Charlie's Film Journal

Here, I would like to go into further detail on my podcast project's main subject, which is the Taiwanese New Wave. This would be beneficial as I would be talking about this cinematic movement on the podcast as a whole. Some of Taiwanese New Wave's important figures such as (left to right) Wu Nien-jen, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Chen Kuo-fu, and Jan Hung-tze (Producer). From  Medium.com To begin with, I would like to talk about the conditions of Taiwanese cinema before the movement began. The history of films in Taiwan began in the 1900s, in which Taiwan was under the rule of the Japanese (Hong, 2008). This resulted in film exhibitions in Taiwan with the purpose of benefitting the colonial rule. Films here are used to "educate the ignorant Taiwanese" to support the Japanese colonial rule (Lee, 2017). In effect, films in Taiwan at the time were produced as pieces of propagandas to entice support of the regime and its agenda. Later on, these practices continued when ...

In this post, I will talk about the SMART Objective and Plan for my podcast project. Source: Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce To begin with, the project will be a five minute podcast about the Taiwanese New Wave cinema, in which it will specifically talk about what the movements is, the characteristics of the movements, some auteurs and their films, as well as how it impacts or contrasts to films now. I will be evaluating my progress through the blog posts, with three research post after this, two process post, upload to website post, and then a final reflection post.  Although a podcast is something new, I feel that creating it, as well as talking about the subject matter is very achievable and not too complex. I feel that this project is relevant in terms of my progress because not only does it allow me to explore other media, but to also explore films more deeply, particularly with the Taiwanese New Wave and how films can portray society and the human condition in such ways,...

In this post, I will do initial ideas and research, signaling the start of a new project.  To begin with, I will first think about the main concept of the work, something that I found interesting. As I reflect on this, I feel that a subject that interest me the most and have led me to my love in films are the slow and humanistic nature of some East Asian film auteurs. In particular, film landscapes and movements in Japan and Taiwan that has produced portrayals that defines their country and society at a certain time. To me, this is an aspect of film I found most beautiful as it connects the various artforms in film to connect with the heritage, conditions, and people in a realistic manner, with a national identity within it. I also loved how some of the films and auteurs I'm thinking of has not only made a statement on the social conditions of their country and society, but also a universal and approachable lesson on the human condition through their characters and story. Thinking ...

Writing is an artform that I really loved, especially narrative writing that focuses on story and characters. I felt that writing, along with photography are artforms that are a part of filmmaking, especially narrative films. Previously, I have had written books during my high school years, and although the results were disappointing for myself, I found it a useful experience. When this writing project was given, I felt very happy, because I've also written screenplays and felt that this time, writing a book could tell me how much I've progressed and make me learn more about it. I've come to appreciate writing as an artform a lot, as language is very complex and to convey it in such a particular way is an effective storytelling method. To begin with, the book I had made was a fictional story, that was based on my experience, and as such the book felt personal. In particular, I felt April as a character is genuine and in some ways reflect myself. At first I felt that I was f...

In this post, I will detail the process of uploading my book to Yumpu and  then creating a section of the project on my website. To begin with, I combined both pdfs of my writing and the book cover using combinepdf . Moving on, I went to Yumpu, cllicked on the upload button on the top right corner, and dragged the combined pdf file to it. Afterwards, I changed the title of the flipbook to Four Aprils. Then, I went to embed on the left bar, open embed options, clicked on custom embed, and then only copied the embed view link. Here is the link if you want to read the book: Four Aprils Next up, I went to my Canva to create the two designs for the project. I clicked on the previous project's presentation, and copied the first one. I changed the title to Four Aprils with the font Jonathan sized 340 and my name with font Charm sized 31. Afterwards I colored the background dark red and put flower petals with low transparency on top of it. Then, I added a border, colored the middle section...

In this post, I will talk about the creation of the book cover. I will be using Canva to create this book cover and will talk about the details. To begin with, I first searched for an image of a writer silhouette, then downloaded a free png of it. Afterwards, I wrote down the title and my name, as well as adding a line underneath it. Then, I changed the background color to be dark red. Moving on, I changed the title font to Jonathan and made the size 351. Then for my name, I changed the font to Bakerie Thin, sized 62. I then went to designs, looking for flowers. Afterwards, I copied and pasted them, changing their sizes and arranging them to create an effect (flowers flying out of his mind.) Afterwards, I changed each saturation of the flower differently, with the one nearest to the silhouette having no saturation, and then gradually gaining color until the last one. Lastly, I put a red box on the side of it, writing April 2020-2024 to show the story's timeline in relation to the t...

In this post, I will detail the major changes and improvements I have made to the book and story. Overall, the changes I have made is making the paragraphs longer by connecting two short paragraphs into one, this I believe would give me extra space to write more. I have added page numbers to make the book easier to follow for readers and make the image credits more accurate. I have added more images, using more sources from myself, Unsplash, Pixabay, and Pexels. Then, I also changed the layout of the images by creating a separate page for them instead of putting them in the text. Lastly, I have made many changes to the narrative of the story, which I felt would make it better. I went through each paragraphs and sentences, and rewrite most of them to a better version. I also emphasised more on April's struggles and love for writing compared to the previous interpretation,  Regarding the changes to the narrative, here are the things I revised: Chapter Two's flashback begins on a ...

Now, I will talk about chapter three and four of my chapbook, Four Aprils.  Beginning with chapter three, this chapter will be consisting of nine pages and includes images from Unsplash as well. Set on the day of April's departure to America, signaling the start of a new journey; it includes flashbacks of what happened between April of 2022 to 2023. Although the second chapter shows April to be more self-conceited to writing and reading, disregarding his friends, this time April changes to appreciate his friends and class more. Particularly, he was confronted by his close friends, a scenario that he feared. However, he then realised that they cared for him and that he was also to blame for what had happened. Another aspect that was highlighted is April's own struggles with writing and reading, in which he found himself concerned about lacking talent. As such, he went to a well-known Indonesian writer regarding his book, in order for him to gain confidence. He left the writer...