The Dragon and the Filmmaker

Mei is a young filmmaker, and her life belongs to art. Her latest brainchild is a new animation about a dragon. The inception of the idea came to her in a small cottage in the northwest of the country.

Mei loves culture. She wants to create a film that mixes jazz and pop music. Her goal is an intercultural story. Anyone can enjoy it, from a small child to a cultivated old scholar.

She visited a museum in the center of the city. She studied an abstract painting and a bronze sculpture. She also read the complete works of a famous poet.

She drew the outline of the dragon first, then drew each scene with a crayon. Her first drawing was simple, but the finished picture changed dramatically. Mei loves to paint with oils and watercolors.

The movie is a thriller about a cartoon boy from an Asian village and a girl from another region. Their friendship is dynamic and full of excitement.

The film will open in a local cinema. After the show there will be a concert, and a performer will play a new song on stage. The actors put on make-up before the show. The crew, plus a few volunteers, set up the stage.

Mei uses her camera's auto-focus to snap pictures of every scene. She loves photography and keeps a photocopy of each shot in a big folder.

She wrote the script by hand. To remember a key line, she used a pen to underline it.

Near her studio, young artists painted graffiti on a wall. Their outdoor performance was audacious.

Her mother once wrote a long novel. Mei keeps a worn cassette of her mother reading it aloud. Music and storytelling are inseparable in her memory.

An opera poster hung above her desk. She added a small embellishment to the title, a gold dragon that seemed full of life.

At home, Mei lives in a spacious bungalow with her wife, who is a scientist. Her wife studies bacteria and works with bromine in a clean lab.

One day her wife explained how solar panels work. "One panel can produce about one kilowatt of power," she said. "A millisievert is a unit used to measure radiation."

Her wife also studies carbon dioxide and its impact on the air. She says burning waste by incineration is inefficient and can make the air deteriorate.

She is aware of the need to disinfect surfaces and reduce odor to keep the home clean. She keeps a bandage ready in case anyone is hurt.

In the kitchen there is an appliance for making bread, and a basket of lemons on the table. A phone charger lies near the armchair.

Mei's wife has curly hair and wears a silver bracelet. She is right-handed and speaks loudly when she is excited.

A colonist once lived in this region long ago. An old stone gate still stands at the border of the village, and a grapevine grows along the wall.

Mei's assistant is a voluntary helper who connects the team by phone. Anyone can contact her through the web.

In the film, the dragon flies over the Antarctic and across a northwest plain. It passes an ancient beeline of stones and a tower shaped like a honeycomb.

The dragon beats its wings, and the sound of a chime fills the air. A gurgle of water echoes in a quiet valley.

On the way, the dragon meets a deaf old woman who cannot hear the song. But she can feel the beat through the ground.

The dragon has a big ego at first. It denies that it needs help. It is unwilling to ask anyone for advice.

But the dragon has one defect: it is afraid of fire. This troublesome fear causes tension in the story.

The boy tells the dragon not to be overly proud. "A forceful heart is not always a strong one," he says gently.

The dragon and the boy become inseparable friends. Their bond is an enduring and timeless thing.

Mei wanted the story to be explicit and clear, so she tried to simplify every scene.

She wrote the premise on a card: "Courage does not happen by chance."

To facilitate the work, she held short meetings every morning. The latest meeting lasted approximately thirty minutes.

She evaluated each idea and chose the best one. Her intuition told her which scene felt right.

The federal arts council gave her a small fund. This fund is comparable to a scholarship, an equivalent privilege for new artists.

One section of the film was hard to shoot, so she asked for a re-examination of the scene.

She put flour in a bowl to make bread, and fried a sausage for lunch. The candy for the children sat in a jar.

A mouse ran across the floor, and the cat made a beeline for it. "Bye, little mouse," Mei laughed.

She packed a suitcase for a trip and attached a label with her postcode on it.

Her nationality is Chinese, and she is proud of her culture. She can pronounce every word of the poem clearly.

The film uses a converter to change old clips into a new format. This paperless workflow is clean and modern.

The color effect can be produced reproducibly on every screen, so the movie looks the same everywhere.

The percentage of young people who like animation is high. Approximately eighty percent of her viewers are students.

She drove her jeep to the station to pick up her friend. The bus was blocked by a crowd, so she had to squeeze through the door.

A rude man pushed past her, but she stayed calm and said nothing.

In the thriller, the detective questions a suspect near the border of the town. "I will question you strictly," he says.

She finally found her friend at the exit, near the "out" sign. They took the pickup truck back home together.

There is a tiny concave lens in her old camera, and a new converter beside it. The defect in the lens made the picture slightly blurred.

She felt a slight sadness when she saw the blocked road. But a bit of patience helped her bear the delay.

A young mother held her baby to her breast and sang softly. The baby's blood was circulating well, and the doctor said he was healthy.

Mei wants the maximization of joy in every scene. So she adds a small gimmick to the film, a flying paper dragon.

Her intention is clear: the film must function as a bridge between cultures. Hence, she adds an intercultural festival scene.

The closure of the old cinema made her sad, but a newly-designed theater will open soon.

She frequently visits the local library to read. Creative people, she believes, should read often.

The team had divergent opinions about the ending, so they held a vote.

Mei was merciful to her tired crew and let them rest. She worked moderately and never pushed too hard.

She drank a lite beer with dinner and ate a lemon cake for dessert.

The relocation of the studio to a bigger building was a big step for the team. It was a short-term change, but it helped a lot.

She must restrict the budget, so she cannot spend too much on special effects.

The film's serious message is hidden under a funny story. This is a serious topic, but told with warmth.

She needed a towel after a long walk in the rain. She used a pump to draw water from the well.

The old wall had a web of cracks. A strand of yarn hung from a window where a tailor worked.

The tailor adjusted the costume for the film. "I will tailor this coat to fit the dragon actor," he said.

The village was on the verge of a great change. But the people faced the future with no uncertainty in their hearts.

At the festival, a firework lit up the night sky. Mei's dragon became recognizable to every child in town.

She will certainly finish the film on time. There is no need to hurry. Mei looks at the passing clouds and smiles; her creative journey has only just begun.