I landed in Los Angeles on Saturday night, and after checking into the hotel, I went straight to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival party. It was packed, I met a lot of local filmmakers from the LA and Bay area. I handed out flyers and post-cards to promote my screening.
Screening at CGV Cinemas
The screening of Requiem for Romance took place on Sunday at 12:00noon at the CGV Cinema in Koreatown. It was well attended and the feedback was really great. My film played with four other films, and each one had similar themes of mixing melancholy and action. During the Q&A there were some questions about how the voices were recorded and I talked a little bit about the search for the right voice actors and the challenges involved in creating the sound track. I also mentioned in the Q&A about my limited prints for sale outside of the screening, and I mentioned that it was one of the ways that I intended to pursue the financing of my feature film.
Limited Prints
There was a lot of interest for the limited prints after the screening. Many people gathered around the table to take a look and give their thoughts on the film and ask questions. I was really happy about the response. Some people identified with the emotions expressed in the film. One person told me, "you captured love". Others were just curious about the technique. The screening opened with a really cool action/romance called Counter Measure directed by Jason Satterlund, who's fractured metaphorical narrative takes you for a spin. If You're Serious was another short film that played in the screening, directed by a filmmaker from China, Zhi Li. I found it to be a very powerful film that sticks with you.
Korean Food Paradise
For the screening, my uncle had come up from Rancho Santa Margarita where he lives, and we went for some Korean BBQ after the Q&A. There is so much good Korean food in this area and some of it is 24 hours. I've been living off of Gamjatang, K-BBQ, Bulgogi, and all kinds of different soup places.
You know you're in Koreatown when...
Acme Filmworks
On Monday, I headed up to Hollywood to meet with Ron Diamond, co-founder of AWN and executive producer at Acme Filmworks. Acme produces animated commercials with really unique styles and has a legendary list of directors such as Michael Dudok De Wit (Father and Daughter), Paul Driessen, Wendy Tilby & Amanda Forbes, Bill Plympton and Peter Chung (Aeon Flux). Actually bumped into Peter Chung on the way into Acme. I had a lunch meeting with Ron where I talked a bit about my feature film and he gave me some very insightful feedback.
Laemmle Theater
Tuesday, I went down to Santa Monica to the Laemmle Theaters where my film had a short LA theatrical qualifying run. I had to pick up the DCP that screened back in April. Due to this theatrical run, my film can now qualify for Oscar consideration. It took about an hour and half to get there from downtown LA by bus. Funny thing is that none my friends who are LA locals even know how to take a bus. My friend Tim Kadowaki who works in VFX had to message the one girl he knew who "had taken the bus that one time". Another friend Dan Gregoire was like, "holy crap, it took you an hour and a half to get there? That's insane. You should rent a car" And I told him that it cost me a $1.50 and I read a book on the way. I guess that's just not part of the LA lifestyle.
Thursday will be the closing ceremonies of the festival, and my film is one of the shorts nominees for the Golden Reel Award for Short Film.
