Open letters to Catholic High School PJ

Last night. I wrote an open letter to Catholic High School.

This happened because, a few weeks after agreeing to let me shoot RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS within their premises, they suddenly reneged on their promise.

A day before the shoot.

When everything's already finalized.

When a Taiwanese actress had already flown here, to good old Malaysia, to do my film, within a limited schedule.

When a large group of actors have been scheduled to act in my school scenes.

When a large amount of money and time had been committed to the shoot.

Good old Catholic High School of Petaling Jaya, which I attended from 1997 to 2001, NONCHALANTLY went back on a deal that almost jeopardized the entire production and flushed all my money into the drain.

The reason given?

A carnival day that they conveniently did NOT tell us about until a day before the shoot. Very convenient.

RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS Film Shoot: Day 5

After taking a one-month break, I finally returned to phase two of my RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS shoot. (to the uninitiated, this is my debut feature)

Because of the break, we decided to start it with a simpler shooting day to ease me, the cast and crew, back to the film.

Floating Sun @ Rotterdam International Film Festival 2014

The Rotterdam International Film Festival has just ended today with the announcement of its 3 Tiger Award winners, they are:

Location scouting at the beautiful Cameron Highlands

I was continuing the location scouting last week for my film RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS, which I'm continuing to shoot in early February after taking nearly a month break. (exciting!)

So, I headed off to Cameron Highlands, which, unbelievably, I've never visited before all my life!

Photos from a very brief Taipei trip (Jan 6-11, 2014)

I was in Taipei from the 6th to the 11th of January. It's been a week since then, but only now I'm digging through my 7D's CF card to see what photos have I taken. Actually it wasn't a lot, just a few from the famous SPOT - Taipei Film House that I went to with dad and sister on my first day there. (it's also where I discovered the local band LIGHT ENGINE, which I recommended in a previous post)

And even more RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS production stills...

It's been three days since I got back from Taipei.

I've returned to work immediately. Firstly by finishing the editing of Ming Jin's SECOND LIFE OF THIEVES (which underwent some reshoots during my time in Taiwan), I needed to do that so I can focus on RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS. (not much of a multi-tasker, me)

As you know, my film had gone through an intense 4-day shoot from the 2nd to the 5th of January, the second phase of the shoot is on February. (the film has an episodic structure) So I'm going through preparations for the upcoming shoot, finalizing the cast and location, fine-tuning the script etc.

Meanwhile, my friend Joe, an aspiring filmmaker who came to the shoot to help out and served as an invaluable production assistant, had posted even more production stills of RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS.

This time, I'm sharing only photos that have myself in it because I'm narcissistic.

Light Engine 光引擎

I was at the SPOT - Taipei Film House (a must-visit in Taipei for all film lovers) two days ago, when a song playing in the shop caught my attention.