Exclusive news brings in that Avatar Entertainment has taken foreign sales rights on Charon, Jennifer Zhang’s mobile-shot feature, and will be shopping the picture this week in Cannes. So I am sure during this lockdown with nothing to do at home and out of boredom most of us have maybe acquired a new skill, or developed a new hobby, or started doing something we have always wished for, and some even have started focusing on themselves and have had a transformation over this entire lockdown.
Now coming to Jennifer Zhang she has done something unbelievable true by shooting an entire film alone using just her iPhone 8 during this lockdown. Isn’t that so mind-blowing? How one person could write, direct, and even edit the whole movie which later won the Best Film award at the 2021 International Mobile Film Festival. Now that is a level of determination everyone wishes to have at least, I know I do!
With a runtime of 73 minutes, “Charon” the feature film by Jennifer Zhang is a psychological thriller that was shot entirely on an iPhone and was edited using only a single app and this all was done when the filmmaker Jennifer Zhang was incomplete self-isolation in her apartment. This makes you even more shocked, I am sure. Because to be honest writing the storyline to shoot the film and even editing the movie to get its final piece is a really long procedure and not only that but it takes a lot of precision and I know you all must be wondering where did she even get the inspiration for the movie? Moreover, didn’t she feel suffocated or burdened with work staying in her house all alone and working day and night to make sure the movie is completed? Well, I have pretty much the same questions and the only person who will be able to answer those questions is Jennifer Zhang herself.
Coming back to the topic in play right now, another obvious question in everyone’s mind must be: what is the storyline of this movie? So the story revolves around Charon, as the name of the movie suggests, who is a notorious hacker currently under house arrest. But her boyfriend who is on the outside keeps video calling her will all sorts of weird and unusual requests and soon the on-camera requests which were silly at first turns dark and gloomy which scares Charon and builds up a curiosity within her to know the reason behind these unusual requests so will she be able to unravel this mystery behind her boyfriend’s odd requests all just by sitting in her apartment? Now that is a mystery for us to unbox after watching the movie.
The co-stars of this movie are Eric Radic who had Skyped for his performance, and Marc Morisseau, who self-quarantined before shooting his role in the apartment. The movie features a haunting score by the Korean-American mixer/composer Diana Cha, and a cinematic color grading by the up-and-coming Chinese filmmaking duo — Layla Han Dong and Stan Mumei Song. The main reason why Jennifer decided to come up with this movie was “an attempt to tell a gripping story with just myself, an iPhone, a tripod, the Videoshop mobile app, a few key remote collaborators, and eight lonely weeks,” says Zhang. “I could only hope that people found the end result entertaining and worthwhile. The early festival response has been really encouraging.” and hats-off to her efforts that she came up with such a great story which had everyone glued to their screens and this is just the type of thing we need in these long boring lockdown days.
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