Two Duke Kunshan University teams won awards at the Shanghai 48-Hour Film Festival against stiff competition from 15 other student and professional film crews.
Team Focus picked up the trophy for Best Student Film, Best Use of Location and was given an honorable mention in the Best Costume category, while Team Weaver received an honorable mention in Best Student Film.
The September competition gave each team just 48 hours to produce their film, including scriptwriting, shooting and editing. They also had to abide by competition rules that included inserting pre-written lines into the script, using props provided by the competition organizers and choosing one of several set themes. Both DKU teams picked the theme of doppelganger.
Team Focus’s film ‘Wu’ told the story of Xiaoyu Cheng, a girl born with a disability that stops her from following her dream to become a dancer. She meets masked actress Lin Feng, who teaches her to overcome her disability, despite herself having impaired sight. When one day Lin’s mask falls off, it is revealed that she is in fact Xiaoyu’s other identity.
Yuxuan Leng, who was the director and script writer for Team Focus, said shooting the film was particularly challenging due the production time limit and the crew’s lack of experience.
For team cinematographer Kaiqi Wu, the process was quite overwhelming. “After submitting the film, I felt a strong emotion from nowhere and cried so hard for no reason,” he said.
Co-producer and actress Chujie Cao praised the crew’s “joint dedication” to complete the film against the clock.
Other members of Team Focus included Director of Photography Jiarui Diao and Producer Yinan Wang.
Heejae Yun, who wrote and directed Team Weaver’s film ‘Delay’, said her crew aimed to “enjoy the process” despite its challenges.
Her team filmed on the Duke Kunshan campus, and used friends as actors, during a hurried two day shoot that spanned both day and night.
Filming after dark proved problematic, she said, because it created difficult lighting conditions, while shooting on campus meant there were issues over non-actors getting in shot.
The film focused on a woman called Ginger, who dreams about the murder of her lookalike and tries to prevent it, but instead ends up effectively witnessing her own death.
“It was an exhausting process, but we learned a lot from it,” said Yun, who hopes to work as a film director after university. “I had made short films before, but I hadn’t worked in a big group project like this. It gave me a lot of encouragement.”
Other members of Team Weaver included Producer Yuri Park, Camera Director Jiahe Chen, Camera Assistant Jietong Zhou, Director of Photography Yucen Xiao, Main Editor Mingjiang Gao, Assistant editor Ann Tong, Sound Engineer Davit Kavkasyan, Sound Designer Jiho Park, Sound Composer Tianying Hu and Art Director Shutong Zhang.
This was not the first time Duke Kunshan student teams have had success in the event. Last year, a team led by Kaley Clements, assistant professor of media and arts won several awards for their film, “Requiem for a Martyr”, including best film, editing, cinematography, sound design, poster, producer and lighting.
Commenting on this year’s Duke Kunshan teams Clements said: “I’m proud of what both of our DKU teams were able to achieve at the 48-Hour Film Festival challenge. Filmmaking is a process, and part of the beauty of filmmaking is that you get to choose your own process.
“I was unfortunately away during the competition this year, but our students came together, helped each other grow, and worked in teams to continue to build on the DKU filmmaking program’s success. Both alumni and experienced students are helping their peers grow as they collaborate to discover and adapt their filmmaking process,” he added.
