Recently I go a text from a friend telling me that the PA position I had recommended them for was not paying. That really made me mad as I was under the impression that it was and that having to be informed of it this way was rather insulting. Now, the director of this film is a friend of mine and clearly all of this is being done in the indie filmmaking world. Having been essentially raised in that culture during my time at NYU and my continued experience in seeing it after graduation (it's kind of a side-effect of living on the east coast), I am no stranger to the challenges of trying to create something with no money and can only imagine that trying to make a feature length film is 10x more difficult in that regard.
Shooting a film is hard -- especially an indie film -- it is boasts all the problems of launching a start-up with significantly less flexibility in procedure and NO immediately marketable product. Despite all that, however, it is NOT ok to advertise a PA position that will ultimately be unpaid -- and let me explain why.
The film and television industry is flooded with naive kids ripe for taking advantage of -- all just trying to get into the industry somehow. -- I used to be one of them, so I know first hand how quickly you become jaded once something legitimate comes along (and rightfully so). Generally, it's not until then that you come to realize that at the end of the day, asking a PA to work for free helps no one but yourself. Typically, asking someone to work for free comes with something for them. It is only a partially legitimate argument that you can use whatever work you did on the film for your reel and that working on this project will be a great benefit for you once the film goes somewhere. It is a shitty reason at best, but at the very least, a reason. If we look at everything realistically, the chances that your indie film will go anywhere are fairly slim. Alongside that, as a PA, the very simple question arises of "how does this in any way benefit me?". If you are making a film with the intention of profiting from it, which you are (don't give me any bullshit about artistic integrity) unless you're a moron who likes to waste money (in which case, you can afford to pay your PA's) or a nonprofit organization (in which case you should either have a legit budget or be working with a skeleton crew), it is not fair to be asking someone to sacrifice weeks to months of their time for nothing when you clearly aren't willing to do the same.
As I stated previously, your film has little chance of going anywhere and in the unlikely case that it does, no one is gonna look at the film and say "hey, that's a really great film! I think I'll look through the credits and see who the PA's are so I can hire them, because they clearly did an amazing job on this film!" Credits do NOTHING for PA's except provide minimal bragging rights in the off chance your film gets anywhere -- and even then, "yea, I was a whole crew's unpaid bitch on that production" doesn't really sound impressive.
Now, having said that, with an indie film I understand that there are always budgetary concerns, and I'm not asking that PA's be paid the full $200 a day rate (as is industry standard), nor do I expect you to pay them more than your DP or Sound mixer -- especially if they are bringing their own gear -- but I do expect them to be paid something -- anything to at least let them pay their bills (at least pay them the equivalent of minimum wage).
Comments not only welcomed, but encouraged.
Showing posts with label Filmmaking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Filmmaking. Show all posts
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Monday, December 5, 2011
Using WNET for my own nefarious schemes PT. 1
Making stripboards/breaking down scripts.
More to come.
More to come.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Doubts
He wondered what it would be like if he had gone into something that wasn't, well, bound to make him poor for the rest of his life. At the end of the day he still didn't feel talented nor did he feel he had the personality necessary to boast about himself and continuously maintain shallow connections. He wondered if he had picked a good industry for himself.
What he did like was making things. There was a rewarding experience in that. To take raw materials and, with his own hands, assemble them and work them into something beautiful, that was what he loved to do, its why he loved to play with Lego blocks as a kid and why he often found himself stacking and clipping miscellaneous office supplies together in a pattern. Perhaps he was just feeling doubtful because he had yet to master the materials of this new creating technique. That, of course, frustrated him, because above all else, what he really loved was being good -- and he had yet to reach that.
A thousand voices screamed for him to just give up and do something else, and if it weren't for the fact that he was a stubborn ass, he may have listened. Instead he stood upright and let out a bellow that immediately silenced each and every of those voices. After all, no one ever became good by giving up. Besides, he was never one to take the easy road.
What he did like was making things. There was a rewarding experience in that. To take raw materials and, with his own hands, assemble them and work them into something beautiful, that was what he loved to do, its why he loved to play with Lego blocks as a kid and why he often found himself stacking and clipping miscellaneous office supplies together in a pattern. Perhaps he was just feeling doubtful because he had yet to master the materials of this new creating technique. That, of course, frustrated him, because above all else, what he really loved was being good -- and he had yet to reach that.
A thousand voices screamed for him to just give up and do something else, and if it weren't for the fact that he was a stubborn ass, he may have listened. Instead he stood upright and let out a bellow that immediately silenced each and every of those voices. After all, no one ever became good by giving up. Besides, he was never one to take the easy road.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Dropped
For My Country has been dropped.
As always, feedback is encouraged.
For My Country from Matthew Chao on Vimeo.
As always, feedback is encouraged.
Monday, August 30, 2010
For My Country Post Update
Finished a first cut. I have to go over it and see how I might be able to make some changes. I feel like in squeezing this ambitious of an idea into a 3 minute film forced me to skim over a lot of dramatic beats I would have taken otherwise. Maybe I can cut out a scene to give the others more attention. I guess we'll have to see though. I still need to sound design. Hopefully the sound design will also give it more of the rhythm I'm feeling is missing right now. I guess we'll see. In the meantime, however, here are some more stills for you all. ^_^
Saturday, July 31, 2010
For My Country Day 2
No pictures this time around... not yet anyway. I drove up to Hebron Connecticut and shot the Vietnam scenes for "For My Country". Everything looked great. This time around I was fortunate enough to have my DP around. Matthew Troy is a very talented DP whom I met my freshmen year at NYU. Like Nick Feitel, I've collaborated with Matt Troy on a lot of projects since our freshmen year and Matt has proved to become a rather invaluable asset to any of my productions. The stylistic elements he brings visually to the films he shoots always enhances the story ten fold.
Anyway, as I was saying, shooting went well. This is going to be a rather sound design intensive post production, but I'm excited for it anyway. Hopefully I'll have some pictures from this past day soon.
I think it all looks great, but I won't have any of the footage until the week after next (this) week, so more once I get it.
I should start syncing the sound on the New York scenes... perhaps Monday.
Additionally... hopefully all the stains will come out of the uniforms...
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Whoever Thinks Making Films Is Easy Has Never Had To Deal With SAG
As some of you may know, I'm trying to make another film. This is particularly challenging for several reasons, the first and most foremost of which is; I no longer have a university providing me with assistance in making my crazy waste of money.
This film is part of a competition called interpretations, which I'm pretty sure I've mentioned here before... but if I didn't, its a competition being held by director Justin Lin.
The film I came up with for this competition is not only a Vietnam War period piece, which is difficult enough as it is, but also uses my good friend Zephyr Benson; Son of Robby Benson, 18 Year old about-to-be-NYU Tisch freshmen and most importantly, SAG actor.
The fact that he's a SAG actor complicates things incredibly because now I have to go through SAG to use him and that means filling out a bunch of paperwork and hoping that they don't care that I don't have insurance. All of this almost makes me wish I was back dealing with all the bureaucracy of film school because that at least I knew how to work and worm my way through, even if it did take a bit of effort. Now I'm just trying to pull my normal tricks and crossing my fingers while squeezing my eyes shut hoping it works or somehow slips past unnoticed.
The real world is a big and scary place and being slick and deceiving there is proving to be a bigger challenge than it was back in school.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Big Brother Film
Monday I finally finished my film 哥哥. Today/yesterday I tried, unsuccessfully I might add, to get a copy to my Cantonese teacher from last year. Will post it up here in its entirety once it's finished being rejected from festivals.
Monday, April 26, 2010
HK Film History Lesson
Recently I stumbled upon a DVD store, of which my having knowledge of is extremely perilous to my wallet/bank account, it's called $5.99 DVD Funhouse and it's a store full of DVD's for $5.99 or less. Now most of these are movies bought in bulk from places like BlockBuster when they went out of business and are resold at a liquidated price. Actually, most of these are DVD's that have been used as rental DVD's have have merely been put back into their cases and repackaged and sold as though they're new. I actually have no problem with that because, hey, it's $5.99, they were at some point in time real and all the ones I bought worked, some were even legit new, even if the casing for The Dark Knight had a French version. I, however, digress, because that is far from the point.
At this DVD store I bought John Woo's "Hard Boiled," a movie I've seen before, (about 2 years ago) and a movie I decided to re-watch recently (meaning today). Watching it again I realized something I noticed last time but couldn't quite put my finger on; the entire movie is ADR'd.
Now, for you not film people, ADR, or "Automated Dialogue Replacement," is a process by which you call your actors back in, after shooting, into a studio to re-record their lines, which is done by their staring up at a screen playing clips of themselves and trying to match their lips from whenever they shot those scenes. This process is done when you have un-usable production track or no production track, and a lot of Hollywood movies insist on redoing the entire movie in ADR if one scene was done "for the sake of continuity," but I think that notion is kind of silly, especially if you have a good sound mixer, both for production and post.
Anyway, I wondered why they might do that for "Hard Boiled,". I mean, aside from the obvious scenes (explosions and guns and water and etc) there are plenty of scenes that are in places or shots where ADR simply is not needed, and, from my ability to notice the inconsistencies in audio anyways, other, more recent productions have not ADR'd the entire film. This is when I remembered something my Camera II teacher, John Crawford, told me last year.
"The Arri 353 was the workhorse of the HK movie industry." Now again, for you non-film people, the Arri 353 is a film camera that shoots 35mm film and is extremely durable and versatile, only one thing; it's MOS.
MOS, again, for you non film people, is a term that started appearing thanks to our German brethren, who would say, for scenes without sound, "Mit Out Sound," just imagine a heavy German accent saying that and it makes a lot more sense and becomes quite amusing. So, as a joke, we started saying "MOS" and it just kind of stuck.
Back to the Arri 353, for those of you who don't know, the camera is "MOS," not because it doesn't record sound, (though it doesn't) on film sets, picture and sound is recorded separately and married together in post (which is why you see a clapper; so the assistant editor, apprentice editor or post house (or whomever's doing it) can sync the sound with the clap later). No, the 353 is a silent camera, paradoxically because it is NOT a silent camera, it is actually quite annoyingly loud, sounding like a blender when its running. (Yea, try and get that out of your production track).
Anyway, I bring this all up because I began to wonder; hey, if these guys could ADR this entire film, how difficult would it be for me to ADR an entire film. I wonder if I should try it.
Then I decided that I would wistfully ponder that question until I actually had to sit in those ADR sessions, at which point I would just want to kill myself for being so dumb. If I did, however, I would at least make sure to get reference track.
Besides, its not like we really care about what the people are saying in this film, it's John Woo, not Wang Kar-Wai (though we don't really care that much about what people say in his movies either, but it's slightly more important).
At this DVD store I bought John Woo's "Hard Boiled," a movie I've seen before, (about 2 years ago) and a movie I decided to re-watch recently (meaning today). Watching it again I realized something I noticed last time but couldn't quite put my finger on; the entire movie is ADR'd.
Now, for you not film people, ADR, or "Automated Dialogue Replacement," is a process by which you call your actors back in, after shooting, into a studio to re-record their lines, which is done by their staring up at a screen playing clips of themselves and trying to match their lips from whenever they shot those scenes. This process is done when you have un-usable production track or no production track, and a lot of Hollywood movies insist on redoing the entire movie in ADR if one scene was done "for the sake of continuity," but I think that notion is kind of silly, especially if you have a good sound mixer, both for production and post.
Anyway, I wondered why they might do that for "Hard Boiled,". I mean, aside from the obvious scenes (explosions and guns and water and etc) there are plenty of scenes that are in places or shots where ADR simply is not needed, and, from my ability to notice the inconsistencies in audio anyways, other, more recent productions have not ADR'd the entire film. This is when I remembered something my Camera II teacher, John Crawford, told me last year.
"The Arri 353 was the workhorse of the HK movie industry." Now again, for you non-film people, the Arri 353 is a film camera that shoots 35mm film and is extremely durable and versatile, only one thing; it's MOS.
MOS, again, for you non film people, is a term that started appearing thanks to our German brethren, who would say, for scenes without sound, "Mit Out Sound," just imagine a heavy German accent saying that and it makes a lot more sense and becomes quite amusing. So, as a joke, we started saying "MOS" and it just kind of stuck.
Back to the Arri 353, for those of you who don't know, the camera is "MOS," not because it doesn't record sound, (though it doesn't) on film sets, picture and sound is recorded separately and married together in post (which is why you see a clapper; so the assistant editor, apprentice editor or post house (or whomever's doing it) can sync the sound with the clap later). No, the 353 is a silent camera, paradoxically because it is NOT a silent camera, it is actually quite annoyingly loud, sounding like a blender when its running. (Yea, try and get that out of your production track).
Anyway, I bring this all up because I began to wonder; hey, if these guys could ADR this entire film, how difficult would it be for me to ADR an entire film. I wonder if I should try it.
Then I decided that I would wistfully ponder that question until I actually had to sit in those ADR sessions, at which point I would just want to kill myself for being so dumb. If I did, however, I would at least make sure to get reference track.
Besides, its not like we really care about what the people are saying in this film, it's John Woo, not Wang Kar-Wai (though we don't really care that much about what people say in his movies either, but it's slightly more important).
Friday, January 8, 2010
Heads Up - Next Week
Hey all... 0 of you who follow this blog. This coming week I will be in Connecticut working on my good friend Matthew Troy's senior film (finally, he gets to shoot it) so I'll post if I can, but don't count on anything. I know, terrible tragedy.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Shooting Another Music Video
I did it again; I missed the third post I was supposed to make this past week but didn't. Living at my grandma's place most nights out of the week has put me in a tough spot for internet access since she doesn't use computers. However, this weekend I crewed on another music video doing G&E work again. This one was more challenging than Prince Royce and I don't think I did as good a job as could have been done, but I think I did the best I could with the resources I had. We were shooting a vid for an R&B artist named Jesse Boykins iii
Will post the music vid when its done. Aside from that, not much going on, hopefully I'll post something creative up here soon.
Will post the music vid when its done. Aside from that, not much going on, hopefully I'll post something creative up here soon.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
More Crazy-Hour Shooting
On Monday I got up at 8 to return the wireless lavs to Gotham Sound. (As a side note, if you ever need audio gear, hit these guys up, they're the best sound rental house in New York City and they sell a lot of equipment at good prices as well.) Afterward, as stated in my previous post, I sent my film to Tribeca (which was received today) and then spent the rest of the day doing miscellaneous chores.
By 7:00PM I was checked into an edit suite on the 10th floor of Tisch and passed out either in the chairs or on the floor of the suite, mainly because I didn't feel comfortable passing out on the couch on the 8th floor like I used to do, but that's a different story. 9:00 rolled around and I got up and made my way over to Astoria where I would spend the remainder of the night until 7:00 in the morning shooting a 30 second spot for the Doritos Superbowl Competition for my good friend and line producer on Nyle Emerson's F.A.N.G music video, Richard Gianotti, as well as the rest of the Hayden 5 Media crew (Todd Wiseman and Milos Silber). Afterward I went with and helped out with returns and unloading until 10:30-ish and then went to my internship where I did research and fought the urge to pass out in front of my computer; it was a loosing battle.
On the up side I learned that my dear friend Ashna has finally quit smoking, today is her first day so anyone that knows her, please give her all the support you can to make this transition as easy a transition as possible for her.
By 7:00PM I was checked into an edit suite on the 10th floor of Tisch and passed out either in the chairs or on the floor of the suite, mainly because I didn't feel comfortable passing out on the couch on the 8th floor like I used to do, but that's a different story. 9:00 rolled around and I got up and made my way over to Astoria where I would spend the remainder of the night until 7:00 in the morning shooting a 30 second spot for the Doritos Superbowl Competition for my good friend and line producer on Nyle Emerson's F.A.N.G music video, Richard Gianotti, as well as the rest of the Hayden 5 Media crew (Todd Wiseman and Milos Silber). Afterward I went with and helped out with returns and unloading until 10:30-ish and then went to my internship where I did research and fought the urge to pass out in front of my computer; it was a loosing battle.
On the up side I learned that my dear friend Ashna has finally quit smoking, today is her first day so anyone that knows her, please give her all the support you can to make this transition as easy a transition as possible for her.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Ham Trailer!!
I finally finished my Ham Radio documentary and cut a trailer today. Here it is.
Personally I think it can be about 5 seconds shorter but I can't figure out where I should take stuff out.
Ham Trailer from Matthew Chao on Vimeo.
Personally I think it can be about 5 seconds shorter but I can't figure out where I should take stuff out.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The Confidence Man
I made my way over to Pier 40 onto The Lilac to see a production of "The Confidence Man," a play based off of Herman Melville's book of which (the play, not the book) my good friend Nick Feitel played a large part in. This play, however, is not of the typical variety. The closest thing I can seem to think about to compare this to would be a haunted house but I would greatly insult this production in doing so so I will refrain from doing that. If anything, this production was a choose your own adventure of sorts led by six interactive tour guides that we can feel free to abandon at any point in time; I chose to stick with my tour guide.
Despite the wondrous show I had witnessed, in choosing to stick with my tour guide I missed any and all scenes that my good friend Nick had performed in, which was particularly troubling especially since he was who I had come to see. However, from the fact that there were six different tour guides I surmised that, especially I had really enjoyed what I had seen I could potentially come and see it five more times and be treated to five completely different shows, which, is something that I did hope to do. However, upon my return home I looked at the website to reserve my spot for a future showing only to discover, much to my chagrin, that the rest of the performances were all "sold out". I put sold out in quotes because it is a free show, which may be a large factor in why the play is booked full for the rest of the month. However, the website encourages you to show up and put your name on the waiting list anyway so I think I'll go do that tomorrow, and this time I'll make sure I see my friend Nick.
In other news I've been continuing my internship with PBS' American Masters and working with a great director/producer by the name of Gail Levin. She, last year, made a series of short interviews and etc. featured on The New Yorker's website that followed the presidential election, and even though we know who won, it's still very much worth checking out. The series is called the Naked Campaign and it's very good and informative. Plus you get to see cool caricatures of all your favorite politicians (even Hilary and Obama as Homer and Marge Simpson respectively).
On a completely different note, apparently I have an IMDB page now thanks to Nick
Despite the wondrous show I had witnessed, in choosing to stick with my tour guide I missed any and all scenes that my good friend Nick had performed in, which was particularly troubling especially since he was who I had come to see. However, from the fact that there were six different tour guides I surmised that, especially I had really enjoyed what I had seen I could potentially come and see it five more times and be treated to five completely different shows, which, is something that I did hope to do. However, upon my return home I looked at the website to reserve my spot for a future showing only to discover, much to my chagrin, that the rest of the performances were all "sold out". I put sold out in quotes because it is a free show, which may be a large factor in why the play is booked full for the rest of the month. However, the website encourages you to show up and put your name on the waiting list anyway so I think I'll go do that tomorrow, and this time I'll make sure I see my friend Nick.
In other news I've been continuing my internship with PBS' American Masters and working with a great director/producer by the name of Gail Levin. She, last year, made a series of short interviews and etc. featured on The New Yorker's website that followed the presidential election, and even though we know who won, it's still very much worth checking out. The series is called the Naked Campaign and it's very good and informative. Plus you get to see cool caricatures of all your favorite politicians (even Hilary and Obama as Homer and Marge Simpson respectively).
On a completely different note, apparently I have an IMDB page now thanks to Nick
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Self reinvention but really rediscovery
I just got through watching seasons one and two of The Guild, which, if you have not seen yet, you should. (Thanks Joyce for giving me a good excuse to remain unproductive for another night.) The writer for this series is Felicia Day, who also stars in the series. I learned about this web series initially after watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog but I never watched it until tonight and it's brilliant.
One thing that makes this web series so amazing is that Felicia Day actually is a gamer; she's a WoW fiend as well as a professional level violinist.
Upon discovery of these facts tonight I was reminded of something my good friend Matt Troy once told me Freshmen year: "you make what you know,". While making what you know is something that can be stretched and reconfigured into different shapes, I think about what I've been doing.
Recently I've hit a dry spell. Excuses upon excuses pile up as I sit on scripts that have yet to be completed and projects that are yet to be completely edited. I wonder frequently if I'm any good at what I spent the past four years of my life studying and I've come to the conclusion that I'm pretty talentless.
I remember a conversation with my friend Ming Hu. We were discussing people with talent vs. people that work hard and categorizing different people we know into those respective areas, a very small number (one or two) fell into both categories. Ming and I both agreed that we are both people that are the product of hard work, which is difficult to fully come to terms with because there is an acceptance that people with talent will always seem to be a step ahead of you.
However, tonight I sat and thought about people with talent verses people I perceive to have talent and I believe that I have been able to distinguish those whom really have a lot of talent verses those who just stick to what they know and make that work, using their genius in their respective areas to give them the boost they need to bridge the gap that I seem unable to cross myself.
Felicia Day has created a wonderful series starting with a premise she knows very well and making it her own. There are multiple talents mingling together there that, when combined, makes an amazing and terribly entertaining product.
I wonder what I know. After flooding myself with craft and technique for four years at NYU I still have yet to discover a distinctive style, and I honestly don't want to. (I hate specializing because I hate the idea of having to say I don't do something or being told I can't do something.) However, art mimics life, not the other way around and while I hate to put it this way, but film making, in many rights, is an art, and in order for me to fully master it I need a life for it to emulate.
This is where my self reinvention takes place. I guess self reinvention is off, it's more of a self rediscovery. The life I abandoned four years ago is something that needs to be retrieved and reintegrated. Now I just need to figure out what I like doing and go do it.
One thing that makes this web series so amazing is that Felicia Day actually is a gamer; she's a WoW fiend as well as a professional level violinist.
Upon discovery of these facts tonight I was reminded of something my good friend Matt Troy once told me Freshmen year: "you make what you know,". While making what you know is something that can be stretched and reconfigured into different shapes, I think about what I've been doing.
Recently I've hit a dry spell. Excuses upon excuses pile up as I sit on scripts that have yet to be completed and projects that are yet to be completely edited. I wonder frequently if I'm any good at what I spent the past four years of my life studying and I've come to the conclusion that I'm pretty talentless.
I remember a conversation with my friend Ming Hu. We were discussing people with talent vs. people that work hard and categorizing different people we know into those respective areas, a very small number (one or two) fell into both categories. Ming and I both agreed that we are both people that are the product of hard work, which is difficult to fully come to terms with because there is an acceptance that people with talent will always seem to be a step ahead of you.
However, tonight I sat and thought about people with talent verses people I perceive to have talent and I believe that I have been able to distinguish those whom really have a lot of talent verses those who just stick to what they know and make that work, using their genius in their respective areas to give them the boost they need to bridge the gap that I seem unable to cross myself.
Felicia Day has created a wonderful series starting with a premise she knows very well and making it her own. There are multiple talents mingling together there that, when combined, makes an amazing and terribly entertaining product.
I wonder what I know. After flooding myself with craft and technique for four years at NYU I still have yet to discover a distinctive style, and I honestly don't want to. (I hate specializing because I hate the idea of having to say I don't do something or being told I can't do something.) However, art mimics life, not the other way around and while I hate to put it this way, but film making, in many rights, is an art, and in order for me to fully master it I need a life for it to emulate.
This is where my self reinvention takes place. I guess self reinvention is off, it's more of a self rediscovery. The life I abandoned four years ago is something that needs to be retrieved and reintegrated. Now I just need to figure out what I like doing and go do it.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Arizona Pt. 1
"Hey, it's sweltering hot in New York/New Jersey. We should get away from all this heat. I know, lets go to a desert!"
Who's idea was that anyway?!!? (Apparently my mom's, but don't tell her I said that)
Well, I would have liked to have started my entry with "Greetings from Arizona!" but the begining that's there seemed a lot more entertaining so I went with that instead.
At any rate, I'm here in Arizona, more specifically, Sedona, having just finished up day 3, the latter half of the second day and the beginning half of this past day having been at the Grand Canyon (yes, I did climb some of it, camera in hand).
Overall, Arizona is a beautiful place, full of majestic landscape and bright breathtaking colors and heights. I'm not one for the long distances you have to travel to get from one place to another.
I, however, have not gotten any stroke of brilliance or inspiration or what have you to ignite the "artist inside,". There are no images that pop into my mind for me to draw and there are no words that appear and demand to be added to my more-or-less-still-where-it-was-3-months-ago screenplay that I've brought with me. That, has been frustrating.
Despite all this, however, I have discovered that I am still, in some capacity, a workaholic. After having been kept from the internet for two days and my phone being dead for the better part of one of those days, upon return to the Sedona hotel, which thankfully has wifi (although it cuts out randomly every now and then) I jumped on my laptop to see what e-mails I've been missing regarding this music video shoot that's coming up for Nyle, my former Junior year roommate and Freshmen year floor-mate, and I guess that guy that kept borrowing my clothes without asking me the duration of those two years.
I really hope, however, that something will come up soon in the more creative department of my brain because I really want this screenplay to be done.
Anyway, here are some pictures:
I climbed down from there.
and all the way across to that platform in the distance.
Here's just another picture. No, I didn't climb that, although that would have been fun.
More pictures to come. I got some nice ones at sunrise/sunset but I might be out of memory for now.
Oh wait, no I'm not, here are some more:
I guess more to come.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Another End
The first wave of students had just gone, leaving myself with two kids for the night. It was difficult and surreal knowing the end of yet another summer high school program had come. What was more surreal was how quickly the program moved after the end of the first week as well as the fact that there would not be any more summer programs for me after this. This was truly the end of my relationship with NYU.
Despite that, however, I did manage to ensure the enjoyment of my and other kids' final night. The major events, in a nutshell, was buying my kids beer with the other PA's, learning the photo kids got busted and then playing Super Smash Bro's with a kid named Woody. Eventually we started free-styling and, well, he's good but even after spending a semester living in tight quarters with a rapper, I am incapable of stringing rhymes together in a consistent beat. We also quoted "I'm the Juggernaut Bitch" while playing Super Smash Brothers.
Overall, I'm glad that the kids had a good time without getting caught. It makes me a little proud.
I don't know why, though, but my endings here never seem to go the way I want them to. Or, well, to be more accurate, they go great but what I go to seems to be rather hard. I guess that, also, is an inaccurate statement, it may just be that I've spent all of this summer postponing the inevitable; ending my college experience and moving home.
Family is a funny thing because they always manage to get you to hate them and love them at the same time.
I had waited until the morning to begin packing, as I always do. Generally it's a big mistake but this time it was okay because I didn't have a lot of stuff. Eventually the last of the kids left the program and I was left in an empty dorm. I was, for the most part, packed and ready to go, the first time I ever left the program on move-out date for the students. They tried to take my I.D. at the front desk so I had to explain to them that I am (was) a student of NYU and not a student of the program so I could still get into Tisch and edit my film.
At any rate, around 3PM my parents came to help me move home. I knew it was going to be bad when, even before I checked out of the dorm they started to bother me about stuff I had to do once I got home.
I wonder sometimes, though, if they have bad timing or I just have an extremely reduced amount of patience with them.
I finish up at my dorm and check out and get home, sadly leaving New York and sending a thank you/goodbye text to my fellow PA's and I come home to a group of overly sarcastic cousins. I think that it has a lot to do with perspective. It's always difficult coming home to my family because no matter what happens, they remain skeptical and confident that they know better.
I guess part of it is because, especially with the film/entertainment industry, there's so much behind the scenes of what happens that they just don't understand how things work. I think there's also a disconnect with them because work is just work for all of them, but for me, film making has become a sort of life for me, breeding a community and family of it's own, a family and community where, at least when connected with NYU, I feel like I can navigate it comfortably. Even without NYU I still feel like I can navigate these treacherous waters while only gaining a few cuts and bruises.
I guess you have to wake up from the dreams some time, but I guess that's when you try to find a way to turn them into reality.
Despite that, however, I did manage to ensure the enjoyment of my and other kids' final night. The major events, in a nutshell, was buying my kids beer with the other PA's, learning the photo kids got busted and then playing Super Smash Bro's with a kid named Woody. Eventually we started free-styling and, well, he's good but even after spending a semester living in tight quarters with a rapper, I am incapable of stringing rhymes together in a consistent beat. We also quoted "I'm the Juggernaut Bitch" while playing Super Smash Brothers.
Overall, I'm glad that the kids had a good time without getting caught. It makes me a little proud.
I don't know why, though, but my endings here never seem to go the way I want them to. Or, well, to be more accurate, they go great but what I go to seems to be rather hard. I guess that, also, is an inaccurate statement, it may just be that I've spent all of this summer postponing the inevitable; ending my college experience and moving home.
Family is a funny thing because they always manage to get you to hate them and love them at the same time.
I had waited until the morning to begin packing, as I always do. Generally it's a big mistake but this time it was okay because I didn't have a lot of stuff. Eventually the last of the kids left the program and I was left in an empty dorm. I was, for the most part, packed and ready to go, the first time I ever left the program on move-out date for the students. They tried to take my I.D. at the front desk so I had to explain to them that I am (was) a student of NYU and not a student of the program so I could still get into Tisch and edit my film.
At any rate, around 3PM my parents came to help me move home. I knew it was going to be bad when, even before I checked out of the dorm they started to bother me about stuff I had to do once I got home.
I wonder sometimes, though, if they have bad timing or I just have an extremely reduced amount of patience with them.
I finish up at my dorm and check out and get home, sadly leaving New York and sending a thank you/goodbye text to my fellow PA's and I come home to a group of overly sarcastic cousins. I think that it has a lot to do with perspective. It's always difficult coming home to my family because no matter what happens, they remain skeptical and confident that they know better.
I guess part of it is because, especially with the film/entertainment industry, there's so much behind the scenes of what happens that they just don't understand how things work. I think there's also a disconnect with them because work is just work for all of them, but for me, film making has become a sort of life for me, breeding a community and family of it's own, a family and community where, at least when connected with NYU, I feel like I can navigate it comfortably. Even without NYU I still feel like I can navigate these treacherous waters while only gaining a few cuts and bruises.
I guess you have to wake up from the dreams some time, but I guess that's when you try to find a way to turn them into reality.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Trailer
So I finished a first cut of my narrative today, as well as a trailer.
Here's a low res of the trailer:
Big Brother Trailer 1 from Matthew Chao on Vimeo.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Production and Doodles
Saturday and Sunday I finished production on Laszlo Santha's and Sam Pollard's doc. It was an interesting experience with lots of interesting subjects... as well as a crazy one or two.
At any rate, I had a good experience sound mixing, which doesn't happen that often, but yea. I recruited an underclassmen friend of mine, Ming Hu to be the DP for this project and I'm glad that I did. Ming is a Beijing native who went to high school in Queens and is now going into his Senior year at Tisch. I knew him since my Sophomore year, meeting him on the set of a previously mentioned film Bohemibot and have worked with him one other time my Junior year where I was DP-ing my friend Andrew Roehm's colorsync film.
Ming had recently returned from the also previously mentioned shoot in Georgia; the one that left one dead and others in not-so-great shape. At first I felt hesitant about asking Ming; considering the situation, but he agreed to it and I rationalized that he needed to do something to get his mind off the past shoot down south.
I am extremely glad to have had Ming as a DP on this film. Ming made the film look great and was a pleasure for me to get to know better. My only other experience with Ming was his working for me as an AC on Roehm's first film but this time I felt like we were partners and we kept each other sane... or at least he kept me sane, and the outcome was good too so I'm glad that he was there and I would love to work with him again... which I hope to in September.
In other news, I have a doodle or two to post, so here they are:
At any rate, I had a good experience sound mixing, which doesn't happen that often, but yea. I recruited an underclassmen friend of mine, Ming Hu to be the DP for this project and I'm glad that I did. Ming is a Beijing native who went to high school in Queens and is now going into his Senior year at Tisch. I knew him since my Sophomore year, meeting him on the set of a previously mentioned film Bohemibot and have worked with him one other time my Junior year where I was DP-ing my friend Andrew Roehm's colorsync film.
Ming had recently returned from the also previously mentioned shoot in Georgia; the one that left one dead and others in not-so-great shape. At first I felt hesitant about asking Ming; considering the situation, but he agreed to it and I rationalized that he needed to do something to get his mind off the past shoot down south.
I am extremely glad to have had Ming as a DP on this film. Ming made the film look great and was a pleasure for me to get to know better. My only other experience with Ming was his working for me as an AC on Roehm's first film but this time I felt like we were partners and we kept each other sane... or at least he kept me sane, and the outcome was good too so I'm glad that he was there and I would love to work with him again... which I hope to in September.
In other news, I have a doodle or two to post, so here they are:
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