Interview
Li Xingchen
Director, Writer, Actor
Li Xingchen
Director, Writer, Actor (China)
Li Xingchen is a director, writer, musician and actor from China. He was born in Beijing in 1996. He started to learn piano at a very early age. At the age of 9, he won the first prize at the "Hope Cup" Piano Competition in Beijing. In 2015, after he graduated from the Middle School Attached to Central Conservatory of Music as a piano student, he was offered a scholarship by Manhattan School of Music to further his study of piano.
In 2018 he stopped his studies in the United States and came back to China to study screenwriting, directing, editing, acting and modeling. In 2020, he finished his first short film "Love is Gone with the Autumn Wind" which he sent to us.

— Tell us a little about your experience? Was it only a film connected or you did/do something else?
— I started to play the piano since childhood. In 2006, I won the first prize in the Beijing "Hope Cup" Piano Competition. In 2015, I graduated from the Middle School Attached to Central Conservatory of Music. In 2017, I was admitted by the Manhattan School of Music. While studying music, I have been interested in recording and photography, and I have recorded my performances and posting them on websites home and abroad, which have been well received. But I don't think that's enough, and I want to tell more story of life and music through film. For this purpose, I discontinued my studies at the Manhattan School of Music and returned to my home country to study screenwriting, directing, editing, and acting. Love is Gone with the Autumn Wind is the first film I wrote, directed, and acted in.


— What inspired you to make your short film? How did you come up with that idea?

— I have always been putting the spotlight on the life of people at the bottom of the society. I have a friend who studied directing and worked as an editor in a film company after his graduation from college, earning RMB 5,000 a month. To save RMB 200 on rent, he had to walk three kilometers after getting off the subway every day to get home. He and his girlfriend, though in love, had to break up because they couldn't afford a house. His experience touched me greatly. There are a large number of young people fighting in first-tier cities, they chase non-stop to survive. Although they feel helpless to catch up, they still have the desire and do not give up.
— Tell us how it was to produce your film? What was the starting point, funding, script, shooting, casting, edit etc.
— The script was revised 17 times until the parallel structure of the first and second halves was finalized: different cafes, different birthdays, different farewell roads, different people driving different vehicles; but the same photos, familiar chestnuts, shows the same emotions inside. In order to continue to do filmmaking, I established a culture & media company, and purchased cameras, lenses, monitors, etc. It took us eight days to shoot the short film with a crew of thirty people, many of whom were students and friends who came to help. It cost us RMB 70,000. I did all the music recording, piano playing, and post audio-mixing myself.
—Funny or scary moments on the set?
Choosing a scene is a very hard job. An old green train is needed for the "separation" scene in the film. Now, a train like that is rarely seen in China, especially Beijing, not to mention passing in front of an apartment complex under construction. The executive producer has been searching for two weeks but nothing has been found. One day I passed by a railway track on the suburb of Beijing on the way renting photograph equipment. Suddenly a green train passed by, behind which was an apartment complex under construction, which was really in line with an old Chinese saying: "Fancy finding by sheer luck what one has searched for far and wide". The day of the shoot was in early November, and it was cold, so the crew set up the lights and jibs at 18:00 and waited for the only green train to pass through here at about 20:20. We all endured the cold and held on to each one's position. It was 20:00 and just then the actress needed to go to the toilet in a hurry, the assistant director was so anxious to take her around to find the toilet. At this moment, the crew and I were all nervous to the extreme. As the train whistle could be heard in the distance at 20:20, when the actress finally appeared, I shouted out: Action!


— Do you have a dream?

My dream is to be a director who can master the comprehensive art of film. Thus I need to learn more related technical and artistic skills. My next independent short film will be made by only three people.
— Give advice for those who want to make a film, but don't know from where to start?
Don't count on others. Only you can make your work better!
Made on
Tilda