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  • Finally! My First Entry...

    2007-09-28 12:31AM / 標準BLOG / 會員可以看
    5個評論


    Video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=OmJEAubCsE0



    Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2aVbIHipxc


    My friend, Patrick Lee and founder of AliveNotDead has been urging me to do my first blog and I'm finally, after months of not getting to it, am getting to it now!  Thanks Patrick for not giving up on me.

    For those of you that don't know me, I'm the writer/director and one of the producers of Falling For Grace, a full length feature film.  Yes, I even played Grace.  That's a lot of hats to wear, you might say and I would reply - "Yes, way too many and not recommended."  But when I first started writing the screenplay, I certainly had no intention to do all of the above.  What made me write was the lack of good roles for Asian Americans in the U.S.  I started out in the theater on Broadway and was able to do a lot of great lead roles in regional theater across the country and even internationally.  But once I started to explore t.v. and film, things were very different.  I realized it was because there were no writers writing Asian American roles - there weren't any Asian American writers.  And I realized that the best way to change the landscape of television and film was to start to write.

    The story of Falling For Grace was inspired by my random encounters with John F. Kennedy, Jr. in the mid 90's.  For a short period of time, I kept running into him in New York City - at a bank, on the street, at a restaurant and even in a tennis club.  Celebrity sightings are not unusual in Manhattan as people tend to walk a lot.  Some celebrities might even take the subway.  But what was odd was how often I ran into John Jr.  When I finally saw him at the tennis club, I got to observe how people treated him and how he, in turn, was so nice to everyone there.  And the idea popped into my head - would someone like JFK, Jr. ever be with someone from Chinatown?  To me, I wasn't interested in exploring the racial difference but rather to look at class differences.   I was also very interested in writing about Chinatown because I had many friends, like the character, Grace, who grew up in working class conditions that have achieved successes that surpass even their own expectations.  I wanted to also write about them...

    From scrīpt to screen, this film has been in the making for 8 years.  I thought getting the movie made was hard, and it was.  Every mistake I could possibly made, I did.  I thought the hard part was over.  Well, NOT TRUE!  Releasing this film without real marketing $$ in the U.S. - far bigger challenge!   We tested the waters in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. and did surprisingly well finishing top 2 or 3 almost every week in each of the theaters.  We even beat Harry Potter at both our theaters.  But what we found was that when my great, loyal team and I would show up to do lots of grassroots marketing, we did great.  But if we leave town, we couldn't keep up the awareness -- and that's where the lack of $$ hurt us.

    We then decided to try smaller towns where advertising budgets were not as daunting - Sausalito and Grass Valley, CA  -- Again when we showed up, we did even better - finishing  No. 1 in Sausalito at The Marin Theater for the 2 weeks that we were there, and we were No. 2 only behind Jodie Foster's film - The Brave One - in Grass Valley.  So, we know there is an audience for this very clean, happy feel-good movie.  Yes, I have no shame about that - I was going for the all American feel good romantic comedy.  Hollywood execs had told me that they weren't sure whether a mainstream audience would like this film since it has an Asian American element to it.  Well, the Sausalito audience clearly liked it and they were as mainstream American as you can get.  Won't even think about that any more...

    Our next stop - VANCOUVER, CANADA!!!  We were invited to screen at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival that begins on November 1st.  I believe our movie will screen on November 3rd.

    AND we are opening at the Tinseltown in Vancouver (a huge multiplex) on Friday, November 9th!  If any of you are from the Vancouver area or know people there - especially folks from Hong Kong (the Chinese family speaks Cantonese in the movie), please alert them and have them buy tickets and support an Asian American film!  I will be at the theater doing Q&As at the theater starting November 9th throughout the entire opening weekend at Tinseltown.   It's usually quite fun for the audience!

    Green is the only color that matters in Hollywood.  In order for us to have more clout, the execs need to see GREEN!  And Asians can be included within that color scheme as long as the final color that dominate is GREEN!

    Until the next time -- Patrick, I dedicate this first blog to you!  Thanks for not giving up on me.

    fay



BLOG評論 (5)

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  • ivylam
    藝術家空間 Ivy Lam
    留言於2007-10-06 4:30PM [举报]
    Interesting to hear your inspiration!
    Good luck with the film.

    Would love to check out the movie... is it coming to HK?
  • elavndrc
    elavndrc
    留言於2007-10-01 10:45PM [举报]
    great first blog!  I hope you the movie continues to be successful wherever it plays ~ i hope i get the chance to see it!  

    good luck and can't wait to read more of your blogs!
  • cassfung
    cassfung
    留言於2007-09-29 12:13AM [举报]
    Wow! Nice to know I helped you kick Harry Potter's ass. ;-)
  • dragontattoo
    dragontattoo
    留言於2007-09-28 11:25PM [举报]
    The trailer to Falling for Grace looks great, it seems to be very funny and a heartwarming tale. I look forward to seeing it in England.
    Nice seeing you on AnD
  • peachey
    peachey
    留言於2007-09-28 1:16AM [举报]
    Oh gosh. How could I have missed you when you were out in the Bay Area? I wish I had known about this film earlier... Well, good luck with this film.

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统计信息

  • I'm a filmmaker from New York City, originally born and raised in Hong Kong. My debut feature film, Falling for Grace, premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival...

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  • 職業:  演員 , 導演 , 電影/電視監製
  • 性別: 女
  • 查看: 25,915

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Fay Ann Lee 邀請你瀏覽許多官方藝術家空間並加入他/她的粉絲圈。趕緊註冊，創建你自己的空間，跟好友及喜愛的電影工作者、音樂家及其他藝術家交流。