February | 2018 | internationalfilmreview

As an only child, Sijia Huang was always looking for ways to entertain herself. She didn’t have any siblings to play with, and growing up in Chongqing, China, she immersed herself into movies from a young age, finding that it not only passed the time, but consumed her every thought. She knew she had to be a part of that world, and loving drawing from an early age, she became committed to knowing everything she could about animation. She studied her favorite films and scoured video stores to find new movies she could learn from. Now, she is an acclaimed animator, winning audiences around the world over with her unique style and commitment to her craft.

Her films Box Home, Quitting Brave Victory, Measures and Frames and Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil have allowed the world to see just what Huang is capable of. Her ability to generate smooth animation while still maintaining a good balance between tension and looseness generate the perfect rhythm for her films. She knows that in animated films, her work is the entirety of the visual aspect, making up 50 per cent of the movie goers experience, and she knows how to make that lasting impression.

“Just like having good actors or actresses in a film, a professional animator can create lively characters that will contribute lots to the story. A good story is one of the most important parts of a film. The power of a well animated character, a good story, and the aesthetic value behind an animated film is why I want to be a professional animator,” she said.

Huang’s most recent film is titled Breakfast, in which she was both the director and leading animator. She designed and crafted all the puppets and did all the stop-motion animation. Breakfast is a combination of 2D and stop-motion animation. The character design is what intrigued Huang to take part in the film, with a unique take on stop-motion puppets. She also found the script interesting, with funny and unique characters.

The story begins with two hands hitting two eggs. As the hitting goes on, the two eggs start to crack and finally explode into pieces. Two creatures come out of the eggs. One is a duck with hairy human legs. The other one is a muscular man with duck feet. The duck and the man both have a crush on each other and start to dance. In the middle of the dance, the two hands interrupt them by hitting them on their heads. A chase and fight commence. In the end, it turns out all the encounters and fights are happening in a child’s imaginary world when he plays with his toys – a rubber duck and an action figure, during his breakfast.

“The story is more about viewing the world with children’s perspective and the positive messages behind the story include love, support and equality,” said Huang.

Huang began working on the animation back in 2015, and it took over two years to perfect every image. After premiering at the New York Short Film Festival 2018 where it was an Official Selection, the film has already seen great acclaim. It was an Official Selection at the 2018 GUKIFF Animated Short, UK Monthly Film Festival, and the Oniros Film Awards. It also had an Official Screen at the Oregon Shorts section in the 41st Portland International Film Festival. At the Los Angeles Movie Awards, Huang was awarded with Best Animation for her work on the film, and at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival she won Best Director. Needless to say, none of the film’s success could have been possible without her considerable contributions.

“Knowing the film has been so successful means a lot to me, as the director and the leading animator on this film, I had a lot of pressure. At the beginning, I didn’t know if the audiences would like the characters or not. This film is all about these interesting characters, which I personally love and had lots of fun on animating. It turns out that audiences really like it too, Every effort paid off at the end,” said Huang.

Huang was responsible for all the stop-motion animation in Breakfast, which was 90 per cent of the entire animation. Stop-motion requires working with puppets. While making the puppets, she was very careful when it came to the mold and cast process, one of the greatest challenges. When she began the process, she had no experience in casting them, and through trial and error, eventually created characters that were even better than the original design.

TeamPhoto — *Sijia Huang, Stan Lee, and Yifu Zhou with the Digital Domain team*

“I first met Sijia when we worked together on some digital content pieces for Stan Lee, and immediately recognized her exceptional talent and matchless vision. She is one of these rare talents, as she clearly demonstrated in Breakfast, and her reputation precedes her in the industry. Her stop-motion work is renowned for being refreshing in the animation world, as it is simultaneously mature, artistic, and avant-garde,” said Yifu Zhou, Vice President and Visual Effects Supervisor at Digital Domain.

Although they are not human actors, Huang says the puppets require a lot of care. For example, the Duck character has a pair of hairy legs that need special handling and care when animating. Therefore, she chose to only touch the joints that she needed to bend so that the leg hair would not fall off. She also used baby powder to help reduce the stickiness of the silicon surface.

“The ball and socket armatures were so fun to animate. I enjoyed the experience of animating on stage. It is hard to imagine without the ball and socket armatures, how to work on some of the shots. The most difficult part is to animate characters in the air. Two characters in the film are made of silicon and super sculpted. The materials and steal ball and socket armatures make the puppets heavy to animate. In order to stable them in the air, I used special designed rigs, so I can tie the puppets to the flying rigs to create movement in the air,” Huang described.

Music was also a big part of the film. Not only did Huang find the ideal composer in Lance Trevino, she also needed the choreography to be perfect. This required an ample amount of research on Tango dancing in order to perfectly execute the animation. To do so, Huang analyzed the patters of the dance steps and extracted the key movements to fit the animation style. Her dedicated resulted in the Tango being the highlight of the film.

“I loved the film, so animating it was really fun. When you see the characters on this film, you will know why I love them so much,” she concluded.

Be sure to check out Breakfast to know just what Huang is talking about.

As a child, growing up in Shanghai, Yifan Luo did not see himself as an actor. In fact, he was very business oriented, and the arts were not a feasible career option for him at the time. However, as a teen, everything changed; when he stepped on the stage for the first time as the lead in his high school play, he experienced the unique sensation that only comes from doing something you truly love. His passion for acting was born at that time, and now, over ten years later, this passion only grows stronger each time he steps onto a new set.

As an in-demand actor in both China and abroad, Luo is constantly looking for different roles than those he has played previously. He aims to portray as many different personalities as possible, from a schizophrenic psychopath in the film SAM to a jokester college freshman in the feature Talentik. His versatility knows no bounds. With the four films he has coming out this year, each character explores a different side of humanity. In the upcoming movie Rift, Luo once again plays a different role than he ever has.

“The character of the psychologist is somewhat complex. Yifan is perfect for the role and his performance is excellent. He is a professional and dedicated actor. I definitely want to work with him again,” said Jing Ge, Producer.

Rift is a compelling science fiction film focusing on a series of characters. It begins with Sergeant Howard receiving a case that Professor Miles is missing. The main character, Yu, is considered as the prime suspect. However, Yu denies everything. According to his testimony, Yu killed Proffesor Miles ten years ago for the professor’s plagiarism of his thesis paper. Yu was sent back to China after he was released from the prison. Through investigation, Howard believes that he is lying about something regarding the case. However, the psychological consultant, Gu Shenming, holds a different opinion. Yu gives them an unbelievable explanation that he comes from a parallel universe. Howard doesn’t believe Yu, but he has no evidence, so he has to release Yu after 48 hours. Yu’s girlfriend Xin bails him out. Howard is shocked when he sees Xin, because this girl was murdered five years ago by a serial killer. When Yu sees Xin, he is also surprised that Xin is still alive. Two days later, different female bodies are found in suburban Los Angeles, related to a serial killer, all while travelling through parallel universes.

“Science fiction is always what people like to watch. Especially now in China, it is a very popular topic in film/TV shows. In this story, we see different kinds of people, good and bad. It is a real society that the film creates. It brings us a world where the hero is a real man who would never reach his goal without the help of people around him. Of course, the hero gets what he needs in the end, which also encourages the audience to go for what they want,” said Luo.

In Rift, Luo plays Gu Shenming. His character is the psychologist that works for the police. He talks to the suspects and makes the conclusion regarding whether they are lying or not. In the story, when the main character comes from a parallel universe, nobody believes what he says. Therefore, the sergeant sends Gu Shenming to talk with him and expects that he will be proved a liar. As the conversation progresses, Gu gradually believes in what the main character says and starts to suspect that the sergeant actually knows a secret about the case that he doesn’t want other people know. Finally, Gu makes the conclusion that the main character is not lying about anything, which infuriates the sergeant.

Gu Shenming is the only person that believes in what the main character, Yu, says about travelling from the parallel universe. Without the character, the main character would have been sent to prison at the very beginning. It is this character that keeps searching for evidence that proves Yu is not lying about anything, and the psychologist is the one who finally destroys the sergeant’s plan. During the process, Luo’s character is under the immense pressure but never gives give up. He does his duty as a psychologist and prevents the main character from being persecuted.

“I read the synopsis of the story before I went for the audition. I really liked the idea of a parallel universe. The character I auditioned for is a very smart psychologist who works for the police that diagnoses whether the leading guy is crazy or not, since he keeps talking about a parallel universe, which is totally what I’m good at. I believed that I could do a very good job in playing such a role,” said Luo.

As the story has the setting of a parallel universe, the actors were required to frequently move between the universes in the story, meaning the cast and crew had to constantly change the set, costumes, and makeup. Because of this, everyone had to be on top of their game. Luo made sure to be extremely familiar with the script and storyline, even for scenes he was not in. This also created a great sense of teamwork between everyone on set, as they were constantly working to make filming as smooth as possible. For Luo, it was working with everyone on the film that made working on Rift such a great experience.

“It was a great experience to work with Yifan. He is very professional and very passionate. As a partner, he is very considerable. He even helped me read the lines so patiently when I was doing my close-up shots. He always spends a lot of time working on the character before he goes to set. He is also creative at the same time. He has a sense of humor that makes his acting unique. He is one of my favorite actors I have ever worked with,” said Yun Xie, Lead Actress.

Keep an eye out for Rift at a film festival near you.

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