full circle...sort of

It's been one kind of busy summer!  After getting back from LA a couple weeks ago where we wrapped Quentin Lee's latest project, The People I've Slept With, it's been back to the New York grind.  Can't complain though.  It's been a fun summer to be sure.  There's no place like NYC in the summer time.

First, a little on PEOPLE...I had the pleasure of serving as an executive producer on it (I also had a small role in it) and from my vantage point, the shoot went rather smoothly thanks to the great direction Q gave, the tight reigns Stanley and Koji (producers) kept, and the tremendously hard working and gracious crew and cast we had.  Karin Anna Cheung and Wilson Cruz are going to carry this film far and the look and feel that Quyen Tran gave it with her cinematography using the Red Camera has got me wishing it were the fall now when I hope to get a rough cut.

This all aligns nicely with Kit Hui's film, FOG, wrapping up post from her perch in London.  After weeks of hard work on it here in NYC, Kit went back to tidy it up from home and hopefully in this coming year, we'll be hearing more and more about it as things unfold.  I was particularly pleased that Kit was open to using one of my favorite indie bands in the soundtrack.  If you haven't had the pleasure, please do yourself a favor and get to know PaperDoll.  They've got an AnD site too now!

(If anyone's in NYC, they play at Crash Mansion this Thursday night and I promise you they'll rock it!)

So, since getting back into the swing of things here, I've been trying to help my friend (who happily got pregnant) on a short I produced and directed last summer get completely finished off.  We finally have a rough cut and we were able to screen it in front of an audience of about 20 women recently (it was a women in film group) who, to my delight, seemed to genuinely enjoy it!  They got the story, they laughed, and as I sat there and watched it with them, I found myself more and more becoming a fan of the film again though I've seen it 100 zillion times it seems.  Always a good sign I figure.  We shot The Felix Awards last September and as a full year comes upon us in a couple months from when we began, it looks like we'll finally have it done.  Just putting sound/music touches on it (it always seems to be the last and hardest things to get finished...)  and then hopefully out the door to some festivals, perhaps?

And speaking of festivals, right now, the New York Asian American International Film Festival is going on and this past weekend I found myself practically living at the venue in which it's happening.  Interesting things happened while at the festival, that's for sure...

Probably the best story I have to share from it was that I got to (re)meet director Wayne Wang again after 15 years.  Back way back when, when I was in college, my friend Holman was in charge of casting extras on The Joy Luck Club which was primarily shooting around the Bay Area, where I grew up and went to school.  Given that I was a poor, starving college student with no idea what I wanted to do with my life then, I jumped at the chance and was put on the set for 2 days.  Basically, any scene that Russell Wong was in, I was in too - just in the background.  Of course, Wayne directed that film and it set him on for a string of Hollywood projects which he works on to today.  He has also returned to his roots of making small Asian American films and his latest, called Princess Nebraska, opened the festival on Thursday.  I rather liked this reduced, slow handed film, so if you ever get a chance, do see it!

Anyway, on Saturday, at a panel discussion, I had the chance to share the fact that I was an extra on Joy Luck with him and he got a kick out of it.  Then he asked me if I had money (I guess in terms of whether I could help him finance films)!  Wayne's a brash man.  You should hear him speak and better yet, hear his goofy goofy laugh.

This story actually isn't all that interesting except for the fact that after that stint as an extra, after having my eyes opened to the world of movie-making, after watching Russell Wong act out a couple scenes and then return to his trailer only to never come out except when called for, I enrolled in Dramatic Arts 101 the next semester at Cal.  From there, I've never looked back.  So in a way, you could say that Wayne Wang put me on the path to become an actor.  And not only that, while I was in LA a few weeks ago, I found myself at Russell's house playing video games (and listening to Hall & Oates songs off his computer...it was weird, trust me), which I've discovered he's a huge fan of.  (Now I think I know what he was doing in his trailer.)

video gaming at russ's...

russ's dog...(can't wait to see Mummy 3 with him and Jet Li..) Further, after my time as an extra, I got a call from someone who worked on the set of Joy Luck who was directing his own short.  He wanted me in it as a henchman and I found myself acting in it alongside a young boy by the name of Jonathan Chu.  Years later, I'd keep hearing this name...J Chu, J Chu, J Chu...well, not only is he the son of the famous Chef Chu's restaurant in Los Altos, but he's a USC film grad who had his short praised by Steven Spielberg, and most recently, the director of the urban dance hit Step Up 2. (This was my first time ever in a film and holy hell that was some kind of hair do, eh?)

And speaking of Cal, when I was at LAX, returning to NYC, I ran into my ole buddy Tony Lee, who was in all the undergrad D.A. courses with me.  We felt like the only 2 Asian guys in those classes - probably because we were.  And while I've been so proud to see Tony on the tele time and again over all these years, I was heartbroken to hear while we caught up waiting for our delayed flights, that he's decided to leave the business completely for now.  It's a long story, but he has his reasons.  Best of luck to ya, Tone.  Your demise on "Lost" won't soon be forgotten:

So, this is what I mean by everything comes full circle...sorta.

And just to wrap up the full circle thang, remember the print job I did not too long ago where I got to be a dad to a young girl I absolutely fell in love with?  Well, thanks to my friend who spotted it, it's in this week's Time Magazine, page 11!  (Incidentally, I would let her paint it pink.  All of it.)