By Kate Stone
Xupeng Feng is a filmmaker who considers himself to come from another world. After finishing his Master’s degree in Material Formation and Control Engineering, he gradually developed an intense interest in filmmaking and continued with a degree in Directing from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
He keeps asking himself: why am I giving up a promising future in my career and devoting myself to filmmaking? The answer would be he believes that filmmaking is the only way to visualize the dreams in his head and the stories in his drawer. Xupeng’s multiple works including ” The Birth” (Award Winner of Falcon International Film Festival), “The somnambulism” (Award Winner of New York Neorealism Film Festival), “ASUKA” (Award Winner of Europe Independent Movie Festival), “HOT” (Award Winner of Experimental Film Festival Barcelona) and more were honored at several global film festival awards.
We had the pleasure of discovering his film’s world.
Why do you want to do filmmaking? After having your engineering degree.
I think the ultimate answer should be: I love creating worlds. And the roles and stories in it. It is so hard to make it real in our daily life. Let us say: I write a story about a policeman, which is a violent, fierce, and unreal story; We can not visualize or imagine it in front of the lab tools or a technology school. I am dying to show it on a screen and let people make comments. I enjoy the process and the final work we have, which always entertains me and all of the creators. Even if it is not perfect, and more precisely speaking, it does not have to be.
Could you give us the storyline of your latest work?
My latest work is “Icarus,” a film-noir sci-fi short film.
Basically, it centers moment about: Akri, 20, who has been a technician living in the Dyson Sphere since born. She repeats the life course every day – receives letters from her pen pal and writes back. She ultimately finishes the job by sinking into the fake reality created by herself and A.I. 0108. Yet her mind lives in the cycle.
Icarus The storyline is quite intriguing. What gave you the idea to do a film like this?
It originally comes from a longer novel I wrote two years ago; In 2020, the pandemic was spreading and exerting ill effects on everyone’s life; I was bored during the quarantine period; While I was surfing the internet, I randomly saw the news about Dyson Sphere – which is an enormous structure might help beings evolve into the next civilization level, which means we can take advantages of the full power of the solar energy. I thought it would be fun to create a story about individuals who build the Dyson Sphere;
Besides, I can merge my fantasy or real-life feelings into the story.
What was the biggest challenge of filming the project?
It is a massive challenge from the pre-production/ location scouting/ casting to the production days scheduling and directing. I would say everything is pretty challenging, especially the set dressing and camera floor plan/blocking; However, I have a fantastic team, and we work well.
How would you describe your genre?
I am eager to try any genre. As many as possible for life itself has 1 million possibilities. My only treatment or method would be the detail. I want to make movies that touch me first, then it may have chances to move others.
What are the best and worst parts of being a director?
It is a whole adventure full of fun. The best part is that you are the leader and always are. Even if a 70-year-old set designer is standing in front of you, they have to obey you. The leader leads the crew, including the vibes, the connections, the efficiency, and the quality of the film. As for the worst part, the director somehow has to take control of people’s emotions and reactions, which is essential to the filmmaking process. And I am not the type who is good at it.
Do you consider yourself an artist?
I am not an artist – sad but true. However, I admire people with unique lifestyles or symbolic languages. Coming from an engineering background, I didn’t have many chances to peep at the creative and artistic world, such as drawing, music composing, dancing, or filmmaking. I finally quit my job and started to dive into filmmaking. All I want to do now is visualize the dreams and stories we had yesterday night. To see how they look, to feel how happy I am.
What are you working on right now?
I am currently working on my latest film’s post and learning more drawing skills makes me feel better about creating the storyboard myself.
