Taiwanese filmmaker reminisces after award

[momopi]

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ ... 2003488182

Filmmaker reminisces after award
Staff Writer, with CNA, Los Angeles

Daisy Lin (林鈺娟), a US-based Taiwanese filmmaker, reflected recently on her movie that won the award for Best Animated Film at this year’s Marbella International Film Festival in Spain, saying it was inspired by a difficult childhood.

The five-minute film, titled Out on a Limb (單飛), portrays a young bird isolated from other birds that do not share its interest in searching for dandelions.

The bird is too clumsy to keep up with the migrating flock and ends up being discriminated against and attacked. In the end, the creature, craving freedom from the struggle, decides to leave the flock and embarks on a solitary journey to pursue its own dream.

Born and raised in Taichung City and now living in Los Angeles, Lin said she spent six years producing the film, which was also her master’s degree graduate project at the University of California, Los Angeles.

FIRST EVER

She was the first Taiwanese to ever receive the award at the Spanish film festival.

This year’s event, which took place from Oct. 15 to Oct. 17, featured more than 500 entries from over 50 countries vying for top awards in five categories — Best Animated Film, Best Short Film, Best Long Short Film, Best Documentary Film and Best Feature Film.

SCREENINGS

The organizers are arranging for Out on a Limb, which blends Lin’s insightful understanding of both Chinese and Western cultures, to be screened in London, Miami, Cannes, Los Angeles and Russia.

The 33-year-old filmmaker drew traditional Chinese brush paintings to create the short film. In the process, Lin said she threw away hundreds of hand-drawn ink paintings simply because her graduate adviser had different views of her theme.

“After a nearly one-year break, I gradually regained my self-confidence and picked up brush painting last year and finally finished the work in June this year,� Lin recalled.

THERAPY

“The film could serve as a footnote to my teenage school life. I often endured corporal punishment during junior and senior high school because of my poor academic performance,� Lin said. “The bitter memory still haunts me, which led me to make the film.�

She added that “the film has helped heel my psychological wounds.�

[momopi]

http://www.cna.com.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_ ... 1011080003

林鈺娟動畫「單飛」 西班牙奪首獎

2010/11/08 16:38:00


台灣動畫創作者林鈺娟以自傳式動畫作品「單飛」，榮獲西班牙馬爾貝亞國際電影節動畫電影類首獎。中央社記者江今葉洛杉磯傳真 99年11月8日


（中央社記者江今葉洛杉磯7日專電）台灣動畫創作者林鈺娟以自傳式動畫作品「單飛」，榮獲西班牙馬爾貝亞國際電影節動畫電影類首獎，這部以國畫創作的動畫，也讓傳統中國藝術走出新方向。

這部名為「單飛」（Out on a Limb）的動畫作品，講述的是一隻與同儕格格不入、卻又不得不迎合群體的小鳥，備受欺負，最後決定單飛追求理想。

馬爾貝亞國際電影節10月15日至17日舉行，有「動畫影片類」、「短片類」、「長篇短片類」、「紀錄長片類」及「劇情長片類」5個獎項，主辦單位將安排「單飛」到倫敦、邁阿密、坎城、洛杉磯及莫斯科等地巡迴展出。

長達5分鐘的作品，描述的正是林鈺娟的成長故事。台中出生的林鈺娟，跟所有年輕人一樣，從小就被「諄諄教誨」要考上好學校、找份好工作，然後結婚、生子，平安度過一生。

但這卻不是林鈺娟想要的，懷著電影創作夢想的她，甚至不顧家人反對，向銀行貸款，隻身到洛杉磯攻讀動畫，就是希望能一圓自己的夢，這部「單飛」就是她對自己過往成長經驗的註解與句點。

林鈺娟說，這部畢業作品前前後後花了6年時間，一度因為指導教授對題材的不同見解，讓她不惜丟掉數百張國畫作品，也對自己產生質疑，中斷近1年，才慢慢找回信心，重拾畫筆，重新創作，也才有今天的成就。

會選擇以國畫為素材，林鈺娟說，主要是希望能呈現東方藝術看似平靜，其實生動活潑的意境，也是主角突破傳統，走出新天地的象徵。也因此，只在高中美術課裡畫過幾堂國畫的林鈺娟，儘管沒有科班基礎，儘管畫到背肌拉傷發炎，卻仍堅持一筆一墨，畫出自己的故事。

得獎了，林鈺娟很開心，因為終於能向過世的父親有所交代。林鈺娟說，作品完成前的關鍵時期，正是父親病情最重的時候，但父親不想耽誤她的創作，沒讓她回去。等作品完成後，雖然終於能回台灣，但父親已經病重無法開口說話。這回拿下動畫首獎，讓她終於能跟父親說，「我辦到了」。（本文附有照片與影音）991107

[momopi]

I'll do a quick translation for this paragraph:

長達5分鐘的作品，描述的正是林鈺娟的成長故事。台中出生的林鈺娟，跟所有年輕人一樣，從小就被「諄諄教誨」要考上好學校、找份好工作，然後結婚、生子，平安度過一生。

The 5 minuet film describes Lin's childhood & growing up. Born in Taichung, like many other young people, she was taught to do well in school exams and get into good colleges, get a good job, then marry, have children, and have a peaceful life.


但這卻不是林鈺娟想要的，懷著電影創作夢想的她，甚至不顧家人反對，向銀行貸款，隻身到洛杉磯攻讀動畫，就是希望能一圓自己的夢，這部「單飛」就是她對自己過往成長經驗的註解與句點。


But this is not what Lin wanted. With dreams of being a film producer, she disregarded her family's opposition, took a loan from the bank and moved to Los Angeles by herself to study animation, hoping to achieve her dreams. This "solo flight" film is a description/explanation of her experiences in growing up.


林鈺娟說，這部畢業作品前前後後花了6年時間，一度因為指導教授對題材的不同見解，讓她不惜丟掉數百張國畫作品，也對自己產生質疑，中斷近1年，才慢慢找回信心，重拾畫筆，重新創作，也才有今天的成就。

Lin said, this graduation project took her 6 years. At one time due to her adviser (professor)'s disagreement, she threw away several hundred pieces of her artwork, and had doubts about herself. After a year's hiatus, she slowly regained her confidence, picked up her drawing brush and created new works, producing the results that you see today.


會選擇以國畫為素材，林鈺娟說，主要是希望能呈現東方藝術看似平靜，其實生動活潑的意境，也是主角突破傳統，走出新天地的象徵。也因此，只在高中美術課裡畫過幾堂國畫的林鈺娟，儘管沒有科班基礎，儘管畫到背肌拉傷發炎，卻仍堅持一筆一墨，畫出自己的故事。

Using Chinese style brush/water-color, Lin says she hoped to use Eastern artistic viewpoint to see a peaceful, but active realm, where the main character breaks tradition, and symbolism walking to a new world. Lin only had few experiences drawing art from high school art class, she has no art foundation, so she drew until her back and muscles hurt, but still drew brush after brush, to draw out her story.


Note: the Chinese name for her film is "Solo Flight" and the English title is "Out on a limb".

[The_Adventurer]

Wow! This girl is awesome! That's some dedication. I know what it can be like to face an advisor or, in my case, an editor that has you wanting to throw out all your work and give up. Imagine what the art world would have lost if she didn't pick up that brush again!

This is really inspiring to me.

[momopi]

I'd also recommend works by Makoto Shinkai:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makoto_Shinkai

This guy is amazing. He quit his job and produed a 90 min anime film (Hoshi no Koe) by himself on his Macintosh!

[The_Adventurer]

I actually know him. But Hoshi no Koe is 25 minutes. He produced the 90 minute Kumou no Mukou after that. Also, contrary to popular belief, he quit his job because his publisher was funding his production from the start.

His latest 5cm per Second is one of the most amazing works in anime. People are calling him the next Miyazaki.