The Hen is a deep exploration of the author's own self. The writing of the script has served as a self-analysis of the author, as a sort of internal discussion and dialogue, eventually translating it into images.

Growing up the author believed that society, environment and culture are grey areas that can’t be easily defined, as it’s impossible to simply define them in terms of black and white.

The author’s own experience functions as the starting point of the film, attempting to illustrate the ambiguous, anxious and disorienting emotions resulting from the experience of an unfamiliar environment. This research happens through the main character, a woman named Wen-Yi, CEHN, which struggles to find her own identity in the rural environment, and tries to find a way to be recognized and accepted,  reflecting the fear of the author in regard to the large spectrum of experience which an external environment represents.

Although the author is not female, the process of creating the main character and exploring the issue of gender serves as a way to research the fear of the external in a more concrete way. The difficulties of self-identification in an unfamiliar setting can be translated and compared with the struggles of women in society.

 

This thesis is divided into six chapters:

Chapter 1 - Introduction, which explains the motivation, background and purpose of the creation of the movie.

Chapter 2 - Literature review, which examines the gender-related issues associated with the creation of the script and the presentation of the movie, and discusses the interplay between the study of gender issues and the writing of the screenplay, moreover the creation of the characters in the film. Film and television examples relevant to the issue will be here presented.

Chapter 3 - Creation Concept, which focuses on the creation of the script, the design of the character, the camera and lighting style, and the artistic design of the movie.

Chapter 4 - Filming and Production, which explains and documents the planning and execution of the movie, including the pre-production and filming stages.

   Chapter 5 - Post-Production, which explains and documents the post-production process of the film in terms of editing, sound design and color correction.

Chapter 6 - Screening and Conclusion. This chapter will break down the public screening of the film, give an excerpt from the post-screening discussion, and finally review and conclude the process of creating and executing the film.