General Film Entry

Earlier this year, I went to New York trying to find interesting people to work on the film together. The plan was to try and spend as much time in New York as I can and look for funding. Just when it all seemed all systems go. SARS happened, I got sick with the flu, had to stay home for ten days and the city and myself went into shock and it all went to hell. I didn’t do much with promoting the film or editing what I had or anything much. I admit it, It sorta died.

Last month I went off to the US. Pretty much to hang out and spend the last bit of my savings which was meant for making this film. I just got so sick of errant editors, asshole subjects, and crazy girlfriends who spread rumors and disharmony that the last thing I wanted to do was to have anything to do with it. No filming, no researching nothing.

I didn’t even tell people I was a documentary maker. I just said I was an unemployed dotcom worker, even to old friends who I have known nearly half a lifetime. I went incognito for a while, because it was easier to be a bum than an artist with hope and dreams that seem pretty impossible.

As I also found how increasingly stressful that my friends and family continues to take me more seriously than ever, and feel that I am about to make a break through and do something worth while. So I didn’t want to tell anyone about it, in case more people asked me how it was going, even though they might have the right contacts for me since Hollywood, the media and all that stuff is always just a friend away.

I thought about getting some souvenirs for my racing friends here, maybe a license plate or two, some car stuff from the US, but just didn’t have time, and was more involved in other things than go to garages.

And I don’t think I would have found anything interesting. Occasionally I saw some modified Japanese cars, but I could see that the suspension wasn’t fixed, the mufflers weren’t done as nicely as the ones the guys do in HK, and generally it seemed to me, the cars just weren’t as well modified.

The cars were definitely nicer in LA vs New York. I didn’t seen any in Berkley at all. But I do think the scenes are bigger in the those two cities.

Anyway, what I think I am going to do now, is work on what I have. And then send it to an editor in Boston. He’s been interested on the film since I first put a post up on the Asian American Film board. And he can do all the interesting editing stuff that I don’t know how. I mean, I am perfectly capable of banging it all together but just not the hi tech stuff.

And the other thing I am going to do, which is start writing up the notes I had made all through the most intense filming period, and also write down what kind of footage I have. I already did that for hours of the film, but the excel word file got corrupted and that was that! Back to work.