Had been trying to upload the videos from my screening Q and A sessions in International Film Fest Rotterdam the past few days, but they're taking quite a while to compress.
So I'll just share an article with you about EXHALATION that was on Cinema Today yesterday (which was then syndicated on MSN and Yahoo). Click the link below!
I always have an obligatory McDonald's breakfast meal before a flight. The Mega McMuffin owns. So, when I arrived at Narita Airport, I had it again.
I then slept through more than 7 hours of my 11 hour flight to Amsterdam. Waking up only for the two meals, and watching I AM LOVE, starring Tilda Swinton (it was in competition at the Venice Film Festival 2009, the same year Kingyo was shown).
Nice film.
I then caught maybe half of MEGAMIND, but got interrupted when the plane arrived at Schiphol airport, Amsterdam.
A car picked up and took me to Rotterdam, it was a 1-hour journey.
When I reached the main film festival building, I picked up my bag, and ensured that the press desk was covered with promotional items for THE TIGER FACTORY and EXHALATION.
Chinling, one of the festival programmers, brought us to the Wuxia-themed WATER TIGER INN, where me, Matthieu (Bratislava Film Fest director, and many others) and Jessica Kam (PIANO IN THE FACTORY producer) could have a quick bite.
It was to my amusement that after serving us drinks, the waitress got into a heated encounter with a beggar who just walked into the place. And then they got into some martial arts stuff, and me and the customers were instantly turned into extras of a wuxia film!
It's funny, realizing that this will be the first time when I'm actually not returning to Malaysia for Chinese new year. Even all my years in Perth, and the past few years in Tokyo, I always managed to be at home for the reunion dinner and all.
For this year's, I'll still be in Rotterdam. Perhaps I'll be celebrating it with other filmmakers in some Chinese restaurant over there, if I'm not wrong, there's also gonna be a screening of The Tiger Factory on either Chinese new year eve, or the first day itself.
Perhaps I myself should try to catch a Chinese film or something cheerier as well at the film festival. I'm superstitious, I wouldn't want to watch dark depressing films of woe and death to start my Chinese New Year!
In exactly 12 hours I'll be flying off to Rotterdam. Aside from my own short film EXHALATION, I'm also there for Ming Jin's THE TIGER FACTORY, which is the feature film spin-off of my short, INHALATION (hah). Since he can't make it to the festival, it's all up to me to handle his Q and A sessions as well after each screening. Fun.
Less than two days left before I head off to Rotterdam International Film Festival, so pardon the onslaught of EXHALATION stuff here.
While preparing an EXHALATION press kit for the festival last week, I enlisted the help of Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow's Marc Saint-Cyr to conduct a short interview regarding the film.
I'll share an exchange from the Q and A regarding why I alternated between black-and-white and colour in the film.
MSC: How did you decide which sequences in the film would be in black-and-white or color?
EY: The black-and-white, was, in fact, a last-minute decision made during post-production. I remembered reading an interview with Andrei Tarkovsky where he pointed out that a black-and-white film immediately creates the impression that your attention is concentrated on what is most important. On the screen, color imposes itself on you.
In order to underline the melancholic undertone of the film, I decided to drain most scenes of their colors. I inserted colours in certain scenes when I needed to accentuate the emotional states of the protagonists. A feeling of brief warmth, or lingering sadness, or an abrupt break from monotony. In the end it was an experiment of sorts for storytelling.
(UPDATED: The Tarkovsky interview I was referring to is here.)
If you are one of the 3 people who had been following my filmmaking escapades so far, you'll know that I've made two short films, EXHALATION and INHALATION. Both are similarly titled and shared many common themes, but are ultimately two (vastly) different films.
Yesterday afternoon, Kong continued shooting the second scene of his 3-scene one-minute short film. (the first scene is of a girl in a shower encountering a slasher).
Today is Seijin No Hi (Coming Of Age Day), it is the day when young women who are turning 20 this year celebrate their coming of age by going to shrines for prayers.
I've synced all my other social network accounts (Youtube, Twitter, Flickr etc.) with my Facebook account so that friends of mine on Facebook will know whenever I've uploaded a photo, or a video, or posted a tweet.
Although I'm highly secretive with my own short films (as in, I don't upload them on Youtube for public viewing) because most of them had been circulating at the film fest circle, I don't mind sharing my own experiences with others, it's my way of keeping in touch with others, allowing others to keep track on my misadventures, and on the other hand, I can keep track on what the others were doing as well.
Many of my relatives, former schoolmates and classmates, and other people I've met throughout the course of my life are Facebook users too, and sadly, this might just be the only way for me to remain 'visible' for them (since I'm constantly flying about, it's really hard for some to keep track on where I am these days). Yes, I don't disagree that this has turned into a form of exhibitionism, and I can absolutely understand why people who crave privacy don't really like the use of Facebook.
I myself try to maintain some form of privacy too, despite having 1400+ friends, every time someone tries to add me and I cannot really recognize them, nor seem to have any mutual friends, I usually message them first and ask them to identify themselves. If there's none, I'll probably ignore the friend request.
Recently, people I've never spoken to for years have begun speaking to me via Facebook Chat, out of the blue. But the conversation is usually like this:
Yesterday, Kong began to shoot a new short film (it's for some event in Thailand called the Postcard Cinema where a couple of chosen Thai filmmakers have to make 60-second short films, or 'video postcards').
5 days have passed since 2011 started, I have yet to have my hatsumode (first shrine visit of the year). In the past two years, I did it on New Year's Day. Two years ago, I was at the Todai-ji of Nara. Last year, I went to Tsukui Kannon Zen Temple.
This year, a lady friend of mine who had yet to do her hatsumode as well said to do it at Meiji Shrine.
I have written about Meiji Shrine, which is filled with young women in kimono during Seijin No Hi (Coming Of Age Day), (... and that was the top-viewed blog post of last year), which is the number one destination in Japan for hatsumode. Been there a few times, but thought it's a great idea to finally go there for my hatsumode.
So I went.
The first three days of the new year would have been overcrowded, but today, it was decent.
After posting my epic Part 1 and Part 2 of the 2010 recap, (which you SHOULD read, if you haven't already, because it took me a lot of time to write that), I put on the exact same shirt I wore on the first day of 2010...
It is 5:39am, 31st of December, 2010 as I am writing this. Less than 18 hours left for the year. I guess I'll just take a bit of time to reflect on the past year and make some sense out of it.
My life is probably defined now, by my filmmaking career. Ever since I started actually directing in 2008, I had derived a lot of joy from creativity, to be surrounded by like-minded people, to indulge myself in films, to further my own craft. My last tweet was laced with some sort of irony-induced nostalgia.
It's quite a contrast, a year ago and today. A year ago, I had just finished the EXHALATION shoot and capped an unbelievable 2009. 2010 had been an incredible year as well (I am referring only to my own filmmaking career, anything outside that is a tragedy to describe), but as I am few hours away from the last day of 2010, I realize how quiet it is ending for me.
Solitude is fine, all the peace and stuff, yet to be occasionally being surrounded by like-minded people during film shoots is a warm feeling, maybe that's why I enjoy them.
Before I go for a more proper year-end blog entry, I'll just share with you all a very nice performance I had the pleasure of witnessing on Christmas day, of a lady named Yadako (you can follow her on Twitter).
At that time, I was trying to find an editing software for my laptop that could help me edit the videos that I shot that night.
In the past, I used the Adobe Premiere Pro for PC. Edited my first few short films (Chicken Rice Mystery, Fleeting Images, Love Suicides) with it, also edited telemovies like Cinta Tiga Segi with that too.
But once I switched to shooting stuff on HD, I had to use Final Cut Pro on Mac, which felt immensely more convenient. (Ming Jin's two films WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER and THE TIGER FACTORY, and my short films beginning from KINGYO, all done with Final Cut Pro)
I still use a PC laptop, and I don't have Adobe Premiere Pro anymore, so I scoured the net, trying to find a good free editing software that could help me. Downloaded a few (I won't name them), but none of them seemed to be able to edit Canon 7D videos.
The only good one I ended up using in the end was EDIUS, but it took a while for me to familiarize myself with the layout.
In the end I lost my patience and decided to just come to my editing lab at Waseda today to swiftly put together this video with Final Cut Pro. After almost an hour, I managed to slap this video together using the music from Nico Spahni's MUSIC FOR SEPT ELLES album.
The bowling alley was so psychedelic that I felt like I was in TRON: LEGACY.
This concludes my Dubai International Film Fest 2010 recap.
Before the closing ceremony, I was excited to meet the star of Lee Chang Dong's POETRY, Yun Jeong-Hee, seen here with her husband, the renowned pianist Paik Kun-Woo.
Here's Carey Mulligan, presenting Variety's International Movie Star of The Year award to Colin Firth, and also his acceptance speech, on the 13th of December, second day of the Dubai Film Fest.
So, I'm now at Dubai. Today, my film EXHALATION will finally have its world premiere at the Dubai Film Fest.
But this will chronicle my first day in the place.
Here are some pretty photos of me right before the opening ceremony on the 12th of December, courtesy of Indonesian documentary filmmaker Daniel Rudi Haryanto.
I'm now in Dubai, took numerous photos and videos. But before I give you all updates of my misadventures there, I'll do a recap of Cinemanila International Film Fest first.
3rd of December. I arrived in Manila during the afternoon, I was picked up at the airport. I intended the festival to be one where I could rest, since the Torino schedule was so hectic.
"Well, for tonight, I'll just relax, and maybe catch the SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD screening." I told Raymond, who was picking me up. His day job is actually as a TV writer.
"Oh, I'm afraid you can't do it. The awards ceremony is tonight." Raymond said.
"What? But today's only the second day of the festival!" I was flabbergasted.
"Yes, but they wanted to get the awards out of the way first." Raymond said.
So... that evening, we went to the award ceremony.
I flew to Torino on the 25th of November for the Torino Film Lab (which is part of the Torino Film Festival. 3 years ago, Ming Jin won a jury award in this festival for THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA).
When I arrived, it was already dark. I had to take a bus to the city center. The journey lasted around 45 minutes.
Yup, I came back from Manila two days ago. For the past two weeks I was in Torino (Italy) and Manila for the film festivals and other stuff.
The screenwriting workshop I've been attending throughout the year concluded its session in Torino (the first two rounds were in Bratislava, back in March, and Brignogan, France, back in June).
Then I just headed off immediately to Cinemanila Film Fest to present INHALATION and THE TIGER FACTORY.
Many photos, videos to share, many stories to tell.
My computer died (again) just when I reached Torino, hence the lack of updates. Frustrating, but it had happened so often that I've grown numb.
I'm leaving for Dubai on the 11th. Not a lot of time to rest from my constant flying, haha.
When I had an appointment with someone yesterday evening, I decided to go to Yoyogi Park first. To my consternation, the sky was already turning dark at 4pm. Nonetheless, the golden ginkgo leaves were still there.
I met up with old high school friend Sebastian yesterday evening in Shinjuku (he and his family were on a family trip in Japan and dropped by in Tokyo for two nights). After we had dinner, he left and I walked off to catch the bus.
As I walked past the Shinjuku Station West Exit, our conversation swirled in my mind, people from high school, those who had just gotten married, those who had just gotten engaged, previous loves, our careers in film (Sebastian works in RHYTHM AND HUES and had just made a short film called Hashshashin's Revolt, it was a valiant attempt), and the like.
Perhaps time was indeed passing me by, I thought in slight melancholy. Ah, memory, a constant source of pain.
It was Sunday evening, Shinjuku was characteristically crowded. Yet I walked in solitude, past the crowds of people, past lovers whispering sweet nothings to each other, past tourists mesmerized by the bustling energy of Shinjuku, past a pair of pretty twin sisters singing at the street, past a happy family, past a couple of homeless guys-
Eh?
I stopped, and looked back at the pair of pretty twin sisters.
Since my epic food poisoning last week, I continued my semi-retreat into a writing session of my screenplay.
So the entire week just came and went.
I just came to a realization that Nov 17, 18 and 19 are birthdays of many people I know. In fact, I have 3 different family members and relatives celebrating their birthdays on these three successive days.
I felt that something was wrong two nights ago when I was suddenly afflicted with diarrhea. What could've caused it? The onigiri I bought in a convenience store for lunch? The bento from the nice elderly couple that I've had for dinner (a favourite of mine for the past two years)? The iced chocolate I drank two hours later during a meeting?
Not dwelling upon the issue, I quickly took the famed Po Chai pills. The discomfort lasted for two hours before everything subsided and I could sleep again.
When I woke up yesterday, I felt a little better, and assumed that I've recovered. I took a few gulps of water, then I was overwhelmed by a strong feeling of nausea.
Oh shit... was the words in my mind as I ran out of my room, hoping to reach the toilet in time.
Recently, during a Facebook chat session with some primary school friends (yes, we still keep in touch, someone was sweet enough to start a Facebook group for the class of 1996) and a certain incident started emerging from the deepest recesses of my memory.
Not much about the fair though, since the highlight of my day was clearly this:
Although I was quite amused by the folks at the Bodybuilding Club too. A group of muscular dudes were in the university campus, flexing their muscles, letting people touch them, while they hand out flyers.
Just received news that I won two awards at the inaugural Doi Saket International Film Festival (facebook page here). The festival actually ended on the same day as the Tokyo International Film Fest (Oct 31st), but the folks were so busy that they didn't announce the results publicly until few moments ago.
The Tokyo International Film Festival ended yesterday (... or two days ago, since it's 1:37am when I'm writing this).
I went to the awards ceremony and to my surprise, THE TIGER FACTORY received a Jury Special Mention for the Winds Of Asia category! Basically it happened when the jury members were presenting the Best Asian Film award to Korean filmmaker Shin Su-Won for her film PASSERBY #3, then jury member and film director Akira Ogata mentioned that the jury would like to specially mention THE TIGER FACTORY as well. So, I realized that a 'special mention' is literally, you know, a special mention.
When the 'award winners' were invited onto the stage for a photography session, not entirely sure whether someone who got a 'special mention' is considered an 'award winner', I headed off to the toilet. Then I came out and heard people calling out my name, so I went back into the hall and people were waiting for me!
So I took some photos with the winners and was whisked off to the press conference.
Me and Su-Won addressed the press and took questions.
The Tokyo International Film Fest website quoted some stuff I said. But slightly different in both the Japanese and English pages.
The TPG meetings from the 26th to 28th of Oct went by in a blur. I think it's much more fruitful than the one two years ago, I got to meet more people, got more input for the project, it was a very educational experience.
No photos though, just a photo of Ming Jin and I, with Dustin Nguyen. In between meetings.
26th of Oct. The 1st screening of INHALATION and THE TIGER FACTORY.
The day began with the TPG (Tokyo Project Gathering) reception. Just like two years ago, Ming Jin and I had a project called 'THE BOOK KEEPER' in the TPG. Some changes were made since then, for example, the opening reception was held on the TIFF Movie Cafe instead of the ballroom in the 49th floor of Roppongi Hills, and that meetings of TPG had been integrated into TIFFCOM (at the 40th floor) instead of being in a separate space at the 49th floor. I elaborated a lot more about the TPG in this blog two years ago.
Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang has a new project called Headshot.
![[Exhalation] Naoko (Kiki Sugino) and Sayuri (Tomoe Shinohara) brooding](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4103/5135866294_3d4bb74c33.jpg)
![[Exhalation] Sayuri (Tomoe Shinohara) contemplates as Naoko (Kiki Sugino) is asleep](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4088/5135863742_58e96687f9.jpg)
