It was exactly a year ago, I was in Hong Kong with my producer at the time and T told me that they were gearing up to go to Japan to shoot a short. I hung out with him after his return and before I took off, he told me about the trip, the idea and what they wanted to do for the rest of the three shorts. I was intrigued but didn't think that I wasn't going to direct one of them, until he asked me in the beginning of this year about directing *his* short. Since "Missing," T and I have become good friends and I've been wanting to work with him again. At the time, since I just finished writing a scrīpt, it was actually perfect for me 'cause I want to do some directing work and to work with T.
Over the next couple of months, we communicated via email brainstorming what the short would be about. I remember I told T about my obsession with Jack Johnson's "Inaudible Melodies," particularly the two lines "slow down everyone you're moving too fast, frames can't catch you when you're moving like that..." we felt similar about the way of life in the ultra-metropolitan cities where people are always rushing, wanting, pursuing but hardly have time to slow down and appreciate the beauty around them. Later T wrote a voice over to convey that feeling which became our starting point.
Different concepts were talked about to convey this feeling. T wanted to have strong music to accompany the film. Finding the piece of music actually was the hardest part of the shoot, we need to find the music before I could come up with a solid concept and the tone of the film. We discussed a lot about what the music should be like, but I just couldn't find a piece that captured me until one day my iPod randomly played an ambient piece while I was riding on the bus going to see T. I loved what I heard and what I saw (the cityscape) while on the bus, so I got to the office and played the piece to T. He liked it and thought that it was really "me" and it'd work well with the piece... The rest was quite easy. We decided to show the richness of the city and how one might get lost in it and thus ought to slow down and check out the beauty around oneself. I decided to play with the amazing city colors and patterns that HK offers, and to contrast it with something organically beautiful in the end.
We were so lucky to have Julie on board as our AD. T was right about pairing me and Julie together, not only was she a great AD, she was super fun and we became really good friends, that was the best. And thanks to Kim, Ah Shui and Charles whom were just troopers to run around town with me to shoot here and there and everywhere... It was actually one of the easiest shoots for me... small crew, good friends, it felt like hanging out most of the time more than working! All I remember was that we were chilling, eating and drinking a lot...
Afterwards, I got to work with my other good friend Richard on the editing, I did a rough skeleton before Richard went into fine tuning the piece. With his magic fingers, he made the short so much better... after I viewed the final cut, I knew that we need the music to accentuate certain moments in the film, and the problem with the already made track is that you can't specify that detailedly. So T and I talked about finding someone to compose a piece of music for this short and luckily, Jun was available and agreed to help us. I've always loved his music, so I knew the piece would have a kick-ass beat to it... I played Jun the temp track and told him what I wanted for the piece, and the next thing I knew, he came up with this awesome track that really enhanced the film.
So all in all, it was a really fun experience for me. Not only did I get to work with T again, I made these awesome new friends. Thanks T for giving me this opportunity.
Hope y'all enjoy the
short film.
k.
p.s. Julie, thanks for staying up till the wee hours with me to go check out the Goldfish street... you truly were amazing...
March 20, 2008
March 20, 2008
March 20, 2008
