TNUA's Department of Filmmaking and Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts released two short films jointly produced by their students on March 17.
Through video-conferencing, the students and teachers from both sides also were engaged in discussions on the films, "Toy" and "Family Business" – the achievements of an inter-school project that lasted for almost one year.
The two universities' film students started preparations for the project in April 2013, writing the scripts with "urgency" as their theme, and discussing their productions via video-conferencing. The two teams visited each other during the summer break and each shot its film based on the script written by the other.
After half a year of post-production work, the TNUA team came up with "Family Business," a 12-minute film based on the script written by Chapman's Aaron Doyle. It is about a playwright who looks for inspiration for his gangster-theme play ends up killing a cop and going to jail, where he eventually receives the inspiration.
The Chapman team's work, "Toy," is based on the script written by Chen Yu-li, a graduate student from the Department of Filmmaking. The 14-minute film is about a selfish, greedy man's deal with loan sharks using his girlfriend as collateral.
One of the TNUA team members, Wang Yu-sheng, a graduate student, said the project let them learn how to efficiently handle the limited time and resources available for making a film.
Another member, Chen Shao-han, a senior, said as communication during shooting was basically in English, the TNUA team members also had to learn the film production jargons.