Zhibin:Text on Method

This passage is a report about my research result in PZI during 2017 to 2018, based on the mythologies of doing research, I am going to compare and analyze my previous projects The Air Addiction and Slow In Florence , with my latest documentary project Chinese people in Holland(undecided title).

The passage includes four parts. The first part is about introduction and methods used in my most recent documentary Chinese people in Holland(undecided title), which is still on the beginning stage. In the second part, I will analyze the connection between this latest project with my old ones, and how does my research method evolute. The third part is about comparing my works with other works which i found related and trying to learn the difference. The last part is about my ambition and goal for the future projects.

In the past year, I have been learning everything about how to make cinematic videos to tell the story, from the basic skill, like camera setting, lighting , to more theoretic practice like script writing, effects presets, camera language etc. The most challenging part during the study is how to transfer the script into videos accurately and precisely, to stuck with the main idea of the project.

The documentary Chinese people in Holland (undecided title) is about a group of Chinese mainlanders who are living in a good quality life in Holland, the way they make their dreams come true and their attitude towards their current lives , especially compare it with life in China. I am curious about how do they deal with the balance of two different culture and how much will they adopt into this society. There are 4 people in my list now , who are in different ages and come from different background, none of them knows about this documentary yet, and i am also not sure if they want to join this project, but what i am doing now is observing their daily life though social media, like Wechat (the chinese main online social app), see what are they posing on it, respond to some of them. I think as an observer or a friend, this way can first bring me into their life, get familiar with their rhythm and helps me to know their personalities, what do they like or dislike, then I know what should i focus on each one of them when i start filming. The camera language is completely bonded with the main script in this case, I know how to shoot the view and from what angle to share the story in the best way.

This project is on the very beginning stage, and I am using the method based on the experiences from former projects. The Air Addiction, is a short video defined as documentary and film about my response to the air pollution in my hometown, I set up the structure and emotion of this project first and then created the camera language to fit into this setting, to tell the story in an arranged way, the result comes out fine but the emotion is bit of fake and faded. after that i am keep trying to learn the camera language and use it in a proper way to describe my feeling. I went to Florence, Italy for 2 days, I picked up this destination randomly, booked one way ticket and made no plan for the whole trip, i shot what did i feel , i recorded what did i see, i did not put any extra effort to make the camera language looks more dramatic. After I came back, I went though all the footages and edit them together just by the timeline and add the music i heard the most in local, surprisingly, that was the best short movie i ever made, it called Slow in Florence.

so for the new project, i am going to use the same method i did in Florence, follow the development of the story instead of making too many assumptions.

(to be continued )

The Air Addiction: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlGUzclkWY98QJFt_8HSljjbigB0srCqN
Slow In Florence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl3-VgHdF4c&t=4s