film poster with the background view of Chongqing

Recently, Apple launched the new-year short film Daughter, which hit a heated discussion on social media. It is the third time that Apple has selected Chongqing as the shooting location since Three Minutes and One Bucket. On the afternoon of January 12, the head of the Chongqing production team was interviewed and told the story behind the scenes.

The head said that the film is actually adapted from a real story, and the protagonist’s prototype is Li Shaoyun, “the strongest woman in Wuhan.” In reality, Li Shaoyun drives a taxi at night with her three-year-old daughter, and they spend nearly a thousand sleepless nights together. After artistic processing, the story was shown on the big screen, moving thousands of audience.

At the same time, Daughter invited Theodore Melfi as the director and Lawrence Sher as the photographer. Theodore Melfi was nominated for 89th Academy Award for Best Motion Picture of the Year, and 89th Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay with his work Hidden Figures in 2017; Laurence Schell was the director of photography of the film Joker and was nominated for Best Photography at the 2020 Golden Globe Awards.

20-day searching for one scene

After the release of the film, many citizens found that landmark buildings in Chongqing, such as Haitang Yanyu Park, Sujiaba Interchange, Egongyan Bridge, Raffles City, etc. appeared in the film one by one. According to the team head, during the preparation of the film, the director visited several cities in China and finally took Chongqing as the shooting location again.

Chongqing`s interchange bridge in the film

“Before shooting, the director required that the scene should be three-dimensional with an atmosphere of marketplace and life. We sent dozens of staff to go through the streets and lanes of Chongqing for 20 days and selected dozens of scenes. Finally, the unique topography and cultural features of Chongqing were recognized by the director”, said the head.

5-day to complete the film

Last November 20, the film Daughter was started to shoot in Chongqing. Staff said that he admired the seriousness of the actors and directors in their work during the shooting.

Sujiaba Interchange

“Once there was a scene at 5:00 p.m., and the director reviewed it for five or six times in a row. He needed to confirm everything, such as the effect of light, the position of the scene, and the action of the actor, again and again, to ensure that the shooting was accurate”, said the head.

Finally, the 8-minute short film, with its warm plot, calm narrative rhythm, unique shooting techniques, and excellent post-production, attracted numerous people’s attention, triggered everyone’s thinking and return to love and home before the new year, and also made Chongqing, the holy land of film shooting, popular again.