A Nokia elderly mobile phone is all the means of communication to contact him and turn life into a performance art. After four months of SVA offer, the performance artist who takes the direction route will not be kidnapped by modern communication. He is the main character of this episode, Cheng Xiao

　　 New York Institute of Visual Arts SVA pays attention to the independence of students' creation. In SVA's opinion, independence is the best way to create DNA as a film creator, while Chengxiao is not only the best practitioner of "independence", but also the best practitioner of "independence" - interview with SVA directors!

It is difficult to get in touch with him in the traditional way, because he is not in the mainstream of social communication today. The oldest Nokia mobile phone and an email address are all the bridges between him and the outside world. In the art path, he also did not stick to the same pattern, insisted on using his own ideas, and finally won the recognition of SVA. Fortunately, we finally met him by chance, and we were able to show you such a special little director's journey to school.

SVA Director

School of Visual Arts

Film production/undergraduate

　　 Basic information of trainees:

Chengxiao, a student from Beijing Campus who loved movies since childhood, is a senior high school student. Under the guidance of the natural light teacher, she spent four months preparing her portfolio and was admitted to SVA School. Chengxiao is a very characteristic performance artist, which is the unanimous evaluation of his teachers and classmates. Many people are impressed by the way of communication alone. In the era of information explosion and various platforms competing for user time, they are not influenced by the mainstream, and concentrate on their own art world. They only communicate with the outside world when necessary. The collection of works has also changed the current hot topics, and won the dream school offer with novel and controversial topics.

Natural light: How did you come into contact with the major of director? Why choose film director major?

　　 I have long wanted to learn film. I have watched movies since junior high school, and I also paid more attention to this industry. At that time, I followed a WeChat public account called Hongmo. They had a WeChat group, so I added it. Because it was a fan group, there were many people together, and I found that I had never seen any of the movies they said. They were all old movies, so I took remedial classes and watched them together. Over the years, Gradually, I began to dream of making films by myself.

        The premise of director's specialty is to improve his comprehensive appreciation ability

That's probably the case. Now I usually watch movies with Beijing fans and learn from each other.

For students majoring in art/design, a continuous stream of inspiration and ideas, as well as independent thinking and cognitive ability, are absolutely indispensable. As we mentioned earlier, Chengxiao students have formed their own unique understanding of film and artistic creation before starting classes.

This recognition is very important in the application for art study abroad, and it is precisely this special understanding, together with the inspiration and interest accumulated from childhood, that has brought Chengxiao students a rich amount of film reading. As Chengxiao students said, he has dabbled in many old films and niche films. This accumulation has enabled Chengxiao students to, Has already gained certain "experience" and aesthetic ability of film and television dramas. How to pull the sheet correctly?

The accumulation of film reading can actually help students majoring in film to recognize which works are excellent films and which are crude films. In the process of accumulating film reading, they can learn more film language and understand what kind of works can be called a high-quality film by comparing films and thinking about different types of films.

For students majoring in film, if they want to acquire high-quality comprehensive appreciation ability, they can't solve the problem in ten and a half days The huge amount of film watching, continuous communication with various film colleagues, and his own unique thinking and understanding ability have become the absolute advantages of his winning the SVA offer in four months.

The teacher of Natural Light also grasped his advantages and highlights, and according to the situation of Chengxiao students, he developed and arranged the course of works collection. Chengxiao students are independent, have their own unique thinking mode, and have their own understanding of art and film. The first step is Consolidate the foundation and let him really have the ability to make ideas come true.

Natural light: Why would you consider applying for SVA?

　　 I watched the movie. In addition, I have always liked New York since I was young. I feel that New York is relatively free, and the shooting style of the east and west coasts is also very different. For example, the west coast is similar to Hollywood, and too commercial movies are not interesting. I want to go to the west coast to change this situation, shoot some independent videos, and take this as the goal to select a school New York University Imperative College of Arts Film major SVA is more artistic and has a broader vision.

Like many students who enter SVA, a top art school, from natural light, SVA attracts people all over the world who want to show their skills in art with its unique charm. His various well deserved titles are enough to make people yearn for:

More than 50% of artists and designers in New York have graduated from SVA, with graduates from TOP800 companies all over the world. In addition, among the Venice Film Festival, Kassel Documentary Exhibition and Oscar Awards, SVA students have the highest frequency of winning awards. There are the most famous people in the field of art and design, and it has recently been selected as one of the three most important art and design institutes in the world in the past 50 years.

Natural light: Do you have any satisfactory projects in your film production portfolio? Can you tell us about them?

　　 In fact, only one short film is required to be submitted for the collection of works required by film learning. This short film requires self compilation, self direction and self acting. This film I made is about myself. In fact, when I wrote this script, I felt very uncomfortable because I wrote a story about my ex girlfriend.

Natural light: What is the inspiration of your work? How did you decide to make this film?

　　 When Mr. Wu was in class, he told me how to write a story, how to set the reversal, and how to have both irreversible places and reversible passages in the story. In the process, I gradually understood what a Hollywood script looks like. Her words made me decide to shoot this story:

"You are also a small director. I hope your work is something you want to say from the bottom of your heart." I decided to make this film.

        How to choose the theme of film director's works?

Many students will find it difficult to consider the theme of works creation. On the one hand, they may be constrained by the domestic art teaching environment, and students rarely have the opportunity to decide the theme, creation direction, and display form of a work independently; On the other hand, if you don't know your hobbies, interests and professional expertise, you will not know where to start.

Therefore, in the application Foreign art colleges Many students will also report that the first project of their own work collection may be the most difficult to start and have no place to start.

　　 The topic selection of the portfolio is actually a way for you to show your ideological dimension to the admissions officer How to be a Insist on individuality and express your ideas accurately It is an important indicator for the admissions officer to adopt the works.

Every application season, a flood of collections of works pour into the windows of universities. How can they stand out from the crowd? Personal Voice points out the direction for you, that is, there is no fixed direction. Only by focusing on your own unique ideas can you impress the examiner.

For example, what kind of ideas should be realized in Chengxiao's portfolio course; How to present ideas intuitively through the lens and pictures is a test.

The teacher with large natural light did not start the class directly, but explained the basic knowledge about film with Chengxiao in the form of "chat". Through continuous communication and inspiration, Chengxiao students can realize "what is the story they really want to tell", and then they can realize it according to their own ideas.

Natural light: Has the production process of the entire collection changed your concept? What did you think of studying film? Have you got any other understanding of this major since you came here?

　　 I used to think that learning movies costs a lot, but I didn't expect it to cost so much.

Natural light: How long has this short film been shot? What have you learned from the short film creation?

　　 I felt that the teachers were very professional. At the beginning, I learned very basic knowledge, such as the scene of the camera, the middle view, the long view, and the close view. Later, the collection of works had basically been completed, and then I would ask the teacher to tell me something about the history of movies. Although it was out of curiosity, the teacher would also prepare lessons carefully, The result is that I not only learned the stories in the film history, but also gained a lot of unexpected gains through discussion with teachers.

Natural light: Did you encounter any difficulties in the production of your portfolio, that is, short films?

　　 Yes, in fact, there are many problems. Let's just say one or two, because I wrote my own script. At that time, the script was written to let the hero sit on the sofa. A sunset came in and then gradually darkened.

In fact, I think it's not difficult to control the time point, and the photographer's skill is good, so I should be satisfied. Just wait there, wait for the sunset, and then shoot a long shot.

However, in fact, after communicating with the photographer at the scene, I found that the selected floor was too high, the 17th floor, so the sunset could not be photographed. If the sun was photographed directly, it would be backlit, and the effect could not be achieved.

It was further learned that if I wanted to take photos like this (like taking photos of the sun), it was actually a generator. There was a very large LED light outside to disguise as the sun. As a result, I couldn't take photos that time, so I had to give up.

Natural light: What part of the project do you think is the most critical? Are you impressed?

　　 One thing Miss Wu reminded me in advance, but I didn't listen to her. She said that you should see the scene in advance to see what the scene was like. Most of the time when making movies, the scenes are arranged by yourself, not ready-made. Then you should buy furniture in advance to see the layout of the room, the direction of light, and LED lights, When testing whether the camera can capture the effect, I didn't listen to this. I basically didn't do the scene viewing. Finally, there was a scene that I wanted to do but didn't do.

        The most common mistakes in film production:

As Chengxiao said, because he didn't go to the scene to see the real thing in the early stage and take pictures in advance, the picture he most wanted to present could not be perfectly realized when shooting the film in the later stage.

Many students are prone to make a small mistake in the process of creating a collection of works, that is, they only make a simple assumption or decide to create a plan by drawing a picture. But when it comes to the actual implementation, they will find that there may be some deviations.

This is actually about what we constantly emphasize Early research Well, the early stage research of the portfolio project is not only to find information, collect materials on the Internet, or find relevant people for basic research.

If your project involves field content, such as the film related majors applied by Chengxiao students, early research needs to go to the field to take pictures to see whether the scene is suitable for shooting and how it should be arranged; For another example, if you are applying for landscape architecture, you need to go to the site to investigate the local environment, style, terrain, population and living conditions, the surrounding building environment, and even learn about the local plants and climate.

Many students often ignore the major part of the early stage, but it is your early research that sets the direction for the whole follow-up project and also determines whether your project can be carried out smoothly.

Natural light: Do you have any suggestions for younger students who want to study film in the future? Because SVA still has many students who want to learn film.

　　 My own idea is to learn the basics. Many of us are art learners, and most of us will also engage in this industry in the future. But don't set ourselves too high. In many cases, we should learn the basics first, how to write stories, how to use the lens, how to write structures, and how to use the camera. We should learn every detail well.

When you can successfully shoot a commercial film, then consider doing your own independent artistic creation. Don't just create empty things. For example, I just take a mouth and say that this is art and has no meaning.

Natural light: Is it also because of the previous small mistake that you said you should learn the basics well?

　　 Yes, yes, we need to be more intelligent. Later, we didn't let the man go to the sunset for the shooting. Finally, we let him take a photo of him and his ex girlfriend on the table and made such a short film.

        Basic courses for film majors:

When it comes to the importance of basic courses, this is also an old saying. Teachers of Natural Light attach great importance to the cultivation of basic skills. Teachers often spend a long time to cultivate students in basic courses. Only with solid basic skills can the creativity of the upper level be more stable and smooth.

For the film major, the accumulation of basic knowledge is even more important. As Chengxiao mentioned in the interview, even though the portfolio courses and short films have come to an end, the teachers of Natural Light are still supplementing his knowledge of film history and art history.

These basic courses are usually called liberal arts courses, which are applied by Chengxiao students SVA film production majors actually pay special attention to the accumulation of students' humanistic quality 。

From the Lumi è re brothers, Georges M é li è s and D W. Griffith, various genres including American silent comedy, German expressionism, surrealism and Soviet formalism, as well as classic Hollywood movies. It covers modern and contemporary European film artists, such as Rossellini, Truffaut, Godard, Bergman, Fellini and Antonioni.

SVA's basic humanities courses will give students multi-dimensional learning space to fully accumulate students' humanistic qualities. The profound humanistic quality is the foundation of creation, and only students' works can cause reflection and response.

Chengxiao's own rich accumulation of film reading and his unique understanding of art and film majors coincided with SVA. It was this accumulation and characteristic that helped Chengxiao get the Dream School and get the offer.

What Natural Light is doing is to enable students to gain some ability accumulation and precipitation before they really enter overseas art colleges. Whether it is also a humanities course or a professional oriented course, Natural Light always adheres to the immersive overseas art teaching mode to guide students to think and create.

Secondly, I would like to make a special point, that is, language, which is often overlooked by many students. In fact, art design majors have high requirements for basic language, because they spend most of their time in film making, cultivating tacit cooperation through exchanges, and discussing various shooting details.

Language determines the mode of thinking, and different languages also set different shooting ideas. Only when communication is unimpeded, can we better control the actual problems such as lighting and scenery.

If you are interested in SVA directing and film production, you must find a professional team to do work collection training, such as natural light art study abroad. Natural light not only has interdisciplinary courses, but also has branches in many front-line regions of the country, sharing resources, such as Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Jinan, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Xi'an and other regions, Can help you quickly apply to the professional college of your dreams!

More SVA film director courses:

Analysis of the most comprehensive film production method when film production goes to study abroad

Study in the United States as a film major and conquer SVA/CalArts in three months

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