We've had more than enough discussion of narrative-related topics in previous courses. So I would like to engage in some critique of the traditional three-part narrative.

In my own system, the meaning and role of story is directly related to the power of the medium. The three-part story structure, often confined to narrative stories, aims to train a mechanism of pleasure by building a narrative structure that makes the audience feel called in the process by seeing the main character grow, change, and defeat a powerful enemy. This model is commonplace in mainstream commercial films such as Disney and Marvel. The influence of short-form video platforms has led to a proliferation of videos aimed at capturing attention, attracting traffic, and promoting products, and the most efficient way to achieve this is through the use of the most familiar narrative mode, which has led to the reinforcement of and obedience to this narrative tradition, making it impossible to change it at the level of the ontology of narratives.

Therefore, as Luciano said, micro stories brings micro politics, and we, as creators, researchers and promoters of culture, should try to discuss narratives at an ontological level. Whether it is a three-part narrative or a narrative model evolved from myths and legends, it is worthwhile for us to re-examine them. As the logic of commerce and capitalism never ceases to penetrate our emotions and thinking, we should return our thinking from "what is narrative used for" to "what is narrative".

In the process of putting together a research and brainstorming process for Chinese's theme, I was aided in developing my creative ideas by mindmapping in a limited number of levels.

In putting together the research and brainstorming process for Chinese's theme, I aided in the development of my creative ideas by mindmapping in specific layers. However, before this part of the research, I had already identified my theme of expression. I tried to rearrange the different elements and concepts through mindmap. I think it is very one-dimensional to explore a theme by just constructing upwards. I think it is better to use reverse thinking, from "What do we associate with the word Chinese" to "where would we capture Chineseness".

In my current idea for the script, the story goes like this, a college student recently discharged from the military is looking for a place to spend his birthday and walks into a bar at the university. But he discovers that his long time in the military has robbed him of his ability to socialise with his peers, especially women, and he finds that everything about him is out of place in this bar. His lack of support and strangeness drives him into the depths of the bar to try and find someone he can talk to.

And the figure of this protagonist, I intentionally set him up as a symbol of China. The inspiration for this setting is actually very simple. Because in recent years, the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala has shown the government's attempts to incorporate ideological and political propaganda into young people's hobbies and trends. But such attempts have almost always failed, and the Spring Festival Gala has lost much of its ratings and appeal. So this made me start to think that the ideology and behaviour of our generation is actually very different from that of the previous generation. Yet we are strangely situated in the same society, trying to understand each other, trying to persuade each other to live according to our own wishes. I hope to present this sense of severity in the film in the simplest way possible, with the intense conflict hidden beneath the surface.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5fOAFnOHoGXbwGubxcSbUs?si=20348572cc774870

While I was working on the script, I had an apt encounter with this song. The dark atmosphere it creates matches the tone of our location very well, and the lyrics' interpretation of love and death might make this simple story even more emotionally charged. Another source of inspiration was Apichatpong's film Cemetery of Splendour, in which I was struck by the soldiers who have trouble waking up from their dreams and the sudden lapses into sleep when they are awake. I was thinking that the bar, as an entertainment environment that creates an ambiguous atmosphere and immersive experience, in a way also makes drinking a sort of dream-like experience for the people there.

I would devise plots where the protagonist, for example, walks in wearing an ill-fitting uniform, would unconsciously hold the drinks list upside down and ask if the bar had the traditional cheap white alcohol. After getting repeated negative answers, he begins to question his existence and starts wandering the bar like a ghost. We might employ some image design or filters to shape the character's transformation.

This film ends with an old woman staring wide-eyed at children playing football in a destroyed meadow, with a digger at work in the distance. This scene does a great job of showing the conflict between a woman haunting in the past, and the relationship between industry, the future and nature. In my script, the protagonist would try to spy on the young people in the room from outside and listen to the sound of their dialogue as they play board games. But he doesn't understand how the board game is played, and what they are talking about. He repeatedly travels from room to room, only to find that no space can see and accept him.

The Chinese title of this Hong Kong film, released in 1998, is "Last year's fireworks were exceptional", directed by Fruit Chen, and the year 1997 coincided with the return of Hong Kong to the mainland. The title is both romantic and a beautiful metaphor.

It was a time of old and new.
Everyone is busy, they look for a new position.
The difference is: some people re-establish themselves, while others lose themselves in confusion.
--Fruit Chen ‘The Longest Summer’

This is a story that showcases absurdity, but because the reality itself is absurd, it actually showcases the truth. At this special moment before and after the handover, the people of Hong Kong harbour complex feelings of hatred and longing intertwined with each other. Therefore, this is a story that expresses a doomsday complex, in which countless angry Hong Kong people see the universally celebrated Handover Day as the doomsday, and want to rush to relieve themselves and vent their anger through indulgence before the doomsday arrives. Therefore, this is also a story of hope, as evidenced by the contrasting colours before and after the film, Fruit Chen is deliberately rendering a newborn Hong Kong. But at the turning point between the old and the new, how many of the little people seize the opportunity to be reborn in the same way that Hong Kong has been reborn after the handover?

This film is my favourite Hong Kong film. It links the gangster story, the love element and the change of era very closely. The main character of this film is very similar to the character in my script, he is a soldier in Hong Kong during the British rule, but he lost his job when Hong Kong was returned to the mainland. And faced with the challenges of the new era, it is difficult for this man in his forties to start his life all over again. He can only follow his younger brother to mix with the gangs, appearing to be out of step with the image of the younger generation. From this small character full of tragedy, we see the powerlessness of an individual facing the waves of the times. At the same time, the protagonist of my story also faces the dilemma of not being able to find a place to land in the ever-changing society. I plan to use some montages in the third part of the film to imitate the romance and fatalism in this film. Then I will use animation to wrap up the live-action part of the film.

In the animation part, I took a lot of factors into consideration for my character design. In the beginning, I envisioned the use of simple geometric shapes to symbolise the protagonist's lack of acceptance by the times. At the same time, I would split the animation part into multiple parts to be inserted in different parts of the film, as a way to complement the expression of the live action part. The live-action content will have a lot of detail, so I chose to use a more concise approach to convey my intentions directly.

But during the course, I learnt more about the animation production process. What impressed me the most was the connection between the image of an animated character and geometric shapes. It made me start to think about how the shapes of the characters are linked to the personality traits of different characters. Is there some sort of innate cognitive judgement mechanism behind this? With this in mind, I began my initial attempts at character design. In this scene, I tried to use different shapes to show the differences in the personalities of different people and the interaction between groups and individuals.

Storyline design

I gave a lot of thought to the design of the story line. First of all, I grabbed a few key elements to be highlighted in the short film: the conflict of life concepts, the identity of the young ex-soldier, the relationship between the other and the self, and so on. So I chose to shoot in a student bar in the dormitory area. As a kind of entertainment place from the western world, participating in a bar as a soldier often implies a dichotomy between rigid discipline and trendy hedonism. At the same time, alcohol, as a substance capable of giving a sense of pleasure and passion, often catalyses the contradiction. I decided to use the taste and preference for alcohol as an entry point to create the conflict. For young people, going to the pub for a drink is not only a reflection of a hip lifestyle, but also an expression of their attitude towards life through their choice of different kinds of alcohol. The main character's favourite drinks are cheap beer and high alcohol content Baijiu, which are regarded as old-fashioned and tasteless by contemporary young people. My design of this part of the film is also an attempt to use metaphorical techniques to reveal the multiple contradictions that exist in social reality, such as new and old, discipline and individuality, obedience and rebellion.

As an animation beginner new to Adobe After Effects, I have encountered a number of challenges in the learning process. Firstly, controlling the movement of graphics was a difficult task for me. In AE, every detail of the animation needs to be precisely controlled, and at first it was difficult for me to understand how to use keyframes to control the movement path and speed of the graphics. I gradually learnt how to set keyframes and adjust them to achieve smooth animation effects by watching online tutorials and practicing over and over again.

Another challenge was adding light effects. In animation, light effects can greatly enhance the visual effect, but I didn't know how to use the effects and presets in AE to create these light effects at first. By reading the official documentation and attending online seminars, I learnt how to use effects such as Glow and Halo and how to adjust their parameters to achieve the desired visual effect.

Keyframing was also a learning curve for me. I initially struggled with when to add keyframes and how to create animations from them. Through practice and error, I learned how to control every detail of the animation through keyframes, including position, scaling, rotation, and transparency.
On a personal note, animation is both a challenging and creative process. Whenever I successfully complete an animation effect, the sense of achievement is unparalleled. Although the process is full of setbacks and failures, these experiences have taught me patience and perseverance. I have also become more and more aware that animation is not only a technical job, but also a kind of artistic expression. Through animation, I am able to tell stories and convey emotions, which makes me passionate and excited about animation production. Although I still have a lot to learn, I believe that with time and experience, I will be able to produce even more wonderful animation works.

Here is a short critic I wrote after watching the Mirror, an autobiographical film directed by Andrei Tarkvosky in 1975, compared with another film Antichrist by Lars von Trier, with the analysis of the theme of Mirror. This work by Tarkovsky has provided me with a lot of ideas for my film studies as well as my view of history.

The house of Eden and the forest in Lars Von Trier's Antichrist are transformed in The Mirror into a mnemonic technology in Stiegler's sense of a material for the construction of a symbolic narrative space on a second scale of holding, where the symmetry and gaze of the mirror elevate the mnemonic technology to a historical one: the continuation of the scars of the small family in parallel with the development of socialism in Central America and the USSR constitutes a meta-mirror for the depoliticisation of the mirror, i.e., questioning the non-political but still subordinate parts of the politicised narrative of historical events. The Edenic forest of The Antichrist is the source of Gainsbourg's (female) fear, proposing that the feminine evil is intrinsically rooted in Satan, the switching between black and white and colour shots reveals the stages, and the forest house of The Mirror is both the emitter of the gaze and the object of it being gazed at by the parents in the meadow, the source of the historical, symmetrical, and intertextual. The unloved boy in the army, the unseen father ashamed of his failings, the quarrels in the printing house, the sacrificial fires, the stuttering and healing in front of the camera, the shouts and the silence after the end credits, all lead to one hidden but sudden Cultural Revolution after another.

The Mirror, Andrei Tarkovsky (1975)

I selected two of these stills and put them into my animation production as symbols of the old ideology with collectivist and communist ideas. As the colours of the national and party flags, these red circles represent the army under collectivism, the inspired masses, and the revolutionary elements. As the animation changes, one of the red dots gradually breaks away from the collective, out of the context of the Cultural Revolution, and ends up in a more colourful and modern international city.

These different shapes and their continuous changes and movements represent young people who are actively integrating into the new wave of the times and pursuing their own individuality. They are contrasted with the red dot that moves to the centre of the frame and then stops moving. This is the beginning of the story, and the rest of the film is an experience of the protagonist's attempts to fit in with the youth after leaving the army.

Here's the animation at the beginning of the film (version 1)：https://video.xjtlu.edu.cn/Mediasite/Play/9aa6dfc9b68349c6839a4a5d5c2ed7491d

The film is roughly divided into two parts, the first from the time the main character enters the bar and takes his seat to the time he leaves his seat. The main character doesn't understand what a cocktail is, and he can't read the drinks list. After repeatedly asking the bartender, he finds out that the bar doesn't have what he used to drink, and he's disappointed. From the moment he leaves his seat to the moment he pushes the door towards the river is the second part. In this part, he repeatedly pushes open the doors of different booths, trying to understand their laughter, but ultimately to no avail. With the music playing, he no longer has the guts or the pride to try to fit in with groups that are not his. So eventually he walks out of the pub and goes to the river alone.
Although the protagonist of this story is a young man who has just left the army, in reality, almost no one pays attention to these peers who return to school after being discharged from the army. The mental and physical training they underwent in the army is precisely what most contemporary Chinese young people despise. In the 21st century, Chinese people as a whole are still faced with enormous fragmentation and contradictions in their mindset. It is not only the internal conflicts between peers shown in the film, but in fact, every generation faces the dilemma of having difficulty in communicating with and understanding each other's predecessors and successors.

In the second part of the animation, I tried to add some light effects to make the image a bit richer. At the same time, I also wanted to maintain the coherence of the expression and make the story more complete. So I intentionally added a light effect in the upper left corner of the ending animation, which seems to be a bit of a contradiction. I also mentioned in the main character's line, ‘Such a harsh light above my head’. In fact, this is inspired by a statement made by the President of China: ‘God is three feet upon your head’, but the CCP, which claims to be a materialistic atheist, openly talks about this superstitious saying of the old society, but I didn't want to get myself into trouble, so I wrote it very subtly in the line. And perhaps the light above the head of the protagonist of the story is just a kind of unconscious self-monitoring after being brainwashed by the army's ideology? Or maybe it's his desperate need for a stable spiritual dependence that he had in the army, in the face of a world that has become incredibly strange and complicated?

Bilibili link of the film: CAT214 Assignment_哔哩哔哩_bilibili

This experience of animation and filmmaking has provided me with a lot of food for thought about collaborative practice. As current Arts, Technology and Entertainment students, we are required to play the roles of director, actor, editor, and animation and audio designer at the same time! This is not only a test of our time management skills, but also a major test of our learning and collaborative communication skills. Since my partner and I have no basic knowledge in animation production and I am not good at hand-drawing, I can feel the obvious gap compared to other students who are good at art or visual design. At the same time, this also allowed me to reflect more deeply on my own abilities. I believe that I have a unique ability to appreciate film and think in a unique way, so I hope to highlight my own strengths in the choice of subject matter and the angle of exploration. As the work progressed, I became more in tune with my film partner. We had never worked together before and we didn't know each other at all. Compared to the other groups in the class, it was more difficult for us to work and communicate in the early stages. However, we miraculously managed to shoot the live action content in a very short time, and although the subsequent editing work is still complicated, I believe we will still have the opportunity to communicate and share more in the next semester.

After getting to know each other as partners, we not only discussed how to do the filming, but also chatted a lot about our understanding of the subject of Chinese. Especially during the Brainstorming stage, I suggested that we could show the characters' personality through the difference of shapes, and he agreed and shared the results of our discussion during the class presentation. And we both shared our concerns about the current state of Chinese society and the many dilemmas faced by young people. Compared to the classroom task itself, these free and equal exchanges also gave me a deep appreciation of the joy of co-operation and sharing.