Evaluation - Joe Liao

I could not express how exciting it was to have screened this piece at the end, needless to say the number of people who turned up for the 'extended session'. It was fantastic. From beginning to end, this project has bonded our team together, allowed us to learn from each other, allowed my team mates to meet a new wonderful person, and myself to appreciate more about Mr. George W. Payne; and of course, to produce a piece of work that we are all very proud of.

As I have often mentioned, this project could only have begun with the unconditional trust given by my team mates for me to have selected the subject that only I have the slightest idea of who he is. As much as I could describe George, I am certain that we all had doubts in our heads. I could almost even say the faith my team mate showed is almost as if they allowed me to direct them blindfolded. I am fortunate to have not sent them down a cliff.

In every stage of this project, our whole team had very pleasing amount of communication and collaboration. Rarely if not none in this project, believe it or not, did any of us held firmly to our personal opinions without listening logically - as a result, I don't recall a single argument that has been woven into our seamless fabric, which I will always hold dearly.

The piece we've produced - Orientation of Payne - explores a young british gentlemen whom I roomed with for two years whilst he was in Hong Kong. Any person is far more complex than a 5 (or 10) minutes film, so the challenge is to document an aspect of him that would be complete and convincing by the end of the film. We began by making an estimation - Restlessness - considering his life journey across places, and his multiple destination in the two weeks that we were able to capture him. However, we've discovered that in a way it is not up to us to decide or worry what the topic should be, very naturally arose a topic from the different conversations we've had with George. The intimidation of future hits us silently and invasively, and George obviously is one of us. It is certainly true that our editing in post-production can greatly influence the narration of the piece, however it was also clear that our editing was influenced by our time spent with George - and that, as I now see it - is the beauty of documentary.

If there shall be a theme for our piece, I would say it documents a piece of life that is as distant as close to our own. That could sound ambitious & ambiguous, but if I were to focus it on a certain topic it would've undermined such quality that we happened to have captured. In a way, the shadow casted on the Mary-go-round that is so steady even though both the caster and the castee were spinning appears to me like some themes in life that are constant and will hardly ever change.

I believe I have said too much. Cheers.