讀後心得

Renowned independent film director 西恩貝克 won four Oscars for "艾諾拉," becoming a benchmark in the industry. He once dreamed of making commercial action films in his early years but shifted to independent production. His debut work "四字經" was completed on a small budget and selected for film festivals, bringing encouragement. Influenced by the "逗馬宣言," he co-directed "外賣" with 鄒時擎, creating it for $3,000. The film tells the story of Chinese illegal immigrants working as couriers in New York. It received recognition at film festivals, and although it performed poorly at the box office, it garnered high ratings and successfully drew industry attention.

Sean Baker (right second) is accustomed to working with natural light and on-location shooting. The renowned American independent film director Sean Baker this year won four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Editing with "The Florida Project," setting a high benchmark in the industry. In his childhood, he hoped to make Hollywood blockbuster action films in the future. After graduating from college, he worked as a sound and image producer at a publishing company while also shooting commercials part-time, accumulating some funds. As he gained experience, he realized he could not produce box office hits, so he turned to independent filmmaking and directed his first work "Four Letter Words" at the age of 25. He invested $50,000, with most of the budget spent on film stock, and ultimately had to borrow props and shooting locations to complete the project. Four years later, the film was selected for the 2000 South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), which was a major encouragement for him. Although it received good reviews, it had only a small-scale release and ultimately led to a financial loss, but Sean Baker was not discouraged by this.

At that time, the "Dogme 95" film movement initiated by Danish director Lars von Trier and others advocated low-budget filmmaking without special effects, aiming to create genuine and moving works. Influenced by this, Sean Baker collaborated with Taiwanese producer Chris Kuo to co-direct "Take Out," which tells the story of Chinese illegal immigrants working as delivery men in New York Chinese restaurants. The film had a budget of only $3,000 and the production team was composed of just three people, two of whom were co-directors, with the lead actor Charles Chang also participating in other roles in the crew.

The film participated in the Los Angeles Slamdance Film Festival and several international film festivals, successfully selling to a small distributor, but it took a long time to screen in theaters. Sean Baker recalled that this experience taught him many exhibition strategies, stating, “It's crucial to hold a world premiere at an important film festival.” Small festivals lack appeal for buyers and distributors, making it difficult to achieve market scale, which is also the reason he believes a film's success largely depends on the premiere festival. Sean Baker ultimately decided to fund the theater screening of "Take Out" himself. The film, with its close-up documentary-style cinematography, authentically presented the voices of low-income migrant workers, featuring strong dramatic tension and a unique perspective, drawing attention from the American film industry. Although it did not perform well at the box office, it received acclaim from many critics, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100%.