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Interview of Zhao Jia, the director of the music movie “Reminiscence”

 


Profile:


Jia Zhao is a film and television writer and director. He is passionate about presenting the beauty of the ordinary. In all his works, he believes every moment is a reflection of life. We experience the sublimity of our ordinary life. His works are Battle Through The Heavens (斗破苍穹), 2021 TV series remake of Jin Yong’s Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (天龙八部), Music films Open The Door to The World (打开世界的门), Far From Honghe (红河的远方), and Reminiscence (花西子), TV series The Round Table (圆桌派), Heros of Chinese Characters (汉字英雄), Literature Heros (文学英雄). Documentary series Collecting Time (收藏时光), The Echo of Time (时间的回响), etc.

 

His works are internationally acclaimed and won the 2019 and 2020 Venice Film Festival “FILMING ITALY BEST MOVIE AWARD,” Best Music Short Film. 2019 Asian-American Film Festival Best Short Film Award, The 25th China International Advertising Festival Annual Media Enterprise Cooperation Case Award, Douban China's Best Cultural Program of the Year Award, Asian-American Film Festival Best Short Film Award, etc.

 


Question 1:

Reminiscence is a musical film piece. Is there anything special which a film-maker must do or consider when making a film accompanying music?

Answer: 

Filmmaking is never a person's world. It covers the most diverse creativity and the best teamwork in order to present the story perfectly on the screen.

The music in the film is one of the most important elements to promote the mood of the plot. The changeable rhythm will create a very good effect and mood. The combination of different musical elements, the creative concept of interlacing fast and slow, the emotions of the characters, and the arrangement. You can get visual imagination just by listening, and it is the same as the actual visual seen by your eyes. It is like looking at the bright sky and listening to music at the same time, which is the charm of music movies.

 

Question 2:

Can you tell us about your use of SFX as Reminiscence uses a lot of arresting images and fascinating composition which seems like it was done using digital effects.

Answer: 

It was shot in the Xin'an River in Jiande, China, where the river is full of mist all year round, so no digital special effects were done.

This film has put a lot of effort into the color grading. The color grading of this film was done by my friend Hua Cheng. As one of the best colorists in China, he has a great control over the overall light distribution and tone of the film. My award-winning work in Venice also came from his color grading. We have cooperated with each other for many years and have a tacit understanding, so when we discussed the tone style of this music video, everyone felt exactly the same. Based on the ink painting style, the overall image style reflects a serene beauty.

 

Question 3:

Director Jia Zhao has an extensive career in film and television. What are the main differences in directing for cinema and directing for television?

Answer: 

Compared with TV dramas, films focus more on plots and scenes, can better reflect cultural contradictions and differences, and have definite characters and endings. A film should pay more attention to telling a good story in the timeline, and a known contradiction will definitely be resolved in a short time; while a TV series pays attention to the dialogue and details of the characters in the play. The presentation of the TV series also allows the story to continue to expand, while the film is short-lived.

In recent years, with the increasing investment of top production companies such as Netflix and HBO, and with the popularization of high-definition widescreen TVs, TV dramas that are limited by the shooting and broadcasting carriers have gotten rid of the limitations of the filming and broadcasting medium. The visual expression is gradually moving closer to the film, and the quality is getting better. So, to me, the film is more like an extreme dream experience, while the TV series is a long life story.

 

Question 4:

You’ve been given many accolades and awards from around the world, including the 2019, and 2020 Venice Film Festival “FILMING ITALY BEST MOVIE AWARD,” Best Music Short Film. 2019 Asian-American Film Festival Best Short Film Award, The 25th China International Advertising Festival Annual Media Enterprise Cooperation Case Award, Douban China's Best Cultural Program of the Year Award, Asian-American Film Festival Best Short Film Award. Is it important to you to be recognised with these awards and how does it make you feel?

Answer:

The world is full of beauty, especially in China, with its poetic and cultural heritage, this land is full of ancient elements - mountains, rivers, forests, ancient species, songs, relics...

As a director, it is a kind of encouragement and happiness to convey the beauty in my heart to the world through images and to be recognized. I like to incorporate my emotions into the images in a soft and gentle way, presenting a poetic humanistic style. I hope the work can be a long-term imprint.

 

Question 5:

What future projects do you have coming up? What are you working on right now?

Answer:

I'm working on another musical movie soon, and a third-draft script for a theatrical movie as well. The progress of some projects has been very slow due to the epidemic. 

But instead, there is more time to think, maybe life needs a kind of stop, calm down and settle down, and there will be better inspiration for the future.

 


Interviewed by: David James Bell

Edited by: Lisa TAO


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