Big thanks to everyone who has voted for my film in the Netflix competition and has helped spread the word. If you haven't voted yet, please help me out. Just click below and vote for "Why We Pull the Trigger". It's fast and painless. I promise.

Go to:
http://www.netflixfindyourvoice.com/
It takes 1 minute to vote:
1. Select WHY WE PULL THE TRIGGER
2. Click the number of stars you give the short. (I think 5 is a good number).
3. Type in your email address!
4. You're done.

Netflix and Film Independent will award one $150,000 cash production grant, plus turn-key resources like film stock, processing, camera rental, and post-productions services, for a total price value of more than $350,000.

Thanks all!

Happy New Year everyone!

A couple of updates in the strange life of making films.

A film that I was the cinematographer for, entitled EXPLODING GIRL directed by Bradley Rust Gray, will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival! It stars Zoe Kazan (Revolutionary Road) and Mark Rendall and was written and directed by Bradley Rust Gray. If any AnD'ers will be out in Berlin, please stop by.

Below is the press release from Berlinale:
" The Exploding Girl by Bradley Rust Gray is another quietly staged emotional drama. During their summer vacation, Ivy and Al discover that a shift from “best friends” to lovers may be on the cards. It is, however, precisely their familiarity that now represents a barrier between them."

http://www.berlinale.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/alle/Alle-Detail_4715.html#4715

For you film geeks out there, we shot on the Red One camera with a skeletal crew.

Secondly, my script, WHY WE PULL THE TRIGGER, was accepted to FILM INDEPENDENT's Director's Film Lab. For those who don't know, similar to the Sundance labs, the FIND director's lab is a program in which FIND selects 8 directors with scripts and partners them with seasoned feature film directors to help workshop the script, rehearse with actors, and shoot a few scenes from the script. For anyone with a script burning a hole through their pocket, I highly recommend applying. I'm looking forward to meeting some future partners in crime out there.

I'll keep you posted on how it all goes.

Not sure how many of you have seen the film 21 or read the book. It's about a bunch of MIT students that figured out a system to beat casinos at blackjack and raked in millions of dollars. The film currently stars, Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth. BUT, in the actual story, most of the team was Asian American and in fact used ethnicity and stereotypes to their advantage to pull off their scam. The casting of this famous and well publicized story clearly does not reflect reality. Some people are calling foul and the casting "racist."

Let's think about this a little...

"Racism" is certainly a knee-jerk term that does a lot to excite tension and little for people to investigate the processes that underlie the result.

But, there is an underlying belief in the industry that to be "universally appealing" lead actors must be "non-ethnic" or rather: white; which guides the economic and aesthetic choices of studio execs. Your argument that audiences go to watch people that look like them is flawed because I find it hard to believe that Spider Man 3 became a blockbuster hit with only a white demographic. The argument doesn't work the other way. But, studio execs make the very same argument and buy into that one-sided mentality.

Mezrich has criticized the casting of 21, and argued that it plays into fears of the marketability of an all-Asian cast.
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V125/N43/43vegas.html

This is certainly a result of the limited/conservative social imagination on the part of studio execs and what they believe the public is interested in watching. The fact is that because of this dynamic less minority actors are giving good roles in which to prove themselves and be exposed to the public and thus less likely to headline movies with few exceptions. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. As a filmmaker, I've certainly been told (and have heard numerous stories) that if I had made some characters white, the film would be easier to finance. Of course that is because there are few bankable minority stars because of the very dynamic described above.


Without many minority celebrities, the films are not given the marketing attention they could if Matt Damon is headlining the film. Also, minority films in the USA are ghettoized, made on lower budgets and almost exclusively targeted toward that minority. Could 21 have been a hit filled with Asian Americans? Of course, if the studio was willing to invest in new talent and put the marketing dollars behind it. The fact was that they weren't willing to take the risk and challenge the status quo and made a bland film filled with the usual gambit of pasty bright young things.

Ken Leung being casted in LOST is great because he's on screen but not justified by his ethnicity. He's Asian American but flawed and crazy. Let's have more roles like that for Asian Americans. As rare as it is, it does happen and it's inspiring when it does.

The Brooklyn Museum is holding an interesting online exhibit called CLICK!

"Click! is a photography exhibition that invites Brooklyn Museum’s visitors, the online community, and the general public to participate in the exhibition process."

Basically, at the start anybody and everybody could upload photos around the theme: "The Changing Faces of Brooklyn" to be judged. Right now is the judging period. Any anybody and everybody can judge the photos.

Just go online and register and you can evaluate the submitted photos and decide which ones go into the final exhibit which will be printed and exhibited in the Brooklyn Museum.

It's interesting to see people's different perspectives on how Brooklyn is changing.

Start here and register to start evaluating photos:

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/click/

A man displays his work on the street.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/holdtheframe