Here’s Part 3 about my first experience as a producer for a film called SAIGON ELECTRIC (You can read Part 1 and Part 2)), a hip hop, coming-of-age film made in Vietnam. It was released there in April and is set to be released in select U.S. cities on October 7th. We’re currently mounting a big premiere on September 20th in Orange County called THE ELECTRIC SHOWCASE,  featuring ABCD Season 5 Champions Poreotics. So without further adieu, here’s the latest chapter of the SAIGON ELECTRIC Journey:

I was able to make it to the final days of shooting in mid-June and let me tell ya three things that hit me: It was super hot… It was super humid… And I sweated like a pig. That’s pretty much it. But I surely missed a lot more sweating because the crew pretty much sweated it out through the entire shoot, in one of Vietnam’s most blazing summers in a long time. It was amazing how no one really fainted from exhaustion! On the last day of shooting, it was a simple scene where Hai, the rich handsome kid played by heartthrob Khuong Ngoc, is dropping off our street smart dancer Kim at her place to pick up some things before they head off on their romantic weekend getaway. It was shot in an alleyway that is famous for its graffiti and just so happens to be next to a small factory. Anyway, it was fun to see the factory girls come out after their shift and get all excited with seeing Khuong Ngoc right in front of them, as they whip out their camera phones in unison to take photos of the comely star just a few feet in front of them. To me, it was a good sign.With the film in the can, we spent another week to celebrate and put together a wrap party. It was a nice event, with some technical snafus but overall, when we showed our young cast a teaser that we quickly put together, they were super excited. That was a nice feeling. We felt good and the footage was good, as we packed up and headed back to Southern California to start the editing process.

With Stephane, the director, and the help of co-producer Danny and eventually our pal Ham Tran, editing away, four months passed by, but we were able to get the first rough cut ready to view in mid-October. Clocking in at almost 2 1/2 hours, it didn’t bode so well with us, but there was definitely a good movie in there somewhere. We were racing down the clock because we needed to get the film ready for theatrical release in Vietnam by Christmas! Well, we never made it with more delays, it went to January to April. Our Vietnamese producers had to still work out the permits and release dates and also the support from the theaters to get a good release.

It’s customary for our Vietnamese partners to show the film in advance to the exhibitors. When we screened it to them, it was running about 108 minutes long. Well, to Vietnamese exhibitors, that’s way too long already. It’s customary to have all films clock in under 95 minutes, or they won’t even give it a shot. Sucking it up, poor Stephane had to trim it down to this lean 95 minutes. I saw the heartbreak in his eyes when he had to do it. In my opinion, I liked this cut the best, because it made the story move very quickly, and was very tight.

But the general feedback we were getting from everyone was that there wasn’t enough dance. Granted, Stephane’s film is a coming-of-age story that relies more on drama than dance, but we relented and in the end of January of this year, Stephane, Danny and I went back to Saigon to do some pickup shots and add new dance scenes. Sadly, we couldn’t do all that we wanted, because actors had different hairstyles, but we did our best and we were able to capture some cool, new dance moves that really pumped up the film a notch.

Above is a reshoot from January of this year. Overall, it was a great trip and the reshoots definitely helped. Sure, we worked hard but there was also a lot of this involved:

Sorry, can’t help it. It’s ‘Nam after all, where it’s all about nhau and karaoke. But back to the movie….

So, the big release date was now set for April 22nd. Our PR company in Vietnam was planning all these events leading up to the release. But since we had submitted to film festivals, the world premiere was actually going to happen in the States first, at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival in March. We had three sold out screenings in the Bay Area and the audience reaction was fantastic! It really connected with young Vietnamese Americans especially, because it was a side of Vietnam that they were unfamiliar with. We had an even bigger splash as the Opening Night gala at  VIFF or the Vietnamese International Film Festival in Orange County. It was surreal because the festival not only highlighted us, but also James T. Nguyen’s BIRDEMIC, which was interesting.

So we had some great festival screenings so far, prior to the Vietnam release. We were pumped because the reaction was so good. Surely, we’d hit the jackpot in the Vietnamese box-office, right?

Allow me to paint a picture: First, here’s our glitzy premiere at the Parkson Megastar Cineplex in District 7 (the new, swanky area of Saigon)… Sorry, this video is only in Vietnamese (Also the film in Vietnam is titled SAIGON YO!): It was a star-studded event, with the film playing in 8 theaters at the same time. I was a nervous wreck but excited to see what people’s reactions would be. As I snuck into one of the theaters, the lights went down and then movie trailers were playing. I was like “Oh, okay, Megastar wants to hawk their upcoming films before they show SAIGON ELECTRIC. That’s cool.” The first trailer that plays is THOR. Pretty impressive, and people were shuffling into their seats. Then the indicator, to me at least, that we were going to have  a hard time at the box office. A trailer for a little, tiny film called FAST FIVE directed by Justin Lin. Seriously, people were transfixed. At the end of the trailer, people sprung up from their seats and fuckin’ clapped. I KID YOU NOT. A whole theatre full of people hooting and hollering for a friggin’ trailer. Then our quiet, little, coming-of-age film starts with the street sounds of Saigon and a young b-boy practicing his moves in rain-soaked asphalt. I mean, how does one compete against Vin Diesel and Paul Walker falling into a 10,000 ft. ravine, while inside a car?

Anyway, I knew we were going to get creamed. And we did. We lasted three weeks in theaters, before we got clobbered by THOR and FAST FIVE, and even RIO, which was enjoying good box office. Check out this video of the prep of the Vietnam premiere of FAST FIVE: What was even more classic to me was that our own cast and even our PR agency was participating in this huge shindig, when they should’ve been promoting SAIGON ELECTRIC. But, hey, it’s FAST FIVE, dude. I get it. It’s an awesome film, and totally delivers.

But, it also represents the Vietnamese movie landscape. Local films have a tough time to compete against Hollywood tentpoles. It’s just the nature of it all. I honestly think our film should’ve been released during another time of the year, maybe the end of summer or sometime in the fall. It’s not for everyone though. The local press felt the movie was too subtle and we were often compared to STEP UP 3D, and how that film is better in production value. Well yeah, that movie is a multi-million dollar production! But I digress…. Because there are many people who have seen the film and really enjoyed it. The universal consensus is that the story is good and the acting is top-notch.

Thankfully, we have our second chance, and it’s the upcoming US release on October 7th. We’ve been working on the promotions for several months now and are doing it the grassroots way. We also had a successful Indiegogo campaign that Offender Phil was tired of, but hey, thanks for donating anyway! We also have a big premiere coming up on September 20th called SAIGON ELECTRIC PRESENTS: THE ELECTRIC SHOWCASE, which will be an advance screening of the film plus dance performances with Kaba Modern and our main partner, Poreotics. We were a little nervous showing it to them a month ago, but they loved it and agreed to help with our main promotions, so it’s really exciting to mount another campaign for the film, which will hopefully translate into some solid box-office stateside, as well as lucrative ancillary down the line. Check out this video of the Poreotics talking about the film: Yeah, we still hustling, but in the indie film bizness, you can’t quit the game!