Frontiers of Animation #1

Weijia Ma: Personal Stories – behind the scene of independent film making

I have found my interests in taking a personal perspective of story telling since my last film: „THE SAME RIVER TWICE“. After finishing it, the obsessing of the river image lead me to digging deeper about my childhood memories in that environment.

It was such an experience for me to make the animated short „STEP INTO THE RIVER“. The script was written based on real stories I know for years. I’d like to talk about the background of me, and the social problems that was addressed in the film. And share how did I take materials and formed into the script. How to keep the important things, and over come the emotional vision I had that might blocked my sight. How to provide the visual developments, and tests. Also some skills of pitching your ideas to people. And a wonderful experience of working with my team.

My previous film „THE SAME RIVER TWICE“ will be shared before the lecture for you to watch. I will show the whole film „STEP INTO THE RIVER“ during the lecture. The production images will also be revealed during the lecture.