David Chiu

Scientific American has an incredible article based on a discussion with three experts on creativity. Here are some quotes from the article which resounded with me:

“There’s so much power in a new idea taking shape and changing the way people live and act. Often the rest of us are in awe, or we are even afraid of a new idea, and sometimes our fears spur us to learn more about it.”

“There are four different skill sets, or competencies, that I’ve found are essential for creative expression. The first and most important competency is “capturing”-preserving new ideas as they occur to you and doing so without judging them. ”

“The second competency is called “challenging”-giving ourselves tough problems to solve. In tough situations, multiple behaviors compete with one another, and their interconnections create new behaviors and ideas. The third area is “broadening.” The more diverse your knowledge, the more interesting the interconnections-so you can boost your creativity simply by learning interesting new things. And the last competency is “surrounding,” which has to do with how you manage your physical and social environments. The more interesting and diverse the things and the people around you, the more interesting your own ideas become.”

“You have to put up with dry spells and keep creating in the face of them.”

“You have to learn not to fear failure and even to rejoice in it. ”

“The creative individual thinks of failure as a new opportunity.”

“…failure actually stimulates creativity directly. It really is valuable.”

“I think that creativity is contagious and that the best thing we can do for children is to model for them what it’s like to be a creative individual.”

Youtube videos can now contain links to other Youtube videos and can also contain annotations (think VH1’s pop-up video). This news is MAJOR! Think about all the possibilities!!!!!

You gotta check it out RIGHT NOW!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw6YPh-fAko

Another sign of the times – a new indie film site called The Auteurs is promoting itself at the Cannes Film Festival with a video competition sponsored by HP, Facebook and Flip. 250 people will get the chance to grab a Flip camera and shoot a 3 minute short film. The winner, as determined by a jury receives $10,000 cash and a HP workstation with a 30 inch display – plus you get to keep the camera. Don’t expect the resulting videos to be Cannes-worthy though since the Flip video camera is a small solid state consumer device that only shoots 640×480 video. It will be interesting to see how many people actually participate in this competition. I think this sort of stunt/promotion would be better suited to another film festival such as Slamdance .

Last week I signed up for the Navy Seal Fitness Challenge. It’s a free event sponsored by the Navy to see if you can pass the initial fitness test for entrance into the Navy Seals. Everyone thinks I’m crazy especially since the event is next Saturday, but I think I have a chance. The Seal standards are: 500m breast-stroke / side-stroke swim in 12.30min, 42 push-ups, 50 sit-ups, 6 pull-ups, and a 1.5 mile run in 11min. It’s been years since I’ve swam laps, but I’m pretty confident in my swimming. I can complete 42 push-ups and 50 sit-ups without too much problem (and even without resting), but I’ve never been a good runner so the 1.5 mile run in 11min would be a problem for me. I’m going to hit the pool this week just to re-acclimate myself to the water. It’ll be fun to compete. I want to start competing in athletic events like this anyway so this will be a good introduction.

I’m burning the candle at both ends and in the middle. But I have nothing to complain about. This year has been incredible and I’ve been blessed with so many opportunities. I’ve got work raining down on me – and I’m not even talking about my day job. Unfortunately I’m not talking about acting either, but rather outside technology/internet projects. I can barely keep up. I feel I need to grab as many opportunities as I can while they exist ’cause ya never know what tomorrow will be like. Hollywood is quickly trying to converge into the digital/internet world and I’m a part of it in every aspect and from both ends of the business. It’s exciting albeit exhausting talking to so many people about so many different ideas, projects, opportunities. My own creative projects as actor and producer are also proving to have big possibilities – I just need the time to concentrate on them.  At this point it’s a race to the new year as I have a couple projects I need to finish and deliver before Christmas all while taking care of holiday errands and doing XFlowsion (a high energy yoga/cardio) 4 times a week trying to reach my goal of 10% body fat by year’s end.

It’s amazing to think how much I’ve accomplished since the beginning of the year. I’ve been very blessed.

At the beginning of the year H and I were lucky enough to be chosen to participate in a new yoga/fitness system created by Eric Paskel called XFlowsion. For 30 days we did intense yoga/dance/martial arts 4 times a week and ate according to the XFlowsion diet (whole grains, veggies, fruits, etc, etc). By the end of the program I lost 11lbs. A month after the program I dropped another 9lbs and ended up at 163lbs / 14.5% bodyfat. Well Christmas has come early this year because Eric has moved to LA from Michigan and has offered 3 weeks of free XFlowsion classes to those who participated in the original program. The XFlowsion commercial will be re-shot, AND Eric will be opening up his own gym sometime in Jan/Feb. 

So H and I are back in XFlowsion boot-camp again. We started Friday. The schedule is Tues/Fri/Sat/Sun which means we just completed our 3rd XFlowsion class today. All I can say is that XFlowsion is one hell of a workout. H and I have been doing yoga at home and at various yoga centers, but nothing compares to Eric’s classes. By the end of each class I am absolutely exhausted. I never sweat as much in any other workout than XFlowsion. It takes a lot of concentration, strength, flexibility and endurance to get through his classes. It’s intense. But it’s as intense as you want it to be because Eric is so mellow. Each class is completely different too (other than the typical yoga down-dogs and chattarungas mixed in with everything). So now I’m starting off at my new weight of 163lbs/15% bodyfat and I’m hoping to get down to 10% bodyfat by Christmas. That means I need to lose 5% of my weight in bodyfat which would be 8lbs. To accomplish this I’m going to try to be even more precise with my nutrition. Using the Harris-Benedict principle, I can assess my basal metabolic rate — also known as BMR:

Men:
66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) – (6.8 x age in years)

66 + (6.3 x 162) + (12.9 x 71) – (6.8 x 34) = 1771

I need to multiply this by 40% and add the total since I normally work out 3-4 times a week.

This means I need to eat 2,479 calories a day just to maintain my current body weight. So I need to create a caloric deficit be reducing calories. 1lb is roughly 3500 calories. So if I decrease my calories by 500/day I will lose 1lb a week. If I can also burn 500 calories a day I could lose 2lbs a week – which would put me 2lbs away from being 10% bodyfat in 3 weeks. The big challenge is that it is the holidays and H and I love food. That means on Thanksgiving we will not be following the diet. But luckily, Eric will have an XFlowsion class Friday morning to make up for our dietary “sins”.

Out of curiosity I asked Google how many calories Bikram yoga burns (it’s the closest I could think to XFlowsion). I know it it’s going to be different for everybody since it depends on your practice intensity and a lot of other factors, but from what I could find it sounds like it’s possible to burn 600-700 calories in an hour. So XFlowsion four times a week would be 2400 calories burned at the least. I will also be hitting the weights hard at the gym twice a week and have one day to rest and recover.

During this training period I also need to make sure I eat enough calories to keep my metabolism running high. That means I need to eat approx 400 calories a meal 5 times a day which would put me at 2000 calories which is roughly the 500 caloric deficit I need to burn fat.

So last time I lost 11lbs in 4 weeks doing XFlowsion 4x week and lifting on and off for that period of time while moderately following the XFlowsion diet. That means I should have no problem hitting 10% bodyfat in 3 weeks.

Tonight I realized that the upgrade I did from MovableType 3 to MovableType 4 broke any and all links to my old articles once I had rebuilt my blog. The problem lies in the configuration option named “Basename Length” under Preferences->Blog Settings->Entries in MT4. The default value in MT4 is 30, whereas the default setting in MT3 was 15. Now I thought I could easily fix this by changing the value to 15 in MT4 and republishing my site, but that didn’t work. So instead I wrote this little PHP script to make copies of all my old archives articles and truncate the filenames to 15 characters. Now thinking about it, what I should have done – instead of making copies of the files, is create files with truncated filenames but that contain a PHP Header() directive that points at the current article with the 30 character filename. Anyway, here’s the script I wrote. Maybe it will help someone else. Be sure to CHMOD -R a+w archives/* before you run the script so that the script has permissions to create the new files. Then make sure you put the permissions back to what they should be when you’re done.

<?php

function changeext($directory, $verbose = false) {
$num = 0;
if($curdir = opendir($directory)) {
while($file = readdir($curdir)) {
if($file != '.' && $file != '..') {

$srcfile = $directory . '/' . $file;
$string  = "$file";
$str     = strlen($ext1);
$str++;
$newfile = substr($string, 0, 15);
$newfile = $newfile.'.php';
$dstfile = $directory . '/' . $newfile;

if (eregi("\.php",$file)&&(strlen($file)>19)) {
($srcfile, $dstfile);
//echo "copy $srcfile, $dstfile";
}

if(is_dir($srcfile)) {
$num += changeext($srcfile, $verbose);
}
}
}
closedir($curdir);
}
return $num;
}

changeext('archives',  'false');

?>

It’s fascinating to think that the industry that I fell into while trying to be an actor has set Hollywood on fire. The work I do at my day job adds fuel to the flame as we find creative ways to attract bigger audiences on the internet using video and interactive experiences. So Hollywood finds itself in the same position I’m at in my professional life – re-invent yourself or die. So while Hollywood struggles to find a profitable place on the internet, I struggle to find a profitable place in Hollywood as Talent. But I see myself as the next generation of content creators and talent. Not only do I have the skills to produce anything and everything on the internet, I also have the skills to be in front of, and behind the camera. I’m like Robert Rodriguez meets Kanye West. So while WGA strikes and SAG talks about a strike next year, I will be making my move.

Here’s an inside look at why Hollywood is in trouble:

——————–

This WGA strike is going to suck.
The other side is prepared to have us sit on our asses until the SAG
contract is up in JUNE. They all claim to be working toward a resolution,
but um… They are already reshaping the midseason. Do the math.

The studios and networks are sitting pretty and seem fairly convinced that
they own the internet.

THE WGA HAS NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN THE NEW MEDIA REALM.
I met yesterday at the WGA offices and have agreed to help them try to
create a web presence worthy of the fight they are launching over new media.
As it stands, I had to explain that a BLOG is not a website.
I have my hands full.

They asked me yesterday, “how do we link videos to our website?”
What?
The two members of the communications committee
asked me what FACEBOOK is?!!

We are truly doomed if our negotiations committee doesn’t fold and take a
shitty deal. Seriously. The PR alone is going to kill us.

I’ve tried to explain the advantage to using the internet to our advantage.
Today I’m supposed to present a plan to use daytime soap fans to bang down
the doors at Colgate Palmolive and boycott their products unless they put
pressure on the other side to give us a piece of new media.
I talked to a communications member last night who didn’t realize there are
soap opera discussion boards and mailing lists!!!
“How do we find out where they are?”

OMFG!
I’m in hell!

There have been plenty of times when I have left an audition and thought “I wasn’t feelin’ that performance”. Luckily, this wasn’t one of those times. I spent the whole morning mentally preparing for the audition and every time I went to the restroom I would practice my lines in the mirror – remembering the notes that Lisa had told me. I just needed to make sure that I had personalized both scenes so that they were real to me. Then I needed to trust that I didn’t need to “act” or “show” any emotions. Just “be” in the moment.

I left the office early in order to arrive at the casting office 45min before my scheduled audition time. The casting office was a small little blue bungalow in santa monica. I parked my car up the street from the office and just sat in my car prepping myself for the read. 15min to my scheduled time I walked into the office and sat down in the very small waiting area. There wasn’t anyone else in the waiting room. It was one of those indicators that this was an important audition and that they were being selective in who they were considering for the role. About two minutes went by and the casting director came out and said “David Chiu”? I replied “yes” and she asked my to follow her into the back office. There she had a portable blue screen setup and a very tiny handheld camera mounted on a big tripod. She mentioned something about “the first time” and “bi-coastal”, but honestly I wasn’t paying attention. I was doing my final mental preparation for the read. The casting director looked at me and said “Oh! You look like you’re ready to go! Let me just turn on the camera real quick!” This was a good sign – the fact that the casting director could see that I was already emotionally prepped and ready to go. But I didn’t let her rush me. I said, “give me one more moment” and I just stood there centering myself. Then I moved onto the mark and started the scene. We did the first scene twice. The first time, I did it exactly how Lisa coached me to do it. The casting director said it was really good but to try doing it a little less intense – and to save the intensity for the second scene. The second scene we did twice as well.

I felt really good about my performance. I feel like I demonstrated the intensity they are looking for. Now it’s just a waiting game. I can’t help but to think how cool it would be to work on this movie with Jude Law and Forrest Whittaker….

This Friday I have a audition for a new Jude Law/Forest Whittaker movie currently called Repossession Mambo directed by Miguel Sapochnik, a one-time storyboard artist. I’m trying not to get too excited, but it’s hard for me not to think that this could be the break I’ve been waiting for. I’m reading for the role of:

[RAYMOND PEARL] late 20s – mid 30s. Another of Frank’s top-notch repo men, he is a “psychopath with a Union scalpel.”

What was interesting was that I received not only my sides for the audition, but FTP instructions to download the short movie “The Dreamer” by Miguel Sapochnik. The short movie was awesome and in the same vein of Children of Men or Blade Runner with a similar storyline to “The Island”. I understand why Hollywood came knocking.

So my reading is this Friday and I’m getting private coaching from my fabulous acting coach Lisa Mililo Clarkson who teaches scene study and audition technique at Joanne Baron/DW Brown and is currently the on-set coach for Days of Our Lives. The actual audition will be taped and sent to the director who is currently in Toronto. I’m just hoping to make a good first impression and make it to a second reading.