Behind-the-scenes tidbits of sleeping and killing

Immigration in the future world

Sleeping, Killing, is the first feature film written and directed by Alex Rivera, a filmmaker with Mexican descent. The root of his creation is mainly due to his deep love for science fiction works. Rivera said: "I grew up with sci-fi novels like The Martian Chronicles, and of course, the Star Wars series also had a profound influence on me ... When I was a young man, my favorite movies were" Brazil "and" Blade Runner ". However, when I grew up, I also realized that although this type of science fiction story has wild imagination and countless visual effects, it still contains many areas to be developed-so I began to seriously think about whether it is necessary to create an opportunity to inject some new and exciting changes into science fiction works. "

alex rivera has always been deeply interested in those stories related to immigration, because in his view, they have truly fed back one window after another in modern society. Rivera said: "There are too many topics worthy of attention here, including global economy, labor law, border policy, identity issues, homesickness and sense of belonging ... all of which are closely related to the vital interests of immigrants, but also set off a relatively special society. In fact, I have never been to a formal film school myself. I majored in political science when I was in college, so the visual imagination I used in Sleeping, Killing, was completely studied through constant trial and error. At the same time, the tools I rely on are not only cameras, but also a lot of digital technologies-it has become one of my main film means since I started making short films, because in my opinion, it is impossible for cameras to capture all aspects of the real world we live in, so I have to rely on some auxiliary tools to process and supplement it. In this film, computer animation is mostly used to present the imaginary world of characters, almost as much as the pictures taken with cameras. Such a popular cultural branch as science fiction is itself multi-purpose, forcing people to face up to the marginal problems of the world. I hope that through Sleeping, I can let the objective theme promote the practice of digital, and I feel obligated to tell a brand-new Latin American story, including choosing a visual language that breaks all the rules. "

alex rivera first came up with the idea of making Sleeping, Hidden Danger into a sci-fi movie, dating back to 1997, when he was living in new york City and witnessed the rapid development of the influence brought by the Internet. Rivera said, "I remember that the cover of Wired magazine was marked with a preview that the era of' global village' was coming ... but then President Clinton. And Pete Wilson, the governor of California, actively promoted the passage of a series of bills, including agreeing to attack the children of immigrants in a rude way. At that time, I felt that this situation was indescribably strange-technology made the whole world more and more closely linked, at the same time, national boundaries and borders showed a more differentiated role than before ... However, I was still strongly attracted by the concept of' global village', and I thought that if we started from. I began to seriously think about this possibility and wanted to develop a world view related to the future through the' global village'. After years of deliberation and research, I finally worked out a story framework developed around the' near future', which tells about the openness of technology and the closure of borders. Under such an environmental background, I will exert my imagination and slowly add one character after another to it. The longest step in the production of "Sleeping" is to get to know these characters and interweave their lives. Together with me, I formed a screenwriter partner, David ricoeur. Together, we created three main characters: Maimo Cruz, an immigrant worker from Mexico, who worked in a factory with low wages and long working hours through the Internet; Rudy Ramirez, an American soldier, remotely controls unmanned aircraft to protect the assets of consortia around the world; Luz Martinez, a journalist who uses her blog to sell her memories, uses high technology to let people see everything she has witnessed. "

The most "simple" sci-fi movie

Before alex rivera entered the ranks of directors, he served the film industry as an editor. He believed that any sci-fi movie must have at least two essential elements-one of which is an indispensable main role, and the other is a story environment with a very futuristic style. Rivera said: "As far as this" Sleeping "is concerned, I focused on a young man from a small village in Mexico. Like most people on earth, he lives in the' third world'. Although he was born in poverty in Latin America, he longed for a better life ... In fact, McMahon has a lot in common with my father. He immigrated to the United States almost 5 years ago. Movies like this kind of science fiction usually tell stories about the critical moment in distress, so the heroes who will stand out here are often police or other law enforcement images, but in Sleeping, I hope to introduce a brand-new crowd, namely' immigrants', who will promote the development of the whole story. "

The future world that Sleeping, Killing, pays attention to is imbued with some thoughts and theories related to politics in an organic way. alex rivera said: "I knew from the beginning that I couldn't make the biggest sci-fi movie, so I decided to find another way and make a' most authentic' work. The' near future' of the story told in the film is simulated according to the development speed of our present society. When the audience imagines that everything in it is possible, they will not be completely in the mind of' watching the excitement', but will seriously reflect on everything we will face in the future. "

When alex rivera created the future environment in Sleeping, he was mainly influenced by two sources of inspiration. Rivera continued: "One of them is the dream of' global village' that I have been studying and fascinated for a long time, so sometimes we should be more grateful for the progress of science and technology. The Internet has made the whole world more closely connected than ever; The other is the problem that I, the son of the first generation of immigrants, pay special attention to, because among my relatives, there are still illegal immigrants who haven't got a green card ... In fact, I have been watching the increasingly obvious development trend of hierarchical differentiation in this world with a sense of panic. Now the border areas are becoming more and more violent and closed, and the hostile attitude of the whole world towards immigrants seems to be increasing. This' natural village' with tall walls everywhere looks so strange. Science and technology have indeed linked the whole world together, but it has been separated by borders and national boundaries, which has become the central concept in Sleeping. Faced with such a very ironic fact, it also forced me to imagine what would happen if these border areas were completely blocked in the future and immigrants had no way to enter the United States? Instead, immigrants still stay in their motherland, then connect their bodies to the Internet and transmit all their energy and physical fitness to robots working in the United States-does this also represent the realization of an' American dream'? "

In addition, some very contemporary events have also given alex rivera great creative inspiration. For example, the very violent reality TV show "never to lose", private military and security consulting companies like "American Blackwater", remotely controlled unmanned combat aircraft, the increasingly popular phenomenon of finding Cops on the Internet, the imminent global water crisis and video files that can be enjoyed on the Internet-in fact, in the real world we live in, many concepts can derive some sci-fi colors. Rivera said, "Nothing. Sleeping, Hidden Danger is my big-screen debut, but it is completely different from Star Wars or blade runner. If we really want to compare it, this film can be said to be' simple' among science fiction works. There are no dazzling wonderful stunts, but I am trying hard to make a sincere attempt to tell the possible disadvantages of our present world by means of science fiction. I hope it will be.