Hi, again, it’s me, Vivian! After a long-time struggle, finally we reach the end of the semester. And what made me feel happy more is that I finished my last project in communications lab: Visual Metaphor.
Visual Metaphor assignment asks us to use a metaphor to create a video that expresses our feelings and thoughts. The requirements seem simple, but in practice there are many challenges. In this assignment, I chose to cooperate with Yihan Beatrice Zhang. We discussed a lot before we came up with our final idea. Everyone has his own thoughts. Visual Metaphor is a great chance that we express our own idea and feelings through the form of video(film), so we both don’t want to miss the chance. It used to be hard for us to reach an agreement. I really want to show something reflects the reality. While Beatrice more want to express some abstract emotion.
At last, we both took one step back. We decided to combine our idea together. Our inspiration originally came from my idea that we can use the stone as our metaphor. The stone is simple and ordinary. It looks like there is no shining point on it. A stone thrown into the pile of stones can not be found. This is just like the situation of many ordinary people. We all grow up in “groups” and only a few of my people are able to excel and be seen by more people. And the rest of the people can only stay in the “shadow”, in the constant comparison and competition of internal consumption. But is comparison and competition the meaning of life? The answer, of course, is no. Instead of sinking ourselves into the mire of being “less than others,” we can sing loudly, we can embrace ourselves, we can see the good in ourselves. We can walk through the mountains, lakes and seas by ourselves. We don’t have to be the first, just be ourselves. Even if you are a stone, you can find your own characteristics and shining points, and you can find reasons to love yourself. Maybe the current social rules only allow “first place” to receive flowers and applause from the public, so if you don’t come first, you give yourself flowers and applause.
The concept of our work is that there are both negative and positive emotions at the same time, and we hope that through the turning of emotions, the audience can resonate and think.
Special thanks to Beatrice for drawing our beautiful storyboard! In fact, the production of our storyboard and the shooting of the video were almost simultaneous. We shoot as we draw, and we change our storyboard according to the actual situation of the shooting. We chose the park as our main scene because it had a wide view and sufficient light for shooting. Beatrice and I did the whole thing, but we felt that having one actor wasn’t enough to show what we wanted to show. So we brought in Avril Luo as our co-star and shot a few more scenes in the school study room and around the school ping-pong table. I think the most difficult part was shooting the storyboards. Because the presentation of a scene requires different combinations of shots to achieve the maximum effect, I may have to shoot an actor’s action several times from different angles. Fortunately, the actors were very cooperative with me, and we finished the shooting very smoothly.
In this project, I mainly acted as the director, photographer, editor and part of the script writing. I designed the main shots and shot every storyboard. After the shooting was completed, I carried out the work of arrangement, editing and transition design. But I couldn’t have done it without the help of my actor, voice actor, and script writing partner Beatrice. Beatrice added her own expression to the shots I designed. Sometimes I only had two or three suggestions and ideas, but Beatrice was able to turn it into a full shot. In addition, Beatrice has excellent English pronunciation, and she delivers the lines in the video with great emotion and infectiveness.In this process, our cooperation has not been smooth sailing. We also had many fights over differences of opinion and philosophy. The most serious one was about the script. I wanted to write something a little more concrete to make it easier for the audience to understand, but she wanted to write something more abstract to fit the theme. We argued for a long time, but in the end it was resolved through a long communication, and we both accepted each other’s ideas.We pulled two all-nighters together and took many early morning rides home. It was hard, but knowing that we were working for something we loved made it all worth it. We persevered even when we were tired and created a lot of unforgettable memories. In the process, Beatrice comforted me a lot and gave me a lot of strength. Without Beatrice, I might not have been able to make the whole film. I need to learn from her high requirements for her works and her ability to stick to the end. In addition, I certainly admire her perfect English speaking and singing ability (we have added a piece of her singing in the second half of the work).
We were revising our work until the last minute before IMA Show. We are quite satisfied with the finished product. In my opinion, our works clearly reflect the theme, use the lens language and color matching, and achieve a good aesthetic effect. All in all, it was a very unforgettable experience, a process of “pulling” with the camera, editing software, my partner and myself, and finally reaching a consensus. It gave me a deeper insight into art and expression. In addition, I am very lucky to join 2024Spring Communications Lab and meet supportive teachers and classmates. The curtain has fallen on Commlab, and my IMA journey continues.
Thanks for everyone I meet in my journey.