“No Classes Day” dir. Karen Xiao

Experimental film is the main research object of Experiment, screen and sensation studio. Its focus is to reflect the experiment of the film and the feelings it brings to the audience. Compared with traditional commercial films, the experimental film mainly shows the thoughts of the authors, which are communicated to the public through the artistic expression of the film. The theme of my screen project2 shooting is a day without classes. I want to show details of life, thoughts on friendship and street art in Melbourne through this film. My work is a diary film inspired by Jonas Mekas. As a record of the author’s daily film, I used voice-over and subtitles to express my feelings. Adjusting the opacity and video image overlay during editing was part of my experiment. At the same time, I added filters to the picture to enhance the artistic sense of the film, which I hope will attract the audience.

My work is a diary film, which mainly records the daily life of the author, so they can’t attract many audiences. To be honest, the individuality of diary films is not suitable for the exhibition in the film festival and I don’t think my works have the opportunity to be displayed on a large occasion, because I clearly understand that my works have too many things that need to be modified, and only when the author is satisfied with the works can the works be displayed in front of the audience. Although I had planned the overall content before shooting, I did not finish shooting all the materials when showing a rough cut. James’s advice made me change my original shooting idea. I didn’t use a lot of shooting skills, and good editing didn’t save the movie when the original material wasn’t attractive enough. At first, I used English for dubbing. The dubbing made by someone who is not a native English speaker sounded very stiff. Later, I changed to Chinese dubbing and added English subtitles. However, the English subtitles I used are cursive and located in the centre of the picture. The overall effect of the picture has been improved. However, the audience needs to carefully identify the subtitles.

This was the first time for me to watch other students and my screen project on the big screen from the perspective of the audience. Experimental films involve a wide range of aspects, and each student presents different shooting ideas and works. When my work appears on the big screen, I appreciate my work as an audience rather than the creator of the film. This amazing feeling allowed me to see the shortcomings of my films from an outsider’s perspective, and a closer look at the reactions of other audiences to my works also showed me where I could improve (I found a man sitting two rows in front of me shaking his head while watching my work…). During the one-and-a-half-hour continuous screening, I also watched the works of all the others as an audience. The big screen can magnify the advantages and disadvantages of the film, and the quiet dark environment can make the audience pay more attention to the film itself. I noticed the unique shooting methods of other students, and I think these can be borrowed from my works in the future. In general, this event gave me a chance to appreciate your works as an audience, which was a unique memory for me.