The Making of Soundless Wind Chime II: The Film Markets Tour

Before I headed to Germany, I went back to Hong Kong to prepare for the presentation in the market in Berlin. I was lucky with the situation in Hong Kong that at that time that they were looking for some new directors. I have had a chance to meet up with some big producers in Hong Kong and pitch the project to them. The project is not commercial enough, but a few of them were a bit impressed. After this trip in Hong Kong, I successfully obtained some "Names" attached to my projects, which I believed that's a good way to start.I went to the Berlin market with a "well-polished" projects with Names, Names, Names... meeting with some people, give away a lot of copies of the scrīpt. (which is very stupid), everything feels like heating up very very quick. After Berlin, I was also in AFM and Cannes trying to meet up with producers and potential investors, but for a new director who don't have a long track record, it is almost impossible to "keep in touch" with any of them.

The whole "film market tour" actually was a very important for lesson for me, and let me realize the real situation in the business, and the gap between the film school and the industry.

Some words for the fellow 1st feature film makers are:

• Talk to the right person, check the person's and company's background, what kind of film they produce/specific on.

• Never give your scrīpt too easy to other person.

• At the same time, allow yourself to hit walls, try as much as you can, do not afraid of leaving a bad impression.

• know how to protect yourself emotionally, and your intellectual property.- know where your bottom line is.

It takes me a while to realize all these, while most of the producers would tell me "The scrīpt still have rooms for development." I would see similar story started to appear on TV film or some short film with similar plots.... but I didn't dig into the makers behind the scenes...

I always remember what my friend Chinlin told me in Paris, after a long chat with her in the coffee shop, I was kind ofgrumbling about all my discomforts in the early stage of the project. We walks out of the coffee shop and before she said good bye, she said:

"Everything is a game, only your film is ture."

This totally changed my point of view towards this film.

So, I went back home to "re"develope the scrīpt, have a lot of auditions with actors and actresses, a lot of read out. Time passed, then the first secured finance came from the Hong Kong Art Development Council, a Government body in Hong Kong supporting independence film production.