Look! I'm directing!

Today marked the first day of directing my first film. It's a short film that is really a vehicle to research and push some techniques and technology, but nontheless it is a film that I wrote, am directing, art directing and VFX supervising as well.

Looking back at the day through pictures one of my students took; I realize that it was a blast! We had so many people (students, friends, friends-of-friends, etc.) who volunteered. There were also univserity pros with decades of experience. Overall, it was an amazingly positive and supportive environment.

As expected in HK, we packed as much as we could into our studio time and accomplished far more than we set out to do. As the crew set up, I met with the director, producer, and cameraman of another film I'm VFX supervising which we just signed onto. My coworker Pierre also shot us working for a reel we're putting together for a venture MERECL is helping to launch. I originally set out to shoot 7 shots with 1 actor and instead ended up shooting 12 shots with 2 actors! If the footage turns out well, it was not a bad first day.

I can't help but feel a little giddy about the day I just had!

My Global Media Sunday

My Sunday started with a morning meeting. I met with a director to discuss his next possible feature film's design and how it might be funded. The budget is tiny by US standards, but in today's HK film industry it is unlikely that the funding will be local. I understand this is how Hong Kong's most internationally critically acclaimed film maker, Wong Kar Wai gets his films funded. Given his international success, I really don't mind following in his footsteps!

The next thing I did was meet with a friend who introduced me to a store with American comics! American comics are the first medium I fell in love with. Today's comics are written by successful novelists, film makers and TV show pros who share the same love of these characters that I do. Therefore, today's best comics often have a greater level of sophisticated storytelling while retaining the great heroic nature of these characters. Of course, the men-in-tights comics are no longer niche subjects but are often the subject of today's biggest blockbuster movies.

Yep, summer blockbuster season is nearly upon us and this will be my first time experiencing it in HK. It seems a little strange watching US blockbusters in HK. But it's also nothing new. US blockbusters have always had a very big presence here and around the world.

What's very wow-and-now are Webcasts and Podcasts I follow daily. With today's technology, it is quite possible to not watch or listen to any local media. In fact, that's what many of the expats do here. It's almost like they're living in HK without really living in HK. But that's a subject for another blog.

Next up, I met with a master student on Sunday to advise him on his paper about the globalization of the visual FX industry. I have first hand experience with this in a Chinese film I worked on in the US. But more interesting to me is how the FX industry has and will continue to become more international in scope and production. I believe just as India has led the IT outsource revolution, it could do so with FX as well. Afterall, India has the 2nd largest film industry in the world. HK's film industry, once the world's 3rd largest, must succeed on an international level if it is to survive.

I finished my Sunday by working on my own short film project which seems to be gaining more North American volunteers every day! I kind of see it as my own little
local experiment in a globally minded, digital film production. In other words; it's my own little way of practicing what I preach!

So that was my global media Sunday. One of these days I'll have to do a lazy Sunday...