Private Project

A LATE BLOOMER

The female director of "X: The Film" experienced a peculiar nightmare. The seemingly disjointed events unfurled like a labyrinth, ultimately leading to revelations about X.

  • 小迪 周日
    Director
    2010-2018年中国五十位著名广告总监
  • 小迪 周日
    Writer
  • 丁 ZE
    Key Cast
    中国新一代艺术电影女演员
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    围绕电影的X
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Thriller, Romantic
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 10, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    104,370 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    China
  • Country of Filming:
    China
  • Language:
    Chinese
  • Shooting Format:
    亚历克萨
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - 小迪 周日

Sun Xiaodi, a graduate of Shenyang No.2 High School, was admitted to the program at Communication University of China in 2001. Upon completing her Directing master's degree in 2008, she embarked on a career as a commercial advertising director, commanding a daily salary of between 11,000 to 20,000 dollars.
In 2019, Sun Xiaodi secured an investment, which allowed her to shoot her original script, the film "A LATE BLOOMER" that is competing in this competition. The film went into production in early November 2019, filming in multiple locations in Beijing and Nanjing, and wrapped by the end of the month. However, during the post-production phase, Sun Xiaodi encountered difficulties in editing her own script, realizing that she was unable, at that time, to fully harness her creativity.
As such, in early 2020, Sun Xiaodi suspended all her advertising work. As a creator, she chose to invest in her personal development. Considering her advanced age of 38, she focused on self-study, targeting areas where improvement was needed.
Over three years from 2020 to 2023, Sun Xiaodi focused on two main endeavors.
The first was to consume five films and two literature books per week to enrich her ideological depth and strengthen her logical thinking. The second was to engage in business ventures. Between 2020 and 2021, she ran a rural homestay which failed, but from 2021 to the present, she has successfully operated a bar in Beijing's Sanlitun. It was through this experience of opening the bar that Sun Xiaodi gained a clearer understanding of "the ways of the world".
In October 2023, Sun Xiaodi resumed the post-production and additional filming for "A LATE BLOOMER". The production of this short film took half a year, but it has been four years in the making, including three years of her personal breakthroughs. Sun Xiaodi hopes to use this short film as a springboard to transition into a film director and producer.

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Director Statement

The audience is led to explore the real experience and deep worries of the female director in her nightmare full of imagination.
The first 2/3 of film A LATE BLOOMER seems like a dream in real life, and the structure unique to dream is involved in the construction of film content. At the same time, the performance and atmosphere in the film is quite realistic, while the mismatch designs lead the audience to find that “something is wrong.” The film A LATE BLOOMER depicted a bizarre and gaudy dream, and it encourages the audience to organize their thoughts after the female director wake from the nightmare.
When watching the film A LATE BLOOMER , the audience have to make a judgment by themselves: is she awake or dreaming? It is hoped that, the audience will wonder what the heroine has dreamed about after they have seen the entire movie. “Why did she have such a dream?” The film is designed to fill audience's mind with visions and ideas, and lead them to think about dark and bright side of humanity.
“Perception-driven image flow” is experimented in the film A LATE BLOOMER. The director tries her best to picture the dazzle and mismatch of dream through structure of story, audience’s participation, scene control, atmosphere, film editing and sound.