Animator Interview #34 featuring Independent Animator Jie Weng

Evan Vernon interviews Jie Weng, director of THE PEONY PAVILION. Jie Weng was born in an artistic family. Influenced by his father, an oil painter, he started to learn drawing from a very young age. He majored in sculpting in college, but he always felt that it was not something he meant to do.

During his exchange study in the United States, Jie met Dan Krall, who did the character design for Coraline by Henry Selick, and found his true passion: stop motion. After that, he taught himself animation, produced two stop motion shorts, and founded his own stop motion studio: Realwood Stop Motion Studio.

Realwood Stop Motion Studio has grown to be one of the best stop motion studios in China. Directed by Jie, the team have completed several animated shorts and won numerous awards from all over the world. THE PEONY PAVILION was recently selected as a Winner in the Animation Nights New York 5th ANNY Best of Fest in 2021.

THE PEONY PAVILION

“A Stroll in the Garden and an Interrupted Dream” is a scene from “The Peony Pavilion”, a romantic tragicomedy play written by Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu during the Ming Dynasty. It depicts a love story, which takes place during the dream of Du Liniang, the heroine, and vacillates between the legend and the reality. The unique dream of Du Liniang that has been transmitted over 600 years now comes to you in the form of stop-motion animation with its subtle emotion revealed more vividly in the haunting tune and lingering sentiments of Kunqu Opera. We try to rejuvenate the long-lasting love story with the special charm of stop-motion animation. On the table-sized stage, you will see the joint dancing of Du Liniang and Flower Goddesses, and the lively and joyful performance of the judge from a netherworld and his ghosts. Entering into the dream along with Du Liniang, we, in our turn, question ourselves on the meaning of real life, and pursuit of eternal freedom and romantic love.

SHOW NOTES

00:40.000

Animation Nights New York in partnership with Alamo on Demand presented the “5th ANNY Best of Fest” (Program #66 | Season 5 & 6 | Winners) on Saturday, Nov 13 – Saturday Nov 20, 2021

5th ANNY Best of Fest Film Winners Programs 1 & 2: https://www.animationnights.com/screening66-5th-anny-best-of-fest/  

04:43.923

https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Dan-Krall/85966333 (Dan Krall)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coraline_(film) (Coraline)

06:40.691

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peony_Pavilion (The Peony Pavilion)

Social Media Links

http://www.realwoodanimation.com/

Interview by Evan Vernon

Theme music by Joe Lazenby

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About ANNY: Animation Nights New York is a curated monthly screening event and annual festival first established in NYC in 2015. The event showcases animated short films and virtual reality animation experiences from all around the world and both project submission and admission to monthly screenings of in-competition films are free to the general public. If you would like to submit a VR/AR/Game or short film project, you can find Animation Nights New York on Film Freeway.

ANNY Exchange is our talent connect initiative. We connect animation talent to opportunity using our festival as a vehicle.

ANNY Best of Fest is our annual festival held in mid November.