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• Jeanne Hartman is a phenomenal acting coach

  Thursday, May 21, 2009 5:31PM / Standard Entry

  And this is why:
  
  1.  Jeanne gets to the point.  In the film world, time is money.  You have to learn to get to your "acting place" fast, and to do it well - and she knows that better than anyone.  Whether it's learning how to discover what's not on page (sounds strange, but it's so true) or how to push the range of your performance so you stand out in an audition, her advice was right on the money.  It made such a phenomenal difference in the actors' performances that I could not believe how much everyone had changed by the end of the two days.
  
  2.  Jeanne is both down to earth and incredibly talented.  She had three directors (Tony Shyu, Ezra Emerson and me, Jen Thym) in the class I was in, and none of us were "natural" acting talents, but by the end of it, I was already cooking up a short film starring us three!  JUST KIDDING!  But seriously, she treated us the same as the other actors and that made a world of difference in gaining our trust and developing our confidence to improve.  And she practices what she preaches - that gets my respect too.  :)
  
  3.  Jeanne trains you to be self-sufficient.  As she herself admits, this isn't the best business model, but it's fantastic for the students.  You don't walk away with just a better understanding of what to do in a specific scene or how to get to a certain emotion; you walk away with a toolbox of strategies and techniques that you can apply to acting and to so many other instances in life.
  
  You still have a chance to meet Jeanne Hartman tonight at the Wrap Party at Hotel Panorama, and if I understood correctly, she may still have a few slots available for private coaching lessons before she returns to the US.  Don't hesitate, just do it!
  
  And here's proof that we had alot of fun (click here to see the full album) - I MISS EVERY ONE OF YOU:  Tony, Ezra, Dez, Celina, Jeanne, Yung Yung, Grace, Jo Jo, Dom, Berton and Jason!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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• Filmmaker: George Lucas' documentary on Francis Ford Coppola

  Thursday, Apr 23, 2009 11:32AM / Standard Entry

  My friend, Derrick "One Man Studio" Fong, has just wrapped filming a behind-the-scenes documentary on Josie Ho's new horror flick, Dream Home.  He's been working pretty much non-stop for the last few months, so seeing him out and about at the I Shot Hong Kong Networking Party was just awesome!

  When we were talking about his upcoming mountain of editing work (with which I can wholeheartedly sympathise), I remembered that there was a famous director who got his start with a documentary on someone else's film but I couldn't for the life of me remember who it was.

  I found it this morning:  it was George Lucas who did a behind-the-scenes documentary for Francis Ford Coppola's Rain People.  The documentary, called Filmmaker, is just mindblowing.  I have embedded the first of the four clips below.

  Some cool notes:  Coppola is only 29 years old in the film.  The glimpses that Lucas got in some of the tenser moments of the shoot are dead on - it was ostensibly an argument about the use of a purse in a scene, but it was so tinged with nervousness and insecurity and internal conflict - brilliant.  And for those indie filmmakers, take inspiration : there's someone (not Coppola, but Coppola laughs about it) who talks about doing a bit of guerilla filmmaking too.  Sneaking in shots seems to be a universal phenomena.

  Barry Malkin, editor:  "It doesn't matter what you thought you wrote, and it doesn't matter what you thought you planned, all you got is what you really got."  

  Hear, hear!

  
  Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2qqIzwjiIQ
  

  
  

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• LUMINA Trailer is up!

  Tuesday, Apr 21, 2009 10:36AM / Standard Entry

  The LUMINA Web Series Official Trailer is online! And in glorious HD on YouTube, too. To make it easier for people with slower connections, I have embedded the normal quality version below but if you go into YouTube and click the HD button in the lower right corner of their player, you'll get the shiny widescreen HD version.

  My fellow HK indie filmmaker Dan Carew (Hard Fall, Indebted) featured LUMINA in a recent blog interview, and on the back of that, we got mentioned in Scott Kirsner's Cinematech blog as well! To top it off, we also are featured on AlivenotDead.com's front page in the Artists Updates section. I wish every week started like this one!

  Thanks guys!

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• Optimising Your Videos for YouTube

  Friday, Apr 17, 2009 1:15PM / Standard Entry

  We are really THIS close to posting the trailer for LUMINA.  While I was researching optimal compression methods for YouTube, I came across this hilarious video:
  
  Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEm8PZ_lUh8&feature=channel_page
  

  
  Freddie Wong then links to his humorous post on optimising your videos for YouTube.
  
  http://www.facerocker.com/2008/12/31/how-to-make-hd-720p-widescreen-youtube-videos/
  

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• Kyle & Rosemary

  Friday, Apr 10, 2009 6:38PM / Standard Entry

  I came across this link to a great animated short called Kyle and Rosemary on Wil Wheaton's blog (yes... Wil Wheaton of Wesley Crusher fame, but I SWEAR I AM NOT A TREKKIE!) and I think it's beyond adorable.
  
  Warning:  it's total gamer humor, so... well, heck, it's funny anyway. 
  
  http://raw.channelfrederator.com/video/kyle-rosemary
  
  P.S.  In case you think I am slacking off, I am indeed working on the trailer!!  Two more things to clean up and then I'll play with compression formats, then it'll be available.  :D 
  

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