SHP+ continues on the issue of minor representation of female filmmakers in China. Women’s Perspectives is a series of articles where we interview women filmmakers to give exposure to their name and their work, but also talk about their dreams, challenges and realities of being a woman in the industry.
SHP+持续关注国内女性影视创作者。在女性视角系列中，我们采访女性影视创作者，让更大的观众知道她们的名字，理解她们的工作，同时也谈论了她们的梦想、挑战和作为一名女性在这个行业中的现实。
For someone with a brief career in filmmaking, Chinese director 戴维Veda has already reached a significant milestone: she has directed and filmed over one hundred women. But to her, it’s not about quantity; it’s about quality. Whatever topic her work entails, it’s essential to have depth in its investigation and honesty in its portrayal.
对于一位事业刚刚起步的电影人来说，中国导演戴维已悄然抵达了自己事业的第一个里程碑：她已执导拍摄了百位女性。这是她两年前开始接触女性题材时不敢想象的数字，随着拍摄的增多，她注意到，质量要比数量重要得多，无论接到什么题材，有深度的洞察和最真实的分享是很重要的。
“There are a lot of women commercials coming out now. Frankly, I’m a little tired of this,” says Veda. “I think it’s good that gender-positive advertising is booming. But they may need to dive deeper into what diversity really means.” For instance, she liked the recent Proya x China Women’s Daily’s commercial “Gender Is Not a Limit, Prejudice Is” , which brings a lot of perspective.
“性别正能量的广告题材能蓬勃发展是件好事，能看到在社交平台上，更多广告开始关注并热衷于女性题材。”戴维告诉我们。“但老实说，有时候相近的表达看多了会有一些审美疲劳，现在可能需要的是更加深入地研究多样性、多元化的真正含义。她最近很喜欢珀莱雅x 中国妇女报的《性别不是边界线，偏见才是》广告影片，视角非常丰富。”
Veda was one of the many women in her filmmaking class in Shanghai Film Academy, Shanghai University. In fact, more women surrounded her than men in her university years. Still, she would occasionally question her aptitude for the task precisely for being a woman. “I thought I wouldn’t be able to handle all the hard work that filmmaking requires, such as the long hours, for example. I also knew that there were not a lot of women directors out there,” she says.
戴维曾是上海大学上海电影学院电影制作班的众多女学生之一。事实上，在她的大学时代，同学中女性比男性更多，但她偶尔还是会质疑自己是否适合这个行业。她说：“我一度认为性别会给我在事业上带来很多局限，比如生理构造上的原因，体力无法跟上等；或者在一个以男性居多的剧组中，自己作为女导演说话是否能让人信服。因为当时行业内有名的女导演为数不多。”
Her genuine passion is for feature films, specifically sci-fi. “A lot of my friends tell me, ‘Veda, you’re like a man,” she laughs at their stereotypical perception. “They say that because of my interests—I prefer to talk about my sci-fi movies and invigorative animation than girlish things.”
她平时最爱的是剧情片，尤其是科幻类。“有很多朋友都跟我说:‘ 戴维，你像个男人。’”对于朋友们的刻板印象，戴维一笑了之：“他们这么说，是因为我的兴趣爱好看起来“男性化”一些，我更喜欢谈论科幻电影和热血动漫，而非姐妹之间的悄悄话。”
Veda’s graduate project was the feature-length film With You Stranger (和陌生的你每一天) that reflects upon our relationship with technology—already from a female perspective. Within the genre, Veda’s style revolves more towards futuristic soulful dramas than hardcore space travel, “still, everyone wants to be [Christopher] Nolan,” she jokes.
戴维的毕业作品是一部中长篇电影《和陌生的你每一天》，反映了人们与科技之间复杂困窘的关系，而当年这部毕业作品就是从女性视角进行创作的。在同类型电影中，戴维的风格更倾向于未来主义且情感丰富的剧情，而非硬核的科幻片。“但其实，谁不想成为诺兰呢，”她开玩笑说。
As her practice matured, Veda learned to perceive the advantages of being a woman, notably the nuances of having a female gaze. “After I graduated, I found that being a woman is actually a gift—you see the world differently, from distinct angles.”
随着经验的丰富，戴维学会了去发掘作为女性的优势，特别是拥有女性的凝视所带来的细微差别。“毕业后我发现，作为女性其实是自己的一份天赋，你可以从很多元的角度来看世界。”
For many recent film school graduates, specializing in different ways of conveying visual stories through social media leads to more immediate work opportunities. That’s what Veda did when she graduated in 2017. At that time there was a lot of resistance to short video platforms, which she believed could compromise the integrity of the narrative and make viewers lose patience with longer works. “For those of us who graduated at the time, short videos seemed like the ‘enemy. But you know what they say, ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer,‘” she laughs. So having finished working as assistant director for the film Wild Grass, Veda joined a social media company in order to know and understand all about it.
对于许多刚毕业的电影学院学生来说，通过社交媒体以不同的方式传达视觉故事，可以带来更多且直接的工作机会。戴维2017年研究生刚毕业时，对于短视频平台有很多抵触，她认为这可能会损害叙事的完整性，让观众失去观赏长篇作品的耐心。“对于当时毕业的我们那拨人来说，短视频甚至像是是我们的“敌人”。但俗话也说得好，知己知彼百战不殆，”她笑着说。因此，在结束了电影剧组《荞麦疯长》的副导演工作后，戴维选择加入一家社交媒体公司，以便更好地去全方位地了解这个行业。
Among other projects, she worked on the three-day record of the editor-in-chief and CEO of Marie Claire China, Alex Sun. A bit later, the film caught the eye of the video editor Yuki at homegrown lingerie brand NEIWAI, where she was invited next to work on a series of expository documentaries.
除了日常的项目，她还参与了《嘉人》杂志主编兼首席执行官孙赛赛为期三天的工作记录拍摄。之后，这部影片引起了本土内衣品牌NEIWAI内外视频编辑Yuki的注意，于是她受邀加入品牌,制作了一系列人物短纪录片。
“They said they wanted to build a team to work on a project with a ‘human touch’, Veda recalls. “They wanted to tell stories about women, their lifestyle, and their thoughts.”
戴维回忆说:“当时他们想建立一个团队来做一个‘关注生命不同可能性’的视频栏目《在人海里》。”“他们想要讲述关于女性的故事，她们的生活方式，以及她们的想法。”
At NEIWAI, Veda wore several hats, acting as creative, director, and editor. The brand’s advertising strategy relies on self-expression with the goal of female liberation and empowerment. During her time there, she made several films that challenge the rigorous beauty and behavioral standards expected from Chinese women. She touched on topics like breast sizes, body positivity, and inner strength. The difference from other similar campaigns is that the message comes straight from women’s hearts.
在内外，戴维担任创意、导演和剪辑。她们的视频团队拍摄完成了一系列不同主题的影片，挑战了人们对于亚洲女性严苛的外貌取向和行为标准；探讨了胸部大小、积极的身材观念和内在力量等多元话题。与其他类似营销活动不同的是，这些内容信息都是直接来自于真实女性的内心写照。
Chinese Under Wear Brand Embracing Body-Positivity 呼吁身体自爱的中国内衣品牌
“It’s not just about freckles, having an afro, or being fat. There’s more to it. For the NEIWAI Touch series, we interviewed each woman two or three times. We got to know them and their stories very well,” Veda says. She aimed to bring awareness to these women’s lives, not forcibly but pleasantly. Her NEIWAI films are minimal and delicate. They center on the genuine emotions of the women they portray, through their own words, or else through their gestures and marks—a tattoo, a scar, a smile. They can be funny, refreshing, but also heartbreaking at times.
戴维说：“这不仅仅是有没有雀斑、剪个爆炸头或者胖瘦的问题，我们讨论的还有更多。在《在人海里》这个系列中，每位女性都被采访了到了两到三次，因此我们也非常了解她们和她们背后的故事。” 他们的目的是展现更多样的生活方式和观点，不强行推荐或说服，而是愉悦地分享。《在人海里》系列影片是简约而精致的。该系列聚焦于被刻画女性的真实情感，或通过她们自己的语言，或通过她们的状态和印记：一枚纹身，一个伤疤，一个微笑。她们的故事可能是有趣的、令人耳目一新的，有时也是令人心疼的。
“When it comes to diversity, you don’t need to be them; you just need to understand them. Sometimes it’s not that you hate something, it’s just that you lack the knowledge, understanding and communication to notice. So we dig out the emotions and stories that are perhaps too small or too common to be noticed, and let people understand and feel all these things. It’s like sharing a book,” she says.
“其实谈到多样性，并不是要求大家去加入或者成为他们；而是想让更多人去理解他们。有时候你并不是讨厌一个事物，而只是缺乏了解、理解和沟通而没有注意到。所以我们把那些或许小众化的，或许太过于大众而容易被忽视的情绪、故事挖掘出来，让人们去了解去感受这一切。这就好比是在分享一本我们喜欢的书，期待别人也能欣赏它”她说。
Veda left NEIWAI after the NEIWAI Touch project，but she continues on the quest to portray women with integrity and empathy, now as a freelancer. Her latest commercial is for Dove, a pioneer in the beauty sector for boosting a woman’s confidence through marketing campaigns.
去年年底，《在人海里》的项目告一段落， 戴维如今作为自由职业者，在完善自己想要叙述的长篇故事的同时，也在努力在广告拍摄中塑造真诚且有共鸣感的女性形象。她最新的广告作品客户是多芬，作为美妆洗护行业的先驱，他们一直在通过市场营销活动来帮助女性提升自信。
Still, Veda doesn’t accept all requests for films with the goal of women’s empowerment. She only takes them when she feels confident that the brand’s message is genuine. Such authenticity has become her hallmark. She presents women from a distinctly female gaze, which makes her work refreshing, distinct from conventional advertising.
在拍摄广告的途中，戴维并没有接受所有以女性赋权为目标的拍摄邀约。只有确信视频内容传达的信息是诚恳且真实的，她才会加入创作。这种本真有品的个性已经成为她的标志。她以一种独特的女性视角呈现女性，因此她的作品总是令人耳目一新，与传统的广告有所区别。
As for the road ahead, Veda doesn’t have major plans. She “goes with the flow and enjoys the ride.” But there’s one more thing she wants to accomplish. “Since I shot over one hundred women in one year, I also want to shoot over one hundred men. That way, I can know both,” she laughs.
至于未来的道路，除了一直在创作的长篇剧本，戴维还没有什么其它大计划。她乐于“随波逐流，享受过程。”但她说倒是还有一个里程碑想要完成：“既然我拍了一百位女性，我还想再尝试拍一百位男性。那样的话，我的视角或许会变得异常开阔” 她笑着说。
If you are a female commercial director/cinematographer/production designer/ editor, or you know someone who’s suitable for the series. Feel free to share with us the name.
如果你是一位女性广告影片导演、摄影指导、制作设计师、剪辑师，或者你认识适合这个系列的人，请随时联系我们。
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