Penguin August 18th, 2008
After a few delays, we’re finally going to start shooting Red String Theory today. I’ve been itching to make stuff. Even though I won’t be directing, it’ll be nice to put something together.
It should be a quick shoot. 15 pages over 2 days.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin August 5th, 2008
Yesterday, Ninja sent me a link to how to survive a bear attack.
If you surprise a bear, don’t run away. That invites an attack. Instead, stand up and back away slowly, without looking the bear in the eyes. Speak softly to the animal (no loud shouting). If it does charge at you, try to make yourself look as large as possible: Stick out your chest, raise your arms, and spread your legs. Now you can yell at the bear, to frighten it.
If it’s going to attack, lie facedown, with your hands clasped behind your neck. Play dead and don’t get up until you’re sure the bear is gone. Leave the area immediately in case it returns.
If you’re in bear country, carry a bear-deterrent pepper spray (find one at epa.gov). Make sure the wind isn’t blowing toward you, and spray for one to two seconds when the bear is 30 to 40 feet away.
That part about the wind crystallized an image in my mind and I saw a man whipping out the can confidently, depressing the can, the wind suddenly changing and blowing it back in his face. It was hilarious.
So I threw together a quick 1 page script. Sometimes inspiration comes from the oddest places. Hopefully, I’ll be able to shoot it this Sunday. I’ve been itching to make something.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin August 1st, 2008
I got the idea for the project a few weeks ago while I was working on Irreplaceably Precious. I was talking to Steph about the coming year and what we’d be doing. Initially, I had no idea, but I pulled something out of thin air and came up with… Ninja vs Penguin. Original, right?
After coming back from Kyrgyzstan, I decided to shelve IP for several reasons. I still didn’t have a proper 3rd act. Although there are parts of it I’m interested in, fundamentally, it’s not my story. And it’s not nearly as fun, interesting, or exciting as Ninja vs Penguin.
I had started some work before going to Kyrgyzstan, but I wanted to be serious about it. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know that I’ve been boning up on story structure and been doing some writing at the library.
Yesterday, I realized that there was this 1984 slant going on. I hadn’t read the book, so I dove deeper into the many pages of Wiki. I got the audio book and watched the film from 1984.
Ninja vs Penguin won’t nearly be as dark as 1984. It’s going to be cute, light-hearted, action packed, comedy.
I’m still deciding whether I want to do it as a web-series or just do a full fledged screenplay. As much as I want to shoot it and get it out there, I rather choose the format that’s best for the story.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin June 12th, 2008
A few years ago, some friends wrote a 70 page script that was intended to be performed live. I helped them edit and do rewrites over a course of 3 months. Then we spent another 3 to 4 months preparing it for performance. It never happened.
Coming into this summer, I didn’t really have a project to do. Some of the original actors are still keen on making this thing happen and so do I. It’s been sitting on my brain ever since we canceled the show. Was it the right decision? Should we have pushed through?
I reread the script a few months ago and realized how dated it all sounded. So I’ll be spending the next few weeks rewriting it and refocusing it. Luckily, I still have access to the original writers. I want to keep it as faithful to its original themes and intentions as possible.
But even if I finish, I may not have enough actors to do it. Even if I don’t get to shoot it, writing will be good practice.
One step at a time though.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin May 19th, 2008
Made this video for my church. We wanted to take a different approach to the traditional drab and fascist institution of rules. So we took the rule book and took a satirical look at each one. Some of the best ones were nixed. Rather than fighting over them, we did what we could. Hopefully I’ll be able to post the cut scenes.
I ended up going with the black and white so the FAIL and the text would stand out more. I also liked the kind of old look to it. That, and I was too lazy to do any real color correcting.
Directed and Edited by: Wey Wang
Director of Photography: Wey Wang
CAST
Sean Pham
Bo Wang
Vivian Lin
Betsy Chao
Abraham Pan
Stephen Ding
Victor Wang
Jon Shen
Abel Zhu
Production Assistants: Joanne Horng, Jesse Zhu, Bo Wang, Sean Pham
Color Correction: Wey Wang
“The Choice is Yours” by Black Sheep
Shot on Canon HV20
Edited with Adobe Premiere CS3
Titles and rendering with Adobe After Effects CS3
Penguin May 12th, 2008
After numerous revisions and almost a complete rewrite, followed by scheduling conflicts, we have all the major pieces together for our next short film: Red String Theory. It’s written and directed by Jesse Zhu who I’ve been encouraging to really pursue film. This is a going to be a great learning experience for her as it’s her first time directing and editing.
I will be producing and doing the cinematography. Principle photography begins in July.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin May 6th, 2008
This summer, I will be flying to Kyrgyzstan to shoot my first documentary. For those of you who don’t know, Kyrgyzstan was formerly part of the Soviet Union until its breakup. It’s South East of Kazakhstan, as made famous by Borat.
This is also my first video missions.
I’ll be visiting a school, an orphanage, and a few other ministries over there. My goal is to find some kids and tell their stories. It’s going to be hard because I’m going to be a one man crew and all the interviews will have to be done through a translator.
It’s going to be a great learning experience.
-Penguin
Related postsPenguin May 5th, 2008
Boba Nite was a resounding success! Except for a few stalwarts, my team has been extremely lazy. Yesterday, they were all just chillin’ outside in the beautiful weather. Of course, I went to join them. As much as I tried to get them motivated to finish up some minor shooting for a rules video, people were just tired. Not that I can blame them. Everyone worked really hard the 4 months leading up to Boba Nite.
I’ve had the benefit of having most of last week off, so I’m almost fully charged.
There are a bunch of projects waiting for me. A short improv that we shot last week, I need to edit, this video that we just about finished yesterday, 30 Hour Famine (documentary practice), and then this rules video. Some of these things have deadlines, others are just due whenever.
Later, I have to start preparing for my Kyrgyzstan documentary.
So much to do.
-Penguin
Related postsLimited edition lithograph prints. Signed + numbered.
