The Networked Storyteller and Her Digital Tale: Film Festivals and Ann Hui’s 'My Way'

In cooperation with China’s Youku online channel, the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society commissioned Ann Hui to make a short film, My Way, to be part of an omnibus production, Beautiful 2012. In order to be considered for this commission, Hui needed to be acknowledged at international film festivals and be a recognized auteur known in the Asian region and beyond. Without Hui’s festival credentials and the reputation of the other directors in the curated production, the collected shorts would have little appeal to other programmers and distributors. Although she has famously resisted the label of “film auteur” in the past, Ann Hui undoubtedly stands as the most celebrated female director based in Hong Kong active before and after the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in 1997.Given the length of her career as well as the impressive critical and scholarly attention her work has garnered, Hui serves as an exemplary case study of how film festivals play a vital role in the career of a Hong Kong female fiction film director. In the case of My Way, the festival circuit permits a specific type of production and digital distribution that enables Hui to craft a network narrative, which places the transition of its protagonist from male to female within a broader community connected through a shared gender identity. By analyzing Ann Hui’s presence at the festivals in Venice and Hong Kong, as well as the link between her festival exposure and her Internet success, My Way offers insight into the circuitous paths women filmmakers follow in order to tell their stories on transnational screens.

Visual Metaphors in Set and Properties Design for ‘Setengah Nada Bergeming’ Film Trailer

In a film production, production design is an important aspect that supports the narrative or story. In production design visual metaphors are often used as concepts for sets and props which have the ability to transform a long text into a shorter visual. Visual metaphor itself is a representation of a place, person, nature, and object that can be a tool to build a narrative as well as describe the nature of a character in a film. The use of visual metaphors can be done by understanding the characters in the film, because each have different characteristics and its own uniqueness. By understanding and using the 3-dimensional aspect of the character as the basis for the design of sets and props, production designers can apply visual metaphors in the design of sets and properties that are suitable for the needs of characters and narratives in films. This paper uses a qualitative approach which elaborates the process of applying visual metaphors into the set and properties design, by using the 3-dimensional character theory as the base for producing the short film trailer entitled Setengah Nada Bergeming. This research finds that by dissecting each element of the 3-dimensional character, production designer can intensify not only how a character is represented and how its contributes in building the entire narrative of the story. Keyword: visual metaphors, 3-D characters, sets, properties, short film, trailer.

SATIRE LANGUAGE STYLE BY BU TEJO IN THE SHORT FILM “TILIK”

The use of satire language style by a film creator aims to convey meaning to the public. This study aims at analyzing the use of satire language styles used by Bu Tejo in a short film entitled "Tilik." This research used a qualitative descriptive method. The object of this research is satire utterances spoken by Bu Tejo in the film "Tilik." The data collection techniques in this study used observation, listening, and note-taking techniques. The results demonstrate three types of satire languages used by Bu Tejo in the film “Tilik": cynicism, irony, and sarcasm. It is also found that cynicism is the most spoken language than sarcasm. The study highlights that the use of satire language uttered by Bu Tejo aims to convey ideas and perspectives related to problems occurring in society and express dissatisfaction.

Copla, flamenco y cine

Few are the artists who really triumph in the song, during the first years of life of the cinema, and of the radio, at the beginning of the 20th century. Within the historical context that we will proceed to establish, reference will be made to music, focusing on the copla and flamenco, in the period in which the cinematographic image lacks sound integrated into the film band, being synchronized for years film and album in trade passes. In the early twenties, the most famous singer was none other than Raquel Meller, especially in the field of cuplé, without forgetting Pastora Imperio, who excelled in flamenco. But a new voice would arrive, that of Conchita Piquer. The three artists, versatile where they exist, each one from their place, change the history of cinema by participating in the shootings to which they are summoned. History and even biographers continue to mix dates, titles and formats today. The time has come to put the first years of cinema in order again, now with Conchita Piquer, who is the first Spanish artist to shoot a sound short film outside of Spain. Pocos son los artistas que realmente triunfan en la canción, durante los primeros años de vida del cine, y de la radio, a principios del siglo XX. Dentro del contexto histórico que procederemos a establecer, se realizará referencia a la música, centrándonos en la copla y el flamenco, en el periodo en que la imagen cinematográfica carece de sonido integrado en la banda de película, siendo sincronizado durante años película y disco en los pases comerciales. En los primeros años veinte, la más famosa cantante no es otra que Raquel Meller, sobre todo en el campo del cuplé, sin olvidar a Pastora Imperio, quien destacaba en el flamenco. Pero, llegaría una nueva voz, la de Conchita Piquer. Las tres artistas, polivalentes donde las haya, cada una desde su sitio, cambian la historia del cine al participar en los rodajes a los que son convocadas. La historia e incluso los biógrafos, continúan actualmente entremezclando fechas, títulos y formatos. Ha llegado el momento de poner en orden, nuevamente, los primeros años del cine, ahora con Conchita Piquer, quien es la primera artista española en rodar fuera de España un cortometraje sonoro.

Ethical Representation of Speech while Communicating in the Short Film “Pemean”

This study analyzes the ethics of one of the characters in the film "Pemean" through the speech and language he uses based on sociolinguistic studies. Background: this research departs from ethical problems in the use of speech used by the community when communicating in terms of the dialogues in the conversation of the film "Pemean". Objective: This study aims to provide understanding and skills in the use of speech and ethics that can be implemented properly in everyday life. Question: The question of this research is what is the relationship between speech and language through conversation used by the characters in the short film “Pemean”, which is based on people's reactions. Method: In this study, the researcher uses a qualitative method with a descriptive narrative approach, where the researcher analyzes the short film "Pemean" from the language side of the character's dialogue and relates the dialogue to the prevailing ethics in Indonesia, especially in the Java based on the results of questionnaires and interviews. Respondents are Javanese people aged between 15-30 years and understand the context of conversation and language use in the short film "Pemean". Research data: results of questionnaires and interviews as well as dialogues of the characters in the film "Pemean". Results: the analysis of this study resulted, 1) A person's speech reflects that person's behavior; 2) Most people choose to remain silent or ignore them when they find a figure like Mbak Sum's character. Recommendation: for further research, we hope that researchers can find out how a person's speech can reflect his behavior and the reason why people prefer silence in dealing with someone like Mbak Sum. Limitation: on the relationship between a person's speech and language with his behavior and attitudes taken by society in responding to similar problems as in the movie.

The Meaning of Da’wah in Rich Short Films Without Wealth

Da'wah is an activity to spread knowledge of Islam to all corners of the world. With the development of the times, it becomes a challenge for the da'i so that their da'wah can be enjoyed and disseminated more widely. In this digital era, visual media is the most effective tool used to spread da'wah. One of the media that is currently popular is YouTube. The ease of YouTube's popularity needs to be put to good use, such as creating and displaying educational content with Islamic elements, such as films of the religious genre. The researcher analyzed the da'wah contained in rich short films without religious genre treasures on the YouTube channel of Muslim filmmakers to find the meaning of denotation, connotation and myth in the film. The research method used is descriptive qualitative with Roland Barthes' semiotic approach. The type of research used is field research, researchers observe the object directly. The results of this study are that the meaning of denotation in this study is about the description of human life in facing various trials of life in family, neighbors and friends. The meaning of the connotations in the short film Kaya without treasure is that sincerity, gratitude and patience will make us calmer and accept what is. The meaning of the myth in the short film rich without wealth is that alms will make us more grateful for what Allah SWT has given us. The message of moral da'wah is more dominant in this film.

Stage-directing the Virtual Reality Experience: Developing a Theoretical Framework for Immersive Literacy

Despite the incremental improvement and inclusion of immersive technologies in entertainment, training simulation, fine art, inclusive design, academia, and education; Virtual Reality (VR) still faces issues regarding its ability to compete with films and animation in visual storytelling without merging into the realm of video games. In 2015, Pixar’s Ed Catmull warned moviemakers that Virtual Reality is “not storytelling” and argued that the linear aspect of narratives poses an obstacle that cannot be overcome with VR. In contrast, Catmull argued that VR has immense application in games. However, VR creators have been pushing the boundaries and possibilities of delivering narratives in virtual spaces. In 2019, the VR experience “Gloomy Eyes” was presented at the Sundance festivals featuring a 30-minute story split between 3 episodes. The simulation is structured to provide its audience with some degrees of freedom while guiding them intuitively through the virtual space. In 2021, Blue Zoo also released a VR project titled “The Beast” featuring a cyclist powering up a snow-covered mountain. The short film was entirely created in Quill VR with the intention of being treated like a theatrical play rather than a film. While the creators of “The Beast” have explicitly mentioned the influence of theatre, “Gloomy Eyes” draws its visual language from similar theatrical roots. This paper argues that VR has been mistakenly compared to film and animation when it should be associated with theatre. The audience of both are not passive as they are during the screening of a film or animation. The space and the medium demands participation through their presence in the same space with the actors/characters. Theatre presents a promising candidate for extracting criteria that could be used to develop a visual language for VR. This research aims to formulate a framework for developing a VR visual language through comparison between character-driven narratives in VR such as “Gloomy Eyes” and “The Beast”. The comparative study establishes overlapping criteria and characteristics found in the structure, literacy, sound, and delivery format of narratives in a theatrical performance. These criteria are then outlined and discussed, drawing from affordance theory and discussions on aural and visual attention in theatre, to form a holistic view in approaching VR literacy.

Future Movement Future – REJECTED

In a not-too-distant future, an anonymous researcher and their team applied for funding to develop their newest invention: a new algorithmic model for smart cameras that would allow people to analyze the movement of cars at a previously unheard-of scale. This system was said to enable new forms of predictive capabilities to emerge: the algorithm would be able to, for example, predict the route drivers wanted to take but had not yet taken—including, for example, their occult inner desires for getting away with a secret lover. A panel of academic reviewers from three different universities audited and reviewed the proposed system. All that is left are segments of the video-report resulting from this meeting, which became an urban legend among technology researchers. The short film “Future Movement Future – REJECTED” is the story of a dystopian surveillance future that was barred by institutional refusal. It importantly reminds us about how total surveillance, the “almighty algorithmic eye,” may end up seeing-predicting much less than imagining-dreaming.