{"id":28567,"date":"2016-11-15T07:30:40","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T07:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/?p=28567"},"modified":"2019-08-09T20:48:31","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T20:48:31","slug":"jennifer-zheng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/jennifer-zheng\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with &#8216;Tough&#8217; director Jennifer Zheng"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jenniferzheng.co.uk\/Selected-Work\/Tough-1\">Tough<\/a> <em>by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jenniferzheng.co.uk\">Jennifer Zheng<\/a> has been sweeping through animation festivals big and small this summer, notably the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/encounters-qa-2\/\">Encounters Film Festival<\/a> in September and the Student Films category of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.manchesteranimationfestival.co.uk\/events\/student-films-1-1\/\">Manchester Animation Festival<\/a> this week. Recently graduating from Kingston University she\u2019s already a D&amp;AD Newblood yellow pencil winner, It\u2019s Nice That 2016 Graduate, winner of Best Animated Documentary at KLIK! Amsterdam Film Festival and landed herself a job at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mothcollective.co.uk\/\">Moth Collective<\/a>. Skwigly contributor Hannah Stolp-Joseph recently met up with Jennifer to find out more.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tough - teaser\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/170397857?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>If the film took 6-7 months to make, how long have you had this idea? It\u2019s quite a personal film about identity, were you thinking about this since you were say, 13, or only thought about as an adult?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I had always thought about who I was, but until recently it was more of a lingering feeling of unease that I brushed to the side when I thought too hard about it.<br \/>\nLast summer, a storm of things converged into a mini identity crisis for me: I was researching race and stereotypes for my dissertation, This American Life released this amazing piece on an Asian American guy called Larry who couldn\u2019t communicate with his father because he couldn\u2019t speak Mandarin and my tutor Martina Bramkamp always talked about making films as a sort of therapy and using them to explore feelings. So I decided I wanted to dig into these \u2018new\u2019 feelings.<br \/>\nI didn\u2019t think about interviewing my mum until later: I was in counselling for stress, my mum came up and we talked about how we never seemed to get along, especially during my childhood. I realised I had never actually asked her how she felt about it, and that I knew hardly anything about her childhood. So I decided to pluck up the courage and ask her about it!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>I think I loved your film so much because it was such a personal story but it was also something I hadn\u2019t thought about as a subject, as you mother said in your film \u2018White = British\u2019 and that\u2019s something that is really explored and is an increasing discussion in the UK right now. Did you make the film thinking that this was only just your story?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I definitely don\u2019t think it\u2019s only just me, I was inspired by Larry\u2019s story on TAL after all! I\u2019ve been pleasantly surprised by how many people relate to the themes in the film, Lots of people who aren\u2019t even Chinese have told me that it reminded them of themselves or their children. I\u2019m really glad that people are connecting with the film and to be honest, I\u2019m glad I\u2019m not the only one!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Do you think the fact that this is such a big issue for some young people in Britain right now shaped how you made the film in any way or was it completely personal?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I know it&#8217;s horribly self-obsessed but I made the film for myself and my mum. But I was always aware that the film would be seen by an audience and was very careful in how I portrayed race in the film. I didn\u2019t want it to be one sided or preachy nor did I want it to give a definite answer because, I actually still don\u2019t really know who I am. Though I do think I got closer. The film definitely gave me a huge amount of catharsis and my mum and I are much closer now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_28576\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Tough_festival_still00001.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28576\" class=\"size-large wp-image-28576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Tough_festival_still00001-620x349.jpg\" alt=\"Tough (\u00a92016 Jennifer Zheng)\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-28576\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Tough<\/em> (\u00a92016 Jennifer Zheng)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Looking back at your showreel and some of your previous work you\u2019ve used some 3D modelling and experimental work, was the style for <em>Tough<\/em> you discovering a new favourite or a leap of faith?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I don\u2019t really see myself as having one style I feel like for this film, that was the right style. When I was designing the film I started with the main character, I really like carving rubber stamps so I carved my main character, printed that on some paper and then I started drawing over it with pencil and I just fell in love with that aesthetic, it gives the digital drawings this buttery handmade texture and I think that really suits the tone of the film. I don\u2019t really see myself sticking to just 2D even though I do really like it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Yeah, you can never really just stick to one thing in animation, you\u2019re always changing, it\u2019s a good thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I don\u2019t feel like I can say I\u2019m only going to draw this way for the rest of my life, I don\u2019t know who I\u2019m going to be in 5 years. Though I really like that aesthetic, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll make another film the way I did for <em>Tough<\/em> because it took so long. But I think it was worth it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>What was the most challenging part of making the film?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Well the easiest part was getting the audio, it was easy in the sense that all I had to do was ask my mum difficult questions, but it was actually really easy to talk to her and I was really surprised by how honest she was with me. I think it was something to do with my having matured to a certain age and actually asking what she actually thought for once. As a child you don\u2019t really ask your mum \u2018hey, what did you do when you were younger?\u2019 At least I didn\u2019t, maybe she thought I was ready for it or perhaps it was because I was asking in a mature non-accusatory way and she felt comfortable enough to be honest with me, so the audio was pretty easy to get. The rest of it\u2026all of it was really hard.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_28577\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28577\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28577\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/linestopencilprocess_400x300px.gif\" alt=\"\u00a92016 Jennifer Zheng\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-28577\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a92016 Jennifer Zheng<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>How long did it take for you to hash out the final animatic or storyboard?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>That\u2019s a really difficult question because before Christmas we were just making a treatment for the film. Animatic development went all the way through until maybe the last two months, in other schools they storyboard the whole thing, make the whole thing into an animatic and then go into production but we don\u2019t have time to do that, we just do it all at the same time which I prefer because things always seem to change so much anyway, it gives you perhaps more flexibility, but it is a juggling act. I did also have an amazing composer, I found a guy on Reddit called K.Preston Merkley, he\u2019s Canadian and he\u2019s lovely, I found him on r\/composer because I\u2019m a nerd, I put a post up asking for a composer for a student animated film, and Ken messaged me!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>How was it working with someone across the globe?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It was really good! We just sent back and forth like a million emails. I\u2019d send him my overall feeling of what I wanted to convey at various points of the film and he sent me back a rough and we\u2019d go back and forth with revisions. It was actually pretty easy because he was very professional.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_28578\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28578\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28578\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/makingtough.jpg\" alt=\"Making Tough (\u00a92016 Jennifer Zheng)\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-28578\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a92016 Jennifer Zheng<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>How did you get yourself a job at Moth Collective?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Last summer I did a 2 week internship with them, we kept in contact and when I released the trailer for my grad film Margaux asked me for the link and then they offered me a job!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Do you think studios similar to Moth are ideally where you\u2019d like to be working?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Working at Moth Collective is basically my dream job, I\u2019m learning so much from them, AND they are the nicest people you\u2019ll ever meet. Lovely lovely talented people and because it\u2019s quite a small studio, I get to animate stuff from start to finish whereas in big productions you might just get to do in-betweens or colouring. They do such a variety of work so I get to animate lots of different things, plus their designs and stories are always beautiful!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>What does your mother think of the film?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>She likes it. Although she thinks it\u2019s a bit short haha.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>What about your brother and family? Your brother grew up with you so should be able to relate the most to your film.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I actually don\u2019t know how he feels about it, I think he\u2019s pretty psyched and proud of me. He\u2019s in the credits of the film because he basically scanned in 70% of the film, he was a trooper, it took hours of him standing at a photocopier, THANKS JONATHAN!!! I don\u2019t know how my dad feels either, he says he likes it and he didn\u2019t fall asleep during it: he falls asleep during every other film he watches so I think that\u2019s a good sign.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_28575\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Tough_festival_still00002.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28575\" class=\"size-large wp-image-28575\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skwigly.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Tough_festival_still00002-620x349.jpg\" alt=\"Tough (\u00a92016 Jennifer Zheng)\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-28575\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Tough<\/em> (\u00a92016 Jennifer Zheng)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>In the end scene of <em>Tough<\/em> you&#8217;re cupping an origami bird, which I think is a lovely gesture, do you think that represents how you feel now, more at peace with your identity?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Definitely more than before yeah, but I didn\u2019t really come to an answer, I do feel a little bit more at ease with myself because I\u2019ve acknowledged those feelings but if somebody asks me \u2018are you Asian or you British?\u2019 I still have no idea. I would say I don\u2019t know, probably somewhere in-between.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Do you think the crane is a symbol of culture or symbolises a connection between you and your mum?<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Well what do you think it means?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>I think it was a symbol of your Chinese heritage, your mum was associated with the crane at the beginning and as her clothes fall the crane emerges, representing the end of this part of her life and at the end you\u2019re not holding an actual crane, just small origami version, a small part of your own heritage.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Well I\u2019m not going to say you\u2019re right or wrong, because ultimately it doesn\u2019t matter what I think, the only thing that matters is the audience\u2019s interpretation and what they take away from it!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Thank you so much for your time Jennifer and I can\u2019t wait to see what you\u2019ll be making next!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>You can catch <\/strong><\/em><strong>Tough<\/strong><em><strong> at MAF in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.manchesteranimationfestival.co.uk\/events\/student-films-1-1\/\">Student Films 1<\/a> category on Tuesday 15th (12pm), Wednesday 16th (10:10am) and Thursday 17th (4:15pm). See more work by Jennifer Zheng at <a href=\"http:\/\/jenniferzheng.co.uk\">jenniferzheng.co.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tough by Jennifer Zheng has been sweeping through animation festivals big and small this summer, notably the Encounters Film Festival in September and the Student Films category of the Manchester Animation Festival this week. Recently graduating from Kingston University she\u2019s already a D&amp;AD Newblood yellow pencil winner, It\u2019s Nice That 2016 Graduate, winner of Best [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7835,"featured_media":28569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,755,5944],"tags":[4785,3890,4786],"class_list":["post-28567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-interviews","category-women-in-animation","tag-jennifer-zheng","tag-moth-collective","tag-tough"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Interview with &#039;Tough&#039; 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