User:Stonestone/What-How-Why

From XPUB & Lens-Based wiki
Ren Hang’s Models

*What:
This is a short documentary of the nude models of Ren Hang who is one of the alternative 
photographers in China. The focus is on the models’ state, bodies, talking, feeling and thoughts.
*How:
I made the documentary myself three years ago in a period of two months. Every week, after confirming 
the models attitude of my work, I went to shoot it or not. During shooting, except recoding the working
scene, I also interviewed them with three questions.
*Why:
Photographer Ren Hang, who is very famous in the nude photography field in China, does not have photography
strategies and knowledge, but his head are full of strange ideas. His pictures are nude, bloody, disgusting and
straightforward.  So I wonder who the models are and why they want to be his models.
RMB100

*What:
This is a short film about kids, about five minutes long. Xiao Ming, the main character steals from his mom 100 
RMB, which is a lot of money for a kid. After he shows off it in front of his friends, he was told the adults had a
theft detector.
*How:
I shot this film with my sound recorder. I wrote down the story after I met a group of kids (the main characters)
in the food market in a Beijing suburb. The whole shooting process cost only an afternoon, because of the fully
and specific preparation. In order to calm the kids down (the hardest part), there were given a huge bag of
snacks and candies.
*Why:
I always avoid making something heavy, when people are looking at it. Instead, I think an easy atmosphere
is more likely to  express emotions. I even made it a kids’ western film, just to make the sense looked more
lonely and absurd. It is a memory for childhood, we used to be stupid but cool before becoming normal adults.
Chemistry

*What:
Chemistry is a Black & White experimental short film, no dialogue. This film is about the dream loop and the
relationship between lovers. 
*How:
In the two days shooting process, I put most of the time on talking with photographer, we were trying to make
the Black & White image with more levels. I put the story ending in the middle part, the starting in the last part
and the the middle in the beginning.
*Why:
It is the first try for me to change the style of telling story. I am attempting to show a logically messed-up story,
which means it is linear but also non-linear.