Guest Filmmaker Blog

WHATEVER IT TAKES: We Finished the Film!

It’s hard to believe, but I can finally announce that WHATEVER IT TAKES has been completed! At times, I never thought my film would be done. There was always another scene to shoot, another rough cut to edit, another technical detail to manage. But through it all we persevered, and now we are ready to show our film to the world.

WHATEVER IT TAKES: This Is Real Life

Last month, something happened which reminded me that I’m not just making a film. In documentary, we’re not just dealing with footage that we shot a few months ago; we’re dealing with individuals whose lives continue evolve. This is real life, and sometimes things change for the better, sometimes for the worse. In this case, it was definitely the latter…

WHATEVER IT TAKES: A Strong Vision

Right before you start a documentary film, before you shoot a second of footage, what do you have? You might know who your main characters will be, but you have no idea of how they will “perform” on camera. You might know the history behind your project, but who knows how you’ll portray it. What we do have, of course, is a vision of what the film can be. This latter vision was the genesis for my documentary WHATEVER IT TAKES.

WHATEVER IT TAKES: Almost There

So I need to apologize again for the long absence between blog posts here… As you might imagine, things have been incredibly busy as we get to the very end of the film. Right now, we are consumed with three major tasks: finishing the edit, crafting the animation, and choosing a composer.

FRUIT FLY: Behind the Scenes

Guest blogger Chihiro Wimbush writes about lights! camera! action! on the set of the upcoming FRUIT FLY: THE MUSICAL by filmmaker H.P. Mendoza.

AMONG B-BOYS: Busy as a B-Boy

I’ve been alerted by my all so loyal blogging fans that I’ve been slacking in my duties, and to that I apologize. So some of the stuff going on in the world of Among B-Boys and Christopher Woon. I’ve been finishing a video for a client (OASES 25th Anniversary celebration tonight!) and been chasing that funding paper trail. I’m also set to join a team promoting the ever so entertaining B-Boy Hella Hung, and projects revolving Hung that are in development.

WHATEVER IT TAKES: There Can Only Be One

What’s more interesting in a documentary? A story about one person or many? If you capture the lives of four or five individuals, it seems like you would have an interesting mix of narrative threads to follow. But if you follow just one person around, you might not get enough action to fill out your film.

WHATEVER IT TAKES: We got into Sundance!!!

Well, kind of… I should explain. Since July 2007, WHATEVER IT TAKES has been supported by the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund. Besides CAAM, Sundance has been our other major backer, providing us with not only a large grant, but also much needed creative and technical assistance.

AMONG B-BOYS: Crashing the Festival!

AMONG B-BOYS: Crashing the Festival!

Among B-Boys is smashin’ your average B-boy vids! But here’s a few that might be able to compete… It’s been a long time… I shouldn’t have left you, without some dope films to step to! films to step to! Since it’s SFIAAFF time, here’s 3 B-Boy related films I want to see…

WHATEVER IT TAKES: We Are a Family

Everyone tells you that you can’t make a film by yourself. So true. But while it’s absolutely crucial to have a wonderful camera crew and editing team, it also really helps to have an awesome film organization (or two) backing you up. For this project, we have had amazing support from CAAM, and I want to spend some time bragging about them… (FYI, CAAM did not put me up to this; this is completely my own doing.)

WHATEVER IT TAKES: The Man and the Mission

For those of you who have been keeping track of this blog about my film “Whatever It Takes”, let me first apologize for being a bad, bad blogger these past four weeks. I do have a decent excuse, though, because I was incredibly busy planning some fundraising events in three different cities. As someone who has never done this before, let’s just say that it was (and continues to be) a mighty difficult undertaking.

AMONG B-BOYS: Building Community

AMONG B-BOYS: Building Community

With documentary or even anthropological research, sometimes you hear about being an “objective”, fly on the wall… or I guess it also reaches into…