"The If" 2021
Narrative. shot, produced, edited, written, produced by Jay Zhao
Full Film
"The If" is a 6 mins narrative short film, the Major Work for my NSW Visual Arts HSC 2021, as well as the graduation project of my year 12. The film counted 50% of my Visual Arts HSC Mark and ultimately contributed to a band 6 ATAR.
The production of the film spent an entire year from the end of 2020 to mid 2021, as a process of Visual Arts HSC requirement. All persons involved in the film were my high school classmates.
Inspired by Nolan's "Tenet" 2020, "The If" also utilises the techniques of "filmed in backwards" and then replay the footages. Thus, I portray two directions of time, the experience of time travelling, particularly, time reversion.
I wish to exploring the human experience of being regrettable, yet the relationship between past and future of times. I intent to communicate the ideas that life has no undo bottom, and the power of time shapes our behaviours as we wish but cannot change what already happened. The concept of my artwork is to reflect how regret affects human experience in a negative way.
