Interview with Yibi Hu - Josie's Lalaland

YH: I did consider the possibilities of filming or character animation. After thorough research of many leukemia cases I learned that what I was exploring was universal. For instance, the two cases that inspired me are remarkably similar yet occurred worlds apart.

This is why I decided not to make any specific figures or characters but to keep it as abstract as possible. I eventually made up my mind to create a fantasy world mixed with both dark and brightness, a world intersecting between reality and afterlife. Also I chose this because most children in the same situation would expect more outdoor action. Another influence was some of the jewelry designs done by Josie Grove. She was quite an artist and one piece she did was a silver dragonfly necklace. When I showed her family some of my early art work Josie’s mum saw my work as dragonfly rebirths from water, which gave me some ideas using more dragonfly like insects.

IA: There's something magical, ethereal in this short. It's a very sad story but on the other hand I felt that you tried to give to your short a happy touch. Are you agreement with this?

YH: I have to say I never see this story as a sad one. I was moved by Josie’s courage much more than anything else. There are certainly many different emotions mixed here but what I wanted to express more than anything is eternal happiness and love. It is true that the extreme condition of both kids destined their fate but encouraged by the love from their family and friends they lit candles for themselves in the darkest moments. Their take on their own case was indeed selfless, brave and pure.

IA: What have you learned from the experience of creating this short?

YH: I am happy with the treatment and solution. Somehow I am surprised that an abstract piece could also trigger emotional reactions just like a slow build up in a film. Maybe this could be explored more thoroughly in a proper feature film.Technically, as I have spent a great amount of time generating a HD 3D world in Aftereffect, I believe even more firmly that there is no clear boundary between software and hardware.

IA: Can you tell us a little more about the creative process? How have you elaborated the different scenes, chosen the creatures and colors we can see in your short?

YH: I did the whole thing following an imaged documentary route. I pretended that I was a cameraman wandering around in Josie’s world, taking random shots. I did many different scenes, each one describing its’ own emotion. I didn’t process further into editing until I had enough shots.