Red Letters: A Dialogue Across Time

01

A 29-meter screen: first decide what goes on it

The screen on site was 29 meters wide and 7.5 meters high. This was not a film to be watched from a seat, but part of a ceremony: the host would ask questions on stage, and the figures on screen had to answer.

So the visuals had to do three things at once: let the audience understand the letters, show the circumstances the writers lived in, and give the host someone to talk to.

We set the entire film inside a red exhibition hall. In the opening, the lights come up one by one, three black-and-white photos turn to color, and names and life stories appear beside the frames. Whoever is about to tell their story steps out of their own frame, and walks back in when they are done.

From the opening to Act Four, the film has no hard cuts. Figures move in and out of their frames, scenes spread out from the hall and fold back in, and the twelve minutes feel like one continuous walk through the same space.

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02

The letter on the left, memories in the middle, the writer on the right

If a letter fills the whole screen, the audience can only read text; if only dramatized scenes are shown, they never see the original letter.

We divided the ultra-wide screen into three parts: the letter on the left, its words appearing line by line as it is read aloud; a paper-edged frame in the middle, showing the people and events the writer was thinking of; and the writer on the right, seated at the desk throughout.

About half of what appears in the middle frame is restored and colorized old photos, and half is scenes created from historical sources. Where Zuo Quan's letter says “if only you and Taibei were here with me,” the frame shows a photo of the family of three, slowly turning from black-and-white to color.

The timing of each line of the letter follows the tone and pauses of the voiceover. Whatever line the audience hears is the line they see.

03

The figures must “stay present” so the host has someone to talk to

There was no way to know in advance exactly how long the host would take for each question. If the figures on screen disappeared as soon as they finished speaking, the stage would fall flat.

We created several states for each figure: writing, reading, breathing naturally while looking ahead, and nodding as they listen. Each state comes in 5-second and 10-second lengths, joined to match how long the host speaks, so the figures can stay on screen, waiting to answer.

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Animating a long ultra-wide image directly squashes the figures and distorts their movement. So we cropped the area around each figure into a square or vertical frame to animate, then placed it back onto the base image with a mask. The large scene keeps its shape, and the figures' faces and hands stay clearer.

In Act Four, the three martyrs step out of their frames together and stand side by side before the exhibition wall; whoever's turn it is to answer speaks.

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04

Every frame needs a source

Images on revolutionary history cannot simply aim to look good. The client cared about the source of every frame: the figures' likeness, the details of their clothing and the objects in the background all had to be traceable to historical records.

Following each martyr's life, we arranged photos, film and TV materials and letters into a timeline by year and referred to it when creating images. Zuo Quan was only 37 when he died, so his age on screen is kept consistently in his thirties.

During review, an expert pointed out that the uniforms of Zuo Quan's unit at the time had no red collar badges and no red star on the cap. We corrected every image using that uniform, one by one, to match the historical record.

The client wanted Deng Enming's home to be more modest, so we changed the study from a well-furnished version to a small house with cracked walls and nothing but a bed and a desk.

The client also wanted more scenes of the red flag being embroidered in Jiang Zhujun's act. The flag her fellow prisoners stitched in their cell was made without knowing what the national flag looked like: a large star in the center and small stars in the four corners. The flag on screen follows that one rather than the standard national flag.

05

Finale: the martyrs see China today

What the letters return to again and again is peace, reunion and the next generation. The finale answers whether those hopes have come true.

A Great Wall landscape turns over like a page, covering the exhibition hall, and the three martyrs walk onto the Wall.

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For the next part, the client wanted real footage. We selected live-action material along several lines, including defense, technology, the economy, infrastructure and culture: aircraft carriers, rocket launches, large passenger aircraft, the China-Europe Railway Express, bridges spanning mountains, high-speed trains, the Olympic rings at the Winter Games, a boy playing the violin and children watching Sichuan opera face-changing.

Finally, the film settles before the Monument to the People's Heroes. The three martyrs stand side by side; two wave while Zuo Quan, in the middle, salutes. Then they dissolve into starlight, leaving only the monument and the blue sky.

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06

What this project achieved

The project delivered a 14-minute 26-second, 7680 × 1980 ultra-wide film in two versions, with and without the host, for the launch ceremony of the Beijing Party-building joint initiative and for major red heritage venues. After the event, the organizing committee sent a letter of thanks singling out the team for praise.

For us, the value of this project goes beyond making historical figures “move.”

It lies in having them stand there on solid historical ground: their faces, clothing, homes and every letter they wrote all match the historical record; and in letting them truly take part in the event: they can read, wait and answer.

AI made it possible to bring three letters, three lives and today's China into one space on a 29-meter-wide screen. But turning that into a ceremony the audience wants to watch to the end, with a host who can keep the exchange going, took frame-by-frame research, choices and refinement.