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The Cardboard Spaceship
Director's Journal :

Synopsis
Production Info
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Director's Journal

The Cardboard Spaceship 5min | Fiction | 16mm
Year of Production: 1998
Writer/Director/Producer: Karen Cho

The Cardboard Spaceship was the first 16mm film I ever shot. I had learnt to use the bolex the week before and was very nervous the film wouldn't even turn out.

The premise of the film was rather simple- A young woman breaks free of her conforming existence by re-connecting with her inner child. By no means ground-breaking, I think this film really demonstrated where I was at that moment in time.

I had just started film school and felt like a small fish in a very big pond. People in my classes were talking about things like German expressionism, Eisentsein and Bazin's aesthetic of reality. I felt way in over my head. In many ways, this first film reflected the naiveté with which I first fell into filmmaking.

For a first film, the whole project was rather ambitious considering how many people were involved in the production. Luckily the film was silent as keeping young actors motivated is always challenging. I had tons of help from friends and family who all appear at one time or another as extras in the film.

Silent filmmaking is always a challenge because you have to convey the story by relying entirely on the image and editing. I would like to experiment more with the silent film to hone my storytelling abilities.

-Karen Cho