Storytelling with a Cause

Storytelling

with a Cause

Guinea Pig Documentary Wins Multiple Awards

When Rui Chen came to Oaks Christian as a sophomore from China, his interest was in STEM, but after taking the Film I class that interest went right out the window.

“I took this film class, and it blew my mind,” he shared. “I was fascinated by film technique and the thought that film could be a tool to create good for some people and be an advocate for them.”

Initially, he thought he could accomplish that through feature filmmaking, but when he took Andrew Christopher’s Film III class (Documentary for Social Change), he had a second epiphany. At first, he was neutral about the class. Christopher handed out guidelines and asked the students to review them. Chen dove in and after a couple of weeks his interest in documentaries was piqued and he decided he would explore that genre. He took to it like a duck to water. “After going through the hard process of research, I just fell in love with documentary filmmaking,” he shared.

Chen excelled as a documentarian and by the end of the year had produced a piece about clinical trials in China. Guinea Pig has garnered seven awards and several nominations. It was showcased on the OCS campus at the film premiere.

“Rui has a self-assuredness and a confidence in the way he wants his vision to play out,” said Christopher. “But he is an a-typical student in that I can pose a suggestion or say, ‘Have you thought of it this way?’ and he listens. Some students can be very protective of their work and feel vulnerable to critiques, especially if it requires them to go back and do more work, but not Rui. He does what needs to be done and never bats an eye. He definitely has a future in this.” His interest in clinical trials came from an article he had read that questioned if volunteers were guinea pigs or were treated ethically in trials. The question intrigued him, and he asked his father, a doctor back home in China about it. The timing could not have been more perfect. His father was conducting clinical trials at Shaoxing People’s Hospital and Chen asked if he could shoot the process and interview patents.

To say that making a documentary in China is challenging would be an understatement. First, there were a myriad of legal government approvals to get through, the background checks, the updates that needed to be provided.

But he was given an opportunity and a very tight window in which to complete the process: four days to be exact. He shot at Shaoxing People’s Hospital when he was home from school on Christmas break. Not only was the timeline

Click here to view Guinea Pig

crunched, but he also had to do edits with Christopher at 2:00am China time because of the time difference.

“There were many challenges to get this project done. First, just getting all the permissions because there were so many limitations. I had to write out a 15-page film schedule: what I was shooting each day, which kind of frame,” Chen said.

But one thing he learned is that keeping a tight schedule doesn’t always work and that’s not a bad thing.

“The shooting structure can change. Someone quits, some else joins. Accidents can change the film, but I think it makes it more wonderful, more authentic,” he said.

He started the process in December 2020, but after the initial four days of filming and early/late night editing with Christopher, the extended editing time was a year. The film was completed in May 2021 but premiered in spring 2022.

“I spent almost a year editing so my editing skills are what improved the most: the pacing, how to structure the story, how to give it color, all these various aspects. This helped me to become the editor of the feature film, The Colosseum,” he said.

He said he also learned that not having a big budget, or having no budget, isn’t a deterrent. He spent only $89 for renting cameras and that was it.

He is headed to the University of California, Berkeley to study filmmaking with his original film goals in sight. He wants to use documentaries to shine light on the human condition.

“From my childhood to now, I see a dramatic change in the social classes of rich and poor. I want the documentaries I make to be a story telling tool to affect social change.”

This summer he returns home to China and will begin thinking about his next documentary: the transition of fossil-fuel based energy, such as coal mining, to clean energy and what the human impact of that entails.

As he leaves Oaks Christian, he not only takes filmmaking skills, but he also keeps his “American family.”

“Being here at Oaks has been so wonderful. I have made so many friends in film class and we want to keep our communication going through college. There is a strong bond with the film students,” he said.

An Extravagant Evening!

The celebration of the Middle School Arts Extravaganza was a night to remember! Families, faculty, and staff alike had front-row seats to witness all their students’ accomplishments throughout the school year. The event covered the talented visual arts students’ drawings and paintings, multicultural art, photography, film, 3D art, ceramics classes, and the Humanities Lab. Along with the visual arts, the incredible performing arts students from the choir, strings, band, and dancers performed small segments under the direction of their teachers.