I've been a bad blogger... but sue me... I've been busy!
I'm currently working at the Boys & Girls Club in South San Francisco as their clubhouse coordinator/technology director. Right now we're doing a lot of animation because unfortunately, a lot of our video production and audio production got jacked (before and after I got hired). This stuff includes 3 24" imac computers, 1 korg triton extreme synthesizer, 2 miniDV camcorders, and countless copies of Windows XP and various 3d software, and our OSX Adobe Design Premium installers. But On the bright side, we have a lot of our Windows installers for stuff like Adobe Web Standard and MS Office 2007.
So I've also been working slowly on getting the film together, but I recently took a big hit and didn't get a grant I applied to. It sucks, but hey, I guess I just need to do a few fundraisers. I also will keep my rights to sell it to whomever I wish (assuming there's a distributor that will be interested). But that's all to be seen later.
I've also been helping with Hella Hung and his Hung Dynasty's SOLO DVD, called "The Return of Animal Chin" Please watch it... it's the SH!#!!!
editor's comments: I don't know why I posted this on my crs1un.com blog, since it obviously belongs here... Also, I'm working on an article about B-Boy Charles/Goku from Climax/Soul Control and am hoping to have a companion posting from a member of Wizards maybe?
Reposted from crs1un.com: If excessive run time on a documentary is the fat, and the film is the body, then you could say that Among B-Boys is the "Bobby Lee" of Asian American Documentaries - a little bit round, a lot of fun, but you couldn't think of it any other way. That's what I'm hoping it is at least. Right now I'm feeling some pressure to slice and cut away sections in order to make it more succinct as a film. But what's really in a film's length? I remember at LA City College when I was taking the documentary history class, we watched an hour or two of Claude Lanzmann's 9 1/2 hour Holocaust documentary Shoah, and it was considered a good film. Well, the teacher considered it good. I think I agreed it was just long. But I'm not not talking 4 hours... shit, I'm not even talking 2 hours. I need to get it just under an hour for PBS, or just under an hour and a half. I'm actually under some pressure just to prove I can hold a half hour (no doubt in my mind). So the dilema in having it long is that I need to be able to hold the audience the entire time, not just inform - I must captivate and entertain!
As I've been working on this "Paper Edit" for the film (more on Paper edits, see last posting) I've been trying to draw on Parallels with the multiple storylines. One of the main themes I've been able to compare and contrast everyone with are ideas of "success" as a B-Boy. I think one of the great things this film focuses on is the growing success of the Hmong B-Boy scene.
Another way is I think I've been able to show Parallels between the generations of Hmong B-Boys. But I've will then be showing where they diverge and progress, each generation...
***This section revised 8/15 @ 12:08 AM*** Which, to take a quick excursion reminds me of my history of Marxism class I took at UCLA with professor Brenner (I think that was his name). something about the argument about how Feudalism's dissolution came about, how much of a role capitalism had in creating "democracy". Those who taught capitalism say that Feudalism was locked in a cycle of and the cyclical appearance the was interupted by Capitalism, of which would make it this ahistorical occurance that was disrupted by a foreign entity from the east... but there was actually a real historical progression, due not because of capitalism and trade from Merchants, but I think because of the destabilization of the feudal lords by the Peasant uprisings? something like that...
but this has a point!
There is a seemingly cyclical pattern of many Hmong youth who are often locked in impoverished conditions, and those who are seem trapped in this existence. Those who break the mold might be seen as having outstanding individual character and testicular fortitude (exceptional strenght and ability). But the progression and success of many of these B-Boys I see not as the result of individual meritocracy alone, but the result of a community's support and collective lessons, each one benefitting the next generation. Family members and community members use the lessons of their lives to provide mentorship and direction to those they care about.
thank you, thank you. you can award me my Ethnic Studies PhD in the mail. If only I had applied!!!
and one last thing... I found this writing tool online, it's helped me organize infinitely: Scrivener for those in need.
Currently the project is in the "preparation for post production phase". And for me that's meant transcribing interviews, getting people to help transcribe interviews (Thanks Zoe, Julia and Gen!) printing out all 200+ pages of them, putting them in a binder, tabbing them, then going through everything with a Hi-Liter.
I've recently finished the Hi-Liter deal, and now I am working on the "Paper-edit" which is pretty much trying to take everything I selected from the transcripts, and trim and arrange until they make sense! That may sound easy, but my process is constantly interupted by *gasp* thinking! I always seem to just stare off at times, trying to piece everything together in my head. How I'm going to present the story, arrange everything, how to order it so it makes sense. What's going to be the perfect order!
I did recently though, read a pretty good article in the "Total Chaos" Hip Hop Aesthetics reader, written by DJ Spooky, kept talking about arranging and remixing film as a DJ. Pretty interesting... and it got me to thinking about how I like to edit stories and present them... I like to tell stories like I DJ. Often I like to blend. Other times I just scratch it in, and drop the record in a the right time. But there's always a rhythm, a feel for it. On top of it, song selection is important, you have to juxtapose and blend the right songs with each other! Sometimes I order songs with each other because of a certain similar element in them, whether it's a certain instrument, the way the drums work together... and other times I put them together for their contrast, and the meaning that can be drawn by the two together. My film will hopefully flow and blend, stop, go, smoothly at the right places and abrupt at certain points, but always with the "feel" in mind. Just like how I like to tell stories in some of my mixes. Check them out for yourself!
