PREMISE
Long and Kai, sworn brothers from young, are now conflicted on each other’s betrayal.
THEME
To what extent will you go to get what they want?
THOUGHT PROCESS
I think it is rather important for me to discuss about the thought process behind Xiong//Blood before delving into any other aspects of the film. I was very much inspired by Hong Kong mafia films, specifically a 2012 film called Triad directed by Daniel Yee Heng Chan, that heavily emphasised on Brotherhood, which was the case for most of these films. And of course the inspiration to why I picked mafia films was because of the Godfather that was screened in class.
I had many restrictions to work with for this ambitious film but essentially, I wanted show 2 sworn brothers, seemingly very different but swore an oath of eternal trust and how everything went to hell.
I first came up with the characters I wanted to portray, both of which are inspired by the emotional side of me(Long) and the logical side of me(Kai). So you can think of this abstract of a film as an internal struggle when I’m debating with myself.
The story had to be clear, and so did the characters. I always have a problem of wanting to create a complete universe before embarking on anything else. I penned the entire story of what was happening before the entire conflict, but conveniently left what was going to happen next out. (partially because it is supposed to be ambiguous and partially because I don’t know how I want it to end)
CHARACTERISATION
My thought process for characterisation was very much based off the two sides of me but there were influences from external people as well.
Public Figures/Fictional Characters
Loki Son of Odin
Iron Man, Tony Stark
Captain America, Steve Rogers
Dr Strange, Steven Strange
People Close To Me
Myself
My Sisters
My Best Friends
Past Friends
My Parents
The characters listed are influencers of who I am and have become. A mischievous, snarky, responsible and strange person. The people who know me well know that I’m systematic and logical, but also creative and wild. An accurate representation of the two characters within my film.
I drew reference of the relationship between Long and Kai through the people close to me. My younger sisters been through thick and thin with me and we have our fair share of trust and betrayal of who gets the toy. My best friends, as well, have our moments of unjust and times where we think it wouldn’t be possible to mend back this friendship. And for those relationships that can’t be mended, those people play a huge part in my life as well. Their existence is a clear cut reminder that not everything is meant to be perfect. My parents bickers but never to the extent of betrayal, their trust gives me hope.
I know this isn’t what you wanted from characterisation but the two characters I have crafted are a part of me and all I can describe is the characters that have molded me and the relationship I want my characters to have.
STORYBOARD & SCRIPT
After I had my characters set and penned down, I decided to focus on the script and the cinematography behind the story.
Wrote a rough script down of how I wanted my story to flow then refined it thoroughly in Celtx. And this point of time I was still hesitant on whether it would be a night or day scene or would it be a outdoor or indoor carpark.
After deciding it would be an indoor carpark, the time of the day was decided by my cast because of the hectic pre-chinesenewyear period. I had contingency plans and proper equipment if it were to change to the night. I even had an idea for a rain scene or to completely shoot in the rain due to the crazy rain we were getting on the earlier parts of the week but fortunately(unfortunately) it didn’t rain during our shoot day.
I tried to keep the script within 1 page because of the 1 page: 1 minute rule for writers but unfortunately, the film spilled a little out of 1 minute.
The storyboarding process was quite tough because I had to examine multiple films to understand the cinema behind an asian mafia genre as it did not follow traditional norms. Most of the scenes were shot on handheld and had a very raw personal feel to them. They were also not afraid to intentionally shake the camera during movement shots like panning and I had to take special note of those.
Because of the cast restrictions, I had to act and that would mean my girlfriend would be behind the camera so I had to take extra notes on shot sizes and proper framing as to avoid conti errors, to keep with the 180 degree rule and clashing of similiar frame sizes.
ABSTRACTION
The internal struggle between the emotional side and logical side of a person as the emotions are trying to find where the logic has hidden creativity.