The "Kaohsiung Film Festival", which has been held for 21 years, has become an iconic film festival in Taiwan under the hard work of the organizers over the years.
For example, the new generation of Directors in Taiwan, such as Huang Xinyao, director of "Big Buddha Plus", and Cheng Weihao, director of "Soul Hunting", have gradually emerged as short films at the Kaohsiung Film Festival, making the Kaohsiung Film Festival a very important platform for Taiwanese film and television creators.
This year's Xiongying film, for the first time, opened with a short film lineup, in addition to the short documentary film "Good Night Can't Stay" directed by the famous director - Cai Mingliang, there is also the "Isolation Of Tenney Short Films" co-produced by kaohsiung Film Museum and Public Television.
The three directors each shot three short films related to the epidemic: one of the short films in the form of a documentary, "Diary of Epidemic Prevention at Home", directed by Lin Yayou, who just won the Golden Bell Award "TV Movie Award" for "Supervisor Goodbye", and hired Huang Stirrup Hui and Cai Jiayin to participate in the shooting, which is the only work in the three short films to be completed as a documentary.
But in fact, the documentary was originally scheduled to be a feature film. Therefore, from the plot to the documentary, let us enter the story behind the "Home Epidemic Prevention Diary".
As the only documentary short film in the opening film "Isolation Of Tenney Short Films", the birth of "Home Epidemic Prevention Diary" can be said to be a little pure accident.
Because there was originally a story script, but a week before the start of filming, it encountered a third-level alert in Taiwan, director Lin Yayou said:
"When I first got to the second grade, I actually encountered a lot of problems, because the original script was a scene of a hospital and a school, and then the original story was about a mother and daughter, the mother was a nurse, and the mother and daughter were going to start a small road trip, but on the day of the trip, the epidemic suddenly broke out, and they were going to meet but couldn't see each other." 」
Lin Yayou laughed and said that he was a "crow's mouth", because in the original story, there were screening stations and regional fast screening stations, which were also called too exaggerated by the crew at the time, and unexpectedly, these settings that originally existed only in the story suddenly became "prophecy" as the epidemic in Taiwan gradually heated up, he said:
"At the second level, because many scenes can't be borrowed, so I have to talk to the main creator, if we really upgrade to the third level, we will stop first." 」
Later, the command center also decided to upgrade the epidemic situation in Taiwan to a third-level alert, and Lin Yayou decided to postpone the shooting plan after discussing with the main creator.
But Lin Yayou admitted that when the epidemic was just upgraded to the third level, he still wanted to shoot a drama film, but changed the story to a third-level vigilance, and let the characters present their interaction with each other in the form of video, at that time, the heroine Cai Jiayin and Huang Lingchen, who played the daughter, began to use video to interact and cultivate feelings, and then found Huang Stirrup hui to interpret the role of his father, he said: "At that time, the way I imagined was that there were records and mixed with some plots, and the situation could be mixed."
So Lin Yayou specifically asked the crew if anyone was willing to record their life on the third-level alert and use these images as material in this work. Lin Yayou explained that in the early stage of editing, there are still some situations in the work, but as the editing work progresses, these situations are slowly withdrawn, so that the positioning and outline of the video are more obvious, and finally become the "Home Epidemic Prevention Diary" that everyone will see on the male shadow.
Although the epidemic situation is severe, the work still needs to be completed, so when the director and the crew discussed the follow-up treatment, the two main actors Cai Jiayin and Huang Lingchen were not idle, and when they could not meet, they rehearsed the scene through video. Cai Jiayin said: "In fact, I spend more time chatting with Chenchen, talking about what she has been doing recently, watching her try new things, and watching her environment."
Cai Jiayin also shared interesting memories of the two videocasting: "Chenchen sometimes invents some games in front of the camera, like she will take a picture of herself, then change it to the background and run away, hoping that we will recognize that picture as her." 」 In fact, nine-year-old Huang Lingchen, as early as 2019, had co-starred with the film queen Lu Yijing in the short film "Grandma's Fart Car", and the two won the Golden Spike Award "Best Actress Award" with this film, and continued to perform in short films, Cai Jiayin smiled and said: "She may shoot more than me, is a senior!" 」
For the sudden change from the original drama to selfie at home, using the camera to record life during the epidemic, Cai Jiayin joked: "From the plot to the record, I have no rejection at all, I am still quite happy!" 」 She believes that during the epidemic, the scenes originally set by the story must not be able to enter, and she is also very much looking forward to what direction director Lin Yayou can develop in such a situation:
"Because I've seen Yayou's previous "Ride All the Time" and "Supervisor Goodbye", I want to know how his feature films have come to this point, but when he is forced to turn in a different direction, what will it look like?" 」
Cai Jiayin, who is also an actor and acting instructor, said that in the early days, Lin Yayou let her see the materials filmed by the crew, and when she saw it, she frankly said: "Acting can't win." Cai Jiayin explained that because the sense of existence of these images is more prominent than that of them to act, it is for her to convert the direction of the work into a documentary, but it will further enhance the realism of the images in the presentation of epidemic life.
As the subject matter shifted into a documentary, Cai Jiayin, while collecting the life of the third-level vigilance, also accidentally recorded the cremation process after the death of her friend's dog.
Also because the work is to record the life during the epidemic, Cai Jiayin accidentally recorded the moment when her dog died for her friend, she said: "Because the dog was born in their home and raised to teenagers." Cai Jiayin said that because she is also very close to this dog named "Shuai Shuai", plus she is his friend's favorite hair child, he asked whether he could cremate the day and record it?
After getting permission from her friends, Cai Jiayin filmed in a non-disturbing way. For Cai Jiayin, because of such a shooting opportunity, she can help her friend's most beloved dog to record its last journey in this world, although the last shot is not put into the finished product, but for her, it is worth it to have this image record.
In addition, in the scene in the film, it is Cai Jiayin who speaks to the camera, but her eyes are red, it looks like she just finished crying, and people can't help but be curious about the story behind it, to this, she said: "At that time, because I had to hand in an assignment to the director, and then record my own speech, I was the first to take, and I cried over there for half a day." As a result, because the first shot was crying, it could not be used, so I had to wait for the mood to calm down a little, and then filmed the second paragraph to Lin Yayou, who also explained his homework: "About the middle of July, I would like to say that I would like to ask everyone to record their self-knowledge or experience during this time."
In this regard, Cai Jiayin added that during the third-level alert, she actually did not feel depressed. She said that during that time, she stayed at home and only went out to buy once a month, but on the day of shooting the homework given by the director, she began to calculate how many people in Taiwan were taken away by the epidemic during that time, which made her feel inspired.
The image records in "Home Epidemic Prevention Diary", in addition to Lin Yayou and the actors, are also provided by the crew who originally found to shoot the feature film.
In addition to the original director Lin Yayou, the main actors of the story, Cai Jiayin, Huang Stirrup Hui and Huang Lingchen, most of the image materials in "Home Epidemic Prevention Diary" are from the crew, when everyone contributes their own image records after the three-level vigilance, in the face of such a huge amount of image materials, how does Lin Yayou decide which people's lives to put into the work?
Lin Yayou said: It is still based on materials with strong dramatic components. Lin Yayou took the assistant director who appeared in the "Home Epidemic Prevention Diary" as an example, he said that the crew had not been specially invited to record her life, but the deputy director later told him that she had not seen her daughter for a long time, and whether she should start recording her own life. Therefore, through the lens, we see a mother who has not seen her daughter for more than a month because of the epidemic, even if it is only a simple picture, she can feel the affection and strong thoughts.
For this group of partners who were supposed to shoot drama short films together, but let them start to record their epidemic prevention life, Lin Yayou was very grateful, so at the beginning, no matter what kind of pictures the staff took, Lin Yayou would receive everything according to the order. But he also said that later he will slowly ask them to give him more different pictures, through different pictures and a richer epidemic life, so that the outline of the whole work will gradually take shape.
In fact, in the process of editing, Lin Yayou has made many versions of the presentation of the video, and even one version is that each person involved in recording the life of the epidemic has a 5 to 10 minute version, and he himself likes this version very much. If the "director version" is launched, it may take up to 6 hours, but because of such a rich image, many interesting permutations can be derived.
Finally, it became the opening film of this male film, presenting the audience with such a documentary full of truth and emotion.