I’m now officially back from vacation. I took last week off from my day job because I had accumulated the max amount of vacation time allowed and would not accrue more if I did not use it (gotta love the corporate world). H and I didn’t really go anywhere on our vacation, we just chilled at the house and took the time to go out to eat, see Star Wars Episode III at a 10.40am matinee on a Tues morning, put up a new mailbox and watch a bunch of movies from Blockbuster. Thursday afternoon H and I took our two corgis to sheep herding class. I also attended to a bunch of acting related errands during the week such as picking up and delivering proofs to both of my agencies. I also spent my vacation time ordering filmmaking gear and getting addicted to Ebay. So now my filmmaking toolbox consists of a Sony PDX10, 2 professional 500w Britek lights and softbox, and a couple of Tiffen filters to try to simulate the elusive “film look”. I’ve also looked into building some custom camera rigs. I also spent the time to learn basic lighting techniques with the DV Enlghtment DVD.
Now I’m ready to take Hollywood by storm :)!
Oh, almost forgot. I also completed a rough cut of the short film “Do Something” in Premiere Pro. I’m finally getting a grasp of how cool Premiere Pro really is.
I had an audition for McDonalds today.
Last Friday my commercial agency called and told me they were looking for a “karate man” and wanted to see people in “karate” uniforms. Well it’s been years since I’ve actually studied so I don’t own a karate uniform. I figured that I could probably pick up a uniform at a local martial arts supply store so I Google(d) for one and found the Golden Tiger Martial Arts Supply Store. The store happened to be pretty close by so on Saturday I went to check it out. The shop itself is pretty small but according to the online catalogue they stock a wide variety of martial arts related stuff. I noticed that they had the typical white Tae Kwon Do outfits and also a sleevless version so I asked to see one. The uniform was good quality and I was about to pay for it when I decided I wanted to be different. I asked if they had the uniform in black and they said no. But they did show me a black kung fu outfit. That would definitely be different than the typical white karate outfit so ended up buying the black kung fu outfit with white trim and also got a blue sash to go along with it. When I went to pay the guy at the cashier said, “You do realize that this is a kung fu outfit and you were first looking at a Tae Kwon Do outfit”. I said, “Of course!” and explained how I was buying it for an audition.
After I got the outfit I then started to worry that the casting people would want to see a karate form, or some fancy jump kicks. I’ve long forgotten my forms and although I can pull off some of those fancy jump kicks, it’s been years since I’ve really done it. So I started stretching and practicing a few kicks and punches trying to put together a small form.
Well that was all good, but when I arrived at the audition today it turns out they just wanted us to pretend to break some boards with a loud karate-like sound “Piiiiiiiioooooooooo!”. Don’t ask me why. I don’t completely understand. And I think the commercial is for the Spanish market anyway.
Oh well, at least I now have a real good-looking Kung-Fu uniform for… Halloween. Or the next stereotypical audition.
Roy Eisenstein (the writer/director/cinematographer for “Do Something”) and I (the “star” of the piece) sat down last night for a 3-hour editing session of the short film. Since I’ve never really edited anything before (except for web videos), it turned into more of a class on editing than a collaboration. But what better way to learn than on your own project? I really began to appreciate the process and creativity of editors and editing. Within our 3 hour session we only ended up with a 30 second assembly of footage because of all the grunt work we put in hunting down specific scenes and shots and finding the best moments in my performance. I never knew how time consuming it all could be and it made me realize how much time must be spent trying to edit a full-length feature. It also made me look at my acting in a critically objective way and how important it is to be consistent and really deliver the best performance in every shot. It’s easy to see how an actor’s performance can end up on the cutting room floor if they can’t hit the right moments in a scene. But if you can deliver a good performance in every shot, it gives more options for an editor to work with.
I love the creative process of putting together a film. It’s very cool to see the project start to come together. I probably still have a couple days worth of editing ahead of me to complete the short not including possibly reshooting a couple shots or shooting new footage to add to the piece and then adding the sound effects as well, but I’m very stoked to be actually doing it.
Then there’s this other script I just wrote the other night - a 30 second commercial spoof that I hope to be shooting in the next week or so…
Published on Wednesday May 18, 2005 .
It’s 4am and I’ve been editing the short film “Do Something” for the last couple hours. This is my first real editing job and the whole creative process is very cool to me. It’s just awesome to be “Doing Something” to take charge of my creative career rather than going to my day job day-in/day-out, waiting for Hollywood to come knocking on my door.
Here’s my new headshots shot by Karman Kruschke:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95565797@N00/.
These are my best photos yet. I just hope both my agencies agree!
I haven’t posted in a few days so here’s an update of what’s been going on:
Last weekend H and I participated in the Revlon 5K Walk for Women in memory of H’s grandma and support of H’s step mom. We have never done anything like this before but we had a lot of fun supporting a good cause. Next year I might even run the 5k instead of just walk.
A couple hours after the 5k walk I gathered up all my guerilla DV filmmaking equipment and headed over to my friends apartment to shoot the short film “Do Something” written and directed by Roy Eisenstein. Within a couple of hours we wrapped shooting and now we’re going to edit it. Now I just have to figure out how to work Adobe Premiere…
A few days ago I shot new theatrical and commercial headshots with Karman Kruschke. I’ve been thinking of getting new headshots for a while now but was nudged a little by my commercial agent who sent out an email basically saying that if you don’t have color photos, then there is a strong posibility that you may get dropped by the agency. So I shot new photos which I pick up tomorrow and I’m really excited to see how they turned out!
I also stopped at my theatrical agency to drop-off more pictures although I’m told it has been really slow. I really need a jumpstart in my acting career so I went to Samuel French to pickup the newest directory of Personal Managers. I’ll start submissions soon.
Dear “not whitewashed”:
The root issue of it all is that Hollywood (and the general public), do not view Asian males as romantic leads - or romantic in general, or sexy, or desirable. We are still stuck with the nerd/geek/scientist/professional/gangsta/martial artist stereotypes that say we are smart, strong and talented but that’s it. I pose the question of matching an Asian male lead with the typical blonde starlet because the typical blonde starlet is considered and regarded as the most desireable in Hollywood and society. So why couldn’t an Asian guy be just as sexy and desireable as the blonde starlet?
My issue is also about representing diversity. The fact is that there are interracial relationships out there. You see Asian women with non-asian men in films and media. Why not the other way around?
On Thurs and Saturday I went to check out events at the VC Film Fest. Thursday night I attended the opening event at the DGA and saw the premiere of Saving Face written by first-time director/writer (and ex dot-com worker) Alice Wu. The film was intersting and had it’s moments but ultimately left me un-impressed. At the end of the movie all I could think is if it is more “shocking” to see two asian females in a passionate lesbian relationship, or an Asian guy with a sexy blonde starlet in a passionate relationship.
I also felt strangely out of place among my fellow Asian brothers and sisters sitting in that theater. Unlike the characters portrayed in the movie, I am not bilingual. My parents, since they are from different Asian countries, spoke only english in the house (except when they spoke to relatives). We didn’t have a lot of relatives close by or even come visit us very often. My experience was different than what I saw on screen and a lot of the jokes that people laughed at, I just didn’t find that funny.
On Saturday I attended a seminar on “Castng Asian Americans”. Most of the information seemed geared more towards Asian actors getting started in the industry. I was more interested in asking some of the deeper issues such as, “How do we (as asians) change the game and get those leading male roles?” and “When are we going to see an Asian guy kissing the hot blonde girl on network TV?”
The answer from the panel came from the main sponsor of the event AZN TV. Her respone was that Asians need to support Asian media such as the VC Film Festival and AZN TV. With support the demand for Asian programming will grow and Asians will gain better visibility across all media.
Although I agree with the basis of this statement, I do see a couple problems. One of the biggest problems is that I just don’t see a unified support from all Asian communities. The problem is that we, as Asians come from several different countries who speak different languages and inherently have negative views of each other because of things that have happened in history. We are not unified. And frankly, there are a lot of Asians who are just out there for themselves. Plus, there are a lot of different demographics of Asians - from those who have immigrated, to those who are second generation, to those who are bilingual, to those who are completely “assimilated”. How do you appeal to all groups?
Ultimately I think it is about the quality of the work. If the story is entertaining and has a universal theme, people will like it and appreciate it regardless of race. Look at movies such as “Bend it Like Beckham” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. Both highly successful and entertaining interweaving cultural elements from different peoples’ background. This is the kind of product we need.
