Layover The Blog

Shigeto

2010-06-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

I somehow stumbled upon this Shigeto individual. The description of his music automatically grabbed me. Ended up buying his Semi Circle EP on iTunes. A bit of an impulse buy, but I didn't regret it at all.

"They say some of the best art is born of struggle, but in the case of Shigeto’s Semi-Circle EP, that struggle began more than 50 years ago, when the artist’s grandmother was a prisoner in her own country, locked in a Japanese internment camp in the US. Half a century later, her diminutive, half-Japanese grandson fought to forge his own identity as a musician and bi-racial American, ultimately taking on the name Shigeto (his middle name) as a tribute to his great grandfather. The Semi-Circle EP, Shigeto’s first release for Ghostly International, is a deep, vividly beautiful suite of electronic music—the opening salvo of Shigeto’s ode to family, melody, and the art of the beat."

x. Yu

Two DeLillo quotes that seem relevant here

2010-03-15T00:31:00.000-07:00

“Film is more than the twentieth-century art. It's another part of the twentieth-century mind. It's the world seen from inside. We've come to a certain point in the history of film. If a thing can be filmed, the film is implied in the thing itself.”

"Film allows us to examine ourselves in ways earlier societies could not—examine ourselves, imitate ourselves, extend ourselves, reshape our reality. It permeates our lives, this double vision, and also detaches us, turns some of us into actors doing walk-throughs."

- Don DeLillo

Berlinale Talent Campus

2009-12-27T15:21:00.000-08:00

(photo via flickr)

Great news, people: Eunsoo, cinematographer of LAYOVER ON THE SHORE is heading the Berlinale Talent Campus next year!

The Berlinale Talent Campus is a six-day gathering of filmmakers from all over the world for a series of lectures, workshops, films, and (I'm guessing) good conversation. Needless to say, this is very hard program to get accepted into and I am not in the least surprised that she is going.

She will return with treasures from the Occident.

Berlinale Talent Campus: http://www.berlinale-talentcampus.de/

Chris

Artist Edwin Ushiro

2009-11-02T21:17:00.000-08:00

At the Giant Robot Biennale this past week, I came across a small 4x6 watercolor. Just a few kids behind a Japanese restaurant at dusk, surrounded by lush green. Like a photograph of a moment, ambiguous but decisive. It reminded me of Hawai'i. I looked up the artist, Edwin Ushiro, and it turns out he's from Maui.

"I am primarily focused on listening and researching the ghost stories of Hawai'i. For the moment, they are the inspirational foundation for my artwork. I hope this doesn’t sound selfish of me!"

You can check out his work online at LeBasse Projects, a gallery in Culver City.

FLUX magazine

2009-10-12T09:10:00.001-07:00

Jared Yamanuha's coverage of our film on the FLUX hawaii blog:

Layover, on the Shore, filmed both in LA and Honolulu, on dreamy film stock and über-realistic HD video, is, essentially, a love letter to Hawaii. It’s also Yogi’s attempt to reconcile two different, yet equally relevant Hawaiis: the real, actual Hawaii, where we live, and the imagined paradise with which the rest of the world is acquainted.

It’s precisely for this reason that Layover, on the Shore signals a new type of film, one that engages in the complexities of Hawaii. His film doesn’t seem to fit snugly into either of two categories to which most films about Hawaii belong: it’s not a film that uses Hawaii as a stunt double, so to speak, for other, more exotic locales (think: Jurassic Park and Tropic Thunder), and it certainly doesn’t reduce its characters to caricatures, or make broad generalizations about Hawaii and its people. Yogi seems to be making movies in heretofore uncharted territory, realistic films about us, here and now.

Premiere

2009-09-26T17:28:00.000-07:00

We are very pleased to announce that LAYOVER, ON THE SHORE will be premiering at this year's Hawaii Int'l Film Festival. For those of you in Honolulu, it will be screening with

Shorts Program #4
Sunday October 18th at 6:45pm
Dole Cannery Theatres

Find us on the HIFF website here: http://hawaii.bside.com/2009/films/layoverontheshore_hawaii2009

Chris

2AM

2009-09-11T02:10:00.001-07:00

DONE.

Public Enemies

2009-08-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to seeing Public Enemies. I liked it a lot more than any grown man should. It's refreshing to see HD treated as what it is -- video. Having gone through film school, I've had enough of this wannabe-film-let's-get-a-Red-or-a-35mm-adapter-on-a-prosumer-camera shit. This is why Michael Mann is rad. And this is why Layover and our very own Christopher Yogi and Eunsoo Cho are rad.

I'm going to go watch Public Enemies again.

Meanwhile, here are the links to the rest of the Museum of the Moving Image series on Michael Mann.

http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/zen-pulp-pt-4-20090715
http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/zen-pulp-pt-5-20090723

I particularly enjoyed the fourth installment. Check it out.

Kwok

Rushkoff: How Capitalism Killed the Narrative

2009-08-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

(via indiewire)

Terrific and inspiring lecture by author Douglass Rushkoff on the hopeful future of new media in a DIY environment. Kinda long, but if you got 40 min of free time, crack open a few tall boys, and enjoy.

Chris

Opening Scenes: The Vertical Ray of the Sun

2009-08-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

Anh Hung Tran, Mark Lee Pin Bing, Lou Reed, and one of the most delicate opening scenes of all time:

Chris

Michael Mann

2009-07-10T09:14:00.001-07:00

Michael Mann is one of my favorite filmmakers, and Miami Vice and The Insider are among my favorite movies. If you have the time, check out this Museum of the Moving Image video essay series by Matt Zoller Seitz on Mann.

Parts one through three are up. Stay tuned for four and five.

http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/zen-pulp-pt-1-20090701
http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/zen-pulp-pt-2-20090703
http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/zen-pulp-pt-3-20090709

I've been a bit occupied. Haven't had a chance to see Public Enemies yet, but I'm pretty pumped.

Pretty pumped about Layover as well. We're in the home stretch!

Kwok

Cinereach and Sundance doing good things

2009-07-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

$1.5 million grant for projects with themes that "that evoke global cultural exchange and social impact."

Variety article here.

Chris

The Ongoing Conversation

2009-06-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

By way of Ted Hope:

I don’t think film-going is any more a passive experience than filmmaking is, and cinema is where creation and consumption unite. If we embrace the active spirit of film-going, if we accept that there is a quiet dialogue running in the heads of all audiences, we are going to start to find some answers on how we – the filmmakers – survive this vast paradigm shift our culture is now engaged in – because I am confident we are not just going to survive, but we are going to prosper and bring better work to more audiences in all sorts of new ways....

If a diverse film culture is going to flourish in this country, we have to move to a new model where filmmaking is a process, an ongoing conversation between the filmmakers and their various audiences. That is the new model I hope you can embrace when you walk out of here tonight...

Read the rest of his speech here.

Chris

Quick bits

2009-06-08T15:04:00.001-07:00

(photo via jameschan.posterous.com)

ADR with Hawaii actors last week was a success. Thanks to Brandon, Chanelle & James for their great work, and a HUGE thank you to Jon Yamasato, who allowed us use of his recording studio for our ADR session. Jon, you are now an expert dialogue recordist.

Sung Rok Choi is currently putting together our sound edit, Boon Sim is working on our score, and next week we will be having our online & color correction session at Primary 3. Almost done, people!

Finally, show your love on rising film-star James Chan's blog: http://jameschan.posterous.com/

Chris

TWO WEEKS

2009-06-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

Incredible MV by Patrick Daughters. TWO WEEKS by Grizzly Bear. I've been kinda iffy on Grizzly Bear, but I now understand that I was wrong.

Chris

Spring this, mofo!

2009-05-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite time of the year:

- The start of the baseball season. The crack of the bats. The freshly-cut grass. Fantasy baseball getting in full swing.
- Playoff basketball. Bulls, Celtics, epic.
- Playoff hockey. I don't really follow hockey, but a game now and then is quite fun.
- Summer movies start coming out. There's really nothing quite as satisfying (or as American) as a good Hollywood blockbuster.
- Birds chirping at 2 a.m. They're back from the south!
- The last weeks of school. Children everywhere, from ages three to thirty-three, rejoice as the end of the year approaches. Pizza parties, classes outdoors, proms, and naked runs around campus.
- Layover nearing completion. I can't wait to show the world.
- Eunsoo shooting another project.

I used to dread spring when I lived in New York, where I'd get the gnarliest allergies. But in sunny Southern California, the smog kills the pollen, and all is good.

Let's go Mets.

Kwok

from china with love (missing LA wow)

2009-04-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

thanks for the link to my site, chris.

do you have any advice about working with non-actors?

do you have any advice about shooting HD?

do you have any advice on drinking while being charming?

haha of course you do.

today there was a thunderstorm here that lasted for ten minutes.

i've been listening to a few myspace pages and downloading kevin's offerings.

pretty much over and over.

[thank goodness myspace still works here. mourning the blocking of youtube!!!]

i'm going to have a party at a bar with the french video/noise artists i live with on friday 4/17 about 8am-11am PST. i believe it will be broadcast live on their blog (with about an 8min delay). the first 30mins will be some of my more "experimental" short films and the rest will be danceable noise music with live video. should be "très cool" if you're up in the morning T_T.

oh also i showed the last fine-rough cut of layover to some kids at the sichuan university. they thought hawaii is beautiful and would overall support the preservation of the nursery. but also wouldn't oppose drinking on the street.

here's to making movies, sometimes and forever.

Pro cess

2009-04-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or is it easier to write when you're lonely ?

Light Rain Films

2009-03-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

Our producer extraordinaire, Yu Gu, has traveled across to the world to shoot her very own thesis film, THE MOTH, which she wrote and plans to direct. It is a great project and production will be under way in less than month. Check out her website here:

www.lightrainfilms.com

Show your love.

Chris

I've Been a Stranger

2009-03-14T18:59:00.001-07:00

I've been a stranger to this blog as of late. I just wanted to stop by, check in, and say hello.

For this blog entry, I'll list some of the things that I've liked thus far in 2009.

- Taken.
- The first single off the new Phoenix album. And isn't that opening "1901" Flash animation pretty awesome? (And what's more awesome? There's no "music off" button on the page!)
- Michael Mann continues his embrace of video, but this time with a period piece. Marion Cotillard is one of the most beautiful creatures to walk this Earth.
- Janusz Kaminski shoots a Judd Apatow film.
- Deep-fried pepperoni pizzas.
- A picture-locked Layover.
- The Rock Obama.
- The World Baseball Classic. Team China wins a game (albeit against Chinese Taipei).
- LeBron James. (And having him on my fantasy team.)
- Gomorrah and its score. (Forgive the foreign-film-trailer voiceover in the link.)

Au revoir,
Kwok

Greetings from Abroad

2009-03-02T04:56:00.000-08:00

Editor Wendy JN Lee here, sounding out a big whoot for Layover picture lock! The last stretch, I must admit, was spent eating a lot of "editing foods" (everything), and talking about what French New Wave really means. I had such an incredible time on this project, the Yogi withdrawal is already kicking in... so it's good I'm heading to a Nepal this week, where there are a lot of other yogis. Cave yogis.

PICTURE LOCKED

2009-02-27T10:16:00.000-08:00

After a prolonged picture editing stretch, a successful LA shoot in December, and some pick-ups in HI in January, we are locked! Well, kind of. The film is moving onto sound, which is in the hands of Mighty Sung Rok, and any changes to the cut from here on out will be minor, if any.

I celebrated by going to see Animal Collective last night, who fucking killed. It's all kind of a translucent haze, but seeing Animal Collective live is kinda like seeing Sigur Ros, but with more dancing.

Chris

Piñata

2009-02-23T20:22:00.000-08:00

Music video for Pilar Díaz song "Piñata"!

Directed by my good friend & "Layover, on the Shore" crew member José Asunción, shot by our very own Eunsoo Cho, and edited by myself.

Enjoy!

Chris

Best thing I've watched today

2009-01-30T09:20:00.000-08:00

Animal Collective "My Girls" from Chad von Nau on Vimeo.

Chris

"I was a simple man, but . . ."

2009-01-25T13:04:00.000-08:00

On January 7th, my Grandpa Yogi passed away at the age of 86. Born in Wailuku Maui, he worked as a carpenter his entire life but retired soon before I was born in 1982. I spent most of childhood at Grandma & Grandpa Yogi's home in Kaimuki -- a humble, self-built, local-style Japanese home that my dad spent his entire childhood in.

This past summer, Grandpa Yogi welcomed our Layover, on the Shore crew into his home, allowing us to shoot at his house, and sleep there when things got too crowded at my mom's place. He watched Korean soaps with Robin, and sitting out on his backyard lanai played us old Okinawan records on his dusty record player.

He was a funny, talkative, strict, traditional Japanese man, who engaged life with a builder's hands. He was my last surviving grandparent, and I can't help but feel my life will be enormously different without him. I will miss you, Grandpa.

Chris

Test test test test

2009-01-21T08:34:00.000-08:00

(photo via flickr)

Last night was our very first test screening, and I was pleasantly surprised with the turn out (despite it being inauguration day). And although we screened off of a DVD, we got a chance to watch it on a big theater screen, with the volume amped up loud.

Thanks all who came and offered their insight, criticism and support. It was extremely invigorating and helpful.

We're about three weeks from picture lock, and we're getting close.

Chris

17th Century China and "Layover"

2008-12-29T18:40:00.000-08:00

Recently, my friend shared with me a passage by Zhang Dai, a 17th Century Chinese writer, and funny enough, this passage reminded me of Layover, on the Shore. And thus, I share this lil' something with you:

At West Lake on the middle of the seventh month there is nothing to
look at; one can only look at the people looking at the
mid-seventh-month festival. Those who look at the mid-seventh-month
festival can be looked at as five types:

One: in tiered pleasure boats, playing flutes and drums, wearing tall
fancy hats, enjoying the finest feasts, their lamps shining amid opera
players, noise and glitter roiling together, looking at the moon but
actually not seeing it--so they look.

Another: also from boats and belvederes, with famous ladies and
distinguished young women, with beautiful youths in tow, their
laughter and cries intermixing as they sit around the open-air stages,
turning and gazing right and left, present beneath the moon but
actually not seeing it--so they look.

Another: boating and singing, with famous courtesans and leisured
monks, sipping small mouthfuls of wine and lowly humming tunes, with
gentle flutes and lightly-plucked strings, pipes and voices sounding
together, beneath the moon and looking at the moon also, but hoping
that the others look at them looking at the moon--so they look.

Another: neither in boats nor in carriages, wearing neither gowns nor
head cloths, tipsy with wine and sated with food, calling out in
groups of three or five, squeezing themselves into the throngs at
Zhaoqing Temple and Broken Bridge, hooting and hollering and making
ruckuses, feigning drunkenness and singing without tunes, looking at
the moon, looking at those looking at the moon, looking also at those
not looking at the moon, but not really looking at anything--so they
look.

Yet another: in small boats screened with gauze, around clean tables
and warm stoves, their tea kettles heated to a boil, calmly passing
around plain porcelain, good friends and beautiful people, they invite
the moon to sit with them. Some hide in the shadows of trees; some
flee the noisy inner lake. They look at the moon, but their manner of
looking at the moon is unseen by others, nor do they make a point of
looking at the moon--so they look.

Normally, when the residents of Hangzhou visit the lake, they depart
at mid-morning and return in early evening, avoiding the moon like an
enemy. But on this night, drawn to the famous event, in bands they
scramble out of the city, bribing the gatekeepers with extra wine
money. The chair-bearers hold torches and wait by the shore in rows.
As soon as people get in their boats they urge on the rowers to
deposit them quickly at Broken Bridge and rush to the heart of the
festival. As long as it is before the second drum (9 p.m.), people
will be yelling and playing away on drums and flutes as if being
boiled and shaken, as if having nightmares or talking in their sleep,
as if deaf and dumb. Boat big and small crowd against the shore, so
that nobody can see nothing but pole knocking pole, boat ramming boat,
shoulder rubbing shoulder, face watching face.

After a while the celebration dissipates. The officials' banquets
break up, and their servants yell to clear the roads. The chair
bearers shout at the boaters, who are now terrified that the city
gates will close. Their lanterns and torches like a constellation of
stars, they crowd together and depart. Along the shore, people
likewise rush the gates in bands. The crowds gradually thin, and soon
the dispersal is complete.

We then begin to moor our boat near the shore. The stone steps of
Broken Bridge having begun to cool, we sit there and beckon guests
over to drink without reservation. Now the moon is like a mirror newly
polished, the hills have recovered their orderly aspect, and the lake
looks freshly scrubbed again. For their sake, those who were sipping
and humming emerge, as do those who were hiding in the trees' shadows.
We go and greet them, and pull them over to sit with us. Cultured
friends come; famous courtesans arrive. Cups and chopsticks are laid
out; flutes and voices sound. Only when the moon's colors turn somber
and the eastern sky is about to brighten do the guests depart.
Afterwards we set our boat adrift and sleep sweetly amidst ten miles
of lotuses, their fragrance brushing against us. In our limpid dreams,
we are most content.

Chinese culture is the shit. Layover is the shit.

Happy Holidays!
Kwok

My Favorite Films this Year

2008-12-29T18:36:00.000-08:00

A couple days ago, I listed some of my favorite films from 2008 for a friend. I thought that since I've made this list anyway, I might as well share it.

There are a couple notable exceptions--my moviegoing stopped when I stepped out of the country earlier this month. (I have ridiculously high hopes for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.) But anyway, here it is:

My favorite film this year:
Happy-Go-Lucky

And the runners-up (in no particular order):
Frost/Nixon
Iron Man
The Dark Knight
Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days
In Bruges
Il Divo
The Wrestler
Speed Racer
A Perfect Life
24 City
Wall-E
Tropic Thunder
Miracle at St. Anna
Synecdoche, New York
Slumdog Millionaire
Wendy and Lucy

- Kwok

Crossing the River

2008-12-28T21:02:00.000-08:00

In January 2008, I met an astrologer who told me that the year would be defined by the act of crossing a river --a turbulent, necessary period of change for the better. Now that 2008 is coming to a close, I would like to say goodbye to this river. Wet, tired from doggy paddle, and uncertain if this other side of the river will be as great as I hoped, I resign to the passing of time as the life raft. Let the Age of Aquarius begin.

Layover Editor, On the River

Watch The Wrestler

2008-12-17T02:42:00.000-08:00

And worship Mickey Rourke.

Airplanes!

2008-11-28T00:47:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 28, 2008)

A totally random subject.

I have a lifelong love of commercial airplanes--jumbo, large, medium, small, Airbus, Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Embraer, you name it, I love it. And I love everything about commercial airplanes, from the shape of the engine all the way down to the seatback pockets, the fold-up tables, the little personal TV controllers, the air-conditioning nozzles, the no-smoking signs.

Perhaps it's because I came to America on an airplane, a Pan Am Boeing 747, as a tot. (One of my earliest memories.) Perhaps it's because my childhood home was a seventh-floor apartment right underneath the flight path for LaGuardia. Perhaps it's because I've always associated commercial jets with going to visit my father; the somewhat dank, sterile odor of an aircraft cabin is a comfort smell for me, while overcooked brown-sauce-drenched "meatloaf" or "chicken" and undercooked couscous are my comfort foods.

This might sound kind of weird and irrational, but part of the reason I was drawn to working on "Layover" was that it tangentially sorta kinda maybe had something to do with airplanes. (The title, the fact that the characters are traveling from the Mainland to Honolulu and from Honolulu to Asia.)

I don't know.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Kwok

Best thing I've read today

2008-11-12T08:15:00.000-08:00

From Lewis Hyde, Trickster Makes the World:

A friend once heard Ginsberg lecture on prophecy; at the end of the talk a young man asked, "Mr. Ginsberg, how does one become a prophet?" Ginsberg replied, "Tell your secrets." Uncovering secrets is apocalyptic in the simple sense... in this case it lifts shame covers. It allows articulation to enter where silence once ruled. "Tell your secrets" is a practice for loosening the boundaries of the self, for opening up the ego. "The striving for the right to have secrets from which the parents are excluded is one of the most powerful factors in the formation of the ego," the psychoanalysts tell us, but once that right has been acquired, there you are inside the ego, which may well take its job too seriously...The teller of secrets I'm trying to describe hopes to create a more porous container to live in...

Vast territories of silence are opened up to articulation. The artist who is not always guarding his or her words has more materials available than one who must feed a troop of customs officials... Some ego structures stand in the way of creative plenitude and need to be suspended or punctured if the work is to proceed. The poet who is not wedded to the structures that secrecy engenders has a wealth of materials at hand. Speech bubbles up. The ready voice itself is part of what he has to profess.

Chris

The Consolidated Conch

2008-10-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

The Consolidated Theaters intro will forever be linked with my movie-going experience (can anyone remember what introduced a film at Consolidated before this intro?), and I remember how weird it was the first time I saw a movie on the mainland without the fire and water and the epic invocation of the muses -- it was dull.

A news 8 piece says that the caves, the dancing, and conch shell are all here to stay:

Chris

Taipei Story

2008-10-11T22:19:00.000-07:00

"...... But that's how I looked at the city at the time - we were breaking away from the past and our ties to the past are inevitably romantic ones. But realities set in, economic pressures, other kinds of hardships... ....... What Taipei Story actually shows is my devotion to the place - how tied I feel to its past, but also how much I care about its future."

That Day, on the Beach

2008-10-06T18:09:00.000-07:00

This month brings us an Edward Yang retrospective at the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art, and with much excitement I attended the first screening this past weekend: That Day, on the Beach.

Yang actually attended USC film school, briefly, before dropping out (I think after only one semester), citing USC as being too much of a Hollywood-centric film school. He went to work in computers, then went back to Taiwan, met up with Hou Hsiao Hsien, and began changing the world.

Structurally That Day, on the Beach moves like the cycles of the tide, the narrative skillfully folding back on itself over and over again, pulling and pushing us at its whim -- it's a great feeling. And yet, overall, the movie is actually pretty rough -- like a sketch, almost. It is long, meandering, imperfect, and lacks the restraint that I've come to expect from the Taiwanese New Wavers -- little about this movie is subtle.

But the fact that it's so rough makes it all the more inspiring to see.

Watching this film is like watching a future master's humble beginnings, struggling with the language to communicate what it is he wants to express. He is overly ambitious, and too conscious of his art. And yet, all of Yang's thematic, stylistic, and formal elements are in place, albeit in very rough form. It is incredible to think that over the next twenty years he would refine and strengthen his craft to eventually make a film that so many people have told me has changed their lives: Yi Yi

"If you want to make films, don't watch films, watch life" - Edward Yang

Chris

Paul Newman

2008-09-27T10:34:00.000-07:00

Another great loss.

I remember my first time watching The Sting on an old, crusty VHS copy that I found. And I thought of Paul Newman, "This is what it means to be a badass mofo."

- Kwok

David Wallace

2008-09-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

The suicide of one my heroes -- a man I would consider a spiritual & moral teacher of a sort, a writer & thinker who I once (stupidly, presumptuously) tried to adapt into film -- has left me wrangled and warped, and nothing I could say here would serve to emphasize how bedrock-shaking and sad the news was on Sunday morning, and since I've never had the pleasure of meeting the man, I've been spending my time going through the memories of those who have:

Remembering David Foster Wallace on Slate

Memories of David Foster Wallace on Mcsweeneys.net

David Foster Wallace on KCRW

I am going to miss being inside of your head.

Chris

The liars

2008-08-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

Now, Now

2008-08-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

Two hours from now, I am hoping to get onto a plane to Los Angeles, CA. After three months in Honolulu, the whole thing is still a fucking mystery. Even now, I'm in the midst of processing the production -- still physically & emotionally exhausted -- still having dreams of shooting (dreams in which I dream up a scene that we have yet to shoot -- last night's was Christian & Laura standing on my mom's balcony, wistfully -- and then I wake up -- jump up -- looking for Robin or James or whoever, and it is about 15 seconds before I realize that it is 4am, everyone is already gone, and the scene doesn't exist). These dreams are really stressful and I hope that they stop soon.

The film was a landslide, a motion blur, and reminds me a bit of what it is like when you try to have a conversation with too much caffeine inside of your brain. You try to pace yourself, but the rush inevitably takes over and before you know it you are saying things just to figure out what they mean. It's a ecstatic sort of feeling, and when it's over you kinda think, What did I just say?

Chris

Hawaii, we are done.

2008-08-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

We have finished shooting the Hawaiian portion of our picture. A big thank you to the many of you who helped us.

And now, on to Los Angeles!

Fundraiser + Wrap Party

2008-08-18T15:12:00.000-07:00

What: LAYOVER, ON THE SHORE fundraiser + wrap party

When: This Thursday (8/21) starting at 10pm

Where: E & O Trading Co. in Ward Centre

Why: Because we've almost finished shooting, but have a long way to go.

For more info contact:
David || 808.630.7946
Mai || 808.375.7858

Day #7

2008-08-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

We've wrapped 35mm & started on the HD. We've woken up at 430am 3 times to film during sunrise. We've had two rain days, one blown circuit, one re-shoot, one windy night on the top of Tantalus. We've had two or three major scheduling changes. On Day #5 we went until my brain turned into mush.

Richard Chiu & Ara Laylo had a lot of cigarettes.

Tonight we shoot in a truck, sunday we shoot in front of Hawaii Theatre, and next monday we shoot at the Loft in downtown.

Been listening to a lot of Liars, and it's been good:

Chris

November Ninth

2008-08-09T13:29:00.000-07:00

Today marks our first day of shooting. Wish us luck!

Kevin

Ron and Mackey

2008-08-07T22:27:00.000-07:00

The other day I went to have lunch with a camera operator friend in Reseda.
His name is Ron and he's I would guess in his mid-fifties,
Maybe around the same age as my dad.
I brought him a bottle of tequila I got in Mexico to thank him for steadicam-ing for me.
I drove to his house which was in a cul-de-sac.
On his walls were photos of people and places he had encountered and visited:
Thailand, India, Nepal, Snoop Dog, Phil Collins, OJ Simpson, the Great One - Wayne Gretzky.
Then he showed me his backyard. He calls it his miniature Hawai'i...
Or how he remembers Hawai'i.
Or what I imagine some backyard in Hawai'i looks like:
A swimming pool, a bar, cushions, tropical plants, sea shells...
Ron had lived there for several years in the 70s, haunting the disco bars, camera-operating now and then for some TV stations and meeting girls then taking them to Tantalus lookout.
He pointed to pictures of him on the beach.
He had long brown hair and a moustache which made him look Mexican even though he's mixed-Filipino.
He told me to listen to the music of Kalapana and that I won't come back the same person.
And that inside I will feel the Hawai'i curse of the islands.
I'm not sure what he's referring to exactly but I feel like Ron is one of those people, like my dad and like many others, that despite his easy smile, warm laughter and bright eyes, he has an irreproachable shadow inside.
Somehow Hawai'i embodies this emotional anatomy that he calls a curse.

He told me he was friends with Mackey Feary and that his story was very sad.

Yu

"The Broken Heart of Gnocchi Bolognese"

2008-08-07T02:53:00.000-07:00

Check out the website for this other awesome project that I had the honor of producing.

www.gnocchimovie.com

Go Kat!

'Layover, on the Shore' in the Star Bulletin

2008-08-06T11:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Katherine Nichols and the Star Bulletin for all their support.

Chris

The heat is on!

2008-08-05T12:32:00.000-07:00

Just about four days left until we start...

Haiku #999

2008-08-02T23:43:00.000-07:00

arcane susurrus,
complexity makes me sleepy -
kwok quivers green.

[for antonio]

Yu

One week

2008-08-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

We are about one week out from the beginning of shooting. On Sunday we move into our Kaimuki House -- serving as both our hotel & production office -- and then it's all tech scouts and rehearsals for the next seven days. I'm trying to get a good amount of sleep; trying to remember to eat; trying to go for a run everyday; listening to good music...

BABY C'MON!!!

Chris

Three haikus guaranteed to knock your frickin' socks off.

2008-08-01T03:06:00.000-07:00

Flying Tortoises

An itch on my leg.

Can I scratch it or not, man?

Scratch so hard it bleeds.

The Air Conditioner Haiku

I am an addict.

Hooked on air conditioner.

Dank and cold, I thrive.

Yu Gu

Oh, Yu Gu, Yu Gu.

Yu Gu Yu Gu Yu Gu. Yes.

Yu Gu Yu Gu. No.

Peace out.

Kwok

Haiku #111

2008-07-30T22:09:00.000-07:00

hand on my knee,
our skin melting into light -
dogs die in the sun.

Yu

A couple of movies that make my soul (and/or innerds) stir.

2008-07-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

Christopher's last entry spoke of a film that he "still [has] not been able to shake." Here are some films just off the top of my head that have really rocked my world:

Yi Yi (2000), dir. Edward Yang

This was the last film to make me tear up. The plot points definitely hit me emotionally, but it struck me on a much deeper level than that. The filmmaking in Yi Yi is just so goddamn virtuoso, it made me think, "I am not worthy. This film is utterly perfect." I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard that Edward Yang had succumbed to colon cancer.

Miami Vice (2006), dir. Michael Mann

Yes, this film is completely ridiculous. Yes, it's pretty much incoherent at parts. Yes, Colin Farrell does switch between accents during the film. Yes, that Linkin Park song sucks. But can you deny the kickassness of the opening of this film? (No studio logo, no titlecards. It just goes straight to Crockett and Tubbs in the middle of a packed nightclub.) That's genius, holmes.

Chungking Express (1994), dir. Wong Kar Wai

In my mind, a lot of folks like this film for the wrong reasons. Many only cite its great cinematography. I think that view is simply scratching the surface of this master work. For me, Chungking Express manages to do the impossible--it perfectly captures the wonderful whirlwind of love on celluloid. Indeed, love is very much like eating pineapples till you puke.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), dir. Rainer Werner Fassbineder

This film just inspires the hell out of me. It was shot in a mere two weeks but is an totally perfect piece of work. Mix tenderness, anguish, malevolence, and lust in a blender, and this is what you get. Delicious.

Frenzy (1972), dir. Alfred Hitchcock

This film is, bar none, my favorite Hitchcock film. Sick, perverted, haunting, titillating, raw, totally thrilling. It amazes me that he churned this out in the later stages of his career--usually the sick shit occurs early in one's career and fades away as one gets fat off one's fame.

The New World (2005), dir. Terrence Malick

(The above is the conclusion of the film. So, if you haven't seen it, don't play the clip!)

I was pretty close to simultaneously weeping and pissing/shitting my pants during the last five minutes of this film. YouTube does it no justice; if you haven't seen this film before, watch it on at least DVD or Blu-Ray or something (with a pair of Depends on). It is the most beautiful five minutes of cinema ever crafted. Your body won't be able to handle it.

*****

This is by no means a comprehensive list. I just had to stop, because I realized if I kept doing this, I could be typing and looking up clips on YouTube all night. So, that's enough for now.

Keep on keepin' on,
Kwok

Syndromes

2008-07-28T02:18:00.000-07:00

An interview with Apichatpong Weerasethkul on the occasion of his wonderful film, Syndromes and a Century -- a film that I first saw over a year ago, and still have not been able to shake. It's a difficult film, but a film that comes from someplace cavernous...

TP: What is the word “film” mean to you?

AW: It is a film that reflects the filmmaker’s own self. It does not necessarily have to be easy to interpret. Like all humans, we are not sure what the other person is thinking. But that’s why it is fascinating. There are unknown viewpoints, which often happen with experimental films. But that is one extreme—what I am doing is not so extreme; I still want to deliver some kind of message.

Chris

I Shrink Therefore I Am

2008-07-26T04:17:00.000-07:00

A Poem about Nothing, Written in Two Minutes

I shudder,

sour sweat dripping

down my grimy

(and itchy) back.

Back, back, back! I yell

to the demonic monstrosity sitting

outside my door.

I draw my sword, but I find

nothing in my hand.

But a black

telephone.

It rings, I answer.

"Do I do," croons Mister Stevie.

And thus, I yell into the abyss,

"MAYBE!"

It gazes into me.

-Kwok

Another dream

2008-07-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

I visited William's place to feed two turtles and water the plants. Elizabeth, the marigold has powdery mildew(some sort of fungus) so I cleaned up the white powder on the edge of the pot. Despite the fungus, Elizabeth bloomed a pretty flower. I watched the flower and the turtles eating and fell asleep beside them. The chill woke me up and I decided to take a real nap in bed until I have to go to work.

I was driving to William's apartment in the dream. I couldn't find where it was and kept missing the turns. I got into the garage in his building somehow(you always get to a place "somehow" in dreams) and tried to find a parking spot. Even though his apartment has only two floors in the garage I went up higher and higher.

I finally parked on the 10th floor and walked downstairs. There were hundreds of carnivorous frogs and a cat. The cat bit and hung on to my right hand and the killer frogs hopped on my back and legs. I smashed them against the walls and railings feeling pain from their biting and disgust from seeing them dying.

Now, I was lying on the bed like I did in real life. I tried to get up and couldn't. After a while, I heard someone in the bathroom. The person urinated, flushed, washed hands and turned the light off. He walked into the room and he was William. Even in the dream I knew he should be in Hawai'i; this William looked different -- lean, shorter hair, and evil grin. He dove for the bed. He acted as though he were playing, but he was stopping me from getting up. I yelled at him that he was not real but he mumbled some excuses about the return. I desperately reached for the door and tried to rise myself up but got sucked into the bed every time I tried. I became so frustrated and mad at him I started kicking and punching him and could finally sit up.

I woke up from the nightmare. Even at the moment of waking up I absolutely believed that the dream was real. I looked at myself in the mirror and everything was same as I saw in the dream except the absence of William. I got really scared.

I think I got hallucinated by the marigold fungus.

A dream

2008-07-19T01:26:00.000-07:00

I had a dream last night that I was a fugitive and an old soldier cut my throat at the end when I tried to cross the border.
Obviously I died in the dream.
Christopher said the old soldier was the aggregate of things I fear and I failed to conquer him.
But what I thought dying was it is kind of cool that I get to know the afterlife that I have always been curious about.

BON IVER + DO-HO SUH

2008-07-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

BON IVER - Wisconsin
That was Wisconsin. That was yesterday. Now, I have nothing that I can keep.
Because every place I go I take another place with me.

DO-HO SUH, Perfect Home II, installation, translucent nylon, 2000.
A portable apartment sewn with fabric: memory and place.

inch worm inching

2008-07-16T03:24:00.000-07:00

2008-07-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

Eunsoo

Read for the first time this morning

2008-07-12T20:07:00.001-07:00

An interview in the Paris Review with William Faulkner, 1956.

FAULKNER
Life is not interested in good and evil. Don Quixote was
constantly choosing between good and evil, but then he was choosing
in his dream state. He was mad. He entered reality only when
he was so busy trying to cope with people that he had no time to
distinguish between good and evil. Since people exist only in life,
they must devote their time simply to being alive. Life is motion,
and motion is concerned with what makes man move—which is
ambition, power, pleasure. What time a man can devote to morality,
he must take by force from the motion of which he is a part.
He is compelled to make choices between good and evil sooner or
later, because moral conscience demands that from him in order
that he can live with himself tomorrow. His moral conscience is the
curse he had to accept from the gods in order to gain from them
the right to dream.

INTERVIEWER
Could you explain more what you mean by motion in relation
to the artist?

FAULKNER
The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by
artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later,
when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man
is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave
something behind him that is immortal since it will always move.
This is the artist’s way of scribbling “Kilroy was here” on the wall
of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must
someday pass.

Entire Interview: William Faulkner Interview

Chris

Inspirations II

2008-07-11T20:55:00.000-07:00

The film that made me aware of filmmaking--the craft behind this fantastic art form--is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). During the late 1980s and early 1990s, I was perhaps the biggest Turtles fan alive. I had the Halloween costume, the lunch box, the Trapper Keeper, the drink, the fruit snacks, the bed sheets, the pillow case, the toothbrush, the video game, and of course, the action figures. When the movie came out on March 30th, 1990--to this day, I still remember the exact date--I dunno, I lost my shit. I couldn't sleep the night before, I couldn't do my homework, I didn't even care that my best friend had kissed my crush on the lips that afternoon during recess.

My Mom took me to 4 p.m. matinee showing at the UA Fresh Meadows 7 right after school. Those 93 minutes went by in a flash--just seeing Shredder, Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Casey, April, Splinter in live action blew my little mind. And when it was over, I wanted to see it again. I called my cousins to come over to the theater, and I stuck around for the next showing. I wanted to stick around for the subsequent one after that, but I wasn't granted permission.

During its theatrical run, I saved up enough money to see it three additional times. Later, I got the VHS as an early Christmas gift from my godmother, and I must've seen the movie on video at least twenty more times.

On approximately my tenth video screening, I started noticing the filmmaking behind the movie. It intrigued me that behind this very tangible product (the movie) lived this strange assembly of abstracts (the cuts, the camera placement, the the action blocking, the music).

I would love to say that at that moment, I realized that I wanted to become a filmmaker. But then, I would be lying. When I was eight, I still wanted to be an MTA subway operator (and part of me still does want to drive trains underneath and above New York City all day). Nonetheless, I feel that that moment still must hold some significance in my life and in my decision to become a filmmaker.

Heroes in a half shell!
Kwok

Documentary Voices

2008-07-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

Please take one second to vote for my friend Lisette Marie Flanary's documentary Na Kamalei: Men of Hula for the Independent Lens 2008 Audience Award.

Vote here: Independent Lens 2008 Audience Award Voting

She is so super close to winning, so every vote counts. Voting closes today.

Support documentary filmmaking.

Chris

Inspirations

2008-07-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

About a year and a half ago, when the screenplay for Layover, on the Shore wasn't much more than a page of notes on the back of my journal, I watched a film by Japanese filmmaker Nobuhiro Suwa called H Story—and it changed everything.

H Story is a film about Hiroshima, Suwa's home. Suwa plays himself, a director, who is making a film about Hiroshima by making a shot-by-shot remake of Alain Renais’ classic Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Quickly though, his remake begins to fall apart.

Suwa and his actress, Beatrice Dalle, engage in constant arguments, as Dalle becomes more and more detached and disinterested in the failing production.

Then one morning, in a rage, Dalle walks off set.

Outside, she calms herself down by sharing a cigarette with an on-set Japanese writer. The moment seems inconsequential, but soon we find ourselves watching a blossoming romance between this French actress and this Japanese writer, as they wander the streets of Hiroshima together. By the end of H Story, Suwa’s failed remake is recuperated as a romance in contemporary Hiroshima and ends up being, strangely enough, a successful remake of the original.

It blew my mind. It was one of the most inspiring films I'd seen in a long time, and one of the best cases I’d ever seen of a filmmaker trying to negotiate the idea of his home with the reality of his home.

H Story asked, How does one make a film about a place, when the idea of the place overshadows the reality of the place?

Suwa’s answer was to show how he cannot make a film about the idea of his home, and yet cannot escape making a film about the idea of his home.

Everyone should try to check out this wonderful movie.

Chris

Yogi vs. Kwok

2008-07-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, Chris and I get into creative disagreements. Like real men, we let our limbs and teeth do the talkin'.

We don't have any footage of our latest brawl, but it looked awfully like this:

Rip Torn, Norman Mailer Rumble.

Except I had a screwdriver instead of a hammer, and Chris tried to bite my left eyebrow off. That son of a gun! I'm gonna get him!

Yikes!
Kwok

Home and Away

2008-07-08T23:11:00.000-07:00

before producing layover, on the shore at full speed,
i went back to Chongqing, China this summer,
my birthplace and a city like an old friend.

Chongqing is a city of two rivers
and a few dozen bridges
muddy waters carry boats, cargo and centuries of strife
white thick mists creep across green mountains and gray highrises
hiding other worlds that disappear when the sun bakes the earth.

when i was in Chongqing, i dreamed of Los Angeles
i dreamed of my little apartment in Ktown,
my little balcony, Wilshire and Western, the sunset on the 10
and when i'm in Los Angeles
i dream of Vancouver who raised me
my old room with the blue corduroy curtains,
the crisp light, mountainview cemetery and cedar forests.

layover, on the shore - to me is about this idea of home, about the characters' relationship to home. and undeniably, it's about chris' relationship to Hawai'i. i don't know, but i imagine it's a place that is buried deep inside. as chris changes and grows, Hawai'i is changing and growing too - not just as an island on earth, but inside of him too. as a producer on layover, i feel i am a part of this intimate relationship, a relationship that struggles to heal an odd chasm: our bodies are always in the present but our mind almost never is.

Yu

The Green Ray

2008-07-08T19:39:00.001-07:00

When I was a child, my grandfather loved telling me stories of old Hawaii. And his favorite story was about the green ray, a burst of green light that he would sometimes see flash in the sky moments after the sun set. Grandpa was a child during Hawaii's plantation days, and he would oftentimes work late into the evenings in the sugar cane fields. With his body covered in perspiration and dirt from the strain of a twelve hour workday, he'd watch the sky with a sense of anticipation, eagerly awaiting the flash of green that he, in his youthful naiveté, imagined HAD to be some form of communication from a higher being, a wink, perhaps, from God Himself.

In those days he claimed he'd see the green ray quite often. But he saw it less and less as the years went by, and, when he passed away five years ago, it had been over twenty years since he'd seen it last.

Grandpa had no idea why the green ray disappeared. But he suspected that it had something to do with the industrialization of Hawaii in recent years. Surely, he reasoned, the subsequent pollution had to have had some effect on the green ray. Of course, his theory had no real scientific basis. But still, he believed in it.

When I read a very early draft of Christopher Makoto Yogi's thesis screenplay last year (then titled Layover, On the Beach) all I could think about was my grandfather's story. And once Chris asked me to collaborate with him on the script, and as we edited draft after draft together, I found that Grandpa's story was always in the back of my mind, seemingly guiding me.

A couple of months ago, I mentioned the green ray to my father, and explained to him how much of an impact the story had on me. That's when he told me that my grandfather had never worked in the sugar cane fields.

He said that while Grandpa was a master storyteller, he was also a chronic bullshitter. In fact, he said, most of the stories he had told me, including the one about the green ray, were probably lies, or, at the very least, gross exaggerations.

Today, I have no idea whether my grandfather was lying or not. But still, even if he made it up, his story held more truth than even he realized. And it feels so appropriate that his tale has guided me in the writing of this screenplay, this story of individuals trapped between worlds, haunted by idealizations, longing for pasts that perhaps only ever existed in their minds.

At this point, after all the revisions and changes the script has gone through, I have no idea what Layover means to Chris. But to me, what I will always remember is chasing after that image of my grandfather looking towards the sky, searching for a green light that faded away years ago, believing that one day, against all odds, it would return to him. Truth or fiction, reality or idealization, it really doesn't matter.

I truly feel that Layover captures a side of Hawaii that I've never seen represented on film before, and I absolutely can't wait to see how Chris goes about capturing the images and emotions and ideas in the screenplay. These next six weeks are going to be very exciting.

Kevin

From Los Angeles

2008-07-08T18:54:00.000-07:00

All too often, I find myself deeply disappointed in the state of Asian American culture. When did we--despite our disparate histories, beliefs, cultures--become so homogenous? When did we become so whiny, complacent, and passive? It seems like every other Asian American film, novel, poem, painting, or short story is just another vapid, shallow rehash of the ol' trusty why-did-my-mother-pack-me-seaweed-and-fish-when-all-I-wanted-was-a-PBJ-sandwich-like-everyone-else.

I signed onto produce Layover, on the Shore, because I knew that it would be different, that it would be special. Over the past three years at USC, I've had the great pleasure of befriending Chris. What struck me at first about him was his nuanced, humorous, fresh view of the world around us. Chris never accepted the status quo; instead, he always opted to dig deeper, to try new things, to venture where we were forbidden. His screenplays and movies did the same.

This little movie that we're working on here is the concluding project in his and my film school careers. I am confident that Layover, our parting shot, has the potential of creating a truly fresh entry in the oftentimes tired world of Asian American cinema.

We thank you for visiting our website, and we welcome you to be a part of it. (Just click around to find out the many ways that you can join our Layover family.)

Rock on,
Kwok

From Honolulu

2008-07-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

In five weeks, we begin production on my thesis film, which is titled Layover, on the Shore. The screenplay comes from a question that I've been chewing over ever since I began film school: "How does one properly represent Hawai‘i in film/art/media?"

I'm not sure if I've gotten any closer to an answer, but what I now recognize is that in order to provoke a conversation on the topic, I'd have to make a film that puts this question front and center. Layover, on the Shore presents two dichotomous Hawai‘i's -- two distinct faces of my home. Although it is nowhere close to a comprehensive portrait, these two faces represent two Hawai‘i's that resonate with my experiences. It is a film that is inspired by the idea of islands, by comings-and-goings, by Yasujiro Ozu and Hou Hsiao Hsien, and by the time that I've spent away from home.

And so, welcome. We will be blogging throughout pre-production and into production, which begins on August 9th in Honolulu. There is a lot of work to be done between now and then, but we will continue with frequent updates on the filmmaking, along with random thoughts and notes on anything that might grab us.

I invite all to participate -- more than anything, I want to encourage feedback & discussion as we move forward with this production.

Check back soon.

Chris