De Stijl

Eli Hsieh - the Production Designer of "Mei", and one of my best friends in Taipei - just opened up his own store here selling vintage Art Deco jewelry.

The store is called "De Stijl" and it just had its grand opening last night.

For anyone living or visiting in Taipei, you have to check it out. Eli basically took an old building and gutted it, leaving the original exposed molding, brick and concrete walls, then he spent over a month renovating and re-designing the space with a modernist look (custom wall paneling, deco furniture, light fixtures) - it's pretty amazing. And the jewelry itself is very cool - stuff Eli's been collecting for years.

DE STIJL
台北市中山北路二段26巷10-1號
No. 10-1, Lane 25, Sec. 2, Zhongshan N. Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei City

They'll have a website up soon too:
www.destijl.com.tw

EAT for VC

"EAT", the omnibus of 3 short films I worked on, was just accepted to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Fest (VC). I was there last year screening "Mei" - it was pretty cool. It looks like I'll still be in Taipei in May, so unfortunately I won't be able to make the festival...

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Fest

The shorts are:
"Laura" (Jon Maxwell)
"The Birthday Dinner" (Danny Lee)
"Set B" (Me)
"I Heart Cup-O-Noodles" (Jerry Chan)

We submitted a rough cut, which means now we only have a few months to get the final ready for screening...

Commercials...

I'm starting to direct some small-scale commercials in Taipei for some extra cash while working on our feature project.

The last one was for a Stem Cord Bank (VIA) - the commercial is actually now playing (on continuous loop) in every McDonald's in Taipei. Quite often I feel the need to enjoy an Egg McMuffin Meal in the morning and the other day, I was sitting there and saw the commercial playing in between a promotional sketch of a Chinese-speaking Ronald McDonald and the Fry Kids introducing some disturbing new sandwich.

Doing a commercial was an interesting learning experience, especially working with clients and all that, but actually kind of fun.





The next one might involve shooting a promotional thing for a novelist here.

The End Sort of

"Mei" had its final festival screening about 2 months ago, and it premieres on American television in February...so basically the run of the film is done. It's been a cool year or so - here are the festivals we screened at:

Berlin Intl Film Festival
Pusan Intl Film Festival
Hawaii Intl Film Festival
Bilbao Intl Film Festival
Melbourne Intl Film Festival
Sao Paolo Intl Film Festival
Taipei Intl Film Festival
Tokyo Short Shorts Film Festival
Mexico Short Shorts Film Festival
Expresions en Corto Film Festival
Munich Filmschool Festival
San Francisco Intl Asian American Film Festival
VC Film Festival
DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival
NYC Shorts Film Festival
Wendland Shorts
Gaohsiung Intl Film Festival
Hong Kong InD Blue Film Festival
Film Independent Cinema Showcase
Method Fest

And the awards the film received:

Silver Bear (Jury Prize) - Berlin Intl Film Festival
Best Student Film - NYC Short Film Festival
Audience Award - NYC Short Film Festival
Best Emerging Director - DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival
Honorable Mention - Directors Guild of America Student Awards
Honorable Mention - British Academy of Film and Television Arts Student Awards



We're on to First Page Taipei. From now on I'll use this blog to post about movies and side projects and stuff.

Video i

"Mei" will be showing on American TV for the first time next month.

It will be playing on the show "Video i", a showcase of independent film and video on KTEH (PBS for the Southbay) - Monday Feb. 11th at 11pm (Channel 54 or Comcast 10).

If you live in the Bay Area/Silicon Valley, please check it out!

Mei on Video i

EAT

I just finished shooting a 4 minute short for a project called "EAT", which is an omnibus of 4 short films by 4 different directors, all of which loosely deal with Love and Food.

My short, "Set B", is set in an American-style Fast Food restaurant in Taipei.

Bilbao

"Mei" was just selected for competition at the 49th Bilbao Film Festival. Sweet.