Where the Lines Blur

Bacon Wrapped Date

2011-09-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

Back in 2009 I set out to make a documentary about Foodies living in Los Angeles. Through that documentary, I got inspiration to make a short film about two food bloggers who meet for the first time and fall in love as they try to one up each other in their taste in hidden gems around town. This film is called Bacon Wrapped Date and it is dedicated to all the food fanatics, foodies, people who hate being called foodies, food bloggers, chefs, and people who just love to eat.

It is finally available to download on iPad (not yet available on other iphone platforms). I do not have an iPad but if you do, please download it, watch it, and let me know what you think. The app itself is free and Bacon Wrapped Date is only $1.99. It's our first distribution deal!

After two years of filming largely in the food scene, I can't say that I've gotten thinner! However, I can say that I know that my calling is in the film + food equation and I hope to bring informative documentaries and fictional narratives to you. I just ask that I get as much feedback while I'm still learning so that I can learn from my own productions and from readers like you.

More info on Bacon Wrapped Date Here.

Interview with the Actress, Hong Lei, Here.
Read my food blog called Slate Food, which is updated frequently, Here.

Troy Davis

2011-09-21T23:08:00.000-07:00

Troy Davis was executed today. This marks a day in history when a country that prides itself on freedom, justice, and progress took a huge step back.

If you don't know about Troy Davis' case, I did a video about him a while ago:
http://wherethelinesblur.blogspot.com/2009/06/troy-davis.html with a full blog post about it.

I can't stop thinking about how this incident is going to change the way people see America - both the citizens as well as the international media that have been watching to see how the U.S. would handle this case. I'm sad that he didn't walk free. This incident should show us how broken the legal system is and how we have to change the system that lets people who kill their kids walk free while innocent victims get the lethal injection.

First Anni

2011-06-22T16:19:00.001-07:00

Currently editing away my latest film, called First Anni.

Synopsis: A newly wed husband forgets to get his wife an anniversary present and his stay at home brother tries to help only to realize he may have overstayed his welcome.

Runtime: 10 min
Produced by: David Ngo
Written by: David Ngo
Directed by: Jin Yoo-Kim
Director of Photography: Alejandro Martinez

Edited by: Jin Yoo-Kim

Cast: Laura Quenzel, Jeremy Lawson, Chris Wolfe

Hopefully this film will be finished and polished by the end of this summer!

The Raw Truth

2010-07-29T02:30:00.000-07:00

Everytime I tell someone I'm in film school, the first thing they ask is how much longer I have left. Well, to answer that question, the program itself is 3 years but that doesn't count the time you take to make a thesis. There are many ways to still get out of film school in 3 years (you can write your way out, edit your way out, etc. if you don't want to direct a thesis). You can also direct a narrative (546) or a documentary (547) and USC selects 3 each semester.

This semester, I get to direct one of these, a documentary, about the raw food movement in LA. But, I STILL don't get to graduate in 3 years because I forgot to use my summers efficiently and I basically have thus far only taken 28 out of 52 credits. I'm hoping that switching over to the new curriculum is going to help me out a little because as much as I love film school, I'm dying to get out there and get paid for doing what I love.

Anyway, before I go on and rant more about my not graduating in 3 years horribleness, here's the project's website that I'm doing this semester in case you want to follow it.

http://therawtruthmovie.tumblr.com/

It's not as updated as it should be but you can get a good glimpse of it. Check out the sexy Adam and Eve photo shoot! ;)

The final screening is on December 10, 2010 so save the date!!!

Here is a trailer that Billy Sullivan and Barbara Steele (our editors) cut together. PW is rawfood. Enjoy.

The Raw Truth Trailer from The Raw Truth on Vimeo.
PS. The statistics are higher than that actually. 75% of Americans are overweight.

Understudy, the Movie

2010-05-08T15:13:00.000-07:00

We are wrapped with Polar Opposites and now I'm on to my next project, producing a USC thesis this summer called "Understudy."

Understudy is a dance film, which is why I gravitated towards it. Better yet, it's going to show off salsa funk, a new fusion dance movement that combines salsa, hip hop, jazz, etc.

The director, Cristina Malavenda, is an editor-director and she did a 547 documentary called No Kill, which has been extremely successful and has had a great run in festivals and now it's even going to be shown on KCET next week. She's an extremely talented editor and director so I'm really excited to work with her.

Maritte Go, my fellow producer, is in my semester at USC School of Cinematic Arts, and she was a dancer/actress all her life so it's really fun working with her. Plus, she's just an awesome person.

Desi Jevon is the choreographer and is so talented, innovative, and a great teacher. I'm writing this blog post as we are casting right now, watching him work with eight people at the same time, doing both the girl and boy moves, never losing patience.

This movie is going to be dazzling and amazing. At this point in the process, we are just starting to cast. Next week, we will be casting the actors and actresses. Hopefully, we will find great dancers this week that we will be calling back for the acting process.

At the same time, we are raising funds to make this film. Please watch me, Marty, Cristina, Desi talking about the film and what we are hoping to accomplish and if you can find it in your heart to invest in the arts, please support us. We are all trying to do something innovative, visually compelling, with a story of an underdog trying to make it in competitive LA.

Our fundraising page where you can donate as little as $5 to be credited in a film (you can see your name come up in the end credits! What a great souvenir for the price of your daily coffee).

The Trailer

Fundraising page

Docs on Food

2010-03-22T14:43:00.001-07:00

When I interned at Causecast, I had the pleasure of watching Food Inc. when Causecast helped with one of their theatrical screenings with Participant Media. Since then, I saw this film take off, and even get nominated for an Oscar for feature documentary. Today, Robert Kenner, the director of the film, came to our documentary class to screen and talk about his journey and the challenges he faced making this documentary.

Since watching Food Inc., making my Foodie Nation doc last year (which is still a work in progress - ahem, I need editors to help me edit it), reading books like Omnivore's Dilemma, Food Politics, Fast Food Nation, Health Food Junkies, watching documentaries like King Corn, Super Size Me, along with some raw food documentaries, I'm now more than inspired to continue embarking on this food + documentary journey.

Last night, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, backed by Ryan Seacrest Productions, launched and is getting a lot of hype. Jamie is undertaking the huge effort to overhaul the school cafeterias in Huntingon, VA. He's being met with a lot of resistance but he's really brave for doing this. Along with Michelle Obama's efforts to fight childhood obesity and even with corporations starting to "go along" with the organics movement, our eating habits are slowly changing and SHOULD be changing.

If you haven't seen Food Revolution, you can catch the first episode here.

All this food and film and activism talk is making me really excited!! Three things I really love.

For next semester, I'm hoping to pitch a documentary about the raw food movement. Please let me know if you have any comments for me. I pitch on April 16th! I'll be making an oral pitch as well as a video pitch. As of now, I'm looking for medical doctors to comment on the raw food movement and raw foodists who are trying to repeal the laws banning raw milk.

MANAA Scholarship

2010-02-23T02:04:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention that at the end of last year, I won the 2009 MANAA scholarship.

It was really a great surprise that I got the scholarship and just in time, too! I'm going to be using the money to finish the film I started this summer as a work of love. It's currently in post-production right now and in desperate need of ADR and sound design. With this money, I can make this film come into completion. The film is about two Asian Americans falling in love over, what else? Food.

MANAA is a great organization that continues to strive for Asian American representation in the media. Without organizations like these, where would Asian American filmmakers be?

Thank you, MANAA.

Read the full interview here.

3rd Semester at USC Film School

2010-02-06T09:45:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I haven't updated in such a long time! I guess I must have been busy. I am now about a month into my 3rd semester at USC and having so much fun and learning quite a bit. I am producing a documentary for a 547, which is a course where three projects are green lit. This semester, the greenlit projects are Lines, Living in Limbo, and Polar Opposites.

Lines deals with teens going to a skateboarding school in Venice, Living in Limbo explores the Iraqi refugees coming to and living in California, and Polar Opposites examines the reasoning behind the underground phenomena of women suddenly flocking to pole dancing.

I am co-producing Polar Opposites, with the fierce Meera Menon, aka Meownun. Apparently I'm not supposed to give away people's real names if they have a Jersey Shore nickname but I've already failed at that so many times so there. My Jersey Shore nickname is Jinnernut. The director, Caitlin Starowicz, was my directing SA my first semester and probably the most multi-talented, multi-tasking person I know. Does she ever sleep? Katie Walker, our cinematographer, can walk into any room, blink her eyes a couple of times, and form a vision in her head that we can only just stand and watch her realize it. Adair Cole, one of our sound people, is the only man on set so we give him a hard time but of course, if anyone can handle it, it's AY-DARE. Lindsay Ellis, our other sound person, can outwit anyone while innocently batting her lashes. She'll have super pole arms by the end of the semester from holding up that boom pole. Neil Williams, one of my partners in 508 (last semester) is one of our awesome editors. He can stylize anything to make it look visually enticing. Erika Edgerley is also one of our editors, and she brings characters and stories to life. We have such a strong team this semester and our documentary is so much fun. I'm sad we only have a couple more weekends of shooting left.

Being on a documentary set is so much different from a fiction set. The stress levels are much lower, the working hours (though it could be as strenuous as fiction depending on each project) are shorter, you meet subjects that could easily become your friends after the project is over, and there is a sort of adrenaline rush you get from the spontaneity of being able to create the story as you're going along. Of course, there are rules and thematic elements that cannot be changed for the sake of budget and time, but there is more freedom in shaping the story week by week and of course, in editing. I am super excited to see what the editors will do with the footage that we shot and at the same time, because we know that editing can be stressful if we don't have a vision, we are more responsible with footage allotments and planning to make sure we don't "hose down the scene," or shoot things with no purpose.

If you want to read more about our day to day process, please visit the blog that we made for our documentary. I'll be updating there for the rest of this project!

Our Blog: polaroppositesfilm.tumblr.com
Our Facebook Fan Page: Polar Opposites
Our Flickr: Plropposites
Our Twitter: PlrOpposites

Me, fooling around on set.

Go To Kenny now online

2010-01-22T10:38:00.000-08:00

A film I produced a few years ago. Go To Kenny was written and directed by David Ngo.
It played in a few film festivals, and now it lives online! Check it out~!

End of 2nd semester

2009-11-23T18:46:00.001-08:00

Second semester came and went just like that. I've gained a lot of weight from my foodie documentary, I've made great friends with the best triad partners in the world, I learned what it meant to collaborate, give constructive feedback, TAKE constructive feedback, and hustle.

An upperclassman said to me that no one comes out of 508 with a good film - you come out with a reputation. I know this to be true. The first semester was all about getting to know each other, being on your best behavior. By the second semester, you're already in your groups and you emerge as a filmmaker. Perhaps a more positive way to say this is that when you come out of 508 you have formed your identity as a filmmaker.

I always knew I wanted to be a director but after this semester, I'm pretty sure this is where I am most comfortable being myself and the position that invigorates me the most. I definitely wouldn't mind producting or even cinematography (though I definitely need more training in the latter). But, as it stands, I think directing is my calling.

So, for next semester, I signed on to co-produce a 547 documentary called "Polar Opposites," directed by the lovely and talented Caitlin Starowicz, who happened to be my SA last semester. I'm so excited to embark on a semester long adventure into pole dancing, women empowerment, and making a great documentary. We're crewing up by this Wednesday, which is super stressful but also really fun. I can't wait to have a full crew so we can all go bond together.

Happy Halloween!!!

2009-11-04T01:19:00.000-08:00

So for this year, my bf and I were torn between going as John and Kate Gosselin or Kanye and Taylor Swift.

My bf didn't want to buy Ed Hardy merch and we wanted to save money this year. I looked through my closet and I knew I had the outfit for Taylor Swift. All I had to do was buy the wig and the trophy. Introducing Jin Swift:

Glamour shot #1Glamour shot #2 w/ light sabre

Bf bought the glasses and the heart.

We hit the Yelpoween Elite party at the Viper Room. Free vodka drinks and beer until 8:30pm. We got there around 8pm so we didn't get to take full advantage but it was alright.

Here I am with my zombie hipster yelping friend.

And a vampire.

I thought we were friends!!

Waiting outside the viper room after the party.

Next, we hit the USC film school party. Of course, we rocked it out. There was a fog machine, an awesome dj, dancing and talking and even a photo set up to take dumb pictures!

Those really good pics are not online yet but here are a few shots I got from my friends and from my own camera.

Hanging with Darth Maul.

The ladies of SCA...well, a few of us, anyway.

Here we are posing like we wont the Olympics.
Represented countries:
Bolivia, U.S.A., Turkey

Red White and Blue!

With a pirate lover.

With best trio....er...triad.

Halloween is over but I think I'm keeping those contacts. Man, were they blue! I had a ton of fun on Halloween, ESPECIALLY because I made an effort to avoid the horror of LA traffic through west hollywood. Two years of We-ho parade was good enough for me.

That was a great weekend but now I must focus on sound editing, then shooting Joel's film. I need to learn cinematography before Friday night.

Cut the Fat - fight scenes/getting sick on set

2009-10-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

(Ray, Grace, Ben)

Hey guys, I'm still recovering from the flu as I write this. I'm still so amazed that everything came together in the way it did. We had three overnight shoots from 10pm-6am and that second night I thought we were definitely going to go over. The sun was peaking into the horizon but we got our last shot in before 6:30am.

I'm so proud of the cast and crew for sticking it out. I know that half of them were sick, including myself. But, some amazing things were done in those three nights. My actors and actresses dedicated themselves to stunts practice 3 times or more a week for two weeks in order to do this fight scene. We had awesome stunts coordinators, one amazing double, and really awesome clothes, makeup and hair.

A lot of research went into the look of this film. I spent hours pouring over youtube videos, Asian pop star sensations, video games and cartoons. I was inspired a lot by Michelle Phan's videos as well. If you don't know her videos, they're addictive and fun to watch.

I had an awesome stylist, Mika, who helped me put the wardrobe together. She's a really talented designer who has her own line called Cuore. I buy a lot of stuff from her because she makes everything by hand, it's cute & unique AND they make great gifts. Check out her online store at cuore.etsy.com.

All the clothes were donated by Fashion Max, minus the dad's king costume & mom's ref shirt, which I rented from Universal's costume dept.

Here are a few of my favorite shots:

All photos by Alan Kwan.

Credits list:
Writer/Director: Jin Yoo-Kim
Producer: Joel Townsend
Cinematographer: Neil Williams
Production Sound: Joel Townsend
Editor: Joel Townsend
Sound Design: Jin Yoo-Kim
Composer: Taylor Hollyer
Sound Mixer: Valen Hernandez
Action Consultant: Ron Yuan
Action Design: Mike Wilson
Action Director: Sonny Sison
Stunt Coordinator: Kerry Wong
Stunts double: Marissa Labog
1st Assistant Director: David Ngo
Assistant Camera: Justin Madriaga
Set Photographer: Alan Kwan
Makeup Artist: Laura Monteleone
Hair Stylist: Max Lam
Stylist: Mika Yamamura
Production Assistant: Panida Rzonca, Mira Ahn, Scott Ackerlund, and Paul Rader

Cast:
Ray Chang...Dad
Clarissa Park...Mom
Aiko Tanaka...Esther
Junko Goda...Sarah
Grace Su...Grace
Ben Kim...Henry
Mike Moh...Theo
Clara Juhn...Mina

508 faculty:
Nina Sadowsky
Jeff Lengyel
Jeff Crum
Kenny Hall
Robert Miller

508 SA's:
Thenmozhi Soundararajan
Dennis Castello
Ali Mansuri
Katie Walker

Special Thanks:
The Yoo Family
Joseph Camerota
Fashion Max

Cut the Fat – house scenes

2009-10-19T22:53:00.001-07:00

the house
Originally uploaded by jinyookim2004

Last weekend, we shot the “reality” house scenes. I was going for a Korean drama look and I’m pretty sure I succeeded through my grandmother’s house. Her family room is literally the perfect manifestation.

I also wanted to tie in the sister’s looks with strong dark eyebrows. Their wardrobe was to make them look pedigree. That is, all the sisters except Mina, the blacksheep of the family. The dad wears a bahama mama shirt to reflect that he is “celebrating” his birthday and to visually signify irony against his moody disposition. The mom wears the stereotypical polo with black pants. If only she had pink crocs!

Location Scouting

2009-10-07T01:23:00.000-07:00

So we got our cast and location! Here's a few location scouting pictures I took:

The "warehouse" where the action sequence will be taking place. Imagine you are seeing each picture to the right of the previous picture.

This is pretty exciting. All the stunts are being worked out now and the costume and makeup are coming along nicely! We just need PA's to help us!

Casting Call for my short film

2009-09-23T02:45:00.000-07:00

So we're wrapping up with Neil's short "Butterscotch" and now we're in pre-production for my short which is tentatively titled "Cut the Fat."

I'm holding auditions for all the parts this Thursday night and a second date on Saturday morning (or Sunday...second audition date is TBD).

Here is the breakdown:

Title: Cut the Fat
Logline: A man has to defend his honor, win over a wife, and protect his unborn child by gaining the respect of a man who detests him the most - his future father in law.

Auditions are at USC this Thursday, September 24th, 2009 from 6pm-11pm. If you cannot make this time, please note this in the email you send to jykproductions@gmail.com and we will schedule you for a time this weekend.

Breakdown:

Theodore: mid-late 20's. Theodore will go through anything to marry Mina, even if it means physically overtaking his future father in law. Theo will be using modern fighting styles to overtake the old man. These fighting styles may look more like UFC fighting style and some action film elements.

Dad: Korean man in his 40's-late 50's. Very traditional, conservative and from the old world. He's stuck in a time period and mentality that doesn't exist even in modern-day Korea anymore. He wants to make sure that his future son in law has balls to protect his daughter from nature, foe, and random acts of violence from street gangs. Although he's 1st generation, he's made a name for himself in academia with several published literature and is a professor of English literature. He's an expert martial artist (or other fight genre).

Mom: Korean woman in her 40's. Adaptable, shrewd, funny, and has very good intuition. Can tell right away when something is wrong and is immediately thinking of ways to solve problems.

Henchman #2: expert killer, esp at hand to hand combat. knows many forms of martial arts.

Martial Arts girl: expert killer with style and sass. Might wear traditional martial arts outfit, or a variation of it.

If any of these roles interest you, please submit your headshot/resume to jykproductions@gmail.com and hopefully we will see you at the auditions!

End of Project 1's first weekend of Shooting

2009-09-08T02:38:00.000-07:00

It's 2:41am and I'm still up from the coke I drank driving home. I'm blogging to update a little on our progress. We filmed Neil's film on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. We were at Echo Park Lake for two of those days and then at Wurstkuche and Grand Ave. It's very LA and very whimsical. I'm in love with the story and the visuals that accompany it. Next weekend, we will be shooting the fantasy sequences, which will have more choreography, dramatic lighting, and surrealistic qualities. I'm pretty stoked about that.

Some problems we ran into while shooting:

We lost a location and an actor very last minute but we hustled and got a location and an actor that ended up working (better) for the film.
Traffic was blaring at Echo Park Lake. Note to self: do not film there if there is a lot of dialogue.
Little Tokyo is relatively quiet on a Sunday morning until 8:30am. After that, traffic patterns are crazy, especially on an intersection like where Wurstkuche is located, where 4 streets meet.
Property managers of buildings in DTLA's financial district are extremely militant in keeping people off the property. We had to be on the sidewalk and if we ever spilled over to their property, security would come to move us. No wonder I couldn't get permission to film there.
We were one of four filmmakers on Grand Ave. on Sunday over labor day weekend shooting a scene. Everyone had the same idea as us.
Parking on Grand Ave. was unexpectedly horrible. We were expecting some delays from parking but we figured it was a Sunday and over labor day weekend but someone closed down the entire street and there were no parking 1pm-10pm on Sunday only signs everywhere. What luck! We had to park a few blocks away.
We had a prob with the batteries in the camera on our first day. We left it to charge in the rec/maintenance center at Echo Park but when we went to get it, it was closed and we were locked out. Luckily, an awesome classmate by the name of Josh, brought over a spare and SPARED us from not being able to shoot. We got the batteries unscathed the next day.
We also ran into a media card problem but we petitioned to use our 3rd card this weekend since the following weekend's footage will definitely all fit into one card. We were approved.
We were told that we are not allowed to use any 35mm lens adaptors. This news came really late into the game, AFTER our first weekend of shooting. We personally were going to rent one for the following weekend's shoot in order to accentuate the differences in reality in a cinematic style but we cannot do that anymore. I feel really bad for the people who already shot more than half their movies using the 35mm lens adaptors because they will most likely have to fight this against the administration, which is more work for them.

And for the good stuff:

We ended up filming at all our locations for free. We didn't even have to pay for permits due to the rule of three clause at Film LA and the nice people the locations who were way more than generous to us.
We saved a lot of money on props and food so we're still under budget unless we rent out expensive equipment for next weekend.
We have a consistent PA that came and will be coming to all the shoot dates. This is so incredibly helpful, especially when most of the crew members usually consist of other students who are all wrapped up in their own work. It's good to know people who can devote time and energy and consistency to help out who are not students.
We got some good wild lines using the DPMD sound kit, which will prove to be immensely helpful once I start editing.
The makeup artist was awesome, fast, and reliable. I hope to work with her again.
Of course, my partners were also awesome. They were diligent, positive, and professional.

Pics from the set:

Week 1 of 2nd Semester @ USC School of Cinematic Arts

2009-08-27T00:31:00.000-07:00

Film school part deux finally started this week...or shall I say, last week? We started classes this week but we've been meeting for that last week or two to get our first project off the ground. In this semester, we are divided up into trio's and each person wears a different hat per project. For example, I am producing, editing, and doing the production sound for the first project. For the second project, I am writing, directing, and doing the sound design. For the last project, I am doing the cinematography.

We don't get to choose the people we work with nor the order we want to go. I've heard a lot of people who took 508 in the past warning about working in these trio's and how it can get really heated. I personally couldn't have asked for better partners so I doubt that anything out of the normal would come between our group but it's good to keep in mind that we still should maintain respect and an honest line of communication. The three of us are really different (music lover, zombie lover, drama lover) but we all love food! But, it's still important not to get overzealous or hot-headed nor stray too far to be a doormat.

For example, if I want Korean tacos, I should not be afraid to speak up and if any of my partners would prefer to eat at a Japanese style burger truck, I shouldn't get offended.

In fact, I should just get both. =D Not like I can even attempt to lose the weight I gained last semester doing that fattening documentary.

Now that film school has started and I'm in class from 9am-5pm Mondays & Wednesdays, 7pm-10pm on Tuesdays, 9am-12pm on Fridays, I can kiss my social life good bye. Before I do, a quick trip down memory lane for the best of summer 2009:

With Panida @ Yelp Elite clothing swap and cocktails at the W hotel

Winning a $75 gift certificate to Crustacean @ the Blogger Prom

Redeeming my free lunch @ Crustacean

Mendocino Farms' sandwiches at the Project By Project's event, Plate by Plate

My first limo ride ever sponsored by Causecast.org

The Judges @ the Korean BBQ Cookoff

The Contestants @ the Korean BBQ Cookoff

Yelp Elite Party: Spa Luce (waiting for my free facial)
Free food @ Yelp Elite's Spa Luce party

@ Yelp Elite's Spa Luce, hanging out

Dinner @ Golden State (Burger & Salty Chocolate beer float)

Needless to say, my summer days of cheap thrills and gorge fests are over... until December anyway. I had to cancel many events already, even a sweet trip up north for a food event because I am filming that weekend. Slowly, my nights out are being replaced by nights in to produce, and my parties are being replaced by sleep. But, all is well in the land of 508 because there's nothing I'd rather do than to eat, sleep, and breathe film.

Week 1 is almost over and we're 90% done in locking down our location for project 1, and we already have our cast (as of now). Things change rapidly in this business but for the time being, I am happy enough to let myself rest watching a Netflix movie I have not touched since January.

That's a Wrap!

2009-08-18T13:39:00.001-07:00

After two days of non-stop shooting, we are WRAPPED on LA Food Story. What a journey it has been! It all started with my second project at USC, when I decided to do a 5 minute documentary on foodies in LA. It turned into an epic monster of a film because I started getting sucked into the LA foodie culture. I finally finished my last segment on that film a few weeks ago with the Korean Barbeque Cookoff and am waiting to edit that one.

After filming that documentary, I was inspired to do a short film about food with awesome collaborators like Double Oh Three Productions, Cuore, and Sheniferous, LA Food Story was born! We found ourselves two awesome actors, and we ran with it.

This is probably the most excited I ever got about a film project. Why? The crew was small, we were so mobile it felt like guerilla filmmaking at its best. We were all positive and had a lot of fun shooting it. No attitudes, no screaming AD's or PA's wasting time... everyone was hauling ass but at the same time, it was a no hassle low budget film so we didn't have to deal with gargantuan gear. Every crew member wore at least three hats and we maximized the time we got at each location. I'm so proud of our actors, who were dead tired at 2am but still looked peppy when I yelled "Action!" I'm so proud of our DP, who just knows his craft so well. I'd tell him I'd like a certain look and he'd give me three options to do it, not a horrible excuse of why I couldn't. I'm so proud of our stylist who was also our background, our slate girl, our script supervisor, makeup artist, and behind the scenes videographer. Is there anything she can't do? Last but not least, I'm so proud of our producer, who was also the writer, the sound guy, craft services, who booked all the locations, acted as the AD, and the driver. Is there anything he can't do?

Plus, every location we went to, the people there were more than accomodating. This project made me believe in the generosity of people for letting a bunch of people come into their businesses during business hours to make a short film. Who said everyone in LA was jaded?

I'm excited about this project. Now, to post production we go!

My UGC

2009-08-12T02:01:00.000-07:00

So in the last few days of my internship at Causecast, I am supposed to be working on my UGC video (user generated content). I chose to do my video on Aung San Suu Kyi because I didn't know anything about her before coming to Causecast. I will be basing my video on a blog post I wrote for Causecast's blog.

Of course, when I wrote that entry, the verdict of her unfair trial had not yet been announced. Even though I expected her to get five years in Insein prison and she got 18 month of house arrest instead, I feel like this is just another example of how the military junta is trying to suppress opposition while keeping the international community at bay. Since the actual term she is serving is so much "less" than the alternative, people will probably not rise up in uproar. But, the real issue is that she cannot campaign for the upcoming elections while she is in house arrest and neither can her party. So really, this is a way for the military junta to legitimize themselves as the rightful government and negate her landslide victory in 1990 when they had their last election.

I never really thought I'd care so much about Aung San Suu Kyi and her plight, and her people's plight before this internship. If I leave with just this new awareness, I'd be happy but I know I'm leaving with much more than that. My time at Causecast was sometimes hard, sometimes long, but mostly happy, with lots of learning opportunities, awesome projects, great charity events, and really caring people. If everyone cared about something as much as the passionate people at Causecast, then this world would be a better place.

I'm going to be sad leaving this place. But, I feel like I can always come back or join in on their community activities. I'm only across town.

It's August already!

2009-08-04T00:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged here in a while but that doesn't mean I wasn't blogging! I actually was quite busy hitting some awesome events - all free. I went to the blogger prom which was completely off the hook, with major shwag, food, and drinks, and awesome raffle giveaways (of which I won the most coveted). You can read my full review on it here. Yes, that is my food blog. Back in the day, I had one blog where I updated my film stuff, my foodventures, my personal life, etc. but realized it was much too easy for people to know way too much about me without trying. So, now it's just a little more compartmentalized.

August creeped up on me like a fast-spreading disease. I only have two weeks left at Causecast and I will be doing my UGC about Aung San Suu Kyi and paddleboat regatta video. Hopefully I can get these two projects done before I leave. This week and weekend I will be shooting more footage for my Foodie Nation documentary. When will this monster be done you ask? I was hoping by the end of this summer but that's becoming more and more unlikely as I continue filming. On Sunday, we're rehearsing for the next short film I will be directing called "LA Food Story" which is a short romcom about two food bloggers who fall in love and spend the whole day together trying out LA's cuisine. The following weekend is when we shoot it. After that, I have one week to prepare for fall semester before school starts. By "prepare" I mean I have to read an entire book, have an idea of the locations I will be securing for my trio's project, open up a bank account for our team, making sure I have enough of a rough cut of Foodie Nation so I don't have to freak out during fall semester about editing it.

So why am I still up you ask? I am going to bed and will not blog until the first day of class.

Troy Davis

2009-06-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

In my Psychology of Law class at Wellesley College, I was sad to learn just how fallible eyewitness accounts and appalled that they are often the only source of evidence used to convict people of crimes. As a class exercise, professor Linda Carli surprised us one day to test our own eye-witnessing skills.

In the middle of a lecture when she was talking about the death penalty, the door opened and a man walked in with a big ballooned baseball bat and began to hit our poor professor with it. She said a few things to him and he walked out. She then passed out a piece of paper that had questions about what had just happened.

Questions like:
"How tall was the suspect?"
"How much did he weigh?"
"What race was the suspect?"
"Did he have any facial hair or is there anything that stood out about the suspect that you remember?"
"Describe the weapon."
"How many times did he use the weapon?"
"What was the attack about?"

There were many more questions that I don't remember at the top of my head right now but the point of this exercise was to prove how fallible our memory and observation skills were. When the surveys were tallied up, his height ranged from 5'5" to 6'5" and he was 6'1". His weight ranged from 150 pounds to 300 pounds and he was 180 pounds. He was a light-skinned Italian but many said he was African American and some thought he was Indian, Latino, etc. Most people remembered the conversation they had but they couldn't remember the weapon he used even though he was waving it around for a good 3 minutes. Sad thing was that he was a campus police officer so he wasn't a completely unfamiliar face at our small liberal arts college (pop. 2600 at the time I was there).

After this class, I learned about the Innocence Project which is an organization that helps exonerate the wrongly accused through DNA testing. It hurt to think of all the innocent people who were executed before DNA testing came about.

However, many still are unable to get DNA testing and in cases where there is no physical evidence, no weapon, and the conviction comes purely through eyewitness accounts, the accused have a slim chance of overturning their sentence. From the Innocence Project:

Experts estimate that only 5-10% of all criminal cases involve biological evidence that could be subjected to DNA testing. In the other 90-95% of crimes, DNA testing is not an option – so the criminal justice system relies on other kinds of evidence, including forensic disciplines that may not be scientifically sound or properly conducted.

The most high-profile case that you should know about right now is the case against Troy Davis. Troy Davis was convicted with the murder of a Georgia police officer in 1991. He's been on death row for almost two decades but was granted 4 stays and is still awaiting execution. There was no physical evidence, no weapon. So how did he get convicted? 9 eyewitness testimonies pointed the finger at him. Interestingly, 7 of those 9 eyewitnesses have since recanted their testimonies, stating that they were forced, coerced, or threatened to saying that Troy was the murderer. 1 of the 2 eyewitnesses who have not recanted their testimonies is a suspect himself whose whereabouts the night of the murder is highly questionable.

Amnesty International is one of many orgs that has been pushing Troy's case. You can read more about it on their website if you want to get involved.

For the new Cause in 60 seconds series we are doing at Causecast, we launched the series with Troy Davis's case. I helped edit this piece so please take a look at it and comment below. There are many ways to get involved with his case as well as with abolishing the death penalty.

Here are a few links to help you.

Sign the Petition to re-open Troy's case at Amnesty's website.
Join the Abolitionist Action Committee.
Read the article and watch the vid on Troy here.
Shortened URL for your relinking purposes: causecast.org/troydavis

Watch it on Causecast's website with accompanying article.

This is the first of many C60 videos we will be doing. The second one is about Invisible Children. Stay Tuned!

NextAid's Tropical Beach Party

2009-06-30T02:01:00.000-07:00

The NextAid Tropical Beach party was on Saturday, Juney 27,2009 12pm-9pm. I went around 3pm with a friend of mine. I recognized zero people. But then again, I barely recognize famous people so I guess that's not much of a comparison.

The party was laid back. The dj's were rocking the tent and people danced around. I spotted a woman bringing back some hot dogs so I know there was a stand somewhere. There was no booze allowed on the beach and most people brought their own food, snacks, a chair, towels, etc. I was so ill prepared!

Nevertheless, the music was bumpin', the people were dancin' and it was all for a good cause.

The Youngest Candidate

2009-06-26T03:16:00.000-07:00

On twitter, #TYC is the new acronym being tweeted everywhere. It took me a while to realize it's an acronym for The Youngest Candidate. It's the first of its kind, this film premiere tweet-up thing.

Jason Pollock, the director for The Youngest Candidate, used twitter to market and mobilize his 50,000 twitter followers to come watch his film or in the least, the live streaming of his reception and red carpet for the LA film festival premiere.

Could social media really be a way to promote a film? Would people watch the live stream?

I shot the footage above and found it on Causecast's site as a place holder of where the actual live streaming was viewed. As I was filming it, I could see messages of the people watching the live streaming pop up on the little camera screen. It was an unexpectedly intimate experience to know that people were watching what you were filming and reacting to it as it was happening.

We don't know the results yet for how many people tuned in to the live stream but one thing is for sure. If this works, this will forever change the landscape for film marketing.

Jason Pollock is also a Causecast leader. Tonight I had the opportunity to help with the live streaming of The Youngest Candidate, a film he worked on for 3.5 years. He's articulate, funny, intelligent, inspiring, and...young. It was awesome to see the "big guys" in politics and entertainment make way for this guy to shine. According to new Jason Pollock converts, it was his tenacity and perserverance that got him into their doors and into their hearts. That is one take-away message I got from filming Jason and watching his film. Where would people be without failing? If you're not prepared to fail, you're not prepared to succeed.

I have a younger brother who is in law school right now and an even younger brother who brings home trophies from his debate competitions. If they saw this film, I know it would jolt them into realizing their political pursuits. One of the greatest misconceptions these days is that the youth are not doing anything or that they are apathetic. I disagree with this notion because I see how passionate teens get about the issues that affect them. In terms of politics, what would it take to get this topic to be a lunchroom discussion? In my opinion, to make it cool.

Cool to know that you can make a difference, cool to know that you can run for political office at the age of 18, cool to know that you have most of your teens to prepare for your first election, cool to know that you can prove to the world that your voice matters.

I hope you can watch this film. Oh yeah, and I don't get paid to say these things. Just in case you were wondering.

The Youngest Candidate

Synopsis:

The Youngest Candidate follows four electoral candidates on their campaign trails. There is Tiffany Tupper, an 18-year-old School Board Candidate from Pennsylvania. Raul De Jesus grew up in gangland and at 20 is a mayoral candidate in Hartford, Connecticut. Down the coast, Ytit Chauhan, a 19 year old that bounced around the country with his single mother, is running as a City Council Candidate in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Lastly, George Monger, raised in Memphis, Tennessee, campaigns as a City Council Candidate in his home town of 18 years. Not yet old enough to rent a car, the four candidates face social and racial barriers that coldly remind the audience how far our society has to come.

The premiere took place on June 25th at 7 p.m. at the historic Majestic Crest Theater in Los Angeles, California.

Here are some pictures I took of the event:

Graham Sibley, Justin Scot, Lawrence Bender, Jason Pollock, Gus Roxburgh, Shaun Murphy

Ron S. Calderon (CA state senator), Justin Scot

Jason Pollock, Katrina Norvell

Live Streaming Lawrence Bender, Jason Pollock

Lawrence Bender, Jason Pollock

Brandon wrote something up about the event as well. He's much more detailed in his descriptions and posted up some awesome numbers (people tuning in, etc.) so check it out here.

This just in:
Jason will be at Causecast headquarters on Tuesday, June 30 at 2pm PST for a live chat!

Other reviews and write ups:

The Youngest Candidate - Jason Pollock's Ode to Young Politicians

The Youngest Candidate: Four Youths That Voted For Themselves Before Most Of Us Voted At All

***********

Watch The Youngest Candidate Trailer

The Youngest Candidate Mission Statement

Befriend Jason Pollock on Twitter

Befriend Causecast on Twitter

Watch the live streaming of the premier if you missed it

Switching to Organic Cosmetics

2009-06-24T09:30:00.001-07:00

Here is the video I just finished!

How to grow a basil plant

2009-06-23T13:16:00.001-07:00

I'm a noob gardener but I wanted to show off my horticulture skillz in this pompous how-to video. Enjoy!