How often do we stop and realise the love and effort of our loved ones?
In this story, the tortoise is an imagery of the main character’s mother. We see how her mother is always doing things for the main character without making herself known- when the mother is doing things for her child, we will not see the tortoise and vice versa, when the main character is around, we only see the tortoise and not her mother. With the picking up of the tortoise on her way home, this suggests the start of the main character’s realisation of all the things that her mother has done for her. This proceeds on to one point where her mother isn’t at home one day, that she finally realised the importance and real existence of her mother.
For this project, our group has decided to keep the originality of the story as much as possible. With the initial thought to create a spinoff of Train to Busan, we wanted to film our whole video on the train. However, after putting in much thought, we thought that it will be infeasible to film the video on the train as we will be facing alot of unprecedented and unaccounted scenerios like peak hours, filming techniques and the lighting in the train itself, hence, we decided to rechoose another story plot.
In the midst of finding another story plot, we wanted to go for a story with more originality and unusual which is less heard of. We chanced upon this Chinese ancient folklore, The Snail Girl (田螺姑娘), and decided to settle for this story. However, instead of a snail, we changed the animal to be a tortoise to suit our ‘homey feel’ better.
The Snail Girl
There lived a young farmer named Xie Duan whose parents had died years before. One evening, on his way back from tending his field, Xie Duan spied a giant river snail lying on the side of the road. He picked up the snail and took it home.
The very next night, when Xie Duan came back home, he discovered the floor swept and that several bowls of delicious food were awaiting him on his table! Strangely, the same thing happened on the second day, then on the third, forth and fifth day. At last, Xie Duan decided to find out who was his benefactor. It turns out that his benefactor was an angel sent by god to bring him out of his plight, on the condition that Xie Duan would not find out the identity of the angel. However, after finding out, Xie Duan grew more greedy and wanted the angel to be his bride. As such, this led to the angel leaving in the end.
How often do we stop and realise the love and effort of our loved ones?
In this story, the tortoise is an imagery of the main character’s mother. We see how the main character’s mother is always doing things for her, subtly. When the mother is doing things for her child, we will not see the tortoise and vice versa, when the main character is around, we only see the tortoise and not her mother. With the picking up of the tortoise on her way home, this suggests the start of the main character’s realisation of all the things that her mother has done for her. This proceeds on to one point where her mother isn’t at home one day, that she finally realised the importance and real existence of her mother.
Dilemma
Our story revolves mainly about how people today do not cherish their loved ones today which is different from the original story which revolves around greed. Hence, we have two different way of obtaining the tortoise- one which follows closely to the original story of picking up the animal on the way home and the other in which the tortoise is the house pet since when the main character was young. Ultimately, we decided to follow the original plot as we wanted to keep the main essence of the original story.
Filming Process
As our scenes were mostly based at home, we thought that this will make the whole video mundane and repetitive. To counter this, we decided to add in several school and outside scenes. Also, the storyline spans over a few days hence we found it to be quite difficult to suggest this in our video too.
To ensure consistent volume and try to eliminate any background noise, we did a voice over (shaking bags, stepping with slipper etc.) of the actions shown in the video.
Editing Process
Picking up video editing is a new skill for us in our group as all of us do not have any background in video editing and we were all using Premiere for the first time. We have to google how to edit the video step by step and this took up a lot of time for us. As such, the editing of the video took us 2 full days to finish.
Overall Experience
Ultimately, this project really exposed us to the essence of filming ( or probably just the tip of the iceberg in the real industry ). We really learned that planning the storyboard is very important and also every member involved in the filmmaking has to fully grasp the story as well as the director. In addition, as much as we would like to fancify our video to our imagination, we faced many limitations especially in our knowledge in the technical aspect of this field. Nevertheless, we managed to overcome it by always planning in a practical manner. Needless to say, we had so much fun ( and tears, bloodshed, sleepless nights and many more ) doing this project!
There is a forlorn person trapped in her mental state. I used a darker shade of black and white to represent her current emotional state – dark and eerie.
Then, we proceed on to her flashback, where she view herself as a chirpy and happy girl. Here, I still used black and white to represent a flashback, however, in a lighter tone to represent a lighter and brighter emotion.
Finally, we see this girl moving out to nature. Here, I wanted to express a blurred line between reality and dream. Is this a dream? Did the girl really get out of her depression? The surrounding of a forested area also further enhance this. I also used a signifier like the white heels to express freedom. When she took off her shoes, this represents that she has come out of what was restricting her previously.
Lessons to note:
There were too many similar photos used
Planning every detail when shooting might be a better idea
More contrast between first transition and second transition
Coming to a conclusion for this project isn’t an easy feat as I have consulted Lei twice with 2 different story plots and ended up with an entirely different story as my final plot.
Initially, I wanted to go with a vlog style whereby I will depict a day of my life. However, the interesting thing about this idea is that I will be in a role-playing game and live as a character inside the game. However, after exploring further with this idea, I realised the infeasibility of this as I do not have the skills to create animated characters and I couldn’t find an interesting perspective to incorporate real life photos and animated illustrations together. Also, I met some difficulties trying to materialise a concrete story which then led me to my next idea. Hopefully, as I attend more 4D classes, I will learn to pick up some animation skills.
Inspired by a Chinese game called 倩女幽魂
On my second consultation with Lei, I had a concrete story in my mind. I decided to go with a pseudo spin-off of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
In the story, a girl fell into an alternative space called Marshland when she got the golden ticket from eating a packet of marshmallows. This story depicts the journey of the girl as she proceeds on in Marshland, she learns to adapt to the place when she found out that wasn’t able to go back to the real world anymore.
Below are some storyboards that I have drawn:
However, yet again, as I dipped further into the story, I wanted to tap into real photography whereby I am able to relate and recount my story through photos instead of drawing cartoonish characters. At this point, I was out of ideas on the theme to follow and story to come up with.
As I was doing some researching for my 2D project on movies, I came across these two movies, Heavenly Forest and Gone Girl. This two films instantly inspired my story and perspective for my final product.lain in the final.
Throughout this project, I have learnt to judge my abilities before curating an idea or product and that knowing my limits is utterly crucial in creating a product.
It just so happen I was drinking milk that day and when Lei gave us this assignment, I was like “why not just use something that is easily neglected”.
Milk carton
What do we normally do when we finish our drink?
There are two types of people when they finish their drink, they recycle or they don’t.
Signifier
As how I would put it , something that is ambiguous.
Milk contains calcium that is beneficial for the growth of bones. Just like how we thrive to grow by drinking milk, this plant thrives for it own growth too.
Isn’t it common today that we accommodate our own growth to societal norms or hide our growth behind a facade?
TAKEAWAY:
I found this assignment quite meaningful and intriguing as I like to discover the meanings behind certain placement of products and objects. This assignment gives me a chance to instil my own meaning and life to my chosen object. I also realised that what you see may not be what it really means, there might be many underlying meanings and stories waiting to be discovered.
I always believe that everyone has a side that no one knows of. This may not always be a bad case as I feel that we should have a comfort zone that we enjoy our solitude in.
Hence, I often ponder over this question.
How much do you really know about the people around you?
Task 1: Me
As a single child (hence the bear which (kind-of) represents me), it is normal for me to spend most of my time myself. I used a low angle to show that I am viewing myself as a third party here and it spreads out to how I view myself below.
In this task, I feel that sharing my hobbies will create more common grounds with new people. Hence, I placed a few objects to signify some of my daily routine and hobbies. Also,I used the bed as my medium to represent my reliance in my own comfort zone. In which, I enjoy doing the things I like (eating, drawing, making coffee, sleeping etc.) and here’s a small bad habit of mine, I am a heavy sleeper(no number of alarms can wake me up :O).
Task 2: Object and Representation of Self
“I am not alone”
The object that I have chosen here is my bear. Its a common gift that me and my close friends got for each other in 2014. This bear is a representation of our 5-years friendship milestone. Mentioned in task 1, as a single child, it is inevitable for me to feel lonely at times. However, I am grateful for the friends that stick by my side and this has become a part of who I am. I have arranged the photos according to the gradual change of the term “friends” in my life. From when I’m used to being alone and my first interaction with my acquaintances to getting to know them, and finally embracing them into my life and they have became irreplaceable to me since then.
Task 3: My World
I have chosen Changi Airport as its a place that holds many remembrance for me. I used to frequent the place for family dinners, to study with my friends (some of which we lost contact) and even sending some friends who are migrating off. The first photo represents a walk down a memory lane. Life is a bittersweet story, there are some ups and downs. Along the way, we have many snapshots of the wonderful memories (second photo) of different people in our life. However, through the years I have come to this hard truth- people come and go. Instead of dwelling in the past, we should move on and keep these memories close to our hearts because when the time comes, we are all gone and all thats left is our footprints (third photo). Also, the photos are in a sequence according to their focal point. From the first photo whereby there is a clear focal point to the last one whereby the focal point is dispersed and the displaces person, this emphasised again the people com and go in life.
Final Presentation
I have arranged my photos (left to right), task 2, task 1 and finally task 3. In all my photos, I have applied a layer of filter that is common in most phones and computers called Fade and toggled the brightness and saturations with the same system. This is to suggest that I do not have the necessary preowned skills before coming to ADM, however, I will make do with what I have and create what I have with it.
The reason why I chose to display task 2 first is to introduce the origin of my bear and therefore, explain the frequent appearance of the bear in my photos and the importance of it in my life. I have placed the photos in a sequence of bottom up to highlight my emotion deposition. From the loneliness before getting to know my close friends (you need to look down to view this) to the getting-to-know-each-other stage (eye level) and finally the gratitude and happiness to have them in my life (look up).
Whereas, for task 3, I have position the photos from top down to reenact the process of recalling those past memories (look up to suggest recall movement) and finally coming to that we are all moving on from the past now.
And hence, this concludes my project 1 of Curating Self.
TAKEAWAYS:
every photo lies a story behind it regardless big or small
we can use several photography techniques like changing the shuttle speed to express our stories too
In this task, I feel that sharing my hobbies will create more common grounds with new people. Hence, I placed a few objects to signify some of my daily routine and hobbies. Also,I used the bed as my medium to represent my reliance in my own comfort zone. In which, I enjoy doing the things I like (eating, drawing, making coffee, sleeping etc.) and here’s a small bad habit of mine, I am a heavy sleeper(no number of alarms can wake me up :O).
