一部特别当下的作品，它回应了如今这样一个图像泛滥、算法AI技术突飞猛进时代的很多问题；也触及到了一个很重要的问题：以数据库和算法为生成机制的AI创作，到底能不能诞生某种想象力？还是说人的想象力才是真正的想象力？
A: We initially thought of these while looking for information on the subject of the film. Because children of our generation will all have the experience of imagining ancient creatures. AI, in particular, has become very popular recently, and we are all very concerned about this technology. At the same time, we thought about whether it is possible to integrate these two things and all surrounding related materials into such a topic for discussion, and also include some more personal narrative, which we are doing as a thread.
我们最开始是因为找影片主题资料的过程中顺便联想到了这些。因为我们这一代小孩都会有对于古老生物的想象的这种经验。最近特别是AI也非常火热，我们也都对这个技术非常关注，同时会想到：是否可以把这两个东西以及周边所有相关的材料全部整合到这样一个主题下来进行讨论，同时也包括一些更加私人的叙事，我们是把它当成是一条线索去做的。
By Guangli Liu（How to Imagine the Unimaginable）
A: Let me add a few words here, because when we finally deal with "AI" and the issue of "imagination", especially as you said, so many tools are changing with each passing day, but when you think about it from a conceptual or a rational perspective, you will find that there is no so-called conclusion. The film is also based on a combination of personal images, and ultimately the focus remains on the people. The human being is the real subject that can exert the so-called "imagination", thank you.
这里我稍微补充两句，因为确实最后处理到 “AI”以及关于“想象力”的问题的时候，尤其像您说的，今天这么多工具日新月异，但是真正去从一个概念或者从一个理性的角度去考虑这个问题的时候，会发现这个是没有一个所谓的结论的，然后这个影片落脚点也是跟私人影像做了一个结合，最终重点其实还是在人身上的。人才是真正的可能去发挥所谓“想象”的一个主体，谢谢。
By Chen Zirui（How to Imagine the Unimaginable）
6. Sojourn to Shangri-la
Q: I think the most creative key point of the short film Sojourn to Shangri-la may be the drone footage, which also brings a completely different temperament to the film. I would like to ask you to talk about the origin of the film based on this point.
我觉得《是日访古》这部短片创意的最关键点可能是无人机镜头，它也给影片带来了一种完全不同的气质。想请你结合这一点，来谈一谈影片创作的缘起。
A: I first wanted to make this film because I worked in an advertising agency for a while after graduation and was exposed to advertising shooting. I felt a huge sense of separation at that time, so I wanted to make a film about this experience. Later, I happened to have a friend who actually encountered this incident. He went to participate in a fashion MV shooting as an art assistant. They placed a device on the beach a day in advance. When they went to the scene on the day of filming, they found that it could not be found due to high tide. At that time, my friend made a video call to me at the scene, and I suggested to him whether you could borrow a drone and fly to the sea to look for it. So in fact, there is a real event as the basis. I made the subsequent fictionization and plot development based on it.I decided before shooting that I would only use the aerial drone perspective after I started the aerial photography episode. It’s because I think that after the protagonist has a drone’s perspective, he has a non-human ability that is extended from the human flesh and brought about by technology. This kind of thinking helped him communicate with nature, including his resistance to the system and environment of the crew.
一开始想要拍这个片子，是因为我毕业后在广告公司工作过一段时间，有接触广告的拍摄。当时产生一种非常巨大的割裂感，所以想要为这段经历拍一部影片。后来刚好有一个朋友，他是真的遇到这个事情，他作为美术助理去参加一个时尚MV拍摄。他们提前一天在海边放好了一个装置，在拍摄当天去到现场的时候，发现因为涨潮就找不到了。当时我的朋友就在现场给我打视频，我就建议他说你们能不能借无人机飞到海上去找找看。所以其实就是有一个真实的事件作为基础，我是在真实的事件的基础上做了后边的虚构以及情节的发展。
我拍摄之前就决定好了，在开始航拍的情节之后，只使用航拍的无人机的视角。是因为我觉得主角拥有了一个无人机的视角之后，他就有一种从人的肉体扩展出去的、技术带来的非人类的能力。这种思想帮助他完成了和自然的一个沟通，包括他对于剧组本身体系和环境的一种反抗。
By Lin Yihan（Sojourn to Shangri-la）
7. Wind Blows the Greenhouse
Q: "Wind Blows the Greenhouse" captured the ruined landscape of a large greenhouse building. How did you discover this space and how did you start creating it? How to deconstruct these materials during the editing process?
《风吹小三亚》拍摄了一个温室的大型建筑的废墟景观。你是怎么发现这个空间的，又是怎么开始创作的？剪辑的过程中，如何来解构这些素材？
A: I walked in once when I accidentally passed by and noticed the place was unattended. After entering, there was still no one around, but I saw some plants living together with the buildings. I felt that they were quite harmonious. They were not desolate at all, but complemented each other. It made me quite comfortable, so I just want to keep and record this first impression. I did it five or six times. It was only later that I discovered the clue of wind, and then formed a film structured by wind (no wind - wind coming - wind going). There were no people in the filming for the first few times, but then suddenly there were workers on the construction site, which was quite unexpected, that is, it started to resume work, so, in the end, I also added the element of people into the film.
我是有一次无意间路过，看这地方无人看管，就走进去了。进去之后更是空无一人，就看见一些植物，和建筑共生在一起，共同生活，我感觉它们还挺和谐，一点也不荒凉，而是相得益彰，我在这呆着转转还挺舒服，所以就想把这样的第一印象给留存记录下来。前后去过五六次吧，拍到后来才发现了风这个线索，然后形成一个由风结构的片子（无风——风来——风去）。前面几次拍摄都没有人，但到后来突然工地上就有了工人，还挺出乎意料的，就是说它开始复工了，所以最后我也把人这一元素加入到了片子里面。
By Nigel Yu （Wind Blows the Greenhouse）
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▌more information：https://www.bisff.co/yearbook/bisff2023