That's Also Fine

Author

Qi Zhu, Bard CollegeFollow

Date of Submission

Spring 2023

Academic Program

Film and Electronic Arts

Project Advisor 1

Jacqueline Goss

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Additional files:

That’s Also Fine_Qi Zhu_.mp4, 16 minutes, 2.23GB

My definition of Loneliness

Qi Zhu

Senior Project of Film and Electronic Arts, Artist Statement of Short Film: That’s Also Fine

May 1, 2023

I felt lonely from time to time since my childhood. That is a feeling which is hard to describe, and it was not always sad and negative. I think everyone feels that in their life, only the opportunity that happens may be different. For me, loneliness would appear at any time, it can be the time when I was drawing a flower, eating dinner with my parents, or playing games with my friends. Loneliness may be a very naughty boy who can show up whenever he wants, it may be a hunting snake, choking its prey, or like sinking in the deep sea, separating one from anything else. By using the language of film I learned over these four years, I want to interpret my understanding of loneliness.

Exploring my memory, I found I feel lonely even though I had many friends around. In fact, my extroverted side makes me feel strange and in turn, seek solitude. So I come up with a story that a twenty-year-old girl got a magic chocolate from her best friend, that help her to switch between extraversion and introversion. However, the death of her friend also brings loneliness to her, so she can see the Loneliness and sometimes Solitude as two figures, a man and a teenage girl. She was first frightened by these strange figures, then after a year, she realizes that’s a feeling she can never get rid of, and the best way was to accept it.

The production courses become the solid base for finishing this project. Cinematography class trained me to think like a photographer: finding the angle, and thinking the meaning of every shot and the connections between them. Different colors, tones, and aspect ratios become factors in this short film to define past and present, extraversion, and introversion. I learned to design sound from the Sound and Picture class. Sound, voice, and music become another language in my film that help to shape that world, and also leads audiences to feel what I feel.

I always think filmmakers are dream weavers. It is true that anything in the film can be fake or made up, but the mutual feelings and emotions are true. A film can be the art of every art, drawing, music, sculpture, and literature, it can contain all, and it may be more than that. This short film definitively broaden my vision of becoming a better dream weaver and led me to explore more.

Open Access Agreement

On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Zhu, Qi, "That's Also Fine" (2023). Senior Projects Spring 2023. 76.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2023/76