I had the great pleasure of being one of the three judges at the 48 Hour Film Project on November 6th, 2009. The other judges were Li Cheuk To, Artistic Director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival and Liz Kerr, film reviewer from The Hollywood Reporter.
 
Li Cheuk To and I before the screenings

 
Kenneth Bi, Li Cheuk To and Ivy Lam (Hong Kong’s 48 Hr Film Project producer)

There were 14 films but only 10 were eligible because the other 4 handed in their films late. They have strict rules regarding when the project begins and ends. Although the four late films were not eligible for the juried prizes such as Best Film, Best Director, etc., they were still eligible for the Audience Award.

I was impressed by some of the film’s production value and quality of writing. One film had locations such as an apartment, street scene, a bar, a hair salon and a pirate ship complete with Pirates of the Caribbean costumes. They had to come up with a concept, a scrīpt, locations, then shoot it and finally edit and add music and effects all in 48 hours. That’s very impressive.

In the end, the film that won Best Film utilized only a couple of simple locations and one principal actor. It was called Breathe, produced by Fly Eye Media and directed by Zac Murphy. Best Director went to Thomas Lo for the film Cocktail Definition, produced by Spontaneous Combustion. And the Audience Award winner was Found and Lost, by A-Team.

 
Breathe producer Lorien Kranen and actor Diederik van Gorp

The filmmakers who put themselves on the line and produced such thought-provoking and entertaining films were the real stars of the evening. They should all be very proud of their accomplishment. It was a great inspiration to many. Congratulations to all.



(seated, from L to R) Cocktail Definition director Thomas Lo, lead actor from Underdog Joe Fiorello, lead actress from Savage Love Maggie Chan, director of The Art of Flying Katarina Ivarsson, and director from Responsible People Arne Venema






 

The world's largest 48 Hour Film Project is coming to Hong Kong on October 30 - November 1, 2009!

Get your team ready to make a short film - write, shoot, edit and score - in one weekend...just 48 hours.

See your work up on the big screen right away. Your completed film will be screened at the Agnes b theatre at the Hong Kong Arts Centre the very next week, on November 6 from 8:30pm. Winning films will also be screened at Clockenflap.

Registration starts now! Sign up here: http://www.48hourfilm.com/registration/?id=308

You can also look for team members on the site and sign up for the newsletter at http://www.48hourfilm.com/hongkong

Check out "48HFP's" official page on AliveNotDead: www.alivenotdead.com/48hourfilm

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=142750872760&ref=ts

Twitter: www.twitter.com/hk48hfp

The Drummer premiered in Ukraine on October 9th, 2009. Jaycee was unable to make it to the premiere, so he recorded a video message for the Ukrainian audience. Jaycee Chan for Ukraine's release of The Drummer

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trTvXJrfnqE

I am often asked by audiences and my screenwriting class students on how one writes dialogue. More specifically, almost ninety-nine percent of the time the question is, “How do you make dialogue sound natural and realistic?”

Like in many things in life, the answer lies in asking the right question. So is this the right question?

 

“How can I make my dialogue sound more natural and realistic?” My answer is always, “Why do you want to make it sound natural and realistic?” Not “why would you?” but “why do you?”

It’s not wrong to want something more “natural and realistic” from one’s dialogue, but consider the motivation of the writer who asks this question. Judging from the question, it is fair to assume that the writer feels his/her dialogue is unnatural sounding because the dialogue is being used to convey information.

Consider the following example from the first scene of a screenplay:


There’s nothing wrong with this line of dialogue per se. We do say stuff like that. It’s just at the beginning of a scrīpt, it sounds like information is being shoved down our throat. We take offense. What makes dialogue sound unnatural is that it sounds informational.

As audience, we do not want information. We want drama. Drama is the Greek word for “do, act.”

If we see a character or characters engaged in an action that is part of a larger “conflict” then it’s easier to know what dialogue is needed. The simple truth is that the characters will say anything that they think will achieve what they want, not what the writer wants the audience to know. “What the characters want” is the answer to all questions regarding drama.

Consider this highly unnatural but extremely memorable and powerful speech:

 

“There’s a passage I got memorized, seems appropriate for this situation: Ezekiel 25:17. ‘The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.’”

One can ask, who talks like that? Actually, I know someone who walks around quoting Shakespearean monologues and he’s one of the shadiest people I know. That doesn’t give the writer license to write such unrealistic dialogue, especially since Jules, who delivers the speech, is a hardened gangster from Pulp Fiction.

It’s an exercise in dialogue taken to extreme theatricality. Jules wants retribution. He wants to put the fear of God into this traitor he’s talking to. He wants to make his killing a ritualized, justified act of his conscience, using the Bible. If you asked the writer, he may say it’s all of those things or none of those things. But we the audience are deciphering the motivation of his speech. We accept it because we understand his want. The speech is partly fabricated and partly taken from different passages in the Bible. Tarantino made this speech up which is an even more audacious act, taking this story into the realm of hyper-fiction.

What we want to ask of the characters is what we want to ask of ourselves: What does he want from her? What does she want from him? What do I want from her? What does she want from me?

What the characters want is really what we want. If what they want is not what we want deep down, then we can’t relate to it. Sounding natural without the want in dialogue is like the guy who is embarrassed at being naked so he puts on a pair of sunglasses to cover himself up.
 

Sign on the refrigerator door in the hotel.

"The beverage which is by the refrigerator inside inside is no charge and per the reorder hour bottle it pays thousand won fees and it does."

I was very confused as to whether the bottled water was complimentary or if I get paid for drinking it.

by Rosa Li (Producer)