Members: Mimi, Jamie, Yiqian, Gavin
Street/neighborhood: Koreatown between 5th and 6th Avenue
The animation tells the stories of Lipstick, Bacon, Bibimbap, and Egg’s experience and how all of them end up at BCD Tofu House restaurant in Koreatown. The animation begins with a woman walking down the street of Koreatown and entering the BCD Tofu House restaurant. The woman orders Bibimbap, which contains an Egg and Bacon. Next to the Bibimbap dish is the woman’s bag where the Lipstick is at. Before the woman eats the Bibimbap dish, each character reminisces on their journey to Koreatown. The first character to recall the past is Lipstick. Before the woman come to Koreatown, she went to a cosmetic shop to get a new lipstick, and that lipstick is Lipstick. The woman purchased Lipstick and puts it in her bag. That is how Lipstick ends up in BCD Tofu House. Afterward, Bacon looks back on his journey to Koreatown. Bacon represents a local American who visits Koreatown for the first time. Bacon is seen coming out of the subway station at Koreatown. He then strolls down the street where he realizes how busy Koreatown is. He hears the loud K-Pop music being played by the shops, and he sees a tourist (onigiri riceball representing a Japanese). Bacon is trying to get to BCD Tofu House; however, he is lost. Therefore, he encounters two Koreans, Tteokbokki and Kimchi Pancake. Bacon asks Tteokbokki in English whether or not he knows where the restaurant is located. However, neither Tteokbokki or Kimchi Pancake understand what Bacon is saying, so they walked away. In the end, Bacon finds BCD Tofu House and enters the restaurant. The scene moves onto Bibimbap and Egg’s story. Bibimbap is originally from South Korea. He is seen in his bedroom packed and ready to go to New York. When Bibimbap arrives, he decides to go sightseeing where he meets his love, at first sight, Egg. The two falls in love and goes on a date. Later that day, Bibimbap and Egg decide to have BCD Tofu House for dinner. The story then shifts back to the present where the woman is seen walking out of the restaurant after she finishes her meal. As the woman walks out of the street, she accidentally drops her new purchased Lipstick onto the ground. Lipstick falls and rolls on the ground next to a big trash can, and the story ends.
I contributed to the project by making the street scene, filming, and editing the stop-motion movie. I interact with the other group members by asking their opinions, meeting outside of class to work on building the characters and the scene and constantly text our group chat to ask the progress/ideas/next steps of the project. We build the characters and did the filming together as a group. However, I did most of the scenes and do the stop-motion alone. Yiqian did the subway scene and build some characters. Jamie helped with lighting and assisted during the filming process. Gavin did build some characters and edit some parts of the movie.
I believe the project turned out better than I imagined because when we combined our storyboards, it was very complicated and we did not know where to start. Additionally, I thought the story would not make any sense because we decided to work on our storyboards separately, so our ideas did not correspond. However, in the end, each of our story from the storyboards connected. Moreover, when we all met outside of class to work on building the characters, I thought we did not have enough and that it was not elaborate enough. In the end, the characters turned out pretty well, and it was enough for filming. There are some scenes that we forgot, and it would have been better if we did not leave that out. In terms of working as a group, I like it, and I hate it at the same time. I like it because it is fun when we work together and share our ideas. I get to know my classmates better and create something that I would not be able to do alone. However, it is hard when the members were not responsible. For example, there are times when I worked on the street scene and building the characters, but some members disappeared or talk to their friends instead of focusing on our work. Another time is when the members are not pulling their weights when we meet outside of class, and some did not even turn up. It was also hard when I text the group and no one replied, which made me feel so frustrated.
