MEI

De Stijl

2008-03-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

Eli Hsieh - the Production Designer of "Mei", and one of my best friends in Taipei - just opened up his own store here selling vintage Art Deco jewelry.

The store is called "De Stijl" and it just had its grand opening last night.

For anyone living or visiting in Taipei, you have to check it out. Eli basically took an old building and gutted it, leaving the original exposed molding, brick and concrete walls, then he spent over a month renovating and re-designing the space with a modernist look (custom wall paneling, deco furniture, light fixtures) - it's pretty amazing. And the jewelry itself is very cool - stuff Eli's been collecting for years.

DE STIJL
台北市中山北路二段26巷10-1號
No. 10-1, Lane 25, Sec. 2, Zhongshan N. Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei City

They'll have a website up soon too:
www.destijl.com.tw

EAT for VC

2008-03-03T18:40:00.000-08:00

"EAT", the omnibus of 3 short films I worked on, was just accepted to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Fest (VC). I was there last year screening "Mei" - it was pretty cool. It looks like I'll still be in Taipei in May, so unfortunately I won't be able to make the festival...

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Fest

The shorts are:
"Laura" (Jon Maxwell)
"The Birthday Dinner" (Danny Lee)
"Set B" (Me)
"I Heart Cup-O-Noodles" (Jerry Chan)

We submitted a rough cut, which means now we only have a few months to get the final ready for screening...

Commercials...

2008-02-28T21:49:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to direct some small-scale commercials in Taipei for some extra cash while working on our feature project.

The last one was for a Stem Cord Bank (VIA) - the commercial is actually now playing (on continuous loop) in every McDonald's in Taipei. Quite often I feel the need to enjoy an Egg McMuffin Meal in the morning and the other day, I was sitting there and saw the commercial playing in between a promotional sketch of a Chinese-speaking Ronald McDonald and the Fry Kids introducing some disturbing new sandwich.

Doing a commercial was an interesting learning experience, especially working with clients and all that, but actually kind of fun.

The next one might involve shooting a promotional thing for a novelist here.

The End Sort of

2008-01-29T08:13:00.000-08:00

"Mei" had its final festival screening about 2 months ago, and it premieres on American television in February...so basically the run of the film is done. It's been a cool year or so - here are the festivals we screened at:

Berlin Intl Film Festival
Pusan Intl Film Festival
Hawaii Intl Film Festival
Bilbao Intl Film Festival
Melbourne Intl Film Festival
Sao Paolo Intl Film Festival
Taipei Intl Film Festival
Tokyo Short Shorts Film Festival
Mexico Short Shorts Film Festival
Expresions en Corto Film Festival
Munich Filmschool Festival
San Francisco Intl Asian American Film Festival
VC Film Festival
DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival
NYC Shorts Film Festival
Wendland Shorts
Gaohsiung Intl Film Festival
Hong Kong InD Blue Film Festival
Film Independent Cinema Showcase
Method Fest

And the awards the film received:

Silver Bear (Jury Prize) - Berlin Intl Film Festival
Best Student Film - NYC Short Film Festival
Audience Award - NYC Short Film Festival
Best Emerging Director - DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival
Honorable Mention - Directors Guild of America Student Awards
Honorable Mention - British Academy of Film and Television Arts Student Awards

We're on to First Page Taipei. From now on I'll use this blog to post about movies and side projects and stuff.

Video i

2008-01-15T09:52:00.000-08:00

"Mei" will be showing on American TV for the first time next month.

It will be playing on the show "Video i", a showcase of independent film and video on KTEH (PBS for the Southbay) - Monday Feb. 11th at 11pm (Channel 54 or Comcast 10).

If you live in the Bay Area/Silicon Valley, please check it out!

Mei on Video i

EAT

2007-11-11T01:03:00.000-08:00

I just finished shooting a 4 minute short for a project called "EAT", which is an omnibus of 4 short films by 4 different directors, all of which loosely deal with Love and Food.

My short, "Set B", is set in an American-style Fast Food restaurant in Taipei.

Bilbao

2007-10-18T08:46:00.001-07:00

"Mei" was just selected for competition at the 49th Bilbao Film Festival. Sweet.

Munich Filmschool Fest

2007-10-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

"Mei" was just accepted in competition for the 27th Munich Filmschool Festival (representing USC).

TIFF/CoFesta

2007-10-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

I was invited along with the Dean of USC's film program to go to Tokyo at the end of this month to conduct a young filmmakers workshop as part of the Tokyo Int'l Film Festival/CoFesta - I'm going to screen "Mei" and talk about film school, the festival world, and my experiences so far trying to transition into feature filmmaking - it should be a lot of fun meeting some aspiring Japanese filmmakers. And Tokyo is an awesome city.

More Festivals

2007-09-12T23:34:00.000-07:00

"Mei" is playing at a few more festivals next month - The Hawaii International Film Festival and the DC Asian-American Film Festival.

Moving On....

2007-08-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a year since we first premiered "Mei" at USC, and we've been lucky enough to have had a nice festival run. I've gotten to meet many cool filmmakers and visited some beautiful cities - a great experience so far.

Mei" will be playing in what will most likely be its last festivals over the next few months in Korea, Brazil, Washington DC, and Mexico. For anyone who still reads this blog, I thought it would be a good time to start wrapping things up - I'll still update with occasional "Mei" news here, but I've been gradually moving on to our next project, the feature film "First Page Taipei".

Coming up in October I'll be at the Asian Film Market/PPP in Pusan with our producers at greensky films working to finance "First Page Taipei" and to get started with preproduction. You can read all about these new experiences over at:
firstpagetaipei.blogspot.com

Pusan Int'l Film Festival

2007-07-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

"Mei" was just accepted to the Pusan International Film Festival in Korea. It's known as the biggest festival in Asia.

You'll Be My Baby

2007-07-10T08:58:00.000-07:00

This is a low-budget video I shot for The Cons, a sweet indie-pop band from San Francisco.

You can check out their website here:

http://myspace.com/theconsmusic

They're going to be playing the Cat Club in West Hollywood on August 4th around 9pm. Please go check them out.

Some More Festivals

2007-07-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

"Mei" was recently selected for a few more festivals -

The 18th Sao Paolo International Film Festival in Brazil, and the 10th Expresion en Corto Festival in Mexico. These are the first times "Mei" will be playing in Latin America.

Remembering Edward Yang

2007-07-03T01:09:00.000-07:00

Some very sad news...renowned Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang passed away this past Friday at the age of 59.

I first met Edward in 2001, right after watching his astounding Yiyi (A One and a Two) for the first time. I had never seen a film like it; at its heart was a such a simple story – a Taiwanese family falls apart and comes back together over the course of a wedding, birth, and death – that was able to explore such complex and universal emotions so poetically through life in modern Taipei.

At that time, I had just graduated from college and only knew that I wanted to make films, but had no idea where to begin. Through a family friend, I was able to get contact with Edward in the hopes that he could offer some advice. He was kind enough to sit me down for an afternoon and share his personal experiences, as well as his philosophy of filmmaking. For Edward, filmmaking was a means to convey his view of the world, and it was his specific and unique perspective of the world that would dictate everything else about his process. In his words - “If you know what you want to say, then finding a way to say it is easy”. He often resented the attention given to his particular style of filmmaking (the elegant fixed compositions, perfectly-timed long shots) – he didn't consider it a style at all, but the only means by which he could effectively communicate.

Within one afternoon Edward had successfully dissuaded me from my plans of enrolling in film school (an environment he felt endangered personal expression and creativity), and offered me an even more exciting alternative – go to work for him in Taipei. For almost two years, Edward was my teacher and mentor. I was able to witness first-hand the passion, discipline, precision and most importantly, vision that it takes to be an artist like Edward. It was one of the most formative experiences of my life. On a more personal level, it was in working with him that I fell in love with Taipei for the first time, and met a group of young Taiwanese artists and filmmakers who I consider today to be some of my dearest friends and collaborators (many of whom worked on Mei together). Edward, whom we respectfully and affectionately called “Daoyan” (Chinese for “director"), fostered a unique environment of creative experimentation and learning that I know everyone will always be grateful for.

Though Edward was undoubtedly disappointed when I decided to go back for film school a few years later, I think he also understood that I needed to eventually find my own way. Since then, we've been able to meet up in Los Angeles every few months for coffee and even got to take a short road-trip together a few years ago, listening to Dylan (his favorite) all the way up the 5 freeway. As always, he was passionate in talking about the things he loved: movies, technology, and of course, family.

Daoyan, we will all miss you.

Australian TV

2007-06-17T01:38:00.000-07:00

SBS-TV has acquired broadcast rights for "Mei" for Australia. I'm not sure when and how it's going to be programmed - this will be the first time "Mei" has been shown on TV.

BAFTA Student Awards

2007-06-17T01:31:00.000-07:00

"Mei" was just nominated as one of the 7 finalists for this year's BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Los Angeles - Student Award.

Cinema Lounge

2007-05-30T18:16:00.003-07:00

"Mei" will also be screening at Film Independent's "Cinema Lounge" in July.

Some More Festivals

2007-05-29T12:53:00.000-07:00

"Mei will be screening at the InDBlue Film Festival in Hong Kong (August 2nd to 22nd), and at the Melbourne International Film Festival (one of the biggest in Australia - July 25 to August 12th).

Taipei Film Festival

2007-05-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

"Mei" will be playing at the Taipei Film Festival (June 22 - July 9, 2007) - this will be our first official screening in Taiwan. I'll have the exact dates of the shows soon.

We'll be playing in the "Global Chinese Cinerama Program"
Global Chinese Cinerama

I'll actually be moving back to Taipei in mid-June to work on my friend's feature film, and should be there all through the summer.

Mei Review

2007-04-14T15:37:00.000-07:00

The Asia Pacific Arts Magazine wrote up a nice review of "Mei", from when we played at the SFAAIF last month.

Here's a link to the review:

Mei Review

Mei will be playing at the VC Film Fest in Los Angeles on Sunday, May 6th at 2:15pm. You can buy tickets here:

Mei at VC Film Fest

First Look

2007-04-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

"Mei" will be screening as part of the 2007 USC FIRST LOOK Program on Wednesday, April 11th (7:30pm) at the DGA Theatre on Sunset in Los Angeles. It's free to the public, and there will be a reception following the screenings.

More info here:
First Look Schedule

VC Film Fest

2007-03-12T22:16:00.000-07:00

"Mei" was just accepted to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (VC Film Fest).

"Established in 1983, VC FILMFEST is Southern California’s leading showcase for Asian Pacific American and Asian international cinema. This year, the eight-day movierama will also include a complement of filmmaker seminars and panel discussions, workshops, and filmmaker awards. The Festival will take place at the Directors Guild of America, Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theaters, National Center for the Preservation of Democracy, and the Aratani/Japan America Theatre."

Mei at IMDB

2007-03-07T16:22:00.000-08:00

Mei now is entered into the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). So far we have a 8.0 rating. Check it out:

Mei at IMDB

SF Asian Info

2007-03-07T14:08:00.001-08:00

Carpet Kingdom

2007-02-22T08:29:00.000-08:00

My good friend and classmate Mike Rochford will premiere his thesis film "Carpet Kingdom" for the first time ever on March 7th at Reel Big Shorts III in Beverly Hills, along with 3 other USC short films. "Carpet Kingdom" is spectacular. Please come check it out:

Reel Big Shorts III

First Page

2007-02-22T08:27:00.000-08:00

I made a new blog for First Page Taipei, the feature I'm now trying to get off the ground.

First Page Taipei

2 More Festivals

2007-02-20T22:29:00.000-08:00

"Mei" was just accepted into 2 more festivals! The Method Fest based in Calabasas, CA and the Short Shorts Film Festival based in Harajuku, Tokyo.

Tickets for SF Screening

2007-02-20T14:30:00.000-08:00

Tickets just went on sale for the San Francisco Intl Asian-American Film Festival, where "Mei" will be screening as part of the "Love's Labor and Other Complications" Short Program.

"Mei" will be screening in San Francisco on 3/18 and in San Jose 3/24.

You can buy tickets online here:
Tickets and Program Info

Some More Berlin Photos

2007-02-16T01:52:00.000-08:00

Sam tries some schnitzel.

Going into our premiere screening.

Producer Ying Tso with girlfriend Sandy.

Screening our trailer for "First Page Taipei".

With Editor(Schnit) Justin after the awards.

Talking to some German friends.

The Red Carpet - Palast.

With Annette, curator of the Short Film Competition.

The Bear.

MEI WINS AT THE BERLINALE!

2007-02-13T17:17:00.000-08:00

Mei just won the SILVER BEAR AWARD at the Berlin Film Festival in the Short Film Competition.

I'm still in Berlin - it's been a crazy past few days. Here are some photos for now...will post more soon!

Variety Article
UDN Article
UDN Article
Berlin Press Release

More Stuff

2007-01-30T15:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to another Taiwanese article on "Mei":
UDN News

And one short article on Berlinale from the Hollywood Reporter:
Short Films Get a Boost at Berlin Fest

ET Today

Also, here's the official program schedule for Berlin. "Mei" will be playing at the main festival theatre, the Cinemaxx, everyday for the 10 days of the festival:
Festival Program

SF Asian Screenings

2007-01-25T15:36:00.000-08:00

"Mei" will be screening as part of the San Francisco International Asian-American Film Festival on March 18th and 24th:

Sunday, March 18, 2:30 p.m. at the Van Ness in San Francisco
Saturday, March 24, 4:30 p.m. at the Camera 12 in San Jose

Tickets will go on sale February 20 and the complete festival program guide will be online February 13, 2007 at:
http://www.asianamericanfilmfestival.org

Berlin Press Release

2007-01-24T09:14:00.000-08:00

Here's the official press release for the Short Film Competition at Berlin - "Mei" is in competition with 15 other short films from 12 different countries.

Press Release

Also, here are some recent articles on Mei (in Chinese):
World Journal
Yahoo Taiwan

Berlin International Film Festival

2007-01-12T10:38:00.001-08:00

"Mei" was just accepted into the Short Film Competition at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival! We will be competing for the Golden and Silver Bear Awards, two of the highest honors given for films.

Berlin, along with Cannes and Venice, is one of the biggest and most prestigious international film festivals in the world. The festival will take place from February 8th to the 18th.

SF Asian Poster and Link

2007-01-07T17:48:00.000-08:00

www.asianamericanfilmfestival.org

You Tube

2007-01-02T01:12:00.000-08:00

I put the trailer up on YouTube. I heard that's what everyone does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX2MezlX3tg

SF International Asian Film Festival

2006-12-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

"Mei" was just accepted to the San Francisco International Asian Film Festival, which is the biggest Asian Film Festival in North America. The festival will take place in Mid-March in theatres in San Francisco, Berkeley, and San Jose. I'll put up more details soon.

一頁台北 Trailer

2006-12-17T20:01:00.000-08:00

The trailer we shot last month for "First Page, Taipei(一頁台北)" is now online. I made it in the hopes of financing the feature film, so this is 2-3 minute promo for what the style and tone of the real film will be like.

www.meimovie.com/taipeitrailer.html

Thanks to everyone that helped on the trailer.

I put the trailer on YouTube too. I heard that's what people do these days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX2MezlX3tg

Screening

2006-12-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

With Eli (Production Designer) and his girlfriend, Joy.

Me with producer Ying Tso.

More Photos

2006-11-30T08:51:00.000-08:00

一頁台北 (Page One Taipei)

2006-11-29T08:52:00.000-08:00

Back in Taipei for a few weeks to screen "Mei" for cast, crew, and friends. We're also working on a short trailer for a feature film. Shooting digitally with almost no crew or gear in uncontrolled locations has actually been quite fun.

DGA Ceremony

2006-11-15T01:12:00.000-08:00

New York

2006-11-14T02:01:00.000-08:00

"Mei" won the Best Student Short and Audience Award at the New York City Short Film Festival this weekend.

Thanks to all my friends that came out for the screening. New York is awesome.

DGA Student Awards

2006-10-31T18:10:00.001-08:00

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) just gave "Mei" an Honorable Mention in the Student Award category. There will be a presentation ceremony on November 14th, 7:30pm at the DGA on Sunset.

http://www.dga.org/thedga/aw_student.php3

USC Article

Taipei Screening 12/2

2006-10-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

"Mei" will have its first cast/crew/friends screening in Taipei on December 2nd (Saturday) at 8:00pm. We'll be screening the film at "The Spot" (台北之家), a sweet little art house theatre in Taipei.

http://www.spot.org.tw

Final Cover/Poster

2006-10-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

NYC Program

2006-10-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

Mei will be screening at 8:30pm on Friday, November 10th, at the Symphony Space Theatre in New York City (symphonyspace.org) - it will be playing with 8 other shorts that night (as part of the NYC Short Film Festival). I'm going out to the East Coast for that weekend, so if anyone is in town, please come and check out the film and hang out.

http://nycshorts.com/2006_Films.html

NYC Shorts

2006-10-02T22:48:00.000-07:00

Mei was just recently accepted to the NYC Short Film Festival - apparently they had almost 900 submissions for only 40 spots - the film will be playing at the Symphony Space theatre in Manhattan (Nov.10-11)

If anyone living near NYC can go, please come check it out. I'll put more details up about the program soon. I'm also going to try to make it out there since this is the first festival the film will be playing at and...it's in New York. Some film with a rocket and chimpanzee will also be playing there.

http://www.nycshorts.com/

FIRST SCREENING

2006-10-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

We had our first screening last night at USC's Norris Theatre - all 3 films were well received and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. "Mei" will start its festival run soon, and I also hope to have professionally made DVDs done by the end of the month.

Formosa

2006-09-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

Continuing my obsession with shooting Taipei at night, I'm now writing a feature script tentatively titled "Formosa" with some help from my friend Kori. It takes place all in one night in the city and centers around a romance that weaves through 3 other short stories. I'm hoping to go back to Taipei in the late fall and shoot a trailer for it.

SCREENING

2006-09-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

Finished

2006-08-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

As of last friday night, Mei is officially finished. Over the last few weeks, Nelson (director of photography) and I have been working on the color timing of the film print, and on friday we completed the final video transfer and color correction.

I'm now starting the process of submitting to film festivals and making final DVDs for everyone.

Hopefully in November we can go back to Taipei and screen Mei for the Taiwanese cast and crew.

DVD COVER?

ROCKETS, NOODLES, WHALES Screening

2006-08-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

"Mei" will be screening for the first time EVER (projected in glorious 35mm) on the evening of September 30th at the Norris Theatre at USC.

It will be on a program with two other great short films directed by my good friends and classmates: "Rocketboy" by Justin Guerrieri and "Edgy Swing Set" by Rich Codding.

I'll put up more details about the screening soon. Here's a sketch of another poster idea.

Moving Back to LA

2006-08-03T17:17:00.000-07:00

After about 7 months of living in different apartments and hotel rooms and floors and couches, I've finally moved back to LA permanently to finish up final post-production on Mei and to start working full-time. This is what my new room looks like right now:

Finishing Funds

2006-07-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

"Mei" was recently awarded the Irving Lerner Endowment Fund, which will help cover the final printing/color timing and telecine (video transfer) costs of the film. By late August, the film should be ready to go out to festivals and to start screening around Los Angeles.

In addition to this Finishing Fund, I also wanted to thank all the people who have donated to the film over the last few months:

Ling, Theresa, and Alex Chen
S.H. and Wendy Chen
Vincent and Cecilia Cheng
Marion Lee
M.H. Chen
Kenneth Roberts
Yang Shu Zen
Gordon Lee
Ken Long
Wayne and Grace Lin
Bertram Chan
Robert Han
Dan Jung and Delaney Andersen-Jung
Paul Wang

Ecuador

2006-07-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

We just got back from shooting "Limpiando Sapos" in the small town of Pasaje, Ecuador. We had to work in some challenging filming conditions, but it was definitely an experience. Here are some photos:

Trailer's Up

2006-07-01T18:13:00.000-07:00

The MEI Trailer is online, as well as a new site redesign. Check it out:

www.meimovie.com

I'm going to Ecuador tomorrow to help on my friend's shoot for the next few weeks.
You can read about her movie on at:

www.shamogarcia.com/sapos.html

Back in Taipei

2006-06-15T05:29:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Taipei doing the final sound work and mix for "Mei". It's been great seeing everyone again, and getting to put the final touches on the film.

We've been lucky enough to get to work with 3H Sound, which does a lot of the sound work for the biggest films in Asia, including Wong Kar Wai's films.

I got to hang out with Jack (Jian) and Dori (Mei) - they came in to do some ADR (additional dialogue recording).

Benji (who's also back in Taipei visting) also helped out with some ADR.

Post-Production Blues

2006-05-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

We're almost a month into the editing of "Mei", and will hopefully finish cutting in a few more weeks. I've been living in a small town about 20 miles outside of LA, but I drive in almost everyday to work on the film or see friends. It's been kind of hard going from the excitement of shooting in Taipei to now watching the footage over and over, but it's a nice change of pace.

Justin has been doing great work putting together the footage and trying different approaches, and also supporting me through the whole process. I'm glad I got a chance to come back to LA actually - showing the different cuts of the film to our classmates and professors has been extremely helpful in terms of responses and feedback, and we've received a lot of encouragement and support.

We've made some big changes to the film in the last few days, and I think "Mei" is well on it's way...

Back to LA

2006-04-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos from the road:

I'm back in LA again to work on editing "Mei" for the next 6 weeks before going back again to Taiwan. I'm currently sleeping on Benji's floor, but should have a new apartment soon.

Justin, our editor, has already been hard at work cutting "Mei" - I get to see the first cut of the film tomorrow.

Justin has also recently finished editing and sound on his own thesis film, "Rocketboy". I just saw the final cut with finished sound and music - it's amazing.

San Francisco

2006-04-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

Mei (The Poster)

2006-04-14T22:25:00.000-07:00

Here is my first try at a poster. It's basically a rip-off of "In the Mood for Love" and Adrian Tomine.

Los Angeles

2006-04-04T19:27:00.000-07:00

Foster City

2006-03-30T07:18:00.000-08:00

I'm back at my parents' house in Foster City, a small suburb of San Francisco. Things are pretty slow here, but it gives me some time to get my life back together and to do some writing. I should be in LA by this weekend.

再見 (Goodbye)

2006-03-28T00:50:00.000-08:00

在台北10個星期之後，我終於回到舊金山，我要感謝在台北一起完成“美“這部電影的所有新朋友以及老朋友。

再過幾天，我將要離開舊金山，去執行剪接的工作，並且努力地完成一部值得大家感到驕傲的電影。我將在6月初回到台北跟大家見面。

The Spot

2006-03-24T07:12:00.000-08:00

Taipei has a cool little art house movie theatre that's actually an old embassy the film commission converted and renovated a few years ago. It's called 'The Spot', and in addition to showing some great art films (right now 'Broken Flowers' and 'The Best of Youth' are playing there), there's also a bookstore inside dedicated entirely to film, and a cafe and restaurant where it seems filmmakers (or at least people who aspire to be filmmakers) hang out.

Rainy Days and Mondays

2006-03-20T10:43:00.000-08:00

It's my last week here in Taipei - I leave for San Francisco next Monday after being here almost 3 months. I hope to be back in LA (at least for a few days) by early April to start cutting the film and to visit with friends.

Ying Tso, Eli, and I went to the film lab today to check out our dailies - it was the first time we got a real sense for how the film will look. I'm anxious to start editing the footage.

Art School

2006-03-18T07:25:00.000-08:00

A lot of our cast and crew actually came from the same college - a well-known art school located in the outskirts of Taipei (Guandu). It's a nice, secluded school on top of a hill overlooking the city. Here's a photo.

Cast and Crew

2006-03-17T05:17:00.000-08:00

Check out the updated Mei website:
http://www.meimovie.com

Day Off

2006-03-14T22:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the first day off I've had in a while. Benji, Justin, Eli and spent the day in the suburbs of Taipei - it was ridiculously nice.

Later on in the afternoon, we ran into Mei and Jian randomly and a group of us went karaoking.

Wrap Party

2006-03-12T19:14:00.000-08:00

We had our wrap party banquet tonight - it started out at a nice little seafood restaurant. The Taiwanese tradition is to toast each other a lot over the course of the meal, and between the cast and crew, we immediately went through 20 large bottles of beer and 2 giant whiskey bottles.

By the time we got to the bar, people were already drunk just from the banquet. By the time we finally left the bar, everyone was completely trashed.

Making this movie has been one of the best experiences I have ever had.

Wrapped

2006-03-11T19:27:00.000-08:00

We finished production tonight, shooting in our final alleyway, and then at a quiet river bank with a sweet view of the city. Justin and Benji were kind enough to supply beer and whiskey for everyone upon wrapping - it was nice way to end an almost perfect shoot.

This production couldn't have gone any smoother, and the work of the cast and crew have been amazing. What a fun way to make movies.

Production Day Five

2006-03-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

We spent the night shooting in the back of a small coffee shop (coincidentally, the name of this coffee shop is "Mei"),and again in yet another alleyway. One more day until production is over.

Production Day Four

2006-03-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

We had a nice, easy night tonight shooting Jian riding into the nightmarket, and then Mei and Lu in a taxi cab. Mostly the cast and crew just sat around eating and hanging out. We also pushed Nelson around in a rickshaw. It was a nice change of pace after shooting in the noodle stand.

Tomorrow we are shooting the "outside the restaurant" scene...

Production Day Three

2006-03-08T14:09:00.000-08:00

We finished our shooting at the noodle stand tonight. It was a long and tough night, but we managed to get all our shots (42 total). Tomorrow we are shooting at a local night market for some wider shots, and also shooting a short scene between Mei and Lu in a taxi cab.

Here are some more photos:

Production Day Two

2006-03-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

We shot our first night in our noodle stand - it was great, but exhausting. Here are some photos Justin took. Tomorrow we shoot there again.

More Photos

2006-03-06T08:46:00.000-08:00

Production Day One

2006-03-06T02:38:00.000-08:00

We had a nice, relaxed shoot for our first production day. We spent the morning and most of the afternoon shooting some scenes for Mei's apartment.

The first thing we did on set was a traditional prayer ritual - we burn incense, offer fruit, and ask for production to go smoothly and safely.

Tomorrow, we start the first of 5 all-nighters, in the noodle stand.

Day before production

2006-03-05T04:41:00.000-08:00

We start production tomorrow - art already started dressing Mei's apartment this afternoon.

Also Justin is here. Soon we will have much more interesting on-set photos.

Taipei Bohemia

2006-03-03T08:26:00.000-08:00

We had a fun night tonight - almost everyone on the crew was in the production office at some point....we had an art department meeting, production meeting, costume/dressing, and blocking/rehearsal.

It's great to have a communal space for everyone to meet and work in. It's extremely efficient, and also just makes the work a lot more enjoyable.

Our final USC crew members, Justin and Charlene, get here tomorrow night.

Props

2006-03-02T23:21:00.000-08:00

The art department is starting to get all our props and costuming together. Our production office is the temporary storage space.

Here's our art department at work. They are easily the most stylish department.

Viewing the Test

2006-03-02T07:34:00.000-08:00

We went to the film lab and watched a print of our test - everything looked sweet. The test will really help to us to finalize our visual design and shooting style, but it also brings up some considerations for lighting, art, and make-up. There's still a lot we have to do to make everything look the way we want it too, but we're definitely getting there.

Nelson and I actually panicked at first when we saw the footage - the focus of the projector was slightly off, and we were worried that we had shitty lenses or even worse, a 1st AC who wasn't hitting his focus marks. But once we got the projection corrected, everything was nice. Real nice.

We're only 4 days now from the shoot - our production team is working hard to get everything together in time.

Prep and Test

2006-02-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

We did our camera prep today, and shot our actual test on location at the noodle stand. It was pretty nuts - it was raining the whole time, and we had almost a crew of 15 out on the streets.

Nelson was already running his Taiwanese crew pretty smoothly, and I was surprised to see just how fast they can move. We wanted to play with some different lighting scenarios and test out different lenses (which will help us figure out the exact style we're going to shoot the noodle stand sequences in). It's been a tough couple weeks of preproduction to get here, but I'm really glad to be shooting in the middle of a Taiwanese nightmarket instead of LA. It was a fun night.

We'll see the test footage printed and projected in a few days.

Nelson's in Taipei

2006-02-26T18:26:00.000-08:00

Nelson, our director of photography, arrived on Saturday morning. I'm sure he's still getting used to being in the middle of a sprawling Asian metropolis, but we've already had a lot of good talks about the look of the film and the style of shooting we're going for. He's going to do amazing job. Today we're doing the first tech scout and taking Nelson to the camera house to check out the gear.

Coincidentally, Nelson just shot a video in LA for this Taiwanese mega-pop star, Wong Lee Hom, which is now the number one video on Mandarin MTV. As soon as Nelson got to our apartment in Taipei, we turned on the TV and saw the video being played.

10 Days

2006-02-24T06:56:00.000-08:00

We're only 10 days from the start of production, but things are really coming together. All locations are locked (here is a shot of the restaurant exterior - we're still working out the logistics of shooting there)...

We still need to cast the final lead (the noodle shop owner), but we're getting close. We went to a performance/art school today where one of our producers, Ying Tso, used to teach - we tried to find some drama teachers who might be interested in the role.

Everyone on our team has already been working so hard to get this film together - especially the producers and our art department - they're great.

Nelson gets here tomorrow morning - soon we'll be going around to all the locations and equipment houses.

Also had my first meeting/reading with Mei and Jian - I'm going to have a lot of fun working with them.

Benji

2006-02-22T08:12:00.000-08:00

Benji just arrived last night and has already been entertaining the entire production team here with his mastery of Chinese. It's been great having him around.

Here are also a few more locations we're going to be shooting at. We're now 11 days away from the start of production.

Alleyways

2006-02-19T04:49:00.000-08:00

Still looking for the alleyway/back of restaurant where we want to stage the (hopefully) most moving scene in the film. That location has to be sad, real sad.

Things are getting tight - we're just a little over 2 weeks from production. The first American crew member (Benji) arrives in just 2 days.

Jian, Mei, and a Noodle Stand

2006-02-18T05:07:00.000-08:00

We have finally found our lead actors (Jian and Mei) - check them out.

Also, we locked one of our main locations - the noodle stand. It's situated in an actual nightmarket, so shooting there is going to be a mess, but worth it. We still have several locations to lock and have to cast the role of Lu, the noodle stand owner - but things are going pretty well.

Callbacks

2006-02-16T01:28:00.000-08:00

We're really getting close to locking down some more locations. Here's a shot of a possible bridge/river bank we're considering shooting at. We should have the noodle stand (where at least 60% of the film takes place) locked down very soon.

We also have a round of callbacks tonight - so far there are several Meis and Jians I think are pretty great, we just have to see how they play against each other. I'm going to have them do some improvisation. They'll probably think I'm a jerk.

Salsa

2006-02-15T01:56:00.000-08:00

I hang out here sometimes.

Sad Window

2006-02-14T19:49:00.000-08:00

We're still trying to lock some key locations - the noodle stand and also the alleyway where we're staging the most crucial scene between Mei and Jian.

We're getting close to finding the leads - callbacks are later on this week. We only have a little under 3 weeks until production starts - it's getting pretty close.

Noodles

2006-02-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

Here are some shots from a noodle stand we hope to get - the stand still needs a lot of art and dressing, but it has the type of space and look we're going for.

Here's also another shot from our production office - our team meets almost everyday, working full-time on casting and locations mostly.

We're doing another round of auditions this week and callbacks later in the week too. I've started to post casting notices for the American and Australian roles/tourists that will come through the stand. It's been fun getting in touch with some expat actors out here - everyone I've spoken to so far seems really cool and eager to help with the film.

Meis and Jians

2006-02-10T07:42:00.000-08:00

Here is a shot in our production office/my apartment.

We did a lot of auditioning today, seeing more than 20 actors, mostly referred by friends and colleagues - some of them were pretty good and definitely worth seeing again in callbacks. I'm starting to get a lot more comfortable auditioning actors here. Still, my producer sometimes likes to preface an audition with this introduction: "This is the director, Arvin. He's from the US. He has trouble communicating in Chinese."

I've gotten a lot of support the last few days from friends I met working here years ago. There's no way I could make this film without their help.

Search for Mei

2006-02-08T17:18:00.000-08:00

We've been working mostly on casting recently - I've been using the "American Audition" process with the actors, but thinking of action verbs and adjectives in Chinese has been a bit difficult. Luckily, my producers and casting assistants bail me out when I start to sound like an idiot.

The Taiwanese Mafia

2006-02-06T06:10:00.000-08:00

The Chinese New Years break is over. We did a lot of scouting and casting today. These are photos of the nightmarket we are planning to shoot the opening of the film in, as well as some smaller alleyways. Unfortunately, this particular nightmarket is run by the local mafia, so we may have to pay a "convenience fee" in order to shoot there.

We also checked out a talent agency today to get in contact with some actors. In Taipei, modeling and acting are often intertwined, so a lot of the actors we're going to meet with this week are also ridiculously good looking. Should be interesting.

New Apartment

2006-02-05T04:25:00.000-08:00

This place will be a work and living space for our crew in preproduction. It's all kind of bohemian, as Benji would say. Notice the art gallery next door.

Production Team

2006-01-31T18:05:00.000-08:00

Our core production team is finally assembled...

In addition to Veronica Shamo-Garcia, who is already the stateside producer, "Mei" will have two local producers: Lin Ying Tso, who will also be working on-set as the assistant director, and Tsai Shing Hong. Both of them come from a background of producing indie features here in Taipei, and will bring a lot of crucial experience to the film.

Our director of photography, Nelson Cragg, is a recent USC graduate we're flying out from Los Angeles to head up the local camera crew. Nelson's already been shooting lots of music videos, commercials, and features since graduating, and his work is amazing. Veronica and I had a great time working with him recently and we're lucky he was available to shoot "Mei".

Our production designer is Eli Hsieh, a good friend of mine who I worked with in Taiwan a few years ago. Eli has a fine arts background and was most recently in London studying fashion photography - he has great eye and sense of aesthetics that will be invaluable.

Finally, three other USC classmates of mine, Benji White, Justin Guerrieri, and Charlene Wang (who will be shooting her own thesis film in Taipei soon) are flying out here to support us and help out in production. It'll be really nice to have them around.

We have about 5-6 weeks left before we start shooting, but with this team behind me, we're already in great shape.

Chinese New Year

2006-01-28T19:06:00.000-08:00

It's the Chinese New Year break here in Taipei. I was cornered by a German woman who turned out to be a Jehovah's Witness. I was trying to help her out with directions on the street. I'll be revising my script the next few days while everyone is enjoying the New Years festivities.

Taiwanese Nepotism

2006-01-26T03:01:00.000-08:00

I went and visited some labs and post houses over the last few days - my producer basically takes me around town and we pay courtesy visits to different vendors, sitting down with the owners and talking about our film (trying to communicate some of my ideas about "Mei" in my white-washed mandarin has been problematic - I hope they find it amusing at least).

Since the Taipei film community is so small and insular, you have to know someone to get anywhere, but there's a general attitude of helping students and first-time filmmakers out. Everything is also so pre-packaged here, so by knowing some people at the processing lab, we've been able to get a fatty deal from Kodak-Taiwan on film stock in addition to developing and printing.

We're sending out casting notices now, and will start seeing people right after the Chinese New Years break. Taipei is pretty much dead for the next week, so I'll be spending my time looking around for locations, and in coffee shops revising the script and figuring how to shoot this thing.

MEI

De Stijl

EAT for VC

Commercials...

The End Sort of

Video i

EAT

Bilbao

Munich Filmschool Fest

TIFF/CoFesta

More Festivals

Moving On....

Pusan Int'l Film Festival

You'll Be My Baby

Some More Festivals

Remembering Edward Yang

Australian TV

BAFTA Student Awards

Cinema Lounge

Some More Festivals

Taipei Film Festival

Mei Review

First Look

VC Film Fest

Mei at IMDB

SF Asian Info

Carpet Kingdom

First Page

2 More Festivals

Tickets for SF Screening

Some More Berlin Photos

MEI WINS AT THE BERLINALE!

More Stuff

SF Asian Screenings

Berlin Press Release

Berlin International Film Festival

SF Asian Poster and Link

You Tube

SF International Asian Film Festival

一頁台北 Trailer

Screening

More Photos

一頁 台北 (Page One Taipei)

DGA Ceremony

New York

DGA Student Awards

Taipei Screening 12/2

Final Cover/Poster

NYC Program

NYC Shorts

FIRST SCREENING

Formosa

SCREENING

Finished

ROCKETS, NOODLES, WHALES Screening

Moving Back to LA

Finishing Funds

Ecuador

Trailer's Up

Back in Taipei

Post-Production Blues

Back to LA

San Francisco

Mei (The Poster)

Los Angeles

Foster City

再見 (Goodbye)

The Spot

Rainy Days and Mondays

Art School

Cast and Crew

Day Off

Wrap Party

Wrapped

Production Day Five

Production Day Four

Production Day Three

Production Day Two

More Photos

Production Day One

一頁台北 (Page One Taipei)