The Olympic game is just right at the corner, last week I got to meet with a few US Table Tennis Olympians before they head to London in July: Ariel Hsing, Lily Zhang and Timothy Wang.

I just got the game, find me online... bnet tag: kantorates#1850

I haven't played this kind of game for more than 10 years, still remember the time playing Diablo 2 with my friends, didn't realize it has been so long ago!

right now I'm starting with a barbarian, tried all 5 races in the beta, looks like barbarian fits my style most. :)

So what is the secret behind Jeremy Lin's success?

Some say it has something to do with his wristband:

It has been ages since I last posted an entry. I've been spending my time writing two screenplays and also working on a video project with some friends.

Anyway, my friends and I went to Oakland and shot some footage last week, it was partly for the project we are doing, and partly because we just wanted to learn more about what is happening after seeing/reading so much about the Occupy movement there.

In the Bay Area, Oakland is always the spotlight of the occupy movement, violent protest, conflicts, gun fights, we just read about it so much on the news, and in fact the day before we decide to go there to take a look, a murder case just happened near the camps and again it became the headline news.

so here below is the footage we shot and compiled (somehow it's in mandarin coz of the nature of our project):




After we went there, we understand why many people who used to support the original purpose of the movement now begin to show hatred toward the group. Just as what we expected, there were a lot of weird people camping there, homeless, drug addicts (there were strong smell of weeds in the entire area...), lunatics, tree lodgers, kids trying to sell snacks... When you saw these strange people hovering around the camps aimlessly, it began to make you doubt whether these people are really there for civil right movement, or simply for the free food and lodging...

But then, we also saw quite some people who are really disappointed with the current institution and decide to stand up and voice out their concerns there. There are all perfectly sane people in clean clothing and don't mind to reiterate intellectually the reason of their staying.

However, the interesting thing we witnessed is that the large amount of media people there just seemed to be only interested in finding weird people to interview... we saw two reporters intentionally approached a woman who is so obviously having mental problem, provoked her and ended up getting kicked out. (and this is mainstream media, not tabloids)

perhaps it's coz the event has been going on for quite a while, it might seem kinda pointless to look for real protesters to talk, as it probably has been done million of times before, but it still seems little awkward to see them trying to build up some perspectives on purpose.

I mean, if I haven't been there and only rely on the news to see what is going on there, there is no way for me to learn what is really happening. What i see would be a group of weirdo gathering and talking nonsense, showing violent attitudes and attacking reporters...but the truth is there are indeed still quite a number of real protesters there, and those who are unfriendly to the media would just represent a small group...

that's why i always feel that nothing is objective.. even for news coverage (and it is america already), the so called truth it reveals is always controlled by those who present it....


p.s.: just wanna clarify that my friends and I are not supporters of either side...

I've just read an article and the writer (who is also a filmmaker and film festival programmer) questions the existing value of film festival as the technology of streaming video is becoming more and more advanced.

While I don't totally agree, it is true that if your sole purpose is to reach a wide audience, film festival is no way comparable to streaming video venue like youtube. Say if you get into a film festival, you usually have 3~4 screenings the most, and even if all screenings are sold out, consider the average seat numbers of a theater is 200~, you get 800~ audiences the most. But then if you put your work on youtube and with some appropriate viral strategy, you can get 800~ viewers in a day, or I mean, in less than an hour...

But certainly, we all know a prestigious film festival is much more than just about viewership. What filmmakers care most is that name attached to it. That is, if your film become an official selection at Cannes or Sundance, what it means isn't just about how many people are going to see the film, but that the eventual benefit and credit it brings. For instance, if you want to look for investment or work partner for your next project, it's undeniably much easier to get people to talk to you if they know you are a Cannes alumni. Especially when you have to understand that people in the film business are all busy folks. If you are nothing, no matter how talented you are, people will not look down on you, as they simply won't even want to spend their valuable time to look at you or your work...

Another biggest attraction of film festival is without doubt the film market, especially for indies, film market is always an important channel for finding distribution. The parties and events at a film fest also allow you to meet with fellow filmmakers, distributors and possible investors for future projects. It is something a streaming video at a virtual world can't achieve.

So that's why I think film festival still has its own value. NEVERTHELSS, it only applies to the big names like the ones I mentioned above, Cannes, Sundance, Venice, Berlin, etc. As for the minor ones, I do agree with the writer that the advance of streaming video is going to create a deadly impact on them.

Take the above benefits a film festival can provide as an example, if a small film fest happens at a remote town in an unknown part of the country, you can pretty much expect no distributor will be willing to attend, and with the usually ridiculously high submission fee (they rely on the fee to survive), it makes it difficult to attract submission too (with so many film fests in the world, why would a filmmaker want to submit to one that is small, with few attraction and high fee while he can achieve the same level or even bigger success on the web?). So no distributor, no high quality film, how to get audience in? Ok, so no audience too, then it doesn't require any calculation to conclude the final destiny of this kind of film fest.

So I would foresee that more and more mid-small size film fest will fold up in the future as streaming video become a more and more viable outlet for indies to show... unless those fests are willing to spend some time to explore any possibilities to incorporate this new technology into their obsolete structure...