Film

I made a film that's based around dreams. It classifies more as a surrealism film because none of these things would actually happen to you in real life, and since surrealism is a movement that's about the creativity of the mind, I decided to base it around dreams. I chose this subject because I was inspired by an animation that I was reminded of from my dream journal recently called ‘Doors 4’. When Mr Donohoe, our film teacher, showed us surrealism, I instantly thought of this animation. Along the way, I decided that I wouldn’t have enough footage for this to be considered a real film because of the fact that we were about to enter quarantine for a month, so I thought of making this more like a movie I watched before called ‘Inception’ where there are multiple dreams in a dream.

Adele - AOH Film Final.mp4

Adele Li

Through iPhone camera footage and iMovie, whilst pulling inspiration from various filmmakers such as Sofia Garbati and Joffea Burgos, I have created a 3 minute film. “A Girl’s Essentials” is a two-segment film consisting of an advertisement set in the 90s, and a series of clips that follow the internet influenced life of a teenage girl in 2021. In both clips, a magical lake grants beauty to whoever drinks its water, simultaneously serving as a commentary on the lengths we go to for beauty, and our gullibility towards those who will give it to us. The ‘pretty and pink’ aesthetic displays how corrupt aspects of the beauty industry are wrapped up with a pretty bow to its consumers. Through after effects and music, the clear use of two segments set in dramatically different time periods exemplifies the perennial nature of beauty standards and consumerism, whilst serving as a cautionary tale to girls, like myself, that you should never sacrifice safety and happiness to be ‘pretty’.

Albert Hou, Lleyton Lam, Anna Oldenziel, & Jordan Ren

These scenes are an exercise in traditional verbatim theatre playwriting and realistic acting techniques. The scenes were based on interviews with locals around West Lake. Information was extrapolated about the local foods. Dialogue was inspired and loosely based on the interviews.

Alex Tanner

At the end of the day I can be proud of this film because it accomplished everything I wanted. My goal was to show the themes of over-complication using surrealism and Avant-Garde. My film certainly does not follow the traditional roots of film, and it really taps into the unconscious mind. Changing saturation and colour palette, using eerie music and cutting the shots really does make it feel like a “dream”. This was an incredible experience because in the past I have always done typical movies with a start, conflict and conclusion. But here it was about representing a theme using these surrealistic techniques and it really adds more tools in my filmmaking toolbox. I look forward to experimenting with these values with more depth in future.

FINAL - RELEASE.mp4

Anabelle Fong

I made a surrealist film during this unit. My film was inspired by the idea of quarantine. The feeling of being isolated in a nondescript area with nothing but voices in your head. As the film progresses, the time in isolation is longer. By the end, the voices are taunting almost but she remains stoic, not giving the voices a response. I pulled ideas from high society and authors like Jane Austen. While researching different experimental filmmakers, Mr Donohoe introduced me to Michel Gondry. I watched two music videos that were directed by Michel Gondry and I was really inspired by his work. I watched The White Stripes’s “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground” music video and also The Rolling Stones “Like A Rolling Stone” music video. My film was also heavily influenced by these music videos as I used overlays similar to the “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground” music video and a lot of the words the voices said were inspired by the “Like A Rolling Stone” music video. During this film process, I hoped to achieve a final piece that would fully embody elements of high society and isolation.

Christopher Cheng, Adrian Pan, and Chris Ruan

This scene was routed in a loose verbatim theatre structure. Students were interested in the Legend of the White Snake and asked questions of locals around West Lake. Then the students made several scenes and decided they wanted to do a comedic take on the idea of the legend.

Quarantine Day 9 - Film Project.mp4

Darren Liu

This film is inspired by Eraserhead and Memento, where Eraserhead is a surrealist film, where a lot of seamlessly random things happen, and Memento being a film with a lot of monologue, done in a way that it seems like you’re living in the film, as the character keeps talking to himself, and elements of that can be seen in my film. The film is based on a dream I had, using a method known as dream journaling, and it shows the life of someone in quarantine, and compares it to someone in Hong Kong, moving freely about. The meaningless and repetitive pathways the character walks in quarantine shows the boredom and lack of excitement, so much so that the character imagines monsters in the quarantine room, and is unable to resist the urge to check it out. The busy streets of Hong Kong are constantly cutting to the quarantine room - the supposed life of Hangzhou. This makes the comparison obvious, and finally, all comes together, and the monster is investigated in the quarantine room. Then, the character realises, it was all a dream. This just emphasises how bored the character is in quarantine, and is shown through the fact that he was imagining the Hong Kong lifestyle, wishing something that exciting could take place in the dull quarantine room. Filming using different methods was a new experience for me, such as skating while filming, and it really gave me a new viewpoint on filming. All the planning, avoiding highly populated places, and rough roads, all important things to do if you want to skate while filming, and I didn’t realise any of that until I actually filmed, so this is a completely new experience for me, and I’ve learnt a lot.

DEAD SPACE FINAL CUT.mov

Dominic Gu

Medium, materials, and methods – I created my art by starting with the foundation of an idea. I refined it, shaped it by adding a variety of film angles and shots as well as the color grading and sound effects as a way to add extra artistic value to my fundamental film. I created my art by personally taking notes and discovering an almost floating state of mind, and how fear in that state is exactly the feeling many people are doused in right now, flowing across the internet. I initially tried to go from a film conveying the eternal vitality of life in organisms to a pseudo horror film, it started from nothing, however the exploration of personal interests and the international feeling of fear should be conveyed in this film, ironically unifying people’s perspective on this medium in a similar, malicious way.Subject matter – I made a surrealist/experimental horror film. It's an interpretation of man’s disconnection from reality, and how the rise of technology ironically has brought us back into a more primitive way of life, and the straying away from reality is also the disconnection from truth and knowledge, which can be provided as a warning through my art medium to the audience. Though art can be interpreted in many different ways, this was my intention and subject matter to convey: a warning for the people of the status quo, and a reflection on the “modern” society we thrive in today.Intention –
Many influences included thoughts of fear, thoughts of the unknown and my overall interest in exploring the human subconscious. Combination of dream-like effects, color grading and fitting sound creates this surrealist experience in a modern way, which in my opinion sends a clearer message. I hoped to achieve a film where people are able to watch it and interpret it in their own way, the story can fluctuate like liquid depending on the audience’s interpretation, however the overall warning and message I hoped to convey and preserve stays the same. I finally used many of my most favorite films such as the newly discovered un chien andalou and the sunken place from Jordan Peele’s Get out as inspirations for my basketball and shower shots separately, hoping that this film not only sends my own message, but withstands time by continuing the art form of film.

Dance of the Daylight.mp4

Ivanna Xin

What was my inspiration behind this film?I got inspired by the movie tenet and the director Christopher Nolan. In the movie Tenet, Christopher Nolan used the color difference of blue and red to show the present and future, which is how I tried to show the difference between Present, the mind, and flashback memories.How did I create this film?The main way to show the 2 different worlds was through coloring in the editing part. I have played around with the intensity of the color, the warmness of the color etc. I chose to do this type of film because we never know what’s really going on in someone’s mind. Those that seem optimistic or happy doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t suffering inside. For this film, I wanted to be a bit more obvious, which is why I chose to wear completely dark while everyone around me wore bright colours, I didn’t speak for the majority of the time, rather I listened to my friends as they spoke about their exciting future plans. Furthermore, in Act 2 I displayed some flashbacks in the film, but before all of those flashbacks, it also shows that I am trapped, trying to get out, to break free. But we can never break free from our trauma, they will always be there no matter how deep we push it down or how hard we try to forget it. We simply have to accept it and know that it is a part of us, a part that defines who we are.Why did I choose this theme?Our task for this unit was to make a surrealist film. When I think of surrealism I don’t necessarily think of chaos, or things that don’t necessarily make sense in the perfect world. Rather I think of something that is happening inside the mind, the deepest part of the mind that humans are normally afraid to connect with. Their fears, their traumas, their desires etc. Which is why I chose to attempt to connect 2 different worlds into 1 film. Note* (Because my mother would be mad if I didn’t add this in) The flashbacks in this film are overly exaggerated and I have very loving parents. Moreover, I wanted to try something new, something I have never done before. In all of my previous films they were all positive and more simple that didn’t really need a lot of editing, however in this film. I reached out of my comfort zone and tried something new, I played around with colors during my editing process and even opacity.

Ebb and flow - Jeanine AOH final.mov

Jeanine Cheng

I made an abstract film interpreting the different facets and emotions of where I'm from, as well as taking some inspiration from Hangzhou and some of its urban nature. I'd describe this film as more abstract, and relatively chaotic, in the sense that while there are obviously different kinds of shots within the film, everything mixes, repeats, and overlaps. I took some inspiration from natural elements, the modern aspects of my city, as well as a few of my dreams. I hoped to convey the specific nostalgic feeling of belonging to a place, and to express how although a wave of change or being in a new place or circumstance will always come along, in the end, there is always room for us where we belong- the wave returns to its ocean.

frame of mind_final .mp4

Jessica Hebestreit

I wanted to capture one's alternate identities in a surreal setting for my film "Frame of mind." The title symbolizes one's relationship with themselves as well as acceptance of one's peculiarities. I wanted to depict these characters' voyage to discover one another in a way that was both intriguing and mind-bending. The characters begin by hiding behind this fabricated but visually striking lifestyle; but, as one searches for the other, we begin to get a glimpse into their realities; it can be chaotic and unsettling, but we see evolution among them.

HZ film ('Mirage' FINAL).mov

Jonathan Ho

The idea of my film has really changed a lot since the start of this project. The cheerful attitude of the interviewees that I wanted to embody in my film initially is all gone. Honestly, this was not really planned, I think I just decided to make my film very dark as that was how I was genuinely feeling at the time. Everything would just feel so surreal and negative at times, I would often worry about not having friends in Hangzhou, and just small things like that.
I want the film to feel sort of dream-like and unreal, as it encapsulates how I would often feel about Hangzhou. When the departure dates keep getting cancelled and delayed, and quarantine days keep getting extended. My life often feels like a mirage. I feel like there’s no way another obstacle would appear, but the obstacle still appears right in front of me. It often feels like one second I see the world through a gray (unhappy, negative) foggy lens. Then I would feel normal again. I often experience this deep uncomfortable feeling in my gut, and that’s what I tried to convey with this film.
I also wanted my film to be like the people I interviewed at the Longjing tea field and grand canal. At first glance, they may seem very simple to you. But that is because you do not properly know them. My film may not make sense or even relate to many. But it is really an accurate depiction of my true feelings of doom, and negativity I felt about coming to Hangzhou for such an extended period of time. Especially the shot near the end of my film, where I lay my head on the grass, helplessly, that is truly how I felt prior to coming to Hangzhou.

Justin's Film.mov

Justin

How:I created this film by using final cut pro. An apple software, like an improved Imovie. Although I never used final cut pro and tried out the trial version. I learnt a lot using final pro cut pro and feel like I edit better, at least it looks more sophisticated. I used clips (gifs) and pictures from google and the middle part is from https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ which are computer generated images of humans.What:My Film is like 2 films but in the same style. The first part is talking about Surrealism and showing clips of different surrealism films and presenting in a stan brakhage style, like mothlight, showing but instead of showing just pictures i tried using a mix of clips and pictures. The second half of the film is showing pictures of “people” they aren’t actually real pictures though, they are computer generated images and then shows clips of robots, ai, technology both taking and taken over. When I said there are 2 films, it is actually slightly related. The Surrealism films in the first couple of pictures and clips are 19-20th century and then there are present, where a computer can create a similar movie, the pictures are computer generated. And everyone now relies on technology a lot in comparison to 100 years back even 50 years back and then there’s future showing technology overcoming humans and control us instead. Three different timelines.Why:My theme is about technology and evolution, personally i really like technology and the growth and even with fear of A.I. controlling us. I think for now it is stable. Yet, I want to try to view from another perspective. I created a film with negativity towards technology. I also followed the style of a mix Andy warhol (Empire, Sleep) and Stan Brakhage (Mothlight, stellar) It id like somewhere between them. I thought what are they trying to express, while making a film and I assumed they wanted to show change in something, showing change and as time passes what will happen. So I draw inspiration from that. Showing growth in technology and humanity, but similar to their movie style.At first, I thought surrealism is slight horror. But as I think, I can create suspense without total horror. Because, I an not the type of person who like horror. Though suspense is a needed important aspect to make a film interesting. In my opinion.

Bad Dream.MOV

Micky Lyu & Stanley Su

In this project, I focused on creating a mixture of music and film with Stanley, presenting to you all with our new film called “Bad Dream”. I started off rolling with the idea of the history of Hangzhou, however although our film does include disastrous elements, it’s not entirely about Hangzhou’s history. This is due to some restrictions that forbid us to produce such films for you guys, therefore that drove us to the blurry idea of aliens. We’ve then decided to replace the original idea of disaster to alien invasion which honestly fits what we’re going for in the first place for our genre; sci-fi & horror. Throughout the process of creating that inside fear from our audience, we also wanted to reveal the prosperous side of Hangzhou in general by adding scenes of our school. Now, allow me to take you on a journey with me into the world of the “Bad Dream” for the next five minutes. Remember, don’t get lost.
In this project, I focused on creating a collection of short pieces to complement the film that Micky is making in a digital audio workstation through the techniques of soundscaping. Our original inspiration for the film was to create something that reflected the ancient history of Hangzhou through a story of a natural disaster. When we started filming, though, we had to change the idea into an alien abduction story due to technical restrictions. We discussed how we could highlight how prosperous Hangzhou is as a city by adding scenes of our school. This also answers the question where I asked "Why did CIS choose Hangzhou to be our campus?" : because of it's equipment and great environment.
Since our film was mainly in the suspense genre, I focused the majority of my pieces trying to create an atmosphere that could help enhance the mood. I ended up creating several short pieces using a variety of instruments ranging from pianos to brass, with quick tempos and loud percussion to help with creating suspense. The majority of them followed a trend where I started out with an ostinato with keys that lasted throughout the piece, and slowly adding more instruments to build up the tension.
For the musical element of the film, I decided to focus on the question "What does Hangzhou mean to you?". To me, Hangzhou is a school. It's a place where I learn and apply the knowledge I've learned. It's where assessments, and schoolwork happen - which are usually stressful and suspenseful. For pieces such as "Bad Dream" and "Alleyway", I tried to capture the feeling of urgency of trying to finish projects before the deadline - such as this Learning Journal. The scenes of school in the film could also reflect my view on this question.
Alleyway: This piece was created for a scene where one of the characters in the film walks through an alleyway, trying to find his long-lost friend - hence the name "Alleyway". For this piece, I used an electric-piano ostinato with quick hi-hats to emphasize that the character is heading somewhere that is unknown. I've also built up the piece by slowly adding in more instruments such as strings to keep it interesting.
Bad Dream: This piece was created for a scene where a character is having a nightmare, hence the name "Bad Dream". I started this piece off by using a synth and sampling a thunder sound to bring the listeners into the soundscape - I wanted to simulate the sounds of outer space, which was what was happening on screen at the moment. This piece of music was actually inspired by the storm that was going on on the day I created it. I thought the storm was a perfect sound to sample and I just added it right into the piece. By including natural sounds, it made it sound even more "grand" and closer to the effect I was looking for. I chose to use a piano sound playing some chords with the roots going down a step every bar as an ostinato, and added percussion elements with lots of reverb to give it the ambient effect.
Credits: This piece was created because Micky asked for a piece to go along with the credit scenes at the end. I was asked to create a similar piece to this. I chose to maintain a quick tempo that was similar to the reference, but I decided to change the ostinato to a piano as I was more comfortable with that. I've added a couple extra instruments such as a choir and a flute in the background to give it more complexity.
Morning in the City: This was my favourite piece by far. This piece originated from Hour 4, where we learnt about creating melodies. I was inspired by the city sounds that I've recorded on our second trip to the West Lake. There was something about the sample when you could hear the people talking that reminded me of a movie scene that has come straight out of Tokyo. Hence, I went for a Japanese City-Pop style to create the piece, with warm electrical piano chords and a catchy and "cute" melody with the marimbas.
Whatever Floats Your Boat: For this piece, I sampled a sound from our first outing to the grand canal, where I was able to capture a sound of a boat going by. When I was creating this, I thought about the brass instruments that movies used to create a dramatic effect, and how it sounded similar to a boat's horn. I ended up using a flute as an ostinato and added in the brass instruments to really make it sound epic and suspenseful.
When Things Go Wrong: For this piece, I was asked to create something with a drum ostinato. I used a Lord of The Rings soundtrack as a reference, and used a similar drum pattern and brass instruments to create a similar sound. I played around with the chords of the bass instruments for its development, and I ended up coming with a minor to major chord progression that I liked at the end. I hoped for a sound that was grand and intense, and I think the brass instruments enhanced that significantly.

Patrick Feng and Desmond Lam

Regrets (Final Final).mov

Richard Guo & Emily Luo

“Regret” is a film in the “Horror” genre with two female ghosts haunting the main character. We created this short film to showcase the fact that the main character in our film, like so many others in our society today, wants to redeem themselves and to make up for their past mistakes but cannot get it because of a lack of courage and inability to face their past. In our film, it takes the audience on a visual journey through the past wrongdoings of a high-school teenager and how payback is yet to come.

William Zhan & Owen Loo

We created this film using our phones and Final Cut Pro. We made a film that is a combination of happy, cheerful and scary. I got the inspiration for this film from James Wan, an Australian film director, who directed Aquaman, which had a combination of themes including action and comedy, and for the majority of his other works, many scary horror films. Our film is part school tour, part horror. In the film, William and I are filming a tour of the Hangzhou CIS campus. We start in the residential building, where some weird occurrences happen. Lights randomly turn off in rooms, and no one is seen. After, we continue the tour in the academic building. As we film the academic building, we start to hear strange noises in the hallways. Suddenly, something starts chasing us. I get killed, and William gets away. Later, when William returns to the place where I supposedly died, he realises that I am the person behind it all.
During the filmmaking process I faced a few challenges, and even had to completely restart my film. But I am happy with my final project. For my film I decided to go with a surreal horror film that starts off as a normal school tour. This is because Owen and I wanted to do something that would relate to Hangzhou, and we came up with the great idea of making a school tour. We wanted the film to be subjective. My original idea was a lot more surreal and harder to film. So shifting gears and choosing to work with Owen was the right decision. After getting all the shots done we reviewed the footage, and the audio was not up to standards. After a few discussions we decided to refilm some shots with a proper microphone, and use a tripod to ensure the shots are stable. This improved our film a lot. Overall I was happy with the final product even though the process was strenuous.