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Clay of Indigo

In a remote town of Southern China, a young local ceramic artist accidentally falls into a dilemma between the strange affection for an American Journalist and the cultural discrimination from his grandmother and other elders who live in this town.

  • Zeyu Xu
    Director
  • Yanhui Hu
    Writer
  • Wei Zhang
    Producer
  • Max King
    Key Cast
  • Qi Wang
    Key Cast
  • Zimuo Zhu
    Key Cast
  • Yichun Zhang
    Key Cast
  • Yunbo Gan
    Key Cast
  • Jie Wang
    Key Cast
  • Fangwu Luo
    Key Cast
  • Zaiying Liu
    Key Cast
  • Tao Huang
    Executive Producer
  • Wei Xiong
    Director of Photography
  • Zeyu Xu
    Director of Photography
  • Li Niu
    Unit Production Manager
  • Tao Wang
    Associate Producer
  • Xiaofeng Xu
    Assistant Director
  • Fengying Liu
    Casting Director
  • Zachary Walsky
    Casting Director
  • Peiyu Wang
    Casting Director
  • Xiwen Feng
    Script Supervisor
  • Beibei Ma
    Production Designer
  • Xiangkai Xu
    1st Assistant Set Designer
  • Ruifeng Zhang
    1st Assistant Set Designer
  • Chao Zeng
    1st Assistant Set Designer
  • Shi Jin
    1st Assistant Camera
  • Minghui Liu
    Digital Image Technician
  • Guihua Zhou
    Lighting Supervisor
  • Yujian Zhou
    1st Lighting Assistant
  • Tao Zhang
    Key Gaffer
  • Bo Wei
    Key Gaffer
  • Yao Zeng
    Key Gaffer
  • Jie Liao
    Key Gaffer
  • Jin Fang
    Best Boy
  • Guohai Jing
    Best Boy
  • Rongxiang Qiu
    Best Boy
  • Qiang Jia
    Best Boy
  • Guohui Zhou
    Best Boy
  • Hongwei Li
    Costume & Make Up
  • Qifeng He
    Make Up Assistant
  • Wangyu Qu
    Make Up Assistant
  • Yulong Han
    Sound Mixer
  • Jianlin Li
    Sound Mixer
  • Mingxuan Bi
    Boom Operator
  • Taylor Kenny
    Editor
  • Quan Luo
    Colorist
  • Jianlin Li
    Sound Effect
  • Yulong Han
    Sound Editing
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    青纪之砂
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Drama, LGBT, Asian, Cultural
  • Runtime:
    28 minutes 6 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 1, 2015
  • Production Budget:
    50,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    China
  • Country of Filming:
    China
  • Language:
    Chinese, English
  • Shooting Format:
    2K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Director Biography - Zeyu Xu

Zeyu Xu was born on May 16, 1992 and grew up in Chengdu, China. After finishing his education at the renowned Chengdu Foreign Language High School, he moved to New York in 2011. After winning several scholarships from Drexel University, Maryland Institute College of Arts and Virginia Commonwealth University, he decided to attend the prestigious School of Visual Arts. He embraces the essentials of Chinese culture and treasures its impact on filmmaking and storytelling. Based on his unquenchable passion for entertainment industry, Zeyu Xu promotes artistic collaboration between China and the United States through his founding and continued support of the Chinese Filmmakers Association of America. As an education advocate of Sino-American cinematic arts , he advances Asian-American cross cultural pollination through his work. Besides being involved in different projects on and off campus, Zeyu Xu has produced, directed or shot four short films The Grief River, All The Wandering of Her, Way Out West and Clay of Indigo. All his works have touched on subjects such as pop art, feminism and loss. His thesis film Clay of Indigo explores the subjects of a father complex and homosexuality. The story is about the upheaval of identity, sexuality and self-awareness. The relationship between an outgoing American journalist and a humble local ceramic artist becomes a cultural intrusion into the lives of the elders of this ancient and mysterious town.

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Director Statement

Culture and art exchange have always been my first priority of study abroad. I will constantly encourage my friends and colleagues to visit and study in different countries to enhance personal experience with art, film and entertainment. Based on the passion of bringing the western and eastern together, ideology of short film Clay of Indigo has been sculpted to capture the process of understanding and communication through cinema. Speaking of the content in this film, the mysterious power of LGBT story becomes my first choice of development.

With the progress of China’s political reform and economic construction, plenty of international tourists and scholars come to the deeper remote mountain in southern mainland to study and observe the environment and Cultural landscape. More European and American cultural infiltration and new Chinese identity ideology influence the younger generation into bizarre cultural identity loss. Chinese money worship, one child policy, Spoon-feeding education and the fading of social happiness cause young people doubt about emotion, confused and twisted for their identity and life. Sexual orientation becomes the most sensitive subject in China. Those who desire love, desire identity and understanding are the lost generation.

Clay of Indigo script development started on February 2014 and we finally finished the screenplay by the end of April. The casting director Zachary Walsky in New York division worked really hard for two month and had held three auditions for 90 talents. In the other side of the planet, Fengying Liu as casting director of China division also worked on audition for Chinese character. And gratefully, we had finished the casting process on the last month before shooting. During the time of summer in 2014, I had visited all my friends and family to raise money for my film. In the end, I successfully raised about 50000 dollars. And then we begin the scouting and finding crew members process.

Executive Producer and my director of photography friend came to the shooting location in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. It’s a very famous ancient town called Fubao. The location has very elements in the screenplay such as Diaojiaolou, Moat, Dragon Bridge and Wild Boar Forest. All the natural environment and architecture are the perfect stage for Clay of Indigo. We shot the whole film with Alexa Studio and Zeiss Master Prime Lens.