The avant-garde film masterpiece "The Diary of Amy Grain" ushered in the "award season"

The high-quality short film "The Diary of Amy Grain", written and directed by Shu Zi, the founder of self-documentary film and the director of ghostly beauty, has been shortlisted for the famous independent film festival "Hong Kong Third Cultural Independent Film Festival". It is understood that the film has become a regular visitor to many well-known film festivals around the world this year. "The Diary of Amy Grain" previously won the 2016 Los Angeles Short Film Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Actress, and has been shortlisted for many well-known film festivals such as the Global Short Film Festival. In particular, it is worth mentioning that the film, as the only Chinese short film selected, will be screened in the "Short Film Corner" section of the 69th Cannes Film Festival in May this year. It can be said that since the nomination of the Hong Kong Third Cultural Film Festival, the film is expected to usher in a global "award season". The director revealed that "Amy's Diary" is expected to be fully landed on major mainstream websites in June this year.

"The Diary of Amy Grain" has won the favor of film festivals around the world

In the new work "Amy's Diary", director Shuzi uses her unique perspective to show a real love. The film tells the love story of Amy (Shuzi) and Yang Xiaomeng (Liu Xiaomeng) who met and fell in love due to a misunderstanding, and finally had no choice but to separate. Shuzi, who directs herself and plays herself, uses her mobile phone to record the beginning and end of this relationship in the film, eliminating the distance between the film and real life, giving people laughter and making people think deeply. Talking about the story idea, Shuzi said: "In fact, most people's love is not champagne, red wine, party, and what I want to do is to tell such a grounded love that happens to you and me."

Recently, the film has been shortlisted for the Hong Kong Third Cultural Independent Film Festival (TCFF). It is understood that the Hong Kong Third Culture Film Festival is a famous independent film festival, designed for art films, experimental films, unique pioneer films and filmmakers. This year, the festival has collected more than 1,800 works worldwide and has set up 6 themes: "Animation, It's Not DISNEY", "Sensory World", "Fairy Tales & Dystopia", "Darkness", "Food, Family, Children, Parents", "Love and Confusion". And "Amy Grain Diary" participated in the theme of "Love and Confusion" this time, and will compete for TCFF Best Director and Best Actress. The film festival organizing committee commented: "It shows the confusion and love of the younger generation in a pioneering way, and the audience is no longer a simple bystander, but a witness to the story."

In addition to competing for the festival, "The Diary of Amy Grain" was also shortlisted for the 2016 Miami Short Film Festival, the 2016 Visit code independent film festival in the United States, the Global Short Film Festival and the "Short Film Corner" section of the 69th Cannes Film Festival. In the next few months, the film is expected to usher in a big explosive "award season" in many film festivals around the world. Director Shu Zi said: "The fact that Amy Grain Diary can participate in or participate in many film festivals around the world is a great affirmation of myself and my creative team, and an affirmation of this pioneering self-documentary shooting method that I insist on. Art should be the most valuable thing is the mind and body, and it has nothing to do with large-scale crews, senior teams, and high production costs. ”

Avant-garde film rookies create the "self-documenting" genre

It is understood that director Shu Zi won the CCTV Film V Program "Excellent Film" award in 2012 with the experimental short film "Six Degrees of Clutch" and won the opportunity to study in the director's class of the New York Film Academy. In 2014, she started her own business and pioneered the "self-documentary drama". Shu Zi introduced that "self-recording" is a kind of shooting and performance method in which the recorded person uses the shooting equipment to directly convey self-information to the audience in the first person. "Self-documentary dramas are filmed independently by actors using filming equipment, directly conveying the character's self-information and completing emotional expression to the audience in the first person," Shuzi said: "Using this avant-garde audiovisual grammar, the audience can be distracted from the script, the actors perform, empathize with the story, and enhance the sense of participation."

In 2014, Shuzi filmed and produced the documentary self-documentary Shuzi Entrepreneurship in a "self-documenting" manner, which was nominated for the 2nd Nishitsudo Documentary Awards. A year later, she and the production team launched the first self-documentary drama "Hi Boyfriend", which received 200 million hits after the network was launched, with an average episode of 1222 comments, and a comprehensive score of 8.038 on the eight major platforms of the network. And this year, Shu Zi with a new masterpiece "Amy Grain Diary", or will set off a new round of Internet drama wave. Shuzi said frankly: "This story continues my long-term 'self-documentary' idea, I hope that everyone can be the director of their own life through this way, the actors are also themselves, and the screenwriter is life."

Appeared in Hong Kong "Amy Grain" super high quality is favored

It is reported that at the just-opened Hong Kong Third Culture Film Festival, "Amy's Diary", which was a participating film, won the unanimous recognition of the guest judges of the film festival with its unique "self-documenting" genre and good quality. During the screening stage of the film, the innovative shooting method did not cause the audience to be "uncomfortable", the plot of laughter and tears was more thought-provoking, the laughter and applause in the screening room flew together, and the Hong Kong debut of "Amy Grain" was impressive.

It is worth mentioning that perhaps due to the novel shooting method that triggered a lot of curiosity from the audience judges, "The Diary of Amy Grain" became the only film work among the 68 films shortlisted for the Hong Kong Third Cultural Film Festival, and was invited to answer the judges' questions on the spot. At the scene, the representative of the main creative team of "Amy Grain" briefly introduced the emergence of the "self-record" genre in 2014, and said that he would definitely adhere to this new shooting method to bring more surprises to the audience: "This unique shooting method was produced in 2014, and it was felt that the first-person performance method might be able to make the audience have a stronger sense of substitution. At the same time, we have always hoped to be able to give ourselves and the audience something fresher, such as my personal favorite male and female protagonists in the film to "seduce" each other, and the first-person expression, so that we have a stronger sense of participation in front of the screen. In other words, I think this is the most memorable moment that truly belongs to the male and female protagonists."

Interestingly, it may be because the overly realistic shooting method makes some judges still a little uncomfortable, and some people on the scene even asked whether the film really has a "script", to which the main creative representative quipped: "Although the film looks very real, there is indeed a 'script'." However, unlike the traditional film script first, the 'self-recorded' film screenwriting work is two-way, that is, we need the actors to first follow the previously established script for the character life material, and then the director re-integrates the material, logically organizes, to put it simply, it is to carry out the work of the screenwriter twice. This makes the film look more realistic. ”

The young team, the new shooting method, the high-quality "self-documented" works, the gorgeous appearance in Hong Kong, let many young filmmakers see their future, when it comes to whether they can give some points to the audience who are new to the film circle, the "Amy Grain" crew shows its humble side, "Our team is still very young, let alone dare to say what advice to everyone, just hope that all filmmakers who love movies can stick to their 'obsession', do not forget the original intention, and dedicate the best works to all those who love movies." ”

It is reported that the film is expected to fully land on major mainstream websites in June this year.