Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (Preview)
Coming May 1-11th the Director’s Guild of America and CGV Cinemas.
There are tons of great films from all over the world coming to the historic DGA building. I have covered this festival a few times and it is a lot fun. I recommend this festival because for the American film’s you get to see a number of Hawaii Films and see pieces of culture you do not see anywhere else. I highly recommend any film on the schedule. http://asianfilmfestla.org/2014/
Here is a review and interview for Chu and Blossom. Chu and Blossom is one of seven 2014 Jury Award Finalists. It will screen Sunday May 4th at 7 p.m. at the CGV Cinemas.
Synopsis: A coming of age comedy centers on an unlikely brotherhood between a pensive, awkwardly tall Korean foreign exchange student and a militant performance artist, both trapped together in a small town.
Review: Chu and Blossom is a refreshing, comical take that examines social attitudes on race relations, art and how or when we should be ourself. The film was perfectly timed with no dragging dialogue scenes or unnecessary side stories to create drama. Chu and Blossom was beautifully simple and was touching without being sappy. The film had a few season professionals, that were nice to see in smaller roles (so I don’t want to spoil the faces you will recognize). My favorite part of the movie is, it never lost me.
It has becomes normal these days to see a movie and tell yourself “o.k., I can be lost for 15 minutes and get involved after I finish my popcorn.” This is disheartening as an audience member whose jobs is to tell you what I think. Movies are what we bring to them, so they will never be just the movie by itself.
Chu and Blossom was a superb film because it allowed the audience in, without forcing an opinion out of you. In reality, the only feelings you can have are your own and that was the premise of the movie (be your own muse). The director’s message and subtext worked like a charm.
Paul’s Grade: A
*****
Interview with on of the Co-Writer’s, Charles Chu
Paul Booth: What was your inspiration or made you guys decided to do Chu and Blossom? Any specific challenges with the story of culture?
Charles Chu: I co-wrote the screenplay with Ryan O’Nan who also happens to be a producer on the film slash Butch Blossom slash my creative soulmate slash my heterosexual life partner slash BFF. He’s a Jack of all trades to say the least. We both grew up as kids that moved around a lot and had trouble fitting in. I grew up in a Korean family but in neighborhoods that were predominately other races. So I had identity issues. I remember when my parents sent me to Korea for a summer program when I was a kid, I was always viewed as the American kid. I was never fully accepted even though my ethnicity was Korean. And they could smell it right away that I was not from there. And when I was in America, even though I was born in the US and raised as an American, I was always viewed as the Asian kid. I never fully felt accepted until I discovered myself as an individual and was comfortable in my own skin. I think a lot of races raised in America can identify with this issue. So the fish out of water story was always appealing to me. I also had relatives and friends that were F.O.B.’s (what Asians like to call foreigners that move to America, an acronym for Fresh Off the Boat) and I saw the issues that they had to confront. As adolescents, many of the ones I knew were shy from uncertainty and never revealed how creative, beautiful and unique their souls were. We wanted to tell a story about someone who found the courage to do so.
Side note (relevant to film): Charles really wanted his character to be believable to Korean’s who are the toughest critics. We hired a Korean voice
coach for him even though he knows the language. Him and the production wanted his character to be accepted by the toughest of critics.
PB: How long did it take to make? Where else has it screened? What are your hopes with it?
CC: The journey of Chu and Blossom started a few years back when it won the Grand Prize for Best Feature at the Expo 5 Screenwriting Conference which holds the largest screenwriting convention in the World. The team worked on numerous projects together and a part after beginning the script and starting pre-production at the end of July in 2012. Filming started in August and lasted 18 days in Tampa and surrounding areas with a couple pick-up days back in LA. Soon after post-production started and we finally finished late in the year of 2013. We had our World Premiere in the Narrative Competition at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in January 2014. We are having our Florida Premiere as the Closing Night film at Gasparilla International Film Festival which is a sort of homecoming for the production as many from the area helped with the film and the production happened because of Ryan O’Nan going to GIFF with his film Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best back in 2012. We will be screening the film at other prestigious festivals like Sarasota Film Festival, Florida Film Festival and several other US festivals as well as having our international premiere this year as well. We can’t announce it yet though! But, we are extremely excited to show the film to several audiences around the World as we feel it relates with the masses. We have a Sales Agent(Preferred Content) handling our distribution and really look forward to getting the film out!
PB: Were there many different versions of the script or in the editing room? Please give us some words on the challenge of timing some of the humor.
CC: Yes there were. The very first version of the script had our names as the characters and was 138 pages long. Over many many versions, I want to say around 20 versions, we cut it down 102 pages. I think its important when to know when it needs to exist in a finished state. We could have written another 20 versions. But there is a point where it’s no longer efficient to keep writing alternate versions, and the version that you do have is in its best state. Its sort of like knowing when to leave the blackjack table.
In the editing room, we had maybe half as many versions. You’re on a budget and time restriction when working with an editor, so we couldn’t afford to have too many. Some directors love as many choices as possible and love to look at things constantly. I don’t know how they do that. It’s difficult to keep objectivity when you’re staring at the same thing over and over for so much time. We made the real tough plot decisions early, so that we’d have more time with nuancing and crafting scenes.
The challenge in humor is the sweet spot of comedy exists in milliseconds. If you wait a millisecond too long or cut in a millisecond too early, your joke is either completely twisted into a different meaning, or worse…just unfunny. Also so much of comedy is based on taste and general instincts, so getting someone else’s opinion can sometimes do more harm than good. In most cases in editing comedy, I think its your first instinct that is the right one. If it felt right the first time, don’t adjust it after watching it 64 times…it might be your mind playing tricks on you. Or the lack of sleep and overflow of coffee/caffeine in your system. I thought one of the most interesting things I learned while making a feature, is that one second could effect an entire film. One second of a frame missing or too long, could change the meaning of a scene. Which can take on a ripple effect and shift the meaning of the next scene…and so on. It’s very daunting, but there’s also power in that knowledge.
PB: Is this a first time director? If not, what else have they done?
CC: Gavin Kelly and Charles Chu are both first time directors. Gavin has DP’d many great films that have premiered at some of the biggest festivals in the world. The Dry Land(Sundance 2010), LUV(Sundance 2012), Brooklyn Brother’s Beat the Best(Toronto 2011).
Article by Entertainment Writer, Paul Booth
