“Capture your Dream, Inspire the Realm.” I have set the question to myself as the slogan of the first Eye Catcher International Pitching Forum. In the past two years, despite boundless creativity, the rampant pandemic was truly an obstacle to media production. During my first feature film production being set aside, we decided to launch the Eye Catcher Incubation Programme, which had been groomed for years.
2022 is the tenth year since my university graduation. I can remember nothing but a sense of ignorance to go for independent production out of my empty hands when I left the Ch’ien Mu Library. In a desperate search for the truth, I visited numerous places. They are the amazing Sundance, the unseen Chinese face in a small town in Southern Italy, the enthusiastic crowd participation on the train, the once for all underground film screening. The mosquitos in an Indonesian hostel, the sickening beer in Mumbai, all represent my gratefulness to the independent curators and producers whom I have met in the past ten years.
Even though I am a newbie in this area, doesn’t the world exist for possibilities? If I can excel at the importance of idea refinement, why don’t we learn from each other with our fellow counterparts? Naming the Eye Catcher Incubation Programme this year as “Where Imagination transcends the Screen” was to encourage trials that are out of the box. Despite the overwhelming stigmatisation of production genres generalised and simplified into merely a hashtag, as media producers, we should be open-minded and insist on our independent production without hesitation.
Finally, I must thank all my fellow predecessors and friends who participated wholeheartedly in the programme at my invitation this year. My humble piece Tales of Honey: A Collection of Interviews with Post-80s Directors from the Greater China was launched in 2015 and its editor Samuel is my perfect partner for curating the Eye Catcher Incubation Programme. Sending my best wishes that this project will be as unfading as honey, this marks the prologue.
TSANG Hing Weng, Eric
Director, Creative Director – Eye Catcher
「告訴世界，你還想捕捉什麼？」我以當下敲問自身的問題，作為奪目影像首屆國際提案大會的口號。過去兩年，瘟疫在蔓延，雖然創意無限，但的確有礙製作，我的首部劇情片亦因此一度被擱置，那不如就讓蘊釀多年的奪目影像率先面世吧。
2022，剛好畢業十年。尤記得離開錢穆圖書館時，真的是手空空無一物，但就是有一種要走獨立創作的無明之念。為了求其索，這十年走訪多地，有讓我眼界震開的Sundance，也有那個沒有見過華人臉孔的意大利南部小鎮，還有大夥兒逼著在火車上參與，此景恐不能再重現的地下放映。印尼旅館的蚊子，孟買令人漚瀉的啤酒，感謝這十年讓我遇上這些一直堅持著的獨立影展與影人。
我在這個領域的經驗尚淺，可是世界不就是為了可能性而存在嗎？若然我可以靠100次申請學會了提煉意念的重要， 同時一定有很多同路人正在做這種事，我們何不多砥礪切磋？ 想到以「超越銀幕的廠牌想像」命名今年奪目影像的廠牌計劃，正正希望鼓勵更多跳出框架的嘗試。什麼類型現在都淪為了hashtag一個，殊途同歸，我們作為影像創作者，尤其是仍義無反顧地走獨立創作路的，更應該開放地走下去。
最後我必需感謝今年我邀請過的所有前輩與朋友，大家抽空也掏心來參與奪目影像。拙作《蜜糖不壞︰華語80後導演訪談》成書於2015年，今年能與編輯子文共同策劃奪目影像，是最好不過的搭檔。希望這個項目也會如蜜糖般不腐壞，是為序。
曾慶宏
導演/奪目影像創意總監
