300 SHORT PROJECT | A Cross-Section of the World in This Very Moment
In *The Brush of Legend*, Chen Chuncheng described the following dream:
Ye Shuhua, a writer from a county town, encountered an old man in a pavilion and received a brush that was “blunt at one end and pointed at the other, yet seemed to have a rainbow swirling endlessly within it.” The price was “to write a work of absolute greatness on a cosmic scale, but one that only you yourself can appreciate; neither in life nor in death will anyone ever know of your greatness.” Ye Shuhua nodded and accepted the brush. From then on, whenever he reached out, a beam of light would emerge, allowing him to capture a cross-section of a second or a cubic meter of history; yet the moment his manuscript was met with another’s gaze, every word and phrase vanished. He endured several years of the ecstasy and suffocation that came with “knowing this triumph only to himself,” before finally passing the brush to a little girl in the dream who was willing to receive it. When he awoke, not a single word remained.
This is the writer’s most poignant allegory: a flash of inspiration once truly descended, yet because of the curse of “not being seen,” all that remained was “a stack of blank white paper,” as his son put it.
That curse is now being lifted, bit by bit.
Open a social media platform in 2026, scroll down two screens, and you’ll see the “new generation”—contemporary digital natives—sharing stories of how they’ve grown from mere viewers to nominees in the FIRST Ultra-Short Film category, and ultimately into enduring creators. The so-called “moments of inspiration” have never sounded less mysterious in this era. Fueled by technology and the decentralized tide of individual media, five-minute videos have become the new native language that forces these moments to materialize. Every rough draft of a memo born of a sudden flash of insight, every back of a napkin snapped on a train, every daydream by the sink, and every whisper at a gravestone—all are imprints where the muse has lingered.
Registration for the 2026 “300 Shots” Ultra-Short Film Development Program officially opened on July 23. Click“300 SHORT PROJECT”to view the detailed guidelines. We revisited several “300 Shots” creators from the past two years and discovered that those 5-minute films that ultimately made it to the big screen in Xining all began with nothing more than a single thought—
and then they turned it into 300 seconds.
00 Before Submission: When that thought is still just a jumble of frantic brainwaves
《吃饭了妈》导演王歌词我的母亲日复一日地喊我，“吃饭了吗”的声音，一直在我的脑海里回响。当时正在写一个剧本，在做大量的剧情线梳理，以及重组工作，然后我的母亲，喊我吃饭了，我当时就在这个剧本上面写下了《吃饭了妈》这个超短片最初的想法。
《吉时已到》导演盘小君几年前，我参加一个好朋友的婚礼。那是一场非常传统的中国接亲，新郎带着亲友团一路闯关，最后赶到新娘的房门前，所有人都在等着赶上那个提前算好的“吉时”。偏偏就在这个时候，门打不开了。婚礼当天晚上，我就把这个故事写进了手机备忘录，只有几百字，一个很简单的故事梗概。那几百个字就这样在我的手机备忘录里躺了两年。两年里，我偶尔还是会想起那场婚礼，而且每一次想起来都会觉得开心。直到后来参加300击，我终于有机会重新把这个没有被及时记录下来的瞬间，用电影的方式“还原”了一遍。
《最贵的面条》导演涂海伦看到这则新闻时，我们的脑子里最先出现的，是拾荒者拿着自己画的钱走进面馆，老板夫妻认真把它收下的画面。我们一直对“好人好事”很感兴趣，那一刻我们觉得，这两个大人就像两个叛逆的孩子。在一个被金钱紧紧控制的世界里，他们用一张画出来的钱，魔术般地搭起了一个小小的童话世界，还把这个游戏坚持了九年。后来我决定让整间面馆笼罩在近乎黑白灰的色调里，只留下那张手绘钱的颜色，让它像一道彩虹，突然闯进黑漆漆的面店。
01 In Production: 300 Seconds—A Behind-the-Scenes Glimpse of a Real Film Set
Wang GeCi, Director of *Dinner’s Ready, Mom*
Since many of the actors are my own relatives, I sometimes found that during this shoot, it felt as though we were sharing a “meal” together—just in a different way. My mother is usually very busy; she only comes to visit when I’m filming. In a way, isn’t this a kind of “family dinner”? I hope time would slow down a little, so that the memories I share with my family can remain forever captured in light and shadow, preserved in the passage of time. May Alzheimer’s never erode our memories.
Pan Xiaojun, Director of *The Auspicious Hour Has Come*
The cinematographer for *The Auspicious Hour Has Come*, Chao Chao, was once a finalist in the FIRST Training Camp; I also met the actress playing the bride through the FIRST ONE Actors’ Lab. A group of people who originally came from different places were brought together by FIRST. We hit it off immediately, and the entire creative process went very smoothly as a result. Looking back now, I think this may be the greatest benefit FIRST—and 300 Shots—has given me.
My favorite behind-the-scenes photo from the set is also connected to this feeling. At that time, we had actually already finished shooting the final scene, but the actress playing the bride suddenly suggested, “Why don’t we shoot one more shot where everyone lifts her up as the ending?” So everyone stepped back in front of the camera. That shot didn’t actually make it into the final cut, but I’ve always loved that behind-the-scenes photo—everyone is smiling, and the tension from the formal shoot has completely vanished. That impromptu moment felt like we were all putting an exclamation point on the film together as the shoot came to a close.
Helen Tu, Director of *The Most Expensive Noodles*
The noodle shop couldn’t close during filming, so we had to shoot the movie while continuing to serve noodles. The next day, Xiao Shu and his wife overslept, and calls from over a dozen restaurants demanding their noodles came one after another, instantly throwing the entire set into chaos. What could we do? Let’s just go for it! I helped weigh the noodles, producer Xiao Bo helped greet the customers, and cinematographer Siwei led the crew in filming their noodle-making process as if we were shooting a documentary. After finally loading the noodles onto the electric tricycle, we realized the battery wasn’t installed, so everyone had to put down what they were doing and lift the tricycle together. After filming, we were worried that Xiao Shu and his wife might be mad at me, but thankfully, they ended up treating us to a meal.
The noodle shop was very small, and during filming, they had to continue making and selling noodles as usual, while phone calls and customers kept coming in nonstop. The smartphone was very portable, making it easy to adjust the camera angle. Especially when things got completely chaotic on the second day, it didn’t interrupt Xiao Shu and his wife’s work and still allowed us to capture the shot transitions we originally intended for the film.
02 Selected for Screening: 300 Seconds of My First Breath in Xining
Wang GeCi, Director of *Dinner’s Ready, Mom*
I’ve been following Douban closely, and seeing the countless positive reviews and heartfelt comments—including those that moved people to tears—has made me feel that this project is truly meaningful. I believe film should change society. The viewers who watched the short film—those who cried and were moved—will, at some point, look at their own mothers in a new light and reflect on their families. If 1.3 billion people could see this, perhaps they would all come to appreciate the importance of family dinners and the love a mother has poured out over the years. Wouldn’t society become a better place then? That’s why I’m committed to creating works that can change society. Even if my influence is small, that remains my creative ideal.
This is my favorite photo, taken during an interview at the cinema. Our micro-short had just premiered, and I felt deeply gratified at the time. Thanks to this nomination, I was able to take my family—including my mother—on a trip again, and we even met some celebrities. My mom was overjoyed. Thank you to FIRST and vivo for making my dream come true.
Pan Xiaojun, Director of *The Auspicious Hour Has Arrived*
Seeing my own film on the big screen in Xining for the first time was a truly joyful experience, especially since *The Auspicious Hour Has Arrived* is a comedy. Comedy is perhaps the genre that most needs an audience.
We were very lucky that the audience’s reaction to the jokes and punchlines we crafted for the film was excellent. In particular, there’s a punchline created through montage editing that appears about two minutes into the film—almost every time it plays, the audience bursts into laughter. Sitting in the audience and hearing that laughter gave me a sense of fulfillment that’s hard to describe. A few hundred words that originally existed only in my phone’s notes—a minor mishap that happened at a friend’s wedding a few years ago—went through the process of scriptwriting, filming, and editing to finally become an image on the screen. And hundreds of people who knew absolutely nothing about this story laughed at the exact same moment because of it. In that instant, I suddenly felt that making short films and movies had become meaningful to me.
My favorite photo from the FIRST festival shows the giant screen in the square playing a scene where someone is filming with a vivo phone—while in the real-life audience, there’s just a single spectator sitting all alone. Even more coincidentally, the camera angle in the film is pointing directly toward the real-life audience. It felt like an echo between two different times and spaces.
Helen Tu, Director of *The Most Expensive Noodles*
The film has no dialogue, and the pace in the first half is relatively slow. We were initially a bit worried that it might take the audience a long time to get into it. But from the laughter and the quiet in the theater, we could sense that everyone understood the unspoken chemistry between the two characters and enjoyed our simple little story. Later, the film also received recognition from Professor Wang Yu, who joined us as executive producer and provided invaluable assistance with color grading. During the screening of the FIRST promotional reel, we were surprised to see our 2024 feature film, *The Timid “Dragon,”* which we’d brought to the festival. In the footage, we were still wearing the crew uniforms from *The Timid “Dragon”*, but by 2025, we had returned to Xining with a new film. That moment felt just like meeting our past selves from a year ago on the big screen. We suddenly realized that over the past few years, we’ve been making films, and FIRST has been running the film festival. We’ve each been filming and busy with our own projects, and meeting again in Xining gave us a sense of passing the torch and an unending cycle of creativity.
03 Right now — after 300 PROJECT
Director Wang Ge Ci of *Dinner’s Ready, Mom*
The extended version was selected for the Market Screenings section of the Hainan Island International Film Festival and was screened there. It moved some audience members to tears once again. This ultra-short film holds great significance for my creative career. I’ve previously written a large number of online novels and 15 feature-length screenplays. Since my work always draws from the present moment, I could never decide which one should be my debut. But after filming *Let’s Eat, Mom*, I realized that all these years, the emotional anchor in my heart has always been my family. So I wanted to experiment with a wilder narrative—one with greater narrative ambition. From this, the idea for a film emerged—one that spans decades of my family’s history, weaving together themes of meals, the dining table, emotions, family, hometown, kinship, society, and migration, all carrying the weight of a profound family epic. I look forward to seeing it come to fruition soon.
As for the collaboration, vivo was incredibly supportive and provided ample resources. FIRST also doesn’t interfere with your creative process—it’s truly refreshing. They even offer insights and constructive suggestions. Thanks to Wen Hui.
Pan Xiaojun, Director of *The Auspicious Hour Has Arrived*
Since leaving Xining, *The Auspicious Hour Has Arrived* has continued to be submitted to other film festivals. The results haven’t been announced yet, so so far, the only place it has actually been shown is Xining. But for me, *The Auspicious Hour Has Arrived* has, to some extent, opened up a new creative theme for me; I’ve begun to focus more and more on the marriage values of our generation of young people. Many people actually harbor a fear of marriage—or even of weddings themselves. Later, I realized that this fear exists within me as well.
So, influenced by these feelings, I created another animated short film generated entirely by AI, which also tells a wedding story. And in the second half of this year, another good friend of mine is getting married. This time, I want to actually pick up the camera and document their wedding. For me, this has actually created a very interesting cycle: the starting point for *The Auspicious Hour* was precisely because I didn’t pick up the camera in time during that real wedding a few years ago, which is why I later recreated that moment through a narrative film; and now, I’ve returned to the scene of a real wedding once again. I hope to gradually collect these images and bring together *The Auspicious Hour*—a pseudo-documentary with narrative elements—the animation that was later generated entirely by AI, and the real wedding documentary I plan to shoot next. These three completely different cinematic approaches—one recreating reality, one creating a world that doesn’t exist at all, and one confronting reality head-on—allow me to continue exploring myself and the concept of marriage that our generation is facing.
Helen Tu, Director of *The Most Expensive Noodles*
It earned us a nomination for the 2025 “See·New Forces” Beijing Film Short Film Week, but while it hasn’t yet taken us to more cities, it has directly led us to the starting point of an entire series of short films.
When I’m scrolling through videos in my daily life, for some reason, those moments accidentally captured by surveillance footage—especially moments of kindness—always move me the most and make me linger the longest. We want to use narrative techniques typical of various film genres—in a vivid and entertaining way—to adapt these true stories of kindness into a wide range of films, including wuxia, fantasy, thrillers, comedies, and horror, generously celebrating these moments of kindness. *The Most Expensive Noodles* is the first film in the *Chronicles of Good People* series. As a popular online saying goes: “The world may be in tatters, but there are always people mending it.” By finding these kind-hearted “tailors” and telling their stories, perhaps more people will be inspired to become “tailors” themselves.
This journey has just begun—we welcome anyone interested in this story to join us!
Arendt said that human birth has both a horizontal and a vertical dimension: the horizontal dimension is the physical journey from birth to death, while the vertical dimension consists of those ritualistic milestones—for a creator, completing the first “five minutes that are seen” is a form of vertical birth.
Those few hundred words that had originally lain dormant in a phone’s notes app, the door lock that jammed at a wedding, and the faces that gradually came into focus as the ferry approached the shore—none of these ultimately remained stuck in that stage of “it’s wonderful but I can’t quite put it into words.” They were written, submitted, selected, and ultimately transformed into film, shining on the screen in Xining—with hundreds of strangers seated below, some weeping uncontrollably, others standing to applaud. Film technology has brought about evolution and creation; when technology liberates the privilege of creation, everything returns to its origin. As for me and my inspiration, have I truly achieved unity of knowledge and action?
Beginning in 2020, the 5-Minute Creative Initiative has journeyed through FIRST for seven years, forming a unique and distinct collective portrait of creators. Beyond the film festival, the 5-Minute Creative Initiative looks forward to expanding into broader horizons—just as the previous generation grew up with books and newspapers, and the generation before that matured through traditional opera and storytelling, we now live in the world of mobile devices, shaping 5-minute blocks of creation and viewing in line with new habits.
This year’s “300 Shots” Ultra-Short Film Development Program opened its call for screenplays online on July 23, with the deadline set for October 15. Bring your fresh, native voice and let your inspiration embark on a lush journey through the realm of 300 seconds. Don’t let a fleeting spark of inspiration remain merely a fleeting thought.
Just a few days before this follow-up visit, Pan Xiaojun had already submitted a brand-new story to “300 Strikes.” As for whether it would ultimately be selected a second time, that didn’t seem all that important to him:
“After my experience with *The Time Is Right*, I’ve come to feel more and more that creation isn’t really about waiting for the absolutely perfect moment—and that there may never be a so-called ‘right time.’ What matters is that we’re still creating, still constantly jotting down those sudden flashes of inspiration, turning them into scripts, finding ways to bring them to life on screen, and then throwing our punches time and time again to land our own, all-out strike—even if it isn’t perfect.”
300 seconds, one strike. We’re waiting for you.