Explanations of Storyboard
My story is not narrative, but a short film of stream of consciousness. It tells a story about a girl who is a participant of the protests, oppressed by her black uniform and group discourse. But she gradually realizes the oppression and the incorrect behavior of her violence, so she begins to fight, and finally gets rid of the shackles and regains the meaning of individual identity .
The reason why I chose a female character as the protagonist is that I saw Deutsche Welle’s political interview, Conflict Zone, which mentioned that a female protester said : “I feel like we can’t train our selves any more…” her words confirmed that it was very difficult for individuals to stand up and stop the violence in the group during the protest in Hong Kong, because she is bound by a spiritual law of group behavior.
In this story, I got inspiration from Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds”. The black birds symbolize the protesters. The protesters, like the birds, move in group. The radical protesters act like the uncontrolled birds, causing violence and injury. And visually, black birds and protesters in black can give viewers a similar sensory experience.
At the beginning of my storyboard, the girl is entwined by ropes and her mouth is sealed, all of which are metaphorical constraints from uniforms and groups.
In the fourth picture, the purple flower in the girl’s hand represents Bauhinia Flower, which has always been a symbol of Hong Kong and is printed on the regional flag of Hong Kong. After that, the girl lights the flower, which not only indicates that Hong Kong is in turmoil, but also reflects the violence of the protesters.
From the sixth to the ninth pictures, there are memories of the girl. In these pictures, there are more and more blackbirds around the girl, which means that she is gradually assimilated by the blackbird and loses herself.
Then, back to reality, the girl began to examine her behavior, feel sad and regret, so from the twelfth picture, the girl took off her clothes and woke up from the numbness.
The white feather in the last picture corresponds to the black bird. Because white symbolizes purity, the white feather here also means that the girl has found her original heart.
Reference :
Figure 1: Deutsche Welle. 2019. Conflict Zone.[online] Available at: https://www.dw.com/en/joey-siu-on-conflict-zone/av-51143289
Figure 2: Alfred Hitchcock. 1963. The Birds [film still]. Available at : https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Birds-film-1963
Figure 3: Regional Flag of the Hong Kong. [online] Available at : https://baike.baidu.com/item/香港特别行政区区旗/1782817?fr=aladdin