漂泊洛杉矶 Drifting in Los Angeles(2012)
简介：
- 当好莱坞梦想遭遇电影学院现状，天使之城的美漂族们将如何面对？
演员：
影评：
- 也许这应该算篇观后感，而不是影评~
其实早看过这个纪录片了，一直没空记录点感想。想记是因为，我很惊奇的发现俺作为一个和导演专业八竿子打不着关系的人竟在片中感到诸多共鸣，联想到很多。自己对好的纪录片的评判标准之一是，这片子能让你思考多多少。从这个角度上讲，受到片长限制的《漂泊洛杉矶》已是部颇inspiring的作品。
零碎的捕捉点感想和联想吧。
关于艺术专业学生的片子并不少。而这些片子大多有装X之嫌。如果事先贴了标签端起了架子，后面就很难把导演的想法渗入到观众内心了。而《漂》对于主人公事件的选取，还有访谈的内容，感觉都很平实，很多类似的场景似乎在自己的生活中也曾出现。记得里面有个男生睡办公室被老师训，说美国老师好没同情心。不禁想起去年发烧一周快要挂了，去跟导师请假，导师一听竟然坐着转椅俩腿一蹬往后飞了一米多，然后说”I should not have got so close to u!” 泪啊~观众的自身经历和影片相关联（不管关联的程度如何），总是可以加强影片的交流效果，就像和人说话时一样。
影片里很多人讲自己苦逼的经历时都和说笑话儿似的，逗着观众阵阵发笑。然而，冷幽默与残酷的现状却形成对比。以幽默诙谐的态度对待残酷，仿佛和强大的背景逗趣，给人以心疼（学艺术的朋友们真是挺不容易的，出头好难。这也是为什么当时家里强烈反对自己学美术的原因，说你丫要是敢报家里是不会供你的。。。懂事的art major学生压力得是多大呢。好吧，扯远——拉回）又有希望（难道是传说中的革命的乐观主义精神？！）的感觉。
片中插入大量四个主人公的作品。记得其中有个在黑暗中跳舞的女孩子，让我想起bjork演的dancer in the dark. 那是部反映冷战后前苏联移民在美国的悲剧遭遇。虽然漂泊在洛杉矶的电影学生们并没有那么惨淡的令人窒息的人生，但同样也是承受着边缘人的孤独。片中导演说，这些学生都选择了残缺或被病态的主题，这反映了这些中国学生的心理——被排斥的现状（对不起记不住原话了~）。虽然，貌似病态及残缺是现在艺术作品的流行趋势：瞧瞧上届奥斯卡，不得病，没奖得（开玩笑）。不过导演所说的却也很在理，像是挖掘了各位学生导演潜意识里的东西。因为一个长期处在心灵孤独状态的人（当然也是比较善良，内心敏感的人，个人认为）大概才会想去拍病态人的生活。看看国内学生电影比赛的作品，小清新和温馨卖萌真的有点多，让看的人也有点胃酸过多，但是想想也许是所处的环境不同，心理状态不同，所以轻松的东西多些。
然而在种种被排斥和孤独的背后，也许我们得想想为何会这样。如果篇幅可以加长，导演可以再多挖挖这块儿，多表达些自己对此的看法。也许是工程背景的训练，让自己成为了一个“problem solver”的思维（但愿不是电脑程序~），自己总是想解决这问题，掰平这一不控制可能和主流越走越远的命运。也许先从反省自身开始，探讨下中国学生在交流和工作上的“问题”和原因（这个在开头对一个同学的采访探到了一些挺重要的点，比如面子问题之类，要是再展开就好了~），中国电影人和美国的种种差距（也许有的并不能说是差距），甚至有没有必要打进好莱坞。
尽管路途艰辛，可一旦选择了，就顺着自己的劲儿走下去。在看爬beverage hill那段，不知怎么脑子里就闪过了西西弗的神话。我并不知道导演要表达的是不是这个意思（说实在自己也很讨厌以前语文老师拿着课文分析来分析去好像自己是作者肚子里的蛔虫一样，估计作者后来知道了鸡皮疙瘩都掉一地~）。目前自己做的所有的选择，不管是专业，还是出国留学，都是暗暗受着这一神话的感召。诸神惩罚西西弗将一块巨石由山底推向山顶。这过程真的很苦。为什么就不待在山底喝个茶睡个觉过一辈子得了。可是人就一辈子，若不相信轮回。推了，到山顶了，趁歇会儿的时候看风景了，虽然后面有可能还得追着跑下山再把滚下去的石头推上来，但在这过程中这辈子也就没白活了。所以趁年轻放手去做吧。别留遗憾。
又及：
作为一个纯业余爱好者给年轻的刘导演提一点建议，要是说的太业余就纯当看着乐乐~
《漂》片头动画略粗糙（就那个中国版图跳啊跳的部分）。结尾的马路镜头感觉是在呼应开头但略庸俗，镜头切换有点突然~可以采取更广阔的取景视角给人些遐想。（那天在人人上看到有人分享中国男生怎么追不到白人女孩的电影。感觉《漂》里的马路镜头和黄姓同学电影里的镜头好像。是在一个地儿拍的吗？如果是的话是否该考虑多拍些类似镜头，在不同的街边，然后取最理想的。）
影片插曲的选择：选择大众熟知的音乐时需格外慎重。《漂》的片尾用crystalized的节奏很赞！歌词倒有点不搭（其实是我在这方面太挑~）。还有想起《异客》片尾的《一步之遥》。其实个人感觉很符合异客的主题，但是这曲子用的场合较多，可能在每个人的心中有着不同的代表，反映到异客这部作品中时，可能对应出来的不总是导演所理解的，所期望的效果。
大好前程，放手去做！ - Coincidentally, I'm developing a doc on Chinese international students RIGHT NOW and it got picked from USC film school to produce within next semester. If you were here in LA by then, you are more than welcome to come on board!
After watching your short doc, first of all, I have to say that I don't want to see the end. I want to see MORE! Do a feature out of this dude!
Second, I admire your courage to portrait filmmakers, since you are a filmmaker yourself. Because when I chose my characters, I intentionaly avoided film school students. I felt we are a group of students that is far more different from the others. Our work is something deals with communicating cultures, but we are at a place that we don't own the mainstream culture. I didn't want to face the reality of ourselves'. In a way you inspired me to open my arms and embrace the reality.
Finally, talking about our realities, I did want to see the huge gap between our hollywood dream and film schools. The four main characters in the film are all interesting to watch and follow. I connected to them right away. But I felt that you didn't show the gap lying in front of them that much. I did see some subtle part of it through their interviews. Just wish to see deeper that how this gap influences their daily life and long-term plans.
A lovely touching movie. Those footage you showed from those character's works are just stunning. Every time when camera turns 180 degree, focusing on the people and things behind it, I just can't help to wish that they all lies. Otherwise how could we make a beautiful dream when we live an ugly life. Thanks to that all the filmmakers have a STRONG heart.
Good job! - A review copied from IMDb.
What is the "Hollywood Dream"? Is it different for a person that was born under the assumption that we know exactly what this phrase means and a student that knows the American culture only through learning and marginal experience? How does trying to discover this impossible idea change who we are as people? Who we are as a not individuals, but groups with different cultural identities? This is the most basic concept behind "Drifting in Los Angeles", a documentary by Zhāo Lewis Liú, as it examines the lives of several Chinese students attending film school in Los Angeles, California.
Money, equality, social opinion, and happiness are among a few of the subjects touched upon in this film, as well as techniques and tools of the trade that shape every young film major into what they hope to become. For me, one of the most interesting arcs of the film is the general idea of how they're experience in America has impacted these students in the way in which they not only view the film industry, but how they view themselves. Some of the students interviewed straightforwardly admitted to wanting to go back to China instead of trying to stay and try to work in America. Here, not only do some of the students feel that they are discriminated against, but they feel as though the film industry is pushing towards taught conformity and ideals, only the truly great able and willing to stand out and go against the grain. As an American, I had not thought of this before. Is what we consider the film industry merely a byproduct of what a few intellectuals want us to believe? These experiences have become a time in these students lives in which they find pieces of themselves in how others react and respond to them in a different culture.
But, by far, the thing that interested me the most was that this film did not merely reflect upon how these students feel that they are outcasts, but the near epiphany of the director that most of the students he spoke to felt hindered, handicapped, in the American society because of where they came from and how others treat them for this. Throughout the film there are splices of works from the students interviewed, powerful and beautiful original pieces of film that reflect this differential treatment and the impact it has on these students. As the director himself so aptly puts: " (the short films of the students) all featured a character with a disability or severe illness. This shared theme reveals their collective experience of being a Chinese in America, an alien ethnic minority excluded from the mainstream." Thoughtful and interesting, I enjoyed this short film. As a lover of both American and International films, after watching "Drifting in Los Angeles" I cannot help but to wonder what the concept of "Hollywood" has made on foreign film workers. Is it just an idea that they are reflecting upon when they try to reproduce our iconic images, or are they reflecting upon their own personal experiences here in America and how it has changed their beliefs of what "Hollywood" and cinema, beneath the stars and glittering lights, truly is?