Bliu the Whale

It started with an idea that truly connected to me. The story revolves around the character Sinclair, who conducts a puppet show for children called “Bliu the Whale” after losing his son in a tragic incident at a beach. The name, Bliu, is a combination of “blue” and my last name “Liu”. I spent weeks developing and planning how to bring my vision of “Bliu the Whale” to film. Under the guidance of my cinema coordinators and with the help from my team members, I was able to finalize the script, develop a shot list, conduct storyboards, and further refine preproduction through digital storyboards. I faced some challenges. An aspect of the film project was to independently produce it without any external funding, so I had to be creative in making the film a reality. We went out location scouting and found a couple public areas appropriate for the scenes. We borrowed conservatory equipment and our team made the props. We convinced our school’s theatre coordinator to act as Sinclair and got kids from my church to act as extras. At last, we were able to complete the film. The film has been screened at two film festivals to approximately two thousand people. I received a few personal emails of how much the film impacted them. I plan to continue my passion for filmmaking and express messages in my future films.