I never think I can be satisfied with my film Façade, although I could say that I put 110% efforts to make as best as I could. But I knew that it is still hard to make the film as I wanted with my tight budget and limited time. Well, it is not all about budget but it is in a way and I had so many other projects going on as well. I was asking myself if it’s worth for me to put all the money I have. I kept asking myself….somehow I knew that I won’t be satisfied with the final production (because I am never satisfied with anything) and won’t be as good as I expected (because I expect too much) before I start the project.
Right now, I am lost in space where I don’t even know what I should do. I need more time to finish my film but the due date is already set…I know that I have almost finished rotoscorping for the fighting scenes as well as some other scenes. I am quite happy with the way it looks but I still have couple of things to change. I couldn’t calm myself down…and I know this won’t help me at all at this stage if I keep making myself nervous…I can do it! I can do it! I can do it! It’s the time to test myself…

I have come to realized after such a long production and short production that I am truly lucky to get all my crew. I must say that it was not as easy as I expected since I had to come up with the entire budget and find my own crew who could work for my project without getting paid. It could have been a lot better if I had bigger budget for this short film but it could have been a lot worse if I didn’t find my great crew. Mostly, I tried my very best to feed all my crew and take care of them since I don’t pay them. However, it wasn’t easy for me to just pull out money from my pocket but this is how much I was serious and concerned about my project. I was worried about the crew if they don’t work hard or don’t feel the seriousness about the project (as much as I do)….I know that end of the day this project will be putting into their own folio and it is a good opportunity for them to prove themselves. I realized that it is not easy to make someone to work hard and make them to value the project as it is part of their project. I believe that making a film is not about just joining the production or work for someone for the credit. That would be a waste of time for everyone.
I guess I worry too much and think too much about it somehow. Now we are on post-production…today is already 5th of June and the due date for this project is just in 4days. I will try my best til the end.

Here are some production still!

YAPING’S JOURNEY

As Collaborative Project, we (Lindsay, Mazed, Sarah and I) are making a short documentary about Yaping’s Journey in Australia. Yaping is an contemporary chinese artist in Australia and her story certainly attracted us to make a documentary.
As Yaping’s background, she completed her Bachelor of Arts degree from the Sichuan Institute of Fine Art in China. Yaping taught art at the South Western China Teacher’s University before she came to Australia. She completed a post graduate Diploma in Art Education at RMIT in 1995. After that she decided to move full-time in to oil painting.

She was immersed in the world of modern art, working with painter Ron Reynolds, and through this exposure, Yapping began to explore those styles which better allowed her to express herself, her impressions and her feelings. Most of her work is based on still life, as she believes that objects provide the most fertile ground to recreate reality, using her own unique graphic language to give evidence of what she sees.

Working in acrylics in recent years, Yaping’s work builds bridges between the subjective and the objective points of view, with the form of the picture of pre-eminent importance. Resemblance against dissimilarity, reality versus abstract, all contribute to an exploration of shapes, lines and colours. Her paintings stretch the imagination, yet are infinitely pleasing to the eye. The early influences of Miro and Klee are in evidence.

Among her achievements:

2003- 1st Prize for best other medium painting at the Mount View Annual Art show
2000- 1st Prize for Best Acrylic at St. Kevin’s Annual Art Show
1997- Best Pastel Award and Highly Commended Painting in Oil at DTAS spring Exhibition
1998- Juge’s Encouragement Award Loyola Art Exhibition
1999- Highly Commended, St. Kevin’s Art Show

Yaping has participated in a number of group exhibitions, and many of her works have been acquired for private collections. She is a past member of the Victorian Artists society and the Doncaster and Templestowe Art Society.

Currently she is teaching calligraphy in Melbourne University part-time, and she being the director and teacher in her owe art school, which is in Preston, Box Hill, Glen Waverley, Doncaster, and Collinwood. She also has a regular meeting with few Australian female artists each week. Now she is preparing her own exhibition, which has been held on 5th November.

Yaping’s Journey

Short Synopses:
A 15 minutes short documentary, Yaping tells the moving real life story about one Chinese born woman, who found herself crossing countries and cultures to fulfill her dream to become an artist.

Long Synopses:
A 15 minutes short documentary, Yaping tells the moving real life story about one Chinese born woman crossing countries and cultures to fulfil her dream to become an artist. Yaping was a successful University art teacher in China. However, when she left China to join her husband in Australia, she found life difficult. She had to work in a factory, and totally lost her confidence. After few years, she was determined to go back to painting. Through her efforts, she built up her own painting school, she also had successful personal exhibitions around Melbourne, and now she even teaches at Melbourne University. Yaping has her confidence back, she is happy, positive and a social painter, and pursues her dreams.

Yaping’s Life is directed by Lindsay XL.LI and it is her first foray into the short documentary as a director.

Principal Crew

Producer
Eun Mi Kim
Lindsay, Xianglin, Li

Director
Lindsay, Xianglin, Li

Production Manager
Lindsay, Xianglin, Li

Cameraman
Khandakar Mazed
Damien Pierce
Lindsay

Sound
Eun Mi Kim
Dolly, Dian Wang
Lindsay, Xianglin, Li

Script Writer
Lindsay, Xianglin, Li

Editor
Lindsay, Xianglin, Li

Editor Assistant
Khandakar Mazed
Sarah, Huan, Ren

Scriptwriter
Lindsay, Xianglin, Li

Music composer
Michael Kerton

Produced with the assistance of
Yue, Wang
Auralia, Yujing, Dong

Special Thanks To
Asipac Filming
Box hill Contemporary Lady Group
Gallery

Supervising producers
Leo Berkeley
Rachel Wilson

I feel bad that I made my music composer (Nick) to change the fighting sound 4 times because I kept changing the scenes…Why am I keep changing when I have no time to mark around..? I just could not accept the fact that I am not 100% sure or happy with what I have. I just could not accept the fact that I do not have time to keep on editing.
Thankfully, my music composer never said a word that he won’t do or don’t want to do…I wouldn’t say I am totally happy with my film but I must say that it is amazing feeling that this film has finally ended. I am just happy that everything went pretty well. It was a good lesson for me that I would not have such a chance to mark around with my work for a long time.