Done With Raspberry Magic

     Just finished crewing on a new indie film titled Raspberry Magic, written & directed by Leena Pendharkar, produced by Megha Kadakia(both nice and warm people, ya'll reading this? lol), and shot by my friend Jeffrey Chu with THE RED! For the past 20 days, we shot 12+ hours for 6 day straight with one free day every Tuesday. A feature film shot in 20 shooting days is quite the daunting task. And it definitely brought back memories from the China production days.
     The best part about working on this film? Let's see... the awesome people, great food catered by the coolest caterer Jesse Rivas, cracking jokes/talking smack definitely made the long hours a lot shorter. It only took the first few days for everyone to get comfortable with each other and get to know what everyone is like. We got to know all the crazy personalities on set and there definitely was a buttload of gossiping and some drama; it felt like high school all over again. I definitely had a lot of fun in this production in midst of all the hard work and long hours.
    For this film, I took on the role of the 2nd AC(I slate for camera, snatch lenses, and move/carry a lot of stuff; basically PA working for the DP and 1st AC). I definitely learned a lot about the camera department and how they operate through these last 3 weeks. Sadly, this first time experience in the camera department will also be my last. I got what I wanted from this experience and will add it to my repertoire. Important lessons: knowing what your DP is capable of, what his/her style and tendancies are, learning how to communicate and get the best out of your DP. Every DP has their own style and certain things they like to do. By now I have a pretty good grasp on what Jeffrey's style is and what projects fit him. All these little things will help me in the long run when I pick and choose the DP I'll work with on feature projects.
     And doing a little acting on this film was a nice surprise as I got to do a short scene with the wonderful actor Ravi Kapoor. Doing improv w/Ravi for 1/2 hour before our scene was lit made me realize how much I missed acting. I've been working so hard on my own 2 projects the past year that I haven't touched acting. When I say acting, I mean acting in a real scene with real talented actors and directed by someone other than myself; like acting class where I'm not worried about the technicalites of filmmaking. Oh boy, I definitely miss it. Talking with Ravi, who is a regular on TV, about the glass ceiling for Asian-American actors was both inspiring as well as depressing. We both acknowledge we have to do our own stuff and continue to work hard to get it out there. I told him of my plans and gave him a copy of 600 and Drowning's roughcut. It'd be nice to work w/actors such as Ravi and his wife Meera who are dedicated to the craft and are tremendously focused on preparation; real actors.
     Speaking of which, Drowning is 95% done(Sending to JD next week for sound)! I can't wait to finally be relieved of it and move on to All Pain No Glory. DVDs will come out early January =) Sound/music, plus DVD authoring, and also need to get poster and DVD jacket designed and BAM! It'll be out! It's coming!
     Now that I am officially free(almost...), I will do some pre for the doc, party it up rest of December and then put to some SERIOUS work in January. I think I've studied enough from both experience(my own and others) and text(books are the bomb!) despite not attending film school and am ready for the challenge! No more short films for a while. Right now I feel like I'm in a RPG game leveling up with each film festival acception, new projects I complete, new experience from working on production, and the great things I learn from other people. Even though Raspberry Magic came at a bad time, I'm glad I accepted. It was good to help Jeffrey and get on this project despite having to push my own project back a month; I think it was definitely worth it. I hope Raspberry Magic goes on to do well because this project is for sure filled with passion and done by good people, love & peace ya'll, until next time.