‘Frozen Brothers’ is a mockumentary-style feature film shot entirely with mobile phones and mobile technology by director Alan Wang. The film is about a story of an ordinary Chinese man who came from a small town looking to work hard in the big city of Chengdu, Sichuan, China to have the ideal life of a home, wife, and kids, but shows how much of society’s pressures have surmounted in trying to balance all this while having fertility issues impact their well-being and their life goals. We caught up with director Alan Wang with an interview on film.
UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): We learned this was shot entirely on mobile phones. Why did you decide to take this approach to making films?
Alan Wang (AW): There are two main reasons: first, the pressure of budget. For my first feature film as a director, I simply could not convince any financier in a short time to invest. Also, I didn’t want to delay my schedule, so, I decided to produce this film all by myself. Logically, I had a very limited production budget. A smartphone is a perfect solution for shooting. I don’t have to spend lots of money on additional gear. It is light and easy to handle, and very fast in shooting. I can reduce my entire crew to a dozen people, and only spend ten days for principal photography. That’s why I was able to produce a movie within my super low budget. The second reason was, because I wanted to create a film in a mockumentary style. The footage shot with a smartphone has a more realistic approach to capturing daily life and therefore turns the footage into an authentic documentary.
(UM): How does this film mirror your pursuits and struggles in filmmaking?
(AW): I decided to devote myself to filmmaking when I was 35. I was not young at that time and had a family to raise; it therefore was very hard for me to quit my stable job and enter an industry I haven’t worked in before. I had to learn everything from scratch. Before directing “Frozen Brothers”, I produced two movies: “Puffer Rhapsody” and “Kayla”. We shot with expensive cameras and a big team. However, due various unexpected circumstances during production, I lost a lot of my own investment, and had to carry a heavy financial burden. My family couldn’t understand my dream of becoming a filmmaker and blamed me for destroying the happiness of the entire family by investing money into a silly dream. It was a really difficult time for me back then. “Frozen Brothers” was my last shot at proving myself as a qualified film director. Thankfully, I made it successfully.
(UM): Do you consider yourself as a workaholic like the main character Alan in the movie?
(AW): “Frozen Brothers” is my semi-biography. Focus lies of course in the birth of my son and all the social struggles I have been through the past years to pursue my success and happiness. I also do work very hard like the main character Alan in the film, and even more so since I established my production company. During the past decade, I had to learn photography, scriptwriting, directing, post-editing, song-composing, producing, and all other techniques needed to become a well-versed independent filmmaker. At the same time, I had to do commercial projects to keep the company business running. I worked all-day-long. Naturally, during the production of “Frozen Brothers”, I did most of the hard work as well. Hence, I hope my passion for this unique mockumentary is seen on screen.
(UM): What advice would you give to people who want to pursue their dreams in life?
(AW): First, you should find out where your passion, your skills and your resources lie, and then choose the smartest way to pursue your dreams. Before I turned to the film industry, I had a regular job and lived a boring life, led by daily routines. I spent two years thinking carefully about what I should do in the future. I realized that my deep love for movies since I was a little boy could become a powerful motor to drive my future life. Although my major in university was International Finance and had nothing to do with art, I had a strong believe that I will become an extraordinary film producer one day. So, I made up my mind to enter the film business without hesitation. Second, you should be persistent once you made your choice. I encountered various stones in my way and other opportunities during the years. But I never gave up, no matter how hard it was, until “Frozen Brothers” came out. In other words, life is like a long road up the mountain. You are only able to get the most stunning view when you have reached the top.
(UM): What would you do differently if you could turn back time in your pursuits of filmmaking?
(AW): If time turns back, I think I will still go the same way. I made some mistakes when I started to do film business, and it’s not a smooth path for me. But every time I felt down, it’s a chance for me to grow up. No one can be perfect to do anything, the most important thing is to learn enough lessons from mistakes. I appreciated all my failures; I believe they will lead me to a final success in life.
(UM): How do you describe the lessons the viewers would learn from watching ‘Frozen Brothers’?
(AW): When I had the idea to shoot the movie entirely on smartphones, almost every person in my crew was against it. They listed so many shortcomings of smartphone in shooting and thought it’s impossible for me to finish the movie and show it in cinema. But at last, I did it, I produced the movie in the way to fit for the smartphone shooting instead of traditional cameras. I hope all filmmakers will open their mind after watching my work and produce more interesting films beyond the current patterns. No matter what kind of tools you are using, you can make great works according to the feature of this tool.
(UM): Money or Time, which one do you think is more valuable?
(AW): In my opinion, time equals money. Hence, I always try to find the balance between time and money. Just like I said, if I would have had more time, I could have found enough money to make this movie even better. Smartphones are really a good tool to save time and reduce the production expenditure. At the same time, they can provide nice quality of image to match the need of our modern film industry.
(UM): How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your approach to your film projects?
(AW): The seriousness of the pandemic was a shock. I began with the development of the movie in Mid-2019 and planned to commence with principal photography in early 2020. But because of COVID-19, I had to freeze production. I did loose money and time, however, high-budget blockbusters of large-scale studios suffered even more severely. After enough Epidemic prevention measures, I resumed the project in July 2020 while many big productions were still on hold in China and other countries. Thanks to my decision to shoot my movie with smartphones, it was easier for me to keep a small team during the shooting and finish principal photography very quickly to avoid getting the virus. We finished post-editing in February 2021, half a year behind my previous schedule.
(UM): What did you do to survive in film production during the pandemic?
(AW): It was a tough time since the breakout of COVID-19. I didn’t have any clients for a very long time. But it also gave me the chance to think about the future of the film industry. I believe that smartphones will be used more often in the independent film industry of tomorrow, especially under such life-threatening situations like a pandemic or lockdowns. Many TV shows were produced on smartphones in different countries while the crews were quarantined in their homes. At the same time, more people are going to watch films and TV series online instead of going out to the cinema. I am very lucky that I found the best way to use smartphones and create a movie even in the pandemic period.
(UM): Your director’s statement was very inspiring to watch. What do you plan to do next in your future projects?
(AW): I will keep working on expanding the smartphone-shooting in the future. People may ask about the benefits for filmmakers to shoot a film entirely on smartphones. “Frozen Brothers” answers this question by proving that a smartphone will be a perfect device to make high-quality mockumentary and documentary films. Right now, I am developing two other projects in order to show even more advantages of smartphone-film-producing, the “New Modern Times” and “The Last 90 Minutes”. I hope that they will come out in next two years and make further steps beyond “Frozen Brothers”.
by: Trevor Brooks