公告
- "Passion, Hardwork, Perseverance."
Http://www.JamesFeng.com
Http://www.fightlife.tv
我的BLOG
-
Cali Finally Showing Some Love! & also DC Love!
2009-02-05 1:06PM / 標準BLOG
-
Tommy & His Black Beemer
2009-01-13 6:29PM / 標準BLOG
I had a childhood friend... let's call him Tommy, I met up with Tommy a while ago during Christmas, and in the midst of all the partying, he told me this sincere story about him and his old car. Tommy was your typical Asian guy who was really into cars back in the days. Difference between Tommy and those other Asian guys is that Tommy didn't do it to be cool; his dream was to be a drifter. Most Asian guys in high school are all about being cool and thus the cool cars to impress the ladies, but Tommy wasn't about that. Tommy's first car was a used black BMW 3 Series that was nice and clean, but you can tell by looking at his car that he didn't want it to look all glazed up to get other people's attention.
Tommy always said he wanted to be a drifter, but the funny thing is no one ever knew when/where he was drifting. If you say you want to make it to the NBA, you better be practicing everyday. So it always drove me crazy because this guy was so serious about being a drifter but no one ever knew him doing his thing. It was only years later that I found out he DID drift on his own but kept it a secret so that no one would know he was practicing. The only reason I found out was because he crashed one time and his girlfriend at the time told me when I asked her how he was doing. Tommy was drifting somewhere and lost control due to some slippage and totaled his BMW that year and missed 2 weeks of school. Funny thing was, instead of just throwing out the old car, he spent the $10k insurance money rebuilding his car. He could've bought a better car with that money, but he didn't.
Tommy built his car back and after a while started realizing he was getting nightmares and flashbacks of the accident from being inside his Beemer. After some pursuasion from his girlfriend, Tommy sold his salvaged car and bought a new Acura. The day Tommy sold his car, he said he thought he was going to die, this guy was literally going through pains in his chest and having breathing problems. He said he knew he made the wrong decision but couldn't do anything about. A few months go by and Tommy is back in action drifting with his new Acura and things are back to normal.
One night, Tommy suddenly gets up in the middle of the night and drives to the house of the guy that he sold his Beemer to. The guy lived in an apartment complex and parked his car outside, so Tommy found the car after searching around for a bit. Having saved a copy of the old key, Tommy jumps in his old ride and goes joyriding at 3am in the morning. In his own words "that shi* was crazy... I lost that feeling that I had, and for some reason, I couldn't live, and when I was back in it, I got it all back, all my memories with her, all the shi* I went through, my mom, everything came back to me, and I was crying while driving at 3 in the morning and it was at this point I realize I couldn't live without this car, you know sometimes you don't know it until you've lost that something and you realize how much of you was in it, and I knew I couldn't live with myself I had just let that go."
The BMW was his 17th birthday gift from his mom before she was killed in an auto-accident 5 days after his birthday. The day before his mom passed away, Tommy made his mom promise she would let him take her drifting so she can see how good he, and she agreed. She bought him the car because she saw all the posters in his room of BMW cars and asked his uncle to buy him a used one she could afford. His mom worked as a housekeeper for rich folks in Blackhawk and did that for many years to bring up Tommy, the two of them lived on the property of the family she housekept. His mom really loved him like any mom would her only son, but she loved him in a way that was different than most Asian parents; she loved him by understanding. Tommy's mom knew he wasn't so good at school, and she never pressured him to do well because she understood her son wasn't meant to do well in school. She knew no matter how many times she quarreled with him or forced him to study, it would lead to nowhere. She knew her son and never had expectations for him because she wanted him to be happy doing what he loved. Tommy knew his mom was special than most of his Asian buddies and took great pride in bragging to all of us how cool his mom was. He never recovered from that incident.
The very next day, Tommy sold his new car, begged the guy to buy his car back and paid $1500 more than the price he sold it for. In the next year, Tommy went on and competed in a few drifting competitions but slowly faded away from the drifting world as time went by. He said he knew he was never that good at drifting but always wanted to do it because it was the only thing that he could brag to his mom about. Since she knew nothing about the drifting, he could practice until he gets good and then finally take her.
Tommy was in tears when he told me how much he missed his mom and how he was never able to find another friend in this world who could understand him the way she did. It's been 10 years and many friends and acquaintances have come and gone, and that memory is still lingering... and it will stay with him until the day he parts with this world. The day after his mom's death, Tommy went with his buddies and broke all the house windows of the person that crashed and killed his mom with rocks and BB guns. He says he still drives by there sometimes with a BB gun even though it's different people living there now. Tommy's heart never healed from that accident and he's ok with that. He said his mom taught him to never forgive because human nature always resort back to sin once forgiveness is granted. Tommy didn't have many friends, but the few of us really liked him because he was honest and never held back from telling the truth. His friendship is one of of honesty and loyalty that is rare in today's world.
Tommy is now a sales manager at Bestbuy with a wife and 4 year-old kid.
And yes, he is still driving that same black Beemer. -
DVD Release + New Website Almost Ready!
2009-01-03 7:10PM / 標準BLOG
Lots of big things for me in the next month: DVD release of 600 + Drowning together onto One DVD! Here are the near-final DVD covers for both films, I will combine both DVD front covers for the duo-film DVD release:
Almost done, just need to add some credits on back cover!
Need to add a quote on front cover plus credits on the back and good to go!
New website JamesFeng.com will launch soon as well (hopefully in a week?? *crosses fingers*), and then another episode of KRON 4's Pacific Fusion TV episode spot interview for Drowning. Right now I just want to focus on making this DVD release a successful one, I don't really care if people buy it or not. My whole goal is to have a finished product out so that I can have some closure to these two projects that I've been working on since two years. If anything, it'll be nice gifts to hand out to friends and industry cats.
Looking back, 600 definitely surprised me as it's gotten into 9 film festivals, plus the others we haven't heard from. To be honest I thought American audiences wouldn't connect with the film as much since it was written for ex-pats who live abroad. I'm a little nervous at the moment because Drowning's expectations will be higher since it's my 2nd film, but I don't WANT to expect anything. But at the same time, I'll be lying to you if I say I'll be ok if it doesn't do well. Both films had virtually no budget, yet somehow we got them done! (I have no idea how we pulled it off) Not me, but WE! I am proud of my crew on both films and all the wonderful people that have both participated and supported these two projects. Although there are things I wish I could have done better in both films, I am proud that we even finished both projects. We did all we could, and everyone gave all they had, hustled, bled, cried, laughed, and the most important thing: showed up, and for that, I will always be grateful for everyone who ever gave a care to help make my dream come true. These two films will always have a very dear place in my heart no matter how many more films I go on to make. As filmmakers we never know if we'll have a chance to make a film again, if I had to stop film making, I won't have any regrets having done these two films. I don't know where 2009 will take me, and for the moment, just trying to stay focused on my goals and let God decide what happens next. Happy Holidays and bring it on 2009! -
Beijing and NY Film Festival Screenings - 600
2008-12-22 2:57AM / 標準BLOG
-
Done With Raspberry Magic
2008-12-21 6:52PM / 標準BLOG
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.
