With Wing-Yee Wu

Wing-Yee (pronounced Vinyé) Wu is a filmmaker Born and raised in Stockholm of Chinese descent. She’s currently developing a feature film project that expands on her award-winning short film “4960″ and in the past few months has shot a short documentary on Diplo and a promo film for the new Dave Sitek side project Maximum Balloon.

-What is the 8 Billion lives project and how did the Diplo film come about?

Wing-Yee Wu: 8 Billion Lives is a documentary platform featuring short “day in the life” films from people around the world – the founders took me on as head of film to help them oversee the first batch of sixteen films. When that was done, thoughts about making my own short documentary had formed, so I got in touch with Wes/ Diplo, then an acquaintance of mine. He agreed in April to do the doc, but due to xyz reasons it would take until August for things to eventually happen. We shot over a day in Philadelphia and the voiceover was done in an interview a few weeks later. It was a fun project, but I hadn’t made a documentary since first year in film school (a long time ago), never interviewed anybody, and completely underestimated the amount of editing that would have to happen… but I think the doc turned out well so it was worthwhile.

-Your short film ʻ4960ʼ is based on two stories by Aleksander Hemon—one of my favorite contemporary writers—how did you go about creating the original script?

WYW: The content of the short stories and Hemonʼs writing in itself are to me one of a kind: modern, funny, with depth – and hard to adapt. Though itʼs not clear in the originals, I always read the main characters in the two separate stories as being lovers – so thatʼs where the first connection for the script happened. Also, the stories appear back to back in the book and it hit me, what an amazing feature film it would be just like that: two stories back to back, with a shift of main character in the middle. I couldnʼt think of any films that had played out that way (if anyone does, please let me know which films). So the overall structure and the love story came about early on, though none of this was really conscious. When I first read the stories I hadnʼt even started making films, and I honestly felt like – who was I to talk about war? Much later in filmschool, I made the shortfilm “4960” based on the same material, anyway. The script was developed with screenwriter Hart Eddy and the shortfilm is intercut, which works for a 15 min film, but for the feature Iʼm sticking with the original back-to-back structure. Writing the feature script is an entirely different story, I wonʼt go into the boring details, but I finished first draft earlier this fall and recently returned from Sarajevo, where I went on research through a grant from the Swedish arts institute Konstnärsnämnden (thank you!). I aim to go back for a longer period of time soon and meanwhile, I will move onto second draft of the feature, hoping it will bring me closer to something I can shoot.

-You contacted Hemon directly to option his stories, and found out they already were but decided to shoot it anyway. Did you ever show the finished work to him?

WYW:Hahaha thatʼs true – before making the shortfilm I contacted Hemon, who put me in touch with his agent, who told me the options were bought. To be honest, at the time it didn’t seem like a big deal, I was in school making an exercise for class -that’s how the shortfilm started – so I went ahead anyway which was not the right move to make. Hemon saw the finished shortfilm and said he liked it, even though I had gotten the accent of the voiceover wrong. Trouble came much later when the agent found out, and it all turned into a bit of a mess. I eventually got hold of the actual option holder of the stories, Michael, who was kind enough to grant me right to screen the short at festivals. Much later, Michael decided not to extend his options- so I got them and am now finally, lawfully, developing the feature.

-Youʼve now made music promos for Dave Sitekʼs Maximum Balloon solo project and the band Brothers Of End. In both instances, and particularly in the Dave Sitek promo, you skirt conventional music video tropes and instead make little vignettes that seem like very singular short films or installations. What are the differences for you in the way you approach your short film and your more commercial projects?

WYW: I think it’s lack of experience with commercial projects that’s turned my music videos into little shortfilms, hahaha! It could also be an inclination towards telling stories, I donʼt know. Whatever it is, I know my filmmaking skills change and develop with whatever I make, and through the process of making it, so nothing is set in stone. Making music videos exercise a slightly different part of my brain, theyʼre shorter projects hence more energetic (in comparison to developing a feature or even a shortfilm) and also – there’s music! How can you not love it? I hope to make more and maybe later, some of them wonʼt be so much like shortfilms.

-The clip from ʻTigerʼ ends so terrifyingly. What is this from and how much more is there? WHAT HAPPENS?

WYW:The clip from “Tiger” is from a 15 min shortfilm with the same title. Mum eventually puts the fire out, but dad then calls back having decided he’s gonna flake on the family – not come home slash leave permanently. Dinner has meanwhile been lying on the stove, so the trio of women has burgers instead and clearly, thereʼs no celebration of the mooncake festival anymore. The morning after, our main character Ying goes to wake her mother, who we’ve seen be quite fierce through the film. But this morning, she seems weak and unable to pull herself together. Ying then offers to take her younger sister to school. The film ends with the siblings biking off to school. It’s a pretty traditional coming of age development.

-What are you working on now?

WYW:I’m in the middle of sifting through material from the Sarajevo research trip, reaching out to get more commercial work and definitely trying to get some rest.