> Academy Award winning filmmaker Jessica Yu is inviting you to participate in her first feature film…

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> On Wednesday April 4 and Thursday April 5, Jessica will be filming crucial scenes for her first feature picture, an Asian-American comedy, currently titled, “Ping Pong Playa.”  We need people to sit as audience spectators at a sports tournament.  Everyone is welcome.
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> Food, entertainment, and gifts will be provided.  This is a great opportunity to meet and  be directed by the critically acclaimed director,  whose film credits include documentaries, “Breathing Lessons,” “The Living Museum,” and “In The Realms of the Unreal.”  Her TV credits include episodes of “The West Wing,” and the popular “Grey’s Anatomy.”
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> Watch her make movie magic and later see yourself on the big screen!
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> For information regarding time and place, please respond with your name, phone number, and email address to the following:
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> extraplayas@gmail.com
>
> You must be over 18 years old to participate.

Network fear of the Net as copilot

The honchos’ word isn’t final anymore. Dropped pilots are finding fans on the Internet.

PATRICK GOLDSTEIN
March 27, 2007

A new ballgame

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Bat boys

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THE Internet is giving Hollywood a nervous breakdown.

Way, way back in prehistory — let’s say, 2004 — if you made a TV pilot and the network didn’t pick it up, the judge’s decision was final.

But now you have a savior, an ally, a friend with millions of other friends. You have YouTube.

Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck are smart young TV writers with an impeccable r–sum–, their credits including “King of the Hill,” “Frasier” and “The Larry Sanders Show.” (Gregory is also a cartoonist for the New Yorker.) With the influential backing of Jon Stewart’s production company, they sold a pilot to Comedy Central called “Three Strikes.” It’s about a bunch of vagabond baseball players who, having been kicked out of the majors for various offenses — from steroid use on up — are trying to keep their dream alive playing for a backwater minor-league team in Fresno.

The pilot seems right in Comedy Central’s strike zone, combining affectionate satire with raunchy escapades — one highlight is a sequence in which the players humor their do-gooder team owner by taking a group of blind kids on a boat trip, all the while engaging in shenanigans with some prostitutes stashed below deck. But the network gave the show a thumbs down in February.

Did Comedy Central blow the call? See for yourself. The entire pilot, in three segments, was posted on YouTube several weeks ago. (To view the YouTube video, click here)

Whether it is still there after this column appears is another issue, since Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, is suing YouTube’s parent company and has pulled all its shows from the site.

If I were a network programmer today, I’d be popping Nexium left and right. Thanks to the Web, TV fans can now make their own judgments about whether a network chief’s decision to ax a show was a smart move or sheer idiocy. Gregory and Huyck have no harsh words for Comedy Central — “The whole process was absolutely great,” says Huyck, “until the show got killed.” But they are fascinated by the game-changing nature of the Internet, which can provide a second hearing for pilots that would have previously been consigned to the video graveyard.

“You can see why people find YouTube subversive,” says Gregory. “If you were to put all the failed pilots up there and some of them became popular at a time when the shows the networks put on as series were failures, it would make them look terrible. In fact, it would make their jobs look superfluous. If you prove their taste wrong or incorrect, that’s a pretty dangerous scenario.”

This isn’t the first time Web denizens have been able to second-guess network judgments. Last year, not long after a failed WB network pilot called “Nobody’s Watching” from “Scrubs” creator Bill Lawrence became a YouTube sensation, NBC agreed to take a new look at the show — though the network never put the show on the air. In 2005, “Global Frequency,” also a failed WB pilot, ended up on BitTorrent, sparking a flurry of fan interest in the show, though not a network pickup. “Aquaman,” a pilot ditched by the CW network last year, also briefly made it up on YouTube — and is actually being sold through iTunes.

So far, none of this Internet buzz has saved a pilot from extinction — and most of the pilots have been pulled off YouTube by hysterical network lawyers. Nor has the Web buzz toppled television’s business model, as file-sharing has done to the music business. But the subversive power is there. In fact, it’s only a matter of time before an entrepreneurial producer finds a fan-based financing mechanism for a show that will allow it to avoid the creative bottleneck of a major TV network.

“If there’s a large enough community who wants to see a piece of content — and spend their own money for it — someone will find a way to reach that market,” says Jordan Levin, the WB production chief who commissioned the pilot for “Global Frequency.” Now a partner in Generate, a production and management firm active in Internet projects, Levin believes that as long as audiences are disenfranchised, someone will create a new business to serve them, in much the same way that MTV, Fox and the WB themselves were created to cater to younger viewers not being served by more traditional networks.

Unfortunately, most media conglomerates view these flurries of support for a failed pilot as a threat, not as a sign of fan enthusiasm. “What’s really amazing is that TV had the perfect test case, seeing the music business practically destroying itself and totally alienating their core fans for the past six or so years — and they look at that and say, ‘Yeah, that’s the way to go,’ ” says John Rogers, “Global Frequency’s” writer-producer. “When our pilot surfaced, [Warners] didn’t go, ‘Wow, people in Finland are forming fan groups and it’s being shown in gaming cafes in Korea.’ Instead, they kept going, ‘No, no, no. Shut it down.’ “

The Internet is wresting control from the gatekeepers, one reason why big media companies are trying to rein in YouTube, either with lawsuits, as Viacom is doing, or by creating rival sites for their product, as Fox and NBC-Universal announced last week.

There was no better example of the Web’s disruptive force in action than the appearance of “Vote Different,” an ingenious attack ad on Hillary Clinton that cast her as a Big Brother figure surrounded by glassy-eyed drones in a brilliant mash-up of Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl ad. The ad spread like wildfire around the Internet last week.

While most of the coverage focused on whether the ad came from a Barack Obama operative or not, the most telling revelation wasn’t who did it, but how it was done. In an era when most political ads are the result of endless opposition research and focus group polls, “Vote Different” was made on a Mac computer in a small apartment on a Sunday afternoon. Uploaded to YouTube, it became a sensation in a day.

The “Three Strikes” pilot isn’t a sensation, but it’s good TV and it shows the surprising cautiousness of a cable network that should be thriving on risky programming. Gregory and Huyck shopped the pilot to other networks but received polite rejection.

“NBC said it was too dark and not hopeful enough,” Gregory explains, “though I can’t imagine what isn’t hopeful about a 15-year-old blind kid getting to touch a prostitute’s breasts.”

Hearing the two writer-producers discuss their career, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a big part of TV’s future is on the Internet, where YouTube has proved that pure democracy works better than the top-down bureaucracy of network decision making. Even though they had great TV credentials, Gregory and Huyck got nothing made during a two-year development deal at NBC, in part because the network was still in the thrall of “Friends,” a show Huyck says “almost destroyed comedy because it made networks think there was a whole new set of rules for sit-coms, like everyone having to be young and beautiful.”

Once NBC hit rock bottom, it finally began to take risks, out of which came such shows as “The Office” and “30 Rock.” But most networks today are still ruled by top-down decision making, not bottom-up ingenuity. It’s nice to see guys like Steven Bochco and Michael Eisner experimenting with Web-based entertainment, but my guess is that the first great Internet TV show will come from a nobody, not a somebody, and will be made cheaply on his or her home computer, just like the “Vote Different” ad.

The key is economics. When you only need $1,000 to do a TV pilot, not $1 million, you’ll see a new, level playing field. As Gregory puts it: “The Internet is totally democratic because it uses a simple rule of thumb — less money, more creativity.”

“Vietnamese Actors/Actresses Needed for ‘La Petite Salon’”

“La  Petite Salon”

Mini-DV short narrative film 10-15 min. Drama.Director/Producer: Caroline Le

Quynh Tran, a young Vietnamese American woman, works at her mother’s hair salon where she encounters everyday conversations about men, international politics, and gossip from the interactions she and her mother has with their predominately Vietnamese women customers.

Seeking 8 Female and 1 Male Vietnamese Speaking Roles:

Quynh Tran Late teens – early 20’s. Vietnamese American woman. Kind and observant. Queer and closeted from everyone except her mother, her reserved nature displays the utmost respect to the patrons in her mother’s salon. Semi-fluent in Vietnamese.

Chi Truc Late 20’s – early 30’s. Vietnamese woman. Unemployed for several months, her workaholic behavior is overcome by uneasiness of insecurities to support her family.

Mai Ly Tran Mid-40’s. Older, contemporary Vietnamese woman and mother of Quynh. Attentive and caring. She is the mediator, the advice columnist, and sets the atmosphere in the salon.

Thomas Pham Early 30’s. Well-groomed Vietnamese gay man. Sarcastic and abrasive. He feels privileged to be in such a space with these women. He gossips and jokes with everyone.

Co Nga Late 30’s. Professional, trendy Vietnamese woman. Attempts to stay young and hip. Acculturated to the Los Angeles-American lifestyle, she dresses fashionable, and thinks highly of herself.

Ba So Mot (#1) Early 60’s. Vietnamese woman. Loud, opinionated, and conservative. She is traditional and is quick to joke a bit and switch to being defensive about her beliefs.

Ba So Hai (#2) Early 60’s. Vietnamese woman. Best friends since childhood with Ba So Mot. Conservative and traditional.

Co Hien Late 30’s. Plain petite Vietnamese woman. Complete opposite of Co Nga, she is timid and avoids conflict with others. A sense of sadness about her.

Sienna Alvarez Late teens – early 20’s. Latin woman. Generous and thoughtful. She aims to be in good graces with Mai Ly and empathizes with her girlfriend, Quynh, about the struggles of coming out. Semi-fluent in Spanish.

NON-UNION ONLY.

Please submit headshot/photo and résumé via email with subject
heading, “La Petite Salon” Casting Call, to Caroline.le@gmail.com

If you cannot reach me by email, my contact number is (408) 835-3773.

Auditions will be held on April 5-7, 2007.
Callbacks will be held on April 10 and April 12, 2007.

Shoot dates – April 27-29. Downtown San Jose.

Involvement with this film project will include copy, film festival exposure, credits, and meals. It is required that you be committed and available for at least 3 rehearsal and the day of the shoot.

Asian students work to fight stereotypes, live up to others

What drives today’s Asian-American kids

Pat Kossan
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 16, 2007 12:00 AM

The evidence that Asian-American kids are smart is everywhere.

• For the past three years, these students outscored every other group on the state’s AIMS reading and math tests, slipping behind White students only in high school reading.

• They outscored all groups in the SAT college entrance math exam.

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• They earned 8 percent of in-state merit scholarships at Arizona State University last year, although they make up only 2.6 percent of the K-12 population.

Most people form their own theories about why Asian-American students do well. Some credit their parents’ academic focus. Others say these kids are inherently smart. But the reality is more complicated.

Researchers say Asian-American students are more likely to excel because a higher proportion come from well-educated families with middle and higher incomes. Those types of parents have a strong work ethic and high expectations for their kids.

Their children also may achieve to fight certain stereotypes or live up to other ones.

Angela Le, 20, is the daughter of a former Vietnamese army captain who came to the U.S. from an Indonesian refugee camp before she was born. She rose to the top 5 percent of her Glendale Independence High School class.

“My family hammered it into my head that you have to be better than everyone else,” the ASU junior said. “Don’t let people think because you’re new here, or a minority, that you cannot make it.”

American Zombie

March 17th, 2007

American Zombie is the latest film by independent film maker, Grace Lee (formerly of the Grace Lee Project), and produced by one of my favorite people in the world, my near-sister, In-Ah Lee.

Thus far, the film has been making the rounds at Slamdance, SXSW and now the Asian American Film Festival in San Francisco (just in time for the holiest of Asian American holidays, St. Patrick’s Day).

The movie tells the story of two independent film makers, documenting a community of “high-functioning” zombies living in LA. These zombies (much like your friendly neighborhood psychopaths) live and look just like us (well, with the exception that they are undead and sometimes have bits of flesh hanging off).

Andrew O’Hehir from Salon.com ranked American Zombie among his favorite films of this year’s Sundance. (Although technically, American Zombie was actually a part of Slamdance). You can read his full article here.

Please check it out and support cool independent film.
Check out the trailer here.

American Zombie actress, Suzy Nakamura.

http://www.leeleefilms.com
http://www.americanzombiemovie.com
http://www.myspace.com/americanzombiemovie

race Lee on the zombie in you and m

Immigration nation: Are zombies being exploited with 24-hour workdays is one question “American Zombie” attempts to answer. (Photo courtesy SFIAAFF)

//// Grace Lee on the zombie in you and me (Mar 23, 2007)

By Miljenko Skoknic

Grace Lee’s latest film, “American Zombie,” screened this past week in the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, hailing from other fests like SXSW. Lee takes her crew into zombieland to watch the process of acculturation, and finds, contrary to popular opinion, they don’t eat humans, nor do they drag their feet. In fact, they look relatively normal and harmless, just pale. Can’t we all get along? Yet this living and living-dead coexistence seems too good to be true, even in such an inclusive town like Los Angeles. By weaving the making of the faux documentary movie into the movie itself, Grace Lee continues to explore themes of identity and nonfiction. We caught up with Grace Lee in San Francisco to talk about the personal horror movie genre in “American Zombie,” the everyday ethical dilemmas documentary filmmakers face, and how too much trust in your subjects can sometimes be, well, inconvenient.

SF360: How did the idea for the project originate? Y ou’ve admitted you’re not particularly a big fan of the [zombie] genre?

Grace Lee: Well, I didn’t set out to make a documentary about zombies, it just happened. Basically, [me and] Rebecca Sonnenshine, who was my co-writer, were trying to come up with different projects to work on. And Rebecca [who is] a very normal, mild mannered person, happens to have really violent dreams (laughs), so then she’s describing one of them to me one night; I was disturbed by them, and one of them was about this girl zombie trying to bite her, and then I just blurted out ‘Hey, maybe you’re just part-zombie,’ you know? Where does this come from?

SF360: Which is the basic fear behind all the zombie scares.

Lee: Yes, so where is this strange [thing] coming from? As a documentary filmmaker, which is my background, I’m interested in motivations — or even as a director — why do people act the way they do and I thought, ‘Well, maybe you’re just part zombie, it’s part of you.’ Then it just occurred to me, ‘This might be a great character:’ someone who on the surface seems so normal, sweet and nice. But underneath, like Lisa, who’s angrier, she has something she has to deal with; it started from there. I said ‘This would make a great documentary,’ I would love to make that film.

SF360: How did you approach doing this film as a documentary, given the ['serious'] reputation of that genre?

Lee: Well, and I have a reputation, [too]. I made a documentary, a personal documentary two years ago, ‘The Grace Lee Project,’ which a lot of people know about. I’m in it, and it’s also about the stereotypes surrounding Asian American women, and the stereotypes surrounding Grace Lee, and I thought, ‘Oh well, that Grace Lee who made that film would naturally be interested in another marginalized community, and other issues of identity,’ so we sort of took that idea and ran with it, ‘Oh, Grace Lee, of the Grace Lee Project, she’s a socially consciously filmmaker.’ It’s like discovering another community that nobody knows about, and you want to give voice to them. I love personal documentaries, and in the ‘Grace Lee Project,’ there’s a lot of humor there too, and a lot of self-mocking qualities, and so I felt like OK you know, it’s also in ‘American Zombie’ as well, and just wanted to explore the personal horror film (laughs).

SF360: Did you identify a little with every Grace Lee you interviewed?

Lee: Yes, definitely.

SF360: To what extent did you play yourself? You appear a lot [in the film], yet you keep a certain distance –

Lee: It’s the film’s Grace Lee philosophy of filmmaking: ‘We let the subjects tell the story’ while my co-filmmaker, John, is the complete opposite; he wants something horrible to happen. Somebody wants someone to get eaten! (Laughs.)

SF360: Why did you incorporate Grace and John bickering in the film about the form and the content of the documentary?

Lee: That was intentional; we also wanted to show that we were a part of the story, and it’s a documentary conceit that people do a lot, to put themselves in the film, and Grace Lee, to a fault, thinks ‘We need to put ourselves in the film’. But why? It’s about the zombies.

SF360: Tell me about the visuals: The look was very muted, especially the urban images. And yet the style of the doc is very upbeat, especially in the first hal — it’s excited to showing you a community.

Lee: I think that like zombies, the film turns into something else; in the beginning we wanted to really use the portrait of a community: [as in] ‘They’re vibrant, they’re here, they’re dead; get used to it.’ There’s something about Los Angeles that’s very different from San Francisco, [in L.A.] it’s kind of drab and dusky. Like not everything is what it seems, and we definitely wanted a look that wasn’t Hollywood. We were an independent production trying to look like an independent documentary, and we shot with the cameras Grace and John would have, you know, DVX 100, and John’s little camera. That was always the intention, to make it feel gritty and real. We did shoot in a lot of real locations, trying to seamlessly appear like a real documentary.

SF360: Although we get really close to these [zombie] characters, almost identifying with their plights, I noticed that that there was still a palpable divide between you and that ‘other’ [represented by the zombies], that simply can’t be bridged.

Lee: In a way, it’s like with my own experiences making documentaries, even with a subject a benign as Grace Lee, Asian American women, the nicest people around; there’s always somebody that’s going to turn on you, and you’re never quite sure; and that’s the fear and the tension of the film. [Like] Grace, sometimes documentary filmmakers are so trusting sometimes, there’s an earnestness that [while good to have,] can sometimes backfire.

SF360: Near the end, with John’s situation, you put yourself in a uncomfortable position. Could it be a projection of the fears involved when getting too involved with the subjects in documentary filmmaking, or does it obey the conventions of the zombie genre?

Lee: I don’t know, what do you think? I’m curious to see how people react.

SF360: It was creepy because the [zombie] genre convention tells you that it doesn’t matter if it’s a loved one, you just have to let go, or else he’s going to eat you. You had mentioned in a previous interview, talking about [a dilemma near the end of the film], that it’s one you would hope never to face as a documentary filmmaker.

Lee: Well, yes. That would be ultimately the horrible one; you’ve got to kill your partner! (Laughs). It’s an impossible choice: It’s interesting to fictionalize some of the ethical problems that you could face, but not having to actually go through them. When we were doing the scenes, I felt really bad. I mean, he’s my friend in real life too, and he was like (stern face). But then, at the same time, would you kill him? We’re not that bloodthirsty, right?

SF360: Unlike the private investigator [hired by the zombie's living relatives to trace their whereabouts].

Lee: Yes, and that’s why I don’t like to call it mockumentary, because I feel it’s too jokey. That’s why I liked more the ‘personal horror film’; for the documentary filmmaker it would be just the worst choice ever.

SF360: For me one, of the best parts is when [you and your crew] go to a sweatshop-type textile company, and the boss you interview is an Asian man, and talking about the ‘immigrants’ working there like ‘who cares [about long hours], they never sleep anyway’. In moments like that, the zombie genre crosses over with social criticism. You chose to make the owner an Asian man; where you worried about stereotyping?

Lee: No, because they exist, and they do take advantage of people.

SF360: And nowadays, there’s First World in the Third World and Third World in the First World….. In closing, what do you hope for audiences to get out of your film?

Lee: I hope they’re entertained. It is a zombie movie, in a way. So I’m not expecting any great social awareness. [Although] I feel there’s a lot to chew on. It’s always fun to make documentaries or fictional documentaries for the crew and the cast, but I hope the audience has fun too, because we really had a great time making it.

SFIAAFF = 2 Legit 2 Quit

MC Hammer shows his love for Asian America and Hyphen magazine at the opening gala for the 2007 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. Hammer played talent agent Roy Thunders in Justin Lin’s Finishing the Game which opened the festival. Photo by Bernice Yee

I’ll have to say, there’s nothing like a giant theater full of Asian Americans and a party with free Lychee Martinis to make you feel good about your community.

Opening night of the 25th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival was star-studded, with everyone from Cook Islands Survivor winner Yul Kwon acting as MC for the night and the venerable MC Hammer mingling with the masses.

Justin Lin’s Finishing the Game seemed to be a real crowd-pleaser, getting a good amount of laughs from the audience in all the right places. The movie, about the search for the studio search for a Bruce Lee replacement after he dies during the making of Game of Death in 1973, looked amazing. Lin managed to get the retro look and sound down wonderfully, erring on the side of the ridiculous. It was fun to see the likes of Sung Kang, Roger Fan and even relatively unknown South Asian actor Mousa Kraish flex their comedic skills. (MC Hammer plays a Hollywood agent representing only the best of the “colored” people.) Afterwards, Lin admitted that this film was a theraputic release about some of the bullshit he has had to deal with in Hollywood and that it was an opportunity to make a film starring all his friends. That lent a real feel-good sense to the movie.

Definitely in the vein of a Christopher Guest mockumentary, the movie I kept comparing it to was Mario Van Peebles 2003 film Baadasssss, or How to Get the Man’s Foot Out of Your Ass, about the making of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song – his father’s revolutionary early Blacksploitation film in 1971. Whereas Peebles’ film – in which he played his father – was more meta-fictional and dramatic than Lin’s, since Sweet Sweetback was actually an independent movie (one of the first) because the studio dropped it for it’s outrageous and revolutionary nature, it was also a period piece, with a multicultural cast that dealt very much with race in Hollywood. I learned a lot in Peebles’ film about the film industry and the role of people of color in it. Even though Lin and his entourage talked about how the film was both light and “deep” in the Q&A after the film, most people I talked to had a hard time finding the “deep.”

Otherwise, the great thing about the festival is that you do get to engage with the filmmakers and actors and each other after seeing the film, as opposed as when I watch my Netflix movies in my bedroom in the middle of the night. My favorite parts from the Q&A were when Kraish says that he was most excited about the Finishing the Game – where he plays a doctor turned actor-wannabe – because it was a job and especially one where he didn’t have to play someone with “a bomb strapped to my chest.” Otherwise, I felt like MC Hammer’s presence on stage surrounded by Asian Americans and his comments about the importance of a multicultural cast – he spoke about how we all face racism as minorities and need to come together – was a perfect ending to the Kenneth Eng/AsianWeek debacle. That’s it. Let Hammer have the last word, because really – you can’t touch this.

Director Spencer Nakasako

A.k.a. Spencer Nakasako: The unassuming Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and video-diary collaborator gets the SFIAAFF tribute treatment in ‘07. (Photo courtesy SFIAAFF)

Monday: Platform //// Video-diary pioneer Spencer Nakasako in the SFIAAFF spotlight (Mar 17, 2007)

By Michael Fox

Spencer Nakasako gets the credit (or blame, if you like) for starting the still-cresting wave of first-person camcorder documentaries back in 1995, but he claims it was largely an accident. After several years working various local film jobs, he had been hired in the early ’90s by the Tenderloin-based Vietnamese Youth Development Center (VYDC) to teach video production. His approach was straightforward: He gave students cameras and told them to shoot their lives. High school senior Sokly Ny brought back a batch of especially fresh footage, and he and Nakasako proceeded to shape it into a groundbreaking one-hour film. “A.k.a. Don Bonus” won a national Emmy, a Golden Gate Award at the S.F. International Film Festival and several other awards, and opened the floodgates nationwide for a torrent of video diaries. Nakasako subsequently made the wrenching “Kelly and Tony” (1998) with Lao teenagers Tony Saezio and Kelly Saeteum and “Refugee” (2003), a moving portrait of young Cambodians visiting their homeland for the first time. The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival saluted Naksako’s pivotal role in bringing previously unheard voices to public television with an onstage interview conducted by director Justin Lin (”Finishing the Game”) this past Saturday. Nakasako, as we discovered on the phone, couldn’t be more self-effacing.

SF360: Looking back, can you see that you were a pioneer of the video-diary format?

Nakasako: I don’t know. I don’t track it that much. There are some people who say, ‘Oh you’re a pioneer.’ I don’t think about it in that way. I really learned on the job; I never went to film school. My biggest teachers were my mentors.

SF360: Take us back to those early days.

Nakasako: One of my big influences was Michael Chin, a documentary director of photography. I learned like a craft rather than like a school. I went on a set-what a gaffer did, what a sound person did. That business was kinda elitist. It was quite expensive, too. The equipment at that time was not very accessible. Then I watched how the independent scene was going. People would beg, borrow or steal a camera. People would make a film out of short ends. It was a very scrappy but creative time. People used their creativity to get their project done.

My next mentor was a guy named Wayne Wang (’Dim Sum’), which opened up another world for me, the world of 35mm, which was even more elitist. You either had to have money or know somebody [in order] to work. Ten years later, in the early ’90s, the executive director of VYDC asked me to teach video. They didn’t even really know what they wanted. I didn’t have a lot of experience with kids and I’d never taught video. I was coming from a traditional filmmaking/video background where there’s a protocol, a way of doing things. It’s a craft to be taken seriously. You have to work your way up the ranks.

SF360: What impressed you about the VYDC students?

Nakasako: These kids were coming back with footage that was considered amateurish. But what struck me was it was footage I would never be able to get on my own. They were either familiar with who they’re filming or they’re familiar with the geography. One of the things that was very apparent was they had access. Also, it was fascinating to me how they viewed the world. How they chose to shoot something without that whole training — getting an establishing shot and coverage. And kids approached it differently depending on their personalities. Some were very silent behind the camera and collected footage. Don [Bonus] was interactive behind the camera. He would talk to his subjects. You would know that there was not an objective presence behind the camera. It was clearly a subjective camera. I was taught that’s a no-no. Nobody’s supposed to know who’s behind the camera — that was the whole point of objectivity.

SF360: I trust you straightened them out, right?

Nakasako: It made me rethink all the things I had learned for 10 years. Though I was excited about the footage we were getting and the ways a lot of these young people were choosing to shoot their stories, it made me think about the term ‘collaboration.’ It’s not just a word to put on a grant proposal, but seriously, how to work with these kids. People think a lot of what I do is teach technical skills. The more important part is storytelling. One of the fun things about those kinds of projects is just sitting down and talking story. How they felt about a particular person. What they’re trying to say. A lot of times they don’t really know.

SF360: What’s the trick to finding the story in the raw footage?

Nakasako: First and foremost, sometimes it’s just luck, right? It could be a story, a conversation, like when Mike Siv (’Refugee’) is filming his mom and she’s cooking and she’s telling him his father in Cambodia has another family. It’s a very matter-of-fact way that she reveals some pretty dramatic information, right? Now it’s very subjectively shot, and hard to put together, so the job becomes how do we make this thing work. There’s no reshooting. Mike may have shot four hours but for this particular scene we have only three-and-a-half minutes of footage.

Or when Don is going around his house doing a simple show-and-tell-’Look out the window, this is where my nephew got shot.’ I’m not going to blow the audience away with how Don lives in the projects. The problem becomes how do you keep this matter-of-fact tone, this mundane everyday tone that Don has, and cut it again and put this whole scene together. There’s no real formula. That’s what’s kind of cool about it, you know? I’m hesitant to look at my batting average of those who succeed and those that don’t. We fail as often as we succeed. It’s important when you work with young people that that’s an option.

SF360: Technology is everybody’s favorite word, it seems. Is it yours?

Nakasako: The technology changes so drastically that a lot of times we focus on how freeing the technology is. I look at it as just a tool. If you don’t know how to build a house, the hammer ain’t no damn good. If the storytelling’s not interesting, who the hell wants to watch it?

SF360: Speaking of equipment, the affordability of cameras and availability of editing software has transformed personal moviemaking. How do you feel about the flood of videos by young people deluging the Internet?

Nakasako: How do you tell what’s good? There isn’t any good. There isn’t any bad. There just is. I’m not sure that that’s a problem for them. It’s kind of like no man’s land out there. What might be perceived as a bad thing to me they might think is a good thing. I do think there is still a value to broadcast, and a value to film festivals. Work is shown in a respectful environment.

SF360: The VYDC’s intent was to give kids who had no voice — minorities from low-income backgrounds — a chance to express themselves. So how do you feel about opening the way for thousands of underrepresented, disenfranchised white suburban teenagers to tell their stories?

Nakasako: (laughs) It would be cool if I could get some of the residuals from the sale of YouTube. I have to admit I haven’t watched a lot of YouTube and I don’t know very much about MySpace. I do know that when I’ve gone to different parts of the U.S, like the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where some of the kids I work with may live in the suburbs, some of these kids may own their own camera. I work with both sets of kids there, but I’ve had more access to urban kids in the Tenderloin. But those [suburban] kids still have something to say. It’s often a similar theme, like not communicating with their parents, but in an indirect way. ‘We have a nice house and a Volvo but my parents aren’t home.’ That’s a reality, right, that both parents have to work. I do understand there’s a difference between class, but I don’t just write off suburban teenagers.

SF360: One last technology question: What’s your favorite piece of gear?

Nakasako: That’s a good one. I gotta think. I used to just be hooked on these #9 mechanical pencils. I note-take a lot. You can write anywhere anytime and that lead is not going to break on you.

They are tools, and we forget that. Ten years ago, I got over the fact that cameras are going to get broken. If you want something that’s compact and portable, it’s going to get stolen. So you have to appreciate it like a tool. Maybe it’s because I’m a gardener’s son. This stuff has to be like a shovel or rake or hedge clippers. It’s nothing more than that, really.

Flower Drum Song’s blooms stand test of time

Released in 1961, Flower Drum Song was a revolutionary movie for its time and would be unheard of if it were attempted today–a big-studio musical with a largely Asian American cast.

The screening of Flower Drum Song at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival last night featured added subtitles for all the songs so the crowd could sing-along. The audience skewed a bit older than the average film festival crowd, and no doubt many were reliving memories of when the movie was released. The songs and performances are amazing as is seeing so many Asian Americans on the screen in a movie made in the early 1960s.

I had never seen Flower Drum Song until last night, and while some of the dialogue and plot points may seem hokey in 2007, the issues it dealt with–generational conflict, assimilation and even illegal immigration–still resonate today.

It’s easy to see why James Shigeta, Nancy Kwan and Miyoshi Umeki are so fondly revered for their performances as the lead characters. And it was a hoot seeing Jack Soo, who I’d never seen in anything other than Barney Miller.

Flower Drum Song is based on a novel by C.Y. Lee and was a Broadway play with music by the legendary Rodgers and Hammerstein before it was a movie. It would probably take as much star power to get a similar movie green lit by a major studio today, and so far that hasn’t happened. (But do watch out for the indie Colma: The Musical.)

At the Q&A after the screening of The Trouble With Romance, actor Roger Fan said the studios are slowly becoming more accepting of Asian Americans non-stereotypical roles, but for now we’ll have to rely on indie filmmakers, the SFIAA and other festivals until Hollywood catches up.

Major British brands ignoring Asian consumers: study

Submitted by Tarique on Mon, 2007-03-19 19:24. EconomyLondon, March 19 (IANS) The strength of the ‘brown pound’ – a term that signifies the growing economic cloud of Asians as entrepreneurs and consumers in Britain – is being largely ignored by major British brands in their marketing plans, says a new report.

The study commissioned by public relations major Weber Shandwick’s specialist multicultural marketing division Multi-Cultural Communications (MCC) has found that ethnic minorities feel alienated by big brands.

Titled the Multi-Cultural Insight Study 2007, the study examined the impact brands had on ethnic minorities. The spending power of ethnic minorities in Britain is estimated to reach 32 billion pounds by 2010.

The study found that ethnic consumers in Britain often felt ignored, with at least one in two people from all ethnic groups, including the white population, believing that consumer brands often use ethnic faces in advertising as a token gesture. This perception is particularly strong among the Black African (71 percent), Chinese (68 percent) and Indian communities (67 percent).

At least three-quarters of Asian (77 percent) and Black (78 percent) people and half (50 percent) of Chinese people in Britain are worried that mainstream brands have no relevance to them. In addition, 75 percent of Black, 63 percent of Asian and 50 percent of Chinese people believe consumer brands are not aware of how to market to individuals from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

The 2001 National Census found that 10 percent of UK’s population was from a non-white ethnic group, with the three largest groups being Asian, Black and Chinese. A third of the population of Inner London and a quarter of the population of Outer London are from ethnic minority groups.

Rakhee Vithlani, head of MCC, said: “As the UK becomes increasingly diverse, companies are steadily realising the opportunities of communicating to the multicultural market, but it is apparent that many still do not fully understand how to effectively tune in to the spending power of ethnic groups.”

The study found that some major brands communicate well with ethnic groups in the country as part of their marketing, advertising and PR strategies. Tesco, Orange and BT have conducted specific campaigns and reaped brand equity and financial benefits.

Researchers found that Black and Asian consumers would be more inclined to purchase a product if they noticed it was advertised to multicultural consumers. In some sectors, ethnic minority spending per head is significantly higher: for example, Black and Asian consumers spend 44 percent more on clothing on average per month than White consumers.

Four out of five Black, Asian and Chinese respondents agree religion and cultural background are important to them, with Black consumers in particular being very strongly inclined to admire celebrities in film, TV, music and sport from their own ethnic background.

Black respondents’ most admired top three film, music, TV and sport celebrities are all of Black ethnic origin, and Asian respondents’ most admired top three film celebrities are all of Asian ethnic origin.

SFIAAFF: Shanghai Kiss

SFist Mihi reports in from the SFIAAFF this weekend!

The world premiere of Shanghai Kiss played on Saturday night at the Castro Theatre and the house was packed.

One of the themes running through the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival last year was about how there weren’t enough Asian-American men in movies. Clearly things have not improved since out of the three movies we saw over the weekend, two of them featured the same dude (Ken Leung) as the male lead (and the third one was a Japanese anime).

Shanghai Kiss is the story of a struggling 28 year-old Asian-American actor (the perspicacious Ken Leung) in L.A. who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a 16 year-old girl (played by Hayden Panettiere of ABC’s “Heroes“). He’s forced to confront both his identity crisis and his troubled relationship with his father when he inherits a house in Shanghai where he meets the lovely Kelly Hu (who also stars in an ABC series, “In Case of Emergency” and who is in another SFIAAFF film this year too).

After the jump: donkeys in Compton or taking the bus in LA? And the director’s poignant story about his father.

We admit there were a couple of things that immediately ruined the movie for us. A 28 year-old man and a 16 year-old girl? Creepy. Plus, the 16 year-old who lives in Beverly Hills meets the main character while riding a bus. In LA. We grew up in LA and no perky, pretty, princess 16-year-old who lives in Beverly Hills rides a bus. Ever. Why not just have them meet while riding donkeys through Compton? Much more believable that Beverly Hills blondie on rapid transit.

The directors, Kern Konwiser and David Ren were in attendance and before the movie they spoke to the crowd. Ren said he wrote the script in part to connect with his own father, with whom he has a troubled relationship. “When he drinks, I don’t even know him,” said Ren quietly. Shanghai Kiss is his attempt to communicate with his father but unfortunately the snowstorm in New York grounded his dad’s plane and his father was missing the world premiere of the movie. He paused and the crowd was hushed, struck by the tragic irony and subdued to be witnessing such an intimate moment. “But this is a comedy!” finished Ren and the audience laughed in relief.

Shanghai Kiss plays on Friday night at Camera 12 Cinemas in San Jose.

SFIAAFF: Opening Night!

On our tightly-packed MUNI ride to the Castro to the opening night festivities for the San Francisco International Asian-American Film Festival, we were squooshed next to three thrilled Asian-American film lovers eagerly listing all the movies they were planning on seeing over this week. Excitement is running high!

The SFIAAFF opening night screening was for Finishing the Game, a faux-documentary comedy about the casting of a replacement Bruce Lee to finish Lee’s last movie after his untimely death, directed by Asian-American wunderkind Justin Lin.

The mood got more and more buzzy as we neared the theater — there was a green carpet arrival, with a woman whom we totally did not recognize mugging for paparazzi shouting “ONE MORE! ONE MORE!” at her, photobloggers shooting pictures of everything in sight, and anxious SFIAAFF staff nervously looking down Castro Street to see if featured actor (and blogger) MC Hammer was going to make it to the theater before the stated start time of 7 p.m.

There were people dressed in Bruce Lee yellow jumpsuits, elegantly-attired people no doubt heading out for the gala after the screening, a man collecting autographs who asked us whether we’d heard if Jennifer Siebel would be attending the screening (answer: no), and a man desperate to get into the screening who kept asking us if we’d sell him our plus-one ticket (and nearly attacked someone trying to return their tickets to the box office.) We hope he got in!

After the jump: MC Hammer shows up a mere 10 minutes before showtime! We got pictures!

As we were fending off the man trying to buy our ticket, we saw a Hummer-style pickup double-parking on Castro. That’s gotta be the Hammer, right?

U Can’t Touch This then emerged from the car (he’s much wider than we’d thought he’d be), to the startled swerve of a cabdriver trying to get around the double-parked cars, and was then promptly swarmed by the autograph hound who had presumably put away his Siebel paraphernalia for another day, and others like him. After giving the hounds the ol’ “Hammer Time! Keep your eyes on the stars!” signed glossies, Hammer then sportingly walked the green carpet and posed for some shots with Justin Lin.

Oh, and the movie? It was hilarious. Go see it when it opens! If you’ve wondered what Dustin Nguyen from 21 Jump Street has been doing lately, your questions will be answered. (and oh yes, the SFIAAFF teaser trailer? It’s worth going to every single movie at the festival this year, just to watch it over and over again. It’s by the folks who brought you Colma the Musical last year, and it’s awwwwwwwe-some.)

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Pat Morita

Noriyuki ‘Pat’ Morita

Born: June 28, 1932

Died: Nov. 24, 2005

Known for: Morita, an Isleton native, went from performing comedy for friends in living rooms to landing an Oscar nomination for his 1984 portrayal of the martial arts master Mr. Miyagi in “The Karate Kid.”

Background: Born to parents who had emigrated from Japan, Morita overcame childhood tuberculosis, internment during World War II and toiling in Delta pear orchards to become one of the most successful and prominent Asian American actors in Hollywood. His parents later owned a restaurant on Fourth Street in downtown Sacramento. There, Morita tested jokes on patrons. By his late 20s, Morita was working at Aerojet. But bitten by the performing bug, Morita hustled to book stand-up gigs at local clubs and in San Francisco. He eventually made hundreds of television appearances, including a recurring role as Arnold in “Happy Days,” before starring in “The Karate Kid.”

A highlight: Morita’s performance in “The Karate Kid” remains a high point for Asian American actors who’ve struggled in an industry that has mostly offered them stereotypical roles. The role earned Morita his 1985 Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor.

Source: Bee archives

The First Annual Asian Film Awards

So it’s not asian AMERICAN info

so sue me! haa

The prizes were handed out this week for the first annual Asian Film Awards, held in conjunction with the 31st Hong Kong International Film Festival. It is not surprising that Bong Joon-ho’s The Host was a big winner (Best Film, Actor, Cinematographer, and Visual Effects) enjoying financial and critical success all over the world, including the US. Jia Zhangke won best director, in a catagory where I feel all the nominees deserved the award: Hong Sang-soo for Woman on the Beach, Johnnie To for Exiled, Jafar Panahi for Offside, Tsai Ming-liang for I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul for Syndromes and a Century. Wow.

As outlined on the AFA website, “The initiative is to acknowledge the finest of Asian Cinema, and bestow honour in various categories to film artists from across Asia, in the company of distinguished celebrities from around the world as guests and presenters.” It is long overdue and it will be interesting to follow over the coming years. Also included in the program was special awards to Josephine Siao for outstanding contibution (being awesome), David Bordwell for excellence in scholarship (taking HK films beyond chopy-socky) and Andy Lau for box office star (making $).

Full list of nominees and winners:
Best Film
Curse of the Golden Flower, Hong Kong / Chinese mainland
Exiled, Hong Kong
The Host, South Korea
Love and Honor, Japan
Opera Jawa, Indonesia / Austria
Still Life, Chinese mainland

Best Director
HONG Sang-soo, Woman on the Beach, South Korea
JIA Zhangke, Still Life, Chinese mainland
Jafar PANAHI, Offside, Iran
Johnnie TO, Exiled, Hong Kong
TSAI Ming-liang, I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, Taiwan / France / Austria
Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL, Syndromes and a Century, Thailand / Austria / France

Best Actor
CHANG Chen, The Go Master, Chinese mainland
RAIN (JUNG Ji-hoon), I’m A Cybord, But That’s OK, South Korea
Shahrukh KHAN, DON, India
Andy LAU, A Battle of Wits, Japan / Hong Kong / Chinese mainland / South Korea
SONG Kang-ho, The Host, South Korea
Ken WATANABE, Memories of Tomorrow, Japan

Best Actress
GONG Li, Curse of the Golden Flower, Hong Kong / Chinese mainland
KIM Hye-soo, Tazza: The High Rollers, South Korea
LIM Soo-jung, I’m A Cybord, But That’s OK, South Korea
Rie MIYAZAWA, Hana, Japan
Miki NAKATANI, Memories of Matsuko, Japan
Ziyi ZHANG, The Banquet, Hong Kong / Chinese mainland

Best Screenwriter
Mani HAGHIGHI, Men at Work, Iran
HONG Sang-soo, Woman on the Beach, South Korea
Tetsuya OISHI, Shusuke KANEKO, Death Note: The Last Name, Japan
SOHN Jae-gon, My Scary Girl, South Korea
Prabda YOON, Invisible Waves, Thailand / The Netherlands / South Korea / Hong Kong
ZHANG Cheng, YUE Xiaojun, NING Hao, Crazy Stone, Hong Kong / Chinese mainland

Best Cinematographer
KIM Hyung-goo, The Host, South Korea
Andrew LAU, LAI Yiu-fai, Confession of Pain, Hong Kong
LIAO Pen-jung, I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, Taiwan / France / Austria
Sayombhu MUKDEEPROM, Syndromes and a Century, Thailand / Austria / France
WANG Yu, The Go Master, Chinese mainland

Best Editor
Lee CHATAMETIKOOL, Syndromes and a Century, Thailand
KIM Sun-min, The Host, South Korea
Angie LAM, Dog Bite Dog, Japan / Hong Kong
PARK Gok-ji, JEONG Jin-hee, A Dirty Carnival, South Korea
Patrick TAM, After This Our Exile, Hong Kong

Best Composer
JEONG Yong-jin, Woman on the Beach, South Korea
Peter KAM, Isabella, Hong Kong
LIM Giong, Still Life, Chinese mainland
Rahayu SUPANGGAH, Opera Jawa, Indonesia / Austria
Tamiya TERASHIMA, Tales from Earthsea, Japan

Best Production Designer
CHO Keun-hyun, Forbidden Quest, South Korea
Towako KUWAJIMA, Memories of Matsuko, Japan
Patrick TAM, Cyurs HO, After This Our Exile, Hong Kong
WADA Emi, The Go Master, Chinese mainland
Tim YIP, The Banquet, Hong Kong / Chinese mainland

Best Visual Effects
Angela BARSON, CHUNG Chi-hang, Curse of the Golden Flower, Hong Kong / Chinese mainland
DTI (Digital Tetra Inc.) ETRI, The Restless, South Korea
Tetsuo OHYA, Makoto KAMIYA, Katsuro ONOUE, The Sinking of Japan, Japan
The Orphanage, The Host, South Korea
YANAGAWASE Masahide, Memories of Matsuko, Japan

Honary Award for outstanding contribution to Asian cinema: Actress Josephine Siao Fong-fong (Hong Kong)

Honary Award for excellence in scholarship in Asian cinema: Film academic David Bordwell (United States)

Nielsen Box Office Star of Asia Award: Actor Andy Lau

Director Justin Lin and Cast Discuss ‘Finishing the Game’

Arts and Entertainment

 

From the Nichi Bei Times Weekly March 22, 2007

By BEN HAMAMOTO
Nichi Bei Times

Filmmaker Justin Lin strolls into the lobby of the Miyako Hotel where his cast is doing interviews. His latest work, “Finishing the Game,” played to a packed house the previous night as the opening night film for the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF).

Lin approaches the cast with a plate of manju from the nearby J-Town institution Benkyodo. Careful not to disturb the interviews taking place, he tiptoes around passing out confections to journalists and the actors.

While “Finishing the Game” made its premiere at Sundance, it’s hard to imagine a more appropriate opener for the 25^th SFIAAFF. Lin is a festival vet; a key member of what Oliver Wang calls the “Class of ’97,” as the tone and content of his “Shopping For Fangs” was one of several films at that year’s fest to mark a different direction in Asian American art.

Lin followed with the breakout API film, “Better Luck Tomorrow.” That got him in the Tinseltown door, where he subsequently did two big-budget features — “Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” and “Annapolis.”

“The Game” marks his return both to the world of Indie filmmaking and to Asian American subject matter.

“’Finishing the Game’ is my baby,” he tells the Nichi Bei Times. “I grew it from the ground up. I have complete control, which is something I was very adamant about and I fought for.”

The new film comes from an idea that Lin had many years ago. It takes a figurative way of explaining the plight of Asian American actors in Hollywood (or maybe even Asian people in America in general): “all they see us as are Bruce Lee stand-ins.” And it goes back to a specific situation in recent history when that complaint was not a metaphor but was actually quite literal.

When Bruce Lee, the highest profile Asian American the country ever knew, unexpectedly died, he left a studio with 12 minutes of footage from an incomplete film. Eager to capitalize on Lee’s fame, the studio set out to find a replacement to be a stand-in, a body double for Bruce Lee.

“The Game” is a little piece of historical fiction. It’s a satirical take on the casting process for the body double from the imagination of Lin and co-writer Josh Diamond.

Lin assembled a cast, comprised largely of old friends, to play the hopeful Bruce Lee stand-ins. The group of actors the filmmaker brought together is almost an eerie fit for the film on multiple levels.
In the hotel lobby, Dustin Nguyen, Sung Kang, MacCaleb Burnett and Roger Fan behave sort of like a group of college roommates. Playful and at ease around each other, there is genuine chemistry at work.

Their real-life personalities, at least as they are presented to the press, create distinct roles within the group. The majority are Asian American actors and can directly relate to the film’s metaphor. But the film’s tone, and how that metaphor is presented, also seem to fit them.

Despite the easy-going demeanor, the actors and the film itself all have serious thoughts about entertainment.

Nguyen, who plays Troy Poon, a cop-show actor turned vacuum cleaner salesman, has been in the business the longest. His career took off with a lead role in the teen detective drama “21 Jump Street” and he went on to work on the action comedy series “V.I.P.” The veteran actor is friendly and humble. There is a compassionate air about him. The adversity he’s over come, both inside and out of the film industry, gives him a visible maturity.

Kang, who entered the hotel with Burnett wearing fake moustaches, plays Colgate “Cole” Kim, a humble Southern bit-player also in contention for the role. His star has been on the rise since “Better Luck Tomorrow,” which he has led to a number of memorable roles in API features as well as a standout character in Lin’s addition to the “Fast & Furious” franchise.

Kang rejects the typical actor-interview format, and engages interviewers conversationally, taking away both the constraints and protections imposed by the roles. Oscillating between molestation jokes and insightful remarks about the film industry, Kang makes his multi-dimensionality so visible, he almost becomes one-dimensional.

Burnett, who sits beside Kang and plays with his hair with alarming frequency, delights in his co-stars’ antics. He plays the hapa beat-poet pro-Asian activist, who looks a little too Caucasian for the Bruce Lee role he wants to play. The “Annapolis” vet revels his real-life role as “the white guy” in the group.

Fan, who was in both “Better Luck Tomorrow” and “Annapolis,” never rushes to be the first to answer a question, but when asked questions, is never without a thoughtful response. He comes off as the right balance of understated but not passive, confident but not cocky. He plays Breeze Loo, whose name, which suggests the swap-meet knock-off version of Bruce Lee, says a lot about his character.

Mousa Kraish, the only main cast member other than Burnett who is not East Asian, plays Raja, a doctor of Middle Eastern descent. Like Nguyen, he is both humble and enthusiastic.

The film, the filmmaker and the cast represent oppositions, sometimes to each other and sometimes inside themselves. In this way, “Finishing the Game” seems to be about duality.

Role-model and Stereotype

“Finishing the Game” is rooted in the contradictory legacy of Bruce Lee, a subject of great relevance to many of the actors.

“The idea of Bruce Lee is a double-edged sword,” Kang explains. “It’s great that this Chinese American guy became this international phenomenon, almost a superhero. But on the other side it’s very offensive… he created this stereotype that is so big and so gigantic that it’s hard for us to break away from it.

“In my career I’ve always avoided martial arts,” Kang continues. “I studied to be an actor. It’s great because (in “Finishing the Game”) we get to use the legacy, but underneath it, we’re essentially playing actors, these three-dimensional characters who have feelings, they’re narcissistic (but they are trapped imitating Lee).”

“Everyone assumes a movie about Bruce Lee is going to be about martial arts,” Fan adds. “The funny thing about it is that it has almost nothing to do with martial arts. I don’t know anything about martial arts, partially ‘cause I refused to… We were lucky to have Don Tai who works with the Jackie Chan stunt company and when he saw us, he was just like ‘oh boy.’”

Nguyen, however, is an experienced martial artist, the only one in the cast other than Burnett, ironically. He’s done a lot of action onscreen and off-screen he has said in a previous interview, that he advocates Jeet Kun Do — a martial arts style and philosophy founded by Lee himself.

Seasoned Veterans and A New Movement

Asian Americans have been making strides in Hollywood recently. Kang and Fan have each appeared in Lin’s Hollywood outings “Fast & The Furious” and “Annapolis,” respectively. Kang, however, sees a potential glass ceiling within the studio system.

“If I were a (Hollywood) agent or a manager I don’t really know where ‘Sung’ fits in that system,” he muses. “In the TV world, would the advertisers pay for (me) to be in a pilot opposite the blonde blue-eyed leading female as a possible love interest? Is America ready for that?”

This comment evokes a response from other cast members.

“I think people are ready to see the world multi-ethnically,” Fan turns and answers. “They’ve been ready for years and years and years… It’s just that Hollywood isn’t going to make the change and so they keep making a product that makes the world very one-dimensional… Hollywood isn’t into risk taking. Hollywood is into, ‘if it worked before, keep doing it.’”

“America isn’t into risk taking,” Burnett adds, “Corporations don’t want to lose money.”

Due to Hollywood’s reluctance to take chances on API films, Asian Americans have taken to making such works independently, leading to an increasingly diverse output evidenced in the growing SFIAAFF.

“It’s interesting ‘cause coming to a festival like SF you look at the program and you see that there are over 12 feature films this year,” Kang says. “And it’s a really exciting time ‘cause Asian Americans are making feature films.”

However, before such a movement existed several API actors struggled in the film industry without the kind of support that exists today.

“When I came into the business there were a couple of guys who were there before me and they kind of just saw you as the new kid on the block,” Nguyen, who landed his first TV role in 1985, explains. “Work was so scarce and it was so competitive that everyone kept to themselves. I got really lucky, but it was still very lonely cause you didn’t have peers.

Kang expressed admiration for the veteran API actor.

“In this business if you can find friends, if you can find a mentor, I think you’re very lucky,” Kang said. “(I) totally admire him, I was like a sponge when I met him. I was like, ‘how do you stay normal?’ At least Roger and I had other guys we could ask questions to. Dustin was kind of by himself.”

“For me, (in terms of peers) it was like people in my acting class or my teacher, who I could hang out with and vent my insecurities to,” he continues. “It’s nice that, now that there’s this movement (I have people to talk to).”

Kraish sees many similar challenges as those Nguyen faced in the past.

“(As a Palestinian American actor) I don’t have peers in a sense,” he says.

“I’m lucky enough to be able to play character roles and really be among really great actors and work with them,” Kraish continues. “Maybe one day there will be a community like this community. I would love to have a festival just like this and hold cross festivals. It’s a good… to watch (my co-stars) because I can see what the future could be like for me.”

Mingling with the crowd.

FASHION & BEAUTY: FASHION

MAR 2007 Fashion & Beauty Fashion

4.3Mingling with the crowd.

Edmund Moy

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mingle
v. mingled, mingling, mingles
v.tr.

1. To mix or bring together in combination, usually without loss of individual characteristics.
2. To mix so that the components become united; merge.
When entrepreneur Mimi Ting began searching for a name to give her new designer fashion boutique in San Francisco’s trendy Union Street Shopping District, she turned to the dictionary and found the word mingle.

When I turned 30, I decided it was time to do something that I love … not just something I am good at.

Mimi Ting

And today, that’s exactly what Ting does on a daily basis. Often times she’ll stop to mingle with clients one-on-one and help them select items from her vast collection of handmade designer clothing, jewelry, handbags and accessories. Some items are one-of-a kind. Others only available in certain fabrics and prints for a limited time. Many are handmade originals from the designers.

Or as Ting likes to put it, Mingle caters to the “fashionistas” who insist on wearing the hottest styles, but love having something slightly different and original. New merchandise arrives on a weekly basis at Mingle – and the store’s mission is to add hip items and rotate designers with the intent to provide shoppers with something refreshingly new.

“I always tell customers don’t buy it if you don’t love it,” says Ting. “I want them to feel good about what they bought, so I get people coming back saying, ‘I love what I bought here. I get so many compliments on it.’”

Getting compliments from happy clients is something Ting cherishes after working for several years in the stodgy high-tech field as a consultant for companies such as IBM, MCI and WebEx.

Born in Taiwan, Ting moved to the United States with her family in 1985. Her family eventually settled into the San Francisco Bay Area where she quickly assimilated into American culture. And like many Asian children of immigrant parents, she followed the conventional path of getting good grades, studying hard and getting her degree in business.

But Ting grew “tired” of the high-tech world and eventually found the right guidance and referrals to create Mingle from a long-time friend and former co-worker, Alicia McCullagh.

Ting also began cultivating a stronger spiritual connection through teacher Connie Jackson’s abundance and manifestation workshops, which helped her to develop a better intuitive sense and learning to live in the flow.

Mingle store front

“If you love something enough, the Universe just provides for you,” Ting says. “I truly believe in that….”

Now entering the store’s third-year of operation, Ting remains optimistic about Mingle’s future. She’s considering creating an online storefront, “branding” the company, expanding into additional store locations and creating her own clothing line.

During a Valentine’s Day break from mingling with customers, Ting stopped to chat with Asiance about her love for shopping, the journey from the high-tech world into designer fashions, and of course, mingling.

ASIANCE: Tell us how you got your start in fashion industry.

Mimi: Mingle was my first legitimate entry into the fashion industry. Prior to Mingle, I did not have any formal training/education in fashion. I spent eight years in the high tech Industry. Nevertheless, I’ve been an avid consumer of the fashion industry all of my life. As far back as I can remember, I have always been obsessed with clothing and fashion. I begged to tag along with my mother on every one of her shopping excursions. During grade school, I’d get into trouble for not paying attention during class – I was busy doodling figures with extravagant outfits. When I was 15 and I got my first job at a roller-skating rink, I spent all my earnings on clothes. After college, I took the steady route and worked for Blue Chips like IBM. But whenever I took a trip for work, I’d always pack an extra bag to bring home all my inevitable finds. When I turned 30, I decided it was time to do something that I love … not just something I am good at.

ASIANCE: What inspired the name Mingle?

Mimi: In my previous job, many of my clients would mistakenly address me as Ming. My name is Mimi Ting. I suppose it was easy for people to abbreviate as Ming. My girlfriend at work gave me the nickname Ming. I love to play on words. So when I was deciding on the name for the store, I looked up words in a dictionary/thesaurus. I found the definition for Mingle and knew it was perfect for what I had intended. Even more perfect because I love to mingle – I thrive on human interaction.

ASIANCE: Tell us about the concept behind Mingle.

Mimi: The concept behind Mingle follows the definition of Mingle: To mix or bring together in combination, usually without loss of individual characteristics. Our designers vary in their style, length of experience, price points, etc. But, together, they help create a well-rounded story. Mingle offers both something to the designers as well as the clients. Our space enables emerging and independent designers and artists to showcase their work. For designers, it is a great bridge to an audience – and a way to get exposure and feedback. Having a space on Union Street means we are able to reach out to fans within San Francisco as well as traveling tourists. For our clients, we are committed to offer to them unique and affordable finds that may not exist elsewhere. People truly appreciate discovering quality fashion finds that they won’t see on a pack of other guys and gals.

Mingle is located at 1815 Union Street, San Francisco, CA 94123 For more information about Mingle, please visit the website at http://www.mingleshop.com or call 415-674-8811

What Makes A Great Headshot?

MAR 2007 Career

4.0What Makes A Great Headshot?

Edmund Moy

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A veteran of film and television, Ming Lo has appeared in numerous Hollywood films including Pursuit of Happyness, Jarhead, Million Dollar Baby, Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, Lost Souls, and Red Corner. On television, you might have seen him on The West Wing, Boston Legal, Scrubs, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Navy NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigations Service), Red Skies, Thieves, The Parkers and The X-Files. You might even have heard his voice in The Matrix: Path of Neo video game. In addition to the multitude of small roles he’s played in Hollywood over the years, Ming Lo has also become an accomplished filmmaker and photographer, specializing in headshots and ZED cards (also known as comp cards, used for marketing by actors and especially models). He recently took timeout to speak with Asiance about his career in Hollywood, his photography work and what makes a great Headshot?

ASIANCE: Tell us about your photography work.

Ming Lo: I used to shoot in high school, but I picked it up again a few years back. I’ve always liked to look at things visually. My father passed away a few years ago, and I realized I didn’t have many pictures because I had stopped taking pictures, so I sort of got back into it and decided I wanted to take more pictures and have more memories of my life.

I was at McKinsey and Company. I was a consultant. And I left. I went into acting.

Ming Lo

ASIANCE:Was that something you thought of as a profession growing up?

Ming Lo: It was just fun. Also, I was just getting into filmmaking a few years back, and in filmmaking it’s good to understand things visually, so you know photography and filmmaking are actually very interrelated. So from the artistic to the technical it all overlaps quite a bit. Taking some more photography made me a better filmmaker; being a better filmmaker made me a better photographer, and back and forth. Being an actor made me better at both. So it’s fun because they all kind of overlap and it’s like cross training. Basically, they all kind of help each other out.

ASIANCE: How did it lead to you taking headshots?

Ming Lo: As a photographer, I like moments. I guess this comes from my bias being an actor. Some photographers are more technically oriented; they’re more about composition and light, and these kinds of things; and what makes a technically good picture; and I’m very much about capturing moments in a person’s life. And that’s what I’ve always done. I mean even when I was a kid shooting and when I was in High School or traveling I always wanted to capture a moment or capture a scene or capture how something felt. So I’ve always liked that and one thing about headshots is that headshots are very much about trying to capture somebody’s personality, and it’s also about trying to capture an expression in the eyes or how someone is feeling in a certain moment, so it can be very difficult because you have to do a lot of things in one picture. You have to be technically good. You have to have good lighting, you have to have good composition, you have to have [a] setting, [and a] good background all at the same time. You have to try to really capture the personality of the person and what that person can express.

ASIANCE: Do you ever feel you have to bring out that person you’re shooting? Or do they kind of naturally ease into after a while and get comfortable?

Ming Lo: It’s actually very, very hard for most people. Even for established actors. The fairly established actors are pretty good at it because they’re in front of a camera all the time so it’s very much like being in front of a film camera but I find that if you’re a complete novice, it’s good to have a photographer that can bring it out. And even if you have some experience, or you’re somewhat experienced as an actor, a good photographer can help you bring out the range of possibilities. It’s like playing a piano, we only play one or two octaves most of the time, whereas the full range is I think eight octaves or something like that. So if a photographer can help you bring out some more [delete "than", replace with ", then"] that’s really important. Most of us, in our everyday lives, we’re sort of limited in what we express.

ASIANCE: Do you feel like your photography is able to touch on the emotional aspects of a person’s personality to bring out those little details about them. Is that what goes into a good headshot?

Ming Lo: I think that’s actually the most important part. I mean the headshot is simplified so much that you only focus on the person and their eyes. Headshots are often chest and above, leaving just the person’s head. You simplify the background so that your eyes are drawn to the face. So a lot of that is bringing out [someone's personality]. It’s very hard to stare at the camera and it’s very unnatural. Unless you have experience doing it and you have an idea of what to do it’s just a very strange experience. What you do in everyday life isn’t necessarily what looks good in front of a camera. So sometimes you have to adjust what you do, and often, in front of the camera, you have to repeat it, and you have to do it several times. So finding that is hard. I think because I’m an actor and director, I can help people with that because it takes a little bit of knowing. It usually takes me a little bit of time to get a sense of the person, to figure out what the person is like. Every person’s unique so in the first 15 to 20 minutes you just take a bunch of pictures just to get a sense of what the person looks like on camera, what their range of expressions are, what they tend to express, and once I get to know them a bit, I can pull more things out of the shoot.

Ming Lo

ASIANCE: Do you use digital or film? What format are you shooting?

Ming Lo: I love film, but digital is the medium of preference these days. Digital is easier because you can shoot a lot and you can erase pictures so you don’t have to worry about wasting a shot. You can just put it on a disc and give it to someone and they can walk away with it. The color and all these things are all very good. If you’re a good photographer and you know how to set that up then you’re fine. The drawbacks of digital are that usually it captures a lot more detail than film. Film kind of interprets and softens things a little bit, whereas, digital tends to be very detailed. So you have to know how to work with that as a photographer, generally you capture a lot of detail on the face which might require some work in Photoshop later on. The other advantage of digital is speed. In film you take shots and you have to worry about how many shots you take, you have to send it to a lab, so there’s a turn around time, and then it comes back, and you have to go through them again, and you have to get prints to look at them in a larger size in order to be able to choose the one that you like…. it’s just a time consuming process.

ASIANCE: Is it any easier for you to work with actors as opposed to average person?

Ming Lo: There’s no real difference. But with very experienced actors it’s very easy because they’re used to knowing what their face looks like and what expressions or what an expression or look or feeling looks like on camera. With newer actors it’s about the same. The hardest part about taking a headshot is that the moment that its ideal to take a headshot is a split second.. So for example, whenever someone takes your picture you don’t know when you’re going to take the picture and they say smile it could be a half second, full second or two seconds later that they actually take the picture and in that two seconds you’re holding the smile… and after that first half-second [,] the honesty, the freshness of the smile is gone. So, we’ve all experienced that… and as a headshot photographer you need to know how to keep people natural, and keep it flowing, and know even when people are experiencing something, and what the right time is to take the photo. That’s often the hardest part.

ASIANCE: How did you go from photography work into acting?

Ming Lo: Actually, the acting happened first. I was in consulting and I went from consulting into acting. I was an actor for about six or seven years before I started picking up the photography again. I mean would shoot but not as a paid photographer. So after about six or seven years, I started shooting headshots and I just started small and did some friends and shot people and just did some test shots. People seemed to like it. Basically, I just do it by referral. People who meet me and see my stuff they’ll call.

Hollywood tends to see Asians certain ways and there are very typical roles played by Asians. I would say I play 60 to 70 percent doctors. What else do I play after that? I played monks, Korean Grocers, and you know… Asian bad guys. That’s probably 80-90 percent of what I play.

Ming Lo

ASIANCE: So how did you get started in Hollywood?

Ming Lo: I was at McKinsey and Company. I was a consultant. And I left. I went into acting. I got my headshots taken. I sort of ran around town and basically I pounded the pavement. I got an agent and all these things. I was lucky I had enough cash to last a year or year and a half. I was lucky I started making some money from acting in my second year and so I’ve been fortunate I haven’t had to really worry. My main living has come from acting since then.

ASIANCE: Can you tell us about your first major role as an actor?

Ming Lo: My first couple of roles were small. One was a soap, The Young and The Restless, and I remember that really well. It was great just because there was a lot of learning and they hired me maybe 10 or 12 times that summer. I did America’s Most Wanted, which was really fun. And then my first big role, I think was Red Corner with Richard Gere and Bai Ling. That was directed by John Avnet. I was fortunate to have a few days on that as a Medical Examiner.

ASIANCE: You’ve worked with Clint Eastwood in a scene from Million Dollar Baby. Tell us about that.

Ming Lo: Yeah… that was great. I’ve been very, very fortunate that I’ve worked with some great people. I only shot a couple of days on each of those, but it’s just getting exposure; get a chance to work with them; and see how they work, and see how they do their thing. Hillary Swank was great too. She’s really fabulous to work with. They’re all very nice, very easy, very relaxed. And you know, it’s very much about the work, and making the film, making the story work.

ASIANCE: What was it like working with Eastwood as a director?

Ming Lo: I didn’t know it but I’d heard about it. He basically let’s you do your thing… He respects the actor a lot. Everything they say about him is true. He doesn’t call action. You take it on your own mark. So they’ll [roll] camera and as an actor you just choose when to start doing your thing. He only does a few takes and then he moves on. He respects you as an actor and expects you to deliver the performance and to really think about it and prepare. So he just basically let’s you go. It seems to work really well for him and that’s the way he was. He’s very low key and very easygoing. It was a small crew… much smaller than most of the sets I’ve been on… it was very relaxed… just set in a small room…. It was really a great environment for the actor. Most people say film is a director’s medium because the director sort of controls everything that you see and they edit and so forth. But with Clint, he’s very much an actor’s director and he very much respects what the actor does.

ASIANCE: Tell me about your role in JarHead [screen credited as the Bored Gunny].

Ming Lo: It was actually really fun. I went in and I auditioned. It was pretty obvious, this character’s a bureaucrat. And I didn’t expect to get it. I think I’m the only Asian guy in the film. But you know, they called me and said you’re coming, so I showed up on the set. We were out on some set that looked like some military or ex-military camp in Palmdale. Literally, there were hundreds of extras all getting their haircut. The lines that you see are actually [improvised] at the last-minute. I had a certain set of lines, so I did those and [Sam Mendes, the director] said you know why don’t you just say this. Mendes is also a great actors director. He comes from theater, so he really likes working with actors. And basically, there was one take where he sort of whispered in my ear and said go ahead and say this. He didn’t tell Jake [Gyllenhaal] and I said it. He just likes to see what happens and get it on film. And then he gave me a couple of variations. It wasn’t what was in the original script at all. What you see on screen is what we [improvised] on that day. But you know, he’s a great director. He’s very talented. Not only storytelling wise and visually, but working with actors.

And you can tell because you get on set and some directors like to work with you and some directors just sort of are more technically oriented and tend not to be as focused on the acting. Mendes was very hands-on. He was watching very carefully. He was very attentive and open to ideas and improv.

ASIANCE: Your roles in Million Dollar Baby and Jarhead weren’t specific to an Asian actor. They could have been played by anybody. But you do play a lot of doctors in the movies. How do you feel about that?

Ming Lo: I think my mom’s happy. [laughs] I think it’s just the way Hollywood sees us. Hollywood tends to see Asians certain ways and there are very typical roles played by Asians. I would say I play 60 to 70 percent doctors. What else do I play after that? I played monks, Korean Grocers, and you know… Asian bad guys. That’s probably 80-90 percent of what I play.

ASIANCE: Do you feel those stereotypes affect how people perceive you in real life?

Ming Lo: Yeah… certainly… to a certain extent… of course. Let’s put it this way, I’m sure it reinforces existing stereotypes. I remember once I was with a group of writers and this writer was writing about firemen and a friend of mine who was one of the writers, he’s the one who brought me into this table of writers and he said, “Oh, you should use Ming as one of the firemen.” And the writer hadn’t conceived [,] had not thought of having an Asian firefighter. So she was taken a bit off guard as well, and she even said, “Are there Asian firefighters?” Of course, there must be even if you haven’t met one personally. But she was like, “Huh?” So it’s kind of interesting to see that. You notice that even when you watch the news and the PR people who are talking about events are not Asian, except in medical fields. So when someone has a major operation and they come out and say, “Oh, how well is this person doing?” Sometimes that person will be Asian. One of the reasons there’s always Asian coroners and medical examiners is because there’s Henry Lee and there’s the [Asian] guy in L.A. [who] used to be a corner.

But the truth is when you see firefighters, the spokesperson is rarely Asian. So any sort of appearance reinforces or sets the direction of certain stereotypes.

ASIANCE: Do you feel like it has caused you to be typecast as doctors and medical examiners?

Ming Lo: Sure. Of course. Yeah.

ASIANCE: What do you think that does for your career? Does it keep you from expanding out? What is your feeling about it?

Ming Lo: It makes it harder. In [some ways] it’s got pluses and minuses. The plus is people look for you for certain types of roles. So for certain types of roles, you have a slight advantage. But it’s also limiting because one of the stereotypes is that Asians aren’t leaders. So Asian men have a hard time with lead roles, or leading roles, or roles with a lot of authority, you know, playing the antagonist. Unless you’re the mafia guy or mafioso of some kind, you rarely see an Asian guy as either the lead or antagonist. You don’t often see an Asian male as the protagonist or an antagonist. Usually, you see them as supporting characters.

ASIANCE: In an interview last summer, Justin Lin said he originally wanted to cast an Asian male to be the lead in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, but they couldn’t find a young lead Asian male that could carry the film, so they ended up casting a Caucasian actor [Lucas Black]. Do you feel like at some point that maybe there’s an Asian male lead that can carry a Hollywood film?

Ming Lo: Yeah… it’s hard if we put the weight on the Asian guy carrying it. If you think about the process, a couple of things are involved. The writer has to come up with it. And where does the writer come up with it?

Well, he comes up with these ideas by looking at myths and stories. And he looks at the news. So those basically are your two sources of stories. It’s existing myths and the news. So that’s really all where it starts. It’s hard for an Asian guy to carry a story unless it’s specifically Asian because of these things. I mean what myths do you have? You have Bruce Lee. So you have the Asian male as warrior. Then you have the Asian male as wise monk, or teacher, or mentor, and you have Asian male as technocrat or bureaucrat, so people tend to write that way because that’s what’s embedded in people’s minds.

ASIANCE: Do you feel that if Asians want to have bigger roles in Hollywood they’ll have to start writing characters that are focused on Asian stories?

Ming Lo: There are a lot of actors but very few Asian executives, writers and directors. So when you look at the creative forces behind things, there are not many Asians in that area. The other thing is I think you need more Asians leading in everyday life. Writers tend to say, “There’s an example in real-life,” and they take that and put it into writing. So to change things, you need to change things on two fronts. One is you need more Asians in charge of the creative process. But actors are not in charge of the creative process at all. We tend to think of actors because actors are more visible, but long before you start casting someone has to write it, finance it, put it together, develop it, and put together a team that’s going to execute it. All these kinds of things. So that’s a huge factor in the process. And then in terms of everyday [life, the] more that Asians take a lead in everyday life, the more that they serve as examples for other people to look at.

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