Yingying Liu
Lady​
​This is a short film about lies, scams and crime. The film tells the story of a woman who lures victims into her elaborate trap through phone and the internet. At first, she appears in the video as innocent and ignorant to create a false impression through lies. It is only after the victim enters her trap that she gradually reveals her true face.
Story Inspiration
​It is an inevitable trend that network information technology is developed in modern society. It has brought a lot of convenience to people, but also secretly created some hidden dangers. As more and more people start to access information technology, some people start to try to commit crimes with this technology.
I was inspired by this growing phenomenon of crime. This phenomenon most often occurs in gray areas, such as the sex trade. Because much of the information and transactions involved are illegal, those trying to access these services can only search and contact quietly and alone. They can very easily fall into the trap of criminals. The criminals(the woman in the story) can easily lure them into paying for or even giving their lives for false information and services by means of phone calls and fake videos.
Screen Inspiration
Set Design
In the fake video that lady makes to lure victims, she needs to make them think that she is beautiful, elegant and harmless. In the room she should be attracting the victim's interest. So when setting the scene, the room should be vintage and elegant. I spent time looking for rooms with interior decoration that met the requirements and conducting site visits. After determining the address and style of the shooting location, I needed to purchase more props and set up the room to make it more in line with the requirements.
Color Elements
In the film, lady wears two different sets of dresses. They are blue and red respectively. This represents two images of lady.
Her false image: beautiful, innocent, harmless.
Her real image: sinful, poisonous, and evil.
The change in her costume in the film also represents the change in her identity. In the first half of the film, she appears in a blue dress as a weak figure to seduce her victims. In the second half of the film, she changes into a red dress and reveals her true nature.
At the same time, the film is almost entirely in black and white, with an emphasis on different monochromatic colours: red, blue and yellow. This is all to heighten the visual and sensory experience.
The blue represents technology, the network and the victims.
Red represents criminals and crime.
Yellow is used to represent time and traps.
Shot Analysis
There are some special scenes in the film, which have a metaphorical effect.
After the victim has purchased the service and signed a contract with Lady, he has entered Lady's trap. The food that is put into the microwave represents the victim, which is put into the microwave by the lady and set for a certain time. After reaching the target time, he will be "eaten". And this also leads to the scenes of the Lady dining, representing the victim will be destroyed by Lady like the food on the plate.
Script
Script was used to communicate with the actors and to assist me with shooting and post-editing.
