First Public Screening of 'White Dwarf' Tomorrow Night

A short film that I wrote, edited, produced, and directed on fast-track. That's a mouthful without an ego, I hope. I'll try to keep my blog about the experience concise. It was again another blessing of excitement and creativity to make a film that I'm actually proud of. I thank my cast and crew for doing the job for no money. It's always shocking that people are willing to sacrifice their weekend and work for 12-hour days for no particular reason. So I'm very lucky. Now, I'll try to write in order from the genesis of the script to the upcoming screening that's tomorrow night in downtown.

Hmm, this was a first time for a lot of things actually. It was Dennis' first time working as the first assistant director-- he brought his game. It was Josh Yu's first time being the DP-- I'm glad he said he had fun. That was a stretch because he's already experienced with photos and light but not motion picture. There was some hesitation from the beginning but I asked him to do it only if he wants to do it. Not just because a friend is obligating you. This is my first science-fiction film and I'm a die-hard fan of sci-fi. So I stole a lot of ideas from many of those films. I didn't develop this idea for the script. I don't usually do that with my films. The ideas just strike me out of nowhere, and I get the ending in mind so the hard part is to write it to get to the ending. Sounds risky but it's true. They tell you in film school that you should have multiple script ideas at once. Not just working on one movie at a time. I happen to agree with that.


This was my second time working with Jessica Graves who I can't say enough of how great her talent and instincts are. I want nothing more than to see her launch into movie star status. She's beautiful, smart, and easy to work with. Hard to pass that down. When you work with good actors, you don't have to tell them much during the shoot. Ironically, the film is about a movie star who's trying to make a comeback because she lost her way with drugs, alcohol, casual sex, and constant attitude problems. Sounds like a real celebrity we know, right?


My hat also goes off to the other cast-- Sarah, Bella, David, Shane, and Jessica. The last thing you want as a director is that one actor who's a pain in the ass with bipolar disorder. Not even close on my set. It's actually crucial for all or most people on set to get along. If it's some acting technique, then I need to know their intentions ahead of time. The worst part is of course waiting and waiting for the next camera setup. It's not against anyone. It just takes so long and it can get frustrating. Maybe I should've had more crew members. My hat off to Ari Tibbs for delivering outstanding visual effects. I won't say more. You just have to see it. He definitely poured his blood and sweat for the shots.


Here you'll see Myron Kim searching for sound effects off my hard drive. This must've been 2-3 AM at Andrew Oh's house. On the night it's due, I came over to his place to drop off my Blu-ray format of my film and to check out Myron's 2nd directed film, 'Going Home'. At that point, my sleep schedule was already messed up so I was getting used to it. Like a vampire.


Here is one of the hardest working filmmakers, Andrew Oh, scrambling to finish the sound mix for Myron's film and waiting for the other directors to submit their final cut to his place. We killed a lot of time by quoting movie lines before eating some Jack in the Box.