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This morning, the short film unit of the Golden Goblet Awards of the 24th Shanghai International Film Festival (赌博app) held a press conference. Creators of the works competition the awards for this unit, including Hong Xiao, director of “Freeze”, Duman Burleshan, director of “Little Warrior”, Yang Ji and Jiang Yixiao, diretors of “The Morning of Spring”, Liang Naixin, producer of “A Firecracker Story” and Qiu Sheng, director of “Double Helix” attended and shared their respective works and creative experiences.
“Freeze”: A tribute to the innocence of childhood
“Freeze” is made with simple strokes, conveying the cherishment of childhood memories, and the pity for the ticking away of time. Director Hong Xiao said that the film is “a work that features a special expression technique and can be accepted by the audience easily”. “The story and concepts in the work itself is easy to understand, yet thought-provoking.”
When he was a child, director Hong Xiao always played a game that has a “freezing time”, and this film is about such a game. This game is also called “One, Two, Three, Freeze” sometimes. “But the principle is the same, that is, when we look back, the world is as static, as if we have the ability to freeze time, to stay in the moment we like, to enjoy that joy forever, and to shy away from the problems that we don’t want to face.” Hong Xiao said frankly, The production of “Freeze” is a tribute to and nostalgia for the innocent time. It also reminds us who cannot 'pause' like children to grasp the present and move forward bravely.”
“Little Warrior”: Explores growth from the perspective of children
The short film “Little Warrior” shows a unique custom of the Kazakhs, that is, in the autumn herding season, every little boy who has reached the age of five has to usher in an important moment in his life-the coming-of-age rite. “The English name of this film ‘Little Warrior’ comes from the fairy tale ‘Little Warrior and Horse in the Moonlight’ that I heard as a child. It is also a story of growing up by overcoming enemies and oneself.” Director Duman Burleshan said, “The two share the same story plot, so I thought of bringing them together, to tell the plight of growth and the life to be faced through the perspective of a child. And this is the only path to becoming a little warrior,”
“The Morning of Spring": An in-depth analysis of "Eastern Care"
“The Morning of Spring" casts spotlight on the topic “Eastern Care”, which has been discussed in recent years, and shows how adolescent children understand and accept the care from their elders, aiming to help bridge the gap between generations. Speaking of the original creative idea, director Yang Ji said: “In the beginning, we wanted to make a film in Liyang. The story takes aspiration from a piece of news the screenwriter leart on TV. We were thinking at the time, since it is about family relationships, the story can be diverse. It can both be between parents and grandparents, and grandchildren and grandparent. Also, it must convey shared emotions to impress the audience."
During the creation process, the two directors once thought about setting the role as a boy, but in the end they chose develop it in the perspective of a girl. “We are all boys, so when we talk about youth, we think of passionate things. Women's perspectives may be different, they can think about more spiritual things, and they always show a maturity that goes beyond their ages. That’s why we have chosen to shoot a girl.” Director Jiang Yixiao noted.
“A Firecracker Story”: To record the years fading away
“A Firecracker Story” is set in a small southern town. With the promulgation of the “ban on firecrackers”, the “atmosphere of Spring Festival” has faded away. An eight-year-old boy decided to find the fireworks, and then the story of seeking the “atmosphere of Spring Festival” began. This story is adapted from Wang Zhanhei's novel “Kongxiangpao”. The producer Liang Naixin said: “As the years go by, some people will miss it, hoping to catch some fragments to keep the lost time. And for we, the best way to do so is shooting.”
As a producer, Liang Naixin and director Hao Zhizi also inevitably had different opinions during filming. Yet, due to their shared love for the original novel, they finally reconciled with each other, “This is a story of how a little man faces the big changes of the times. We, the creators, are the same. In the face of constantly changing ideas, we have to find a way to balance.” Liang Naixin took the last scene of the film as an example: “At that time, we set the scene in a residential area by the river, but we couldn’t find a particularly suitable place. In the end, I took a fancy to a rooftop, so I discussed to change the shooting plan with the director. However, the director favored a high platform in a residential area. Although we couldn’t be 100% loyal to the original in expression, in the end, a consensus was reached in creation, which is also a kind of persistence and compromise in the pursuit of art.”
“Double Helix”: Robot can also have youth
Director Qiu Sheng brought the short film “Double Helix”. His first feature film “Suburban Birds” has won the Best Feature Film Award at the 2018 FIRST International Film Festival and other honors. Qiu Sheng revealed that the story of “Double Helix” takes aspiration from a short science fiction novel of the same name by science fiction writer Wang Jinkang 20 years ago. “In fact, two years after the publication of this novel, Mr. Wang Jinkang has adapted it into a movie script, but it has never been made into a movie. When I made a visit to Mr. Wang, he said that the script had been lying in the drawer and the computer for 20 years.”
The challenge is self-evident by adapting a science fiction novel 20 years ago into a work that meets the aesthetics of the audience in current day. In Qiu Sheng’s view, what really matters is to find a new perspective for it. “The original author instills it with a strong personal identity. By adaptation, we make the protagonist younger, who is now 16 rather than 40 years old. Also, the protagonist used to be a human, but now he is a robot. We always say that robots are immortal. So, does the robot have youth? And what we want to shoot is the story of a robot with his own youth.”