I went to the wrap party for CtDM.... two weeks ago Friday. Met everyone from the crew and their friends at a nice bar called Coda. Saw the dailies of CtDM. It looked nice and all the memories of shooting them flew back to me. Ken and James came late to the party for they were working hard on the dailies. Trying very hard to make to the Sundance deadline coming up later this month.

Trip to Korea has been finalized as I got selected to volunteer for PIFF. It will be valuable experience and networking opportunity, while waiting for Josh to get more funding and prepare for the feature next year, and hopefully join its endevor.

Been lazy and busy with other stuff that hindered my final production reports of CtDM. I hope to finish them before I take off even though I will have the Internet access in Korea. I'm sure there will be many stuff that would have to chronicled in this space when I get there.

Man Bites Dog is out on DVD, finally. It's one of my 'cult' favorites. By far better executed than hyped Blair Witch. It totally changed my perspective of cinematic experience.

CNN: 'Star Wars: Clones' coming to Imax. "But the lure isn't simply getting to see a bunch of rocket ships and aliens on a 100-foot-wide screen. Imax's new proprietary conversion process allows studios for the first time to cheaply convert live-action motion pictures into a resolution vastly enhanced from conventional images." Defining new meaning to "big-screen." More content for Imax is good for its business as well as the medium.

Movie Poop Shoot: Jersey Girl Diary. "By basing the production in Philly, we can take advantage of the wonderful crew base that's been growing here, courtesy of M. Night Multi-Syllabic-Last-Name (the SIXTH SENSE guy), who, apparently, refuses to shoot anywhere but the Philadelphia area, and has made the Powers That Be enough bank to stand by the courage of his convictions. When a brother's never made a flick that's broken the thirty-million dollar glass ceiling, he doesn't get to stomp his feet and say "We're shooting the whole fucking movie in the real Highlands." Well, he can, but he'll wind up basing out of Philly anyway. Money talks, and motherfuckin' Silent Bob walks." I didn't know Philadelphia was rising as a major hub... It's close to my parents' home, too! Neato!

3rd day of Coming Down the Mountain

Woke up and got the shot list worked out last night's meeting. I quickly run the numbers: 23, 3 locations. Yup. The list was oozing with the desperation from losing precious production time. It was impossible list unless we were running 2 units, but I wasn't going to complain. It wasn't my decision, nor my position, but I pretty much saw what to expect from today. We drove nearly an hour to get to this small, old-fashioned, house habited by an equally old lady with many knick-knacks. We got quick shots off the exterior house and began to move closer to the heart of the scene. Since we didn't have a Gaffer, we asked a local electrician, Eric I believe that was his name, to help us out to tie-in from the house electric box. He helped us move out lights and gears more than setup the distro box, which I'm grateful for I lacked capable, strong hands. I also gained a Grip, Dave Kahn, who was a friend of Frank from Cicinnati. Dave was an educational video maker who had an keen interested in filmmaking process. He talked to Ken often about cameras and other stuff whenever he was free. I was grateful more extra hands whenever I can because I became the truck bitch, organizing gears in the truck, controlling its perpetual chaotic state. It was trying job since the specially-designed carts of various gears were pricey, so our beat-up gears were in plastic carts. I never knew I had it easy when I doing the Gaffer work in Full Sail. I thought those c-stand carts came with the gears, but I was very, very wrong. I could move 20 c-stands easy with its cart, but without it, even two was heavy. Ugh. I and Charlie were drenched in our sweat under the bright Kentucky summer sun.

We finally got our 2500 Watt HMIs out for the interior shots. The rental house actually had a cart full of lightbulbs to plug them in. I let Ken do it because I wasn't ready to mess around with $2500 lightbulbs. Who said filmmaking was cheap? The problem was that the antique house had only limited electricity that can't support three HMIs and other stuff running the various gears. I was afraid of this, and it came to reality. Where's Jenny when you need one? We ended up scrapping the dolly and the lighting setup that took almost two hours and shoot outside the porch with the Kinos--the hardest working light in this side of mountains. Yes, I know Kinos. They are my best friends.

NYTimes: Wow, I Was a Director, and I Wanted to Say, Whoa! "Suddenly everyone seemed to be pulling together in the common goal of making a movie, and they were looking to me to help them do it. In fact, as far as I could tell, the moment you remove the screenwriter, things actually begin to happen.

The screenwriter is like an economist or political commentator... You are an adviser, not a builder.

For the director, it is the exact opposite. The time for theorizing is over. It is yes or no, and pretty soon you have an aesthetic. Period. A very experienced director told me, "A movie is 10,000 decisions, and 5 percent either way can completely change the outcome." For the mathematically inclined, it breaks down like this: 10,000 decisions over a 50-day shoot is 200 decisions a day. Let's say you're an absolute genius and you have the correct answer for 95 percent of the questions you will be asked. That still leaves the crucial 5 percent, the 10 decisions each day for which you will not have the answer. On those 10 questions, you'll trust your instincts and wing it. And if you're Fran?is Truffaut or Orson Welles, you'll get them all right and make a masterpiece, like "The 400 Blows" or "Citizen Kane."

And that seems to be the trick of directing: I tried to bring the picture back to the truth of that emotional tone that I had felt so deeply during the writing of the script. The lighting, camera movement, blocking of the actors, performance, pacing, sound design, score, songs: every conceivable detail, and every question, was held up and measured against that imaginary place, then kept or discarded so that the entire world of the film is hermetically sealed, complete unto itself in every respect." That's why I still write, yet to direct my own film--waiting for the chance. And it will be allllllllright.

2nd day of Coming Down the Mountain

I woke up around 2pm because of the bustling activity in the living room. I later found out that my room shares chimney hole next to the living room that literally connects two rooms. I got up and met with the rest of the crew. I thought Ken Seng was a Chinese but he was actually an German decendent. Sengi-something. He was the DP but ended up doubling as a Gaffer during the entire production. He worked his way up from being a truck bitch for three years to where he's now. And he was just a year younger than me. He advised me not to pursue anymore Best Boy/Grip work unless I really want to. Dave Wightman was his AC from same film school. Dave and I went to same high school in Chicago! He was the oldest in our crew, acted more like a college kid though, and more experienced in the biz and any other. He usually works as a 2nd AC in big Hollywood features and told many stories about his experience and his admiration for Mel Gibson as the coolest star he had worked with. (Mel hates to be called as Mr. Gibson and will punch you if you ignore his warnings.) It was officialy the first day of the production, but the crew gathered to shoot at least a scene for the half-day. I met with our lead actor, Frank Taylor who struck me as W. Bush at first sight. However, he was soft-spoken, easy-going, very talented and experienced actor who knew the difficulties involved in filmmaking. He was a solid foundation for the young production team whenever things got shaky and a bit emotional for everyone involved.

The scene we shot was a driving scene with a camera mounted on the hood of a Dodge pickup truck we borrowed from a local. With piercing afternoon sunlight, I finally had the chance to experience Kentucky town and scenary. Colin, the co-producer and the screenwriter of this film, told me about the history and the architecture of the town that was essentially built by mining companies that long moved out. He did his senior thesis paper on the architectures around this town. It was his desire to capture the architectures and the town in the film, but I'm not sure if we got what he wanted due to our lack of time and resources. It was also interesting to see the relationship between the screenwriter-producer and the director, Jamie. Jamie was a Columbia film student, and also friends of the producers. He was first described to me as a man with ADA--short attention span, who was drunk with filmmaking process-which I call "production high." Although he was the director, he wasn't a powerful presence on the locations because Ken usually called "the shots." Ken catered to Jamie's every wishes, but it was Ken's call at the end in terms of production details and executions. Jamie directed actors and that's all I can say as the director on the set. It reminded me of the same relation between Ron and Pat in Lucidity production. Jamie was a big fan of Krzysztof Kieslowski's works, and I heard he wanted some shots just like in Red--one of my all time favorite film. Jamie was not certainly a MTV-style director. He liked long scenes with slow dolly moves in classic movies and he was an actors' director as he worked as an actor. His style will certainly benefit to tell this poigant story.

I was glad I didn't have to work with the grip trunk as it was mess from the long trip. Since we were mostly in locations, we took some grip gears and Kinos(Yes!) to shoot under beautiful summer sun. Ken did the tie-ins from the truck battery to draw power. I didn't know what tie-ins were, but now I know and I don't want to do it myself. I was little concerned that it won't be enough to draw power for 2500W HIMs. I was still wishing for better production equipments that meant more money. Basically, every crew worked harder, electric & grip especially, to make up for the lack of production fund.

I was little dull from the horrible trip yesterday and getting warmed up for the production after long period of time. I also had to get use to some of the terminologies used by Ken and Dave. I and Charlie basically became 2nd ACs for them in the end. Caroline made the fake blood for the steak--the key prop that will haunt us until the last day, to make it real on the screen. We shot for good 6 hours and had a nice late lunch cooked by a cafe run by our UPM's mother.

Keys gathered in the living room to discuss schedule for the following day, if not for the rest of the production. I knew the delay already begs for one additional production day, but couple of thousand dollars question is, how will the producers cope with the fact? I was little shocked that they didn't have any shot list. Mel was already bugged that she had to work with Josh for the shot lists on the first day on our road trip, but it didn't materialize because Josh was driving the truck. The long night meeting addressed many provisions already lacked in the production: lack of PAs, Gaffer, water, meals, equipments, etc. In this meeting, I got acquainted with Anna, our UPM who provided her house and the guest house for the crew and the talent. She's residing in London to study politics with an ambition to become a senator. We called her "southern belle" for she had cute southern accent I dig. Colin's little sister Leah was our Key PA who was the point "gal" for nearly anything that needed to be purchased and acquired. Because of lack of PAs, she was already overwhelmed by the production needs. She was trying to get her friends to help out, but it was nearly impossible when they were willing to pay pretty much nothing. I guess the glamour of filmmaking experience is not that strong anymore.

Dave did the dishes because no one would do it, taught Al to become a script sup, and filed camera reports for the rest of the evening. The camera dept is always the first and the last line in the filmmaking process. When the meeting got somewhat subdued, I hit the sack, and slept like a baby.

1st day of Coming Down the Mountain

This was it, my first pro-gig. I was fortunate to secure a production gig right after the school when most of my classmates are still struggling to find a job. The script was promising and the adventures of filmmaking in remote place of Kentucky appealed immensely to me. I've never been to Kentucky and now I can get to know real "southern state." And it was 3 months since I was in a principle photography; I was ready and eager for another one. The call time was 7:30 am at Joshua's apartment. I was there on the dot, at least according to my watch. He greeted me out his apartment door, just like I first met him during July 4th break. Kett Turton was the first to arrive before me and we exchanged greetings. People begin to arrive shortly. Kevin Thoms fit the Bulldog character description perfectly at my first impression--a well-built bully. Although I heard a lot about Kett how great actor he was for his age, his appearance didn't really fit my imagination for Joe. He just didn't look stereotypical "southern." Dan McCabe was Tyler. Only black guy in the crew, Dwayne Buckle was our entire, one-man, Sound Department. Although he griped he didn't have enough people helping him, we lost our Boom person loooong time ago, he was probably only one in the crew made money off this production by renting his gears. And finally, I met with John our Gaffer, who was to be my direct superior in this production. First thing he did was look over the rental list and gripe that there are stuff missing. And he proceed to give me ain impromptu test to see if I'm up to the stuff. I glanced over the list and saw that power distro stuff was lacking compare to the lights we have. (2500W HMI lights without renting a generator?!) I didn't point out specifically what's missing but he was impatient to dismiss my half-assed answer and decided to go to the rental house to "correct" this oversight by our DP who made the last minute requests added to the original rental package. So he and I left while Joshua had to wait for more people to arrive. It was nearly 8 when we left the apartment and there was no bagle nor coffee.

My spider sense was tingling when I noticed that Joshua was still getting ready when I arrived at his apartment, without any bagle or coffee waiting for the people as he mentioned on his email. I'm not picking on the fact that he didn't deliver on his promise, but I was little surprised that he didn't have any hand preparing for the breakfast, not even a PA. (People bought breakfast after they left the apartment.) I was concerned that Joshua, as a producer, was trying to do too many things by himself. I've already gone through that as a producer who unsuccessfully tried to make a short film by trying to do literally everything. I felt he needed to delegate, but alas, I learned the magic words of "defered payment" that morning and he wasn't about to order around anybody like a hotshot Hollywood producer for cups of hot java. No, this was gonna be more like a Full Sail film production, only it's privately funded with grand amibition to start a new film company. I was to get my first taste of LBC--Low Budget Cinema. (I first thought it stood for Low Budget Crap as I handled some of the shittest light and grip equipments for next 7 days. I didn't know I had it good at Full Sail lighting cage.)

I learned in the cab ride that they--will refer to Cyan Pictures from now on, went through two gaffers before settling onto John. He explained me the "defered payment" plan and he told me he was doing it to get out of the city, nothing more. Although he was an experience pro, he had a girlfriend problem that bailed him out of the production before we took off for Kentucky. However he did straighten the lighting package at Shadow Studio on West Side. Wow, my visit to real rental house. They also had an indoor blue set where a Nickelodeon was shooting something. I was little disappointed that the equipments are used and old even if they are organized neatly on every possible space in the garage. John already knew the guy running the rental house. (And I never got to introduce myself. Darn, an industry networking opportunity blown!) As I looked around the gears, I promised to be more assertive meeting new people. I did get to exchange hellos with other guys working there. John added many stuff that really saved the production later. I can't believe how many times I thanked he managed to include this and that. But this also highlighted an ugly problem; there weren't enough pre-production requirements handled by the dialogue between a gaffer and a DP. The failure to pre-pro everything 120% will come to haunt the production for rest of the journey. I hope the producers really learned the lessons before tackling a feature next year, and there were so many lessons I learned from this small venture. John eventually had to leave as soon as Joshua and the rest of the crew pulled with a truck. (Joshua originally planned and rented a van, but the lighting package got too big for the van that he swapped for a truck that very morning.) I met Allison Westfahl who was our Script Supervisor, the position I originally wanted in order to work myself up to the director position. She was personal trainer by day, and a friend to our director, Jamie. Althought Script Supervisor is vital in a film production--what isn't?, its craft can be learned fairly easy given due diligence and sharp eyes. Fortunately Al had them and ended up learning the craft from our AC, David, because no one had an idea to teach her until the production got too problematic without a script sup.

I met Mel, a NYC film student who was the AD, Caroline--a makeup and dresser, and Charlie--18 years old cutie Key Grip when I boarded the van after loading up the truck. I was quite taken by the number of female crew members in this production. I mean, this industry is still male-dominated industry, yet this crew reached near equilibrium in terms of male and female ratio. Although I was green myself, I was also little concerned about the professionalism of this crew when Charlie showed me her Basic Grip Book--that's THE title of the book. I prayed for a really, really good professional gaffer for this production, and my prayer wasn't answered till the 4th day.

Our departure time was 12pm after all the drama and work. And the day didn't pass that easily even as we were on the road. First, we got lost right after coming out of NYC because of confusing road signs in New Jersey before getting on the interstate. After lunch, the truck broke down in the middle that Josh and Al had to rent a U-Haul and reload nearly 1-ton equipments to new truck. I knew that truck would be a problem when I heard Josh mentioning transmission failure while driving out from NYC. You do NOT mess with transmission failures, but I wasn't ready to point out that fact when I had no solution to fix the problem. And this was only first of many vehicle problems the production encountered throughout till we returned to NYC. Nearly everyone didn't want to do anything with vehicles by the end of the production.

Since I didn't sign up for a driving shift, I was hesitant to take the wheel of the van. So the girls did most of the driving that lasted 24 hours, when it should've taken just 12 hours! The van got to the destination good half-hour later than the truck which spent good 3 hours idle by the road for its share of problems. It was a nightmare roadtrip that I wish to erase from my memory. The direction confused the drivers and ended up spending good 3 hours wandering in Kentucky mountains roads. The winding roads made me car sick in the 4 am. Kevin's great sense of humor kept our spirits lifted from the dire situation. The cellphones didn't really work as we climbed up the mountains. As I was passing in and out from sleep and trying to calm my motion sickness, we miraculously arrived and I immediately hit the bed. And my sleep lasted only 6 hours, which would be standard for the rest of the production.

On the Subject of Real People's Accounts in this Weblog

I've been troubled by the fact that I must list real people's names on here for full account of my experience of film productions. I heard that "if you can't say anything nice, don't say at all" but... what should I do if I do have some critical perspectives that people won't like or misunderstand me? It's cowardly as a writer to think of a reader's wrath before he lays his words to achieve full effects, yet as a powerless beginner in the cut-throat industry, I need to kiss-ass, not know-it-all. I have a responsiblity to be faithful for all account as I'm chronicling my experience as well as filmmaking experience in 21st century. So for now, I'll play safe, and I may get bolder as I grow more confident and establish myself in the business. I'm not singling out out myself--on contrary I wish to be the harshest critic of my endevor, but I'm trying to be honest to my feeling and observations.

Salon.com: Where are the female directors? "Let's say you have a short at a film festival and it's doing well. Chances are high you'll be at a party and have an opportunity to pitch your idea over drinks. If your idea is good enough perhaps you'll get it financed." For women, though, chatting up an older man over drinks isn't construed as business -- it's seen as flirting. That, Veneruso says, is why women are "always on the outside" of the casual networks where much of the film business gets done.

But the movie industry is a dream factory, and the resistance to women in it seems based, in part, on the subterranean longings of the men who run it." My Fat Greek Wedding is the hit of this summer opened in April. There's always a market for great movies.