Thanks to all our readers who came out to our sold-out panel on Sunday to launch our Interpretations Filmmaking Initiative. It was great to meet many of you in person and put a face to your comments here. We’ve launched our site devoted to this initiative to support our community of aspiring filmmakers and all the basic info including entry rules and regulations can be found there (click here). I’ve also posted some photos from our panel below (thanks to Margaret Chen for taking them). We’ll try to get more photos up either here and/or our Facebook and Interpretations sites so keep an eye out for those. Here’s the whole gang from the event–Offenders, industry panelists and our commissioned filmmakers:

Before we get to the other photos, I want to say a few words about what Interpretations is for those who weren’t present on Sunday. Basically, we want to encourage filmmakers to nurture their original voice and develop a strong vision for their work. Toward this goal, we have created a script which you can download from our Interpretations page. The script consists solely of these four lines:

It’s not something I’d do.

Well?

It’s not what I expected.

You sure?

And that’s it…make a short film of no more than 3 minutes using those lines and those lines only, but be as creative as you can in how you “interpret” this script. We’ve collected a jury of distinguished industry professionals (with more to be added later) to review all the entries so this is your opportunity to show us what you can do (check out the current list of jurors here). You can start uploading your films starting May 15 and the deadline is September 1. Again, go to our Interpretations site for all the info.

One Script, Endless Possibilities…

Most of you probably know that we commissioned eight directors to make their own films to help us launch Interpretations. We wanted to show everyone how other filmmakers “interpreted” the script and we think all the shorts are great examples of how creative you can get with your film and the diverse ways you can approach the script. We premiered them at the festival and some of them are up on the site now. All the shorts will be up by May 15 so check back regularly to view all the films.

Far East Movement stars in Evan Leong's "sample" short FAR EAST FUTURA

We really hope you’ll consider participating in Interpretations by making and submitting your own film. If you’re not a filmmaker, help us spread the word to those who might be interested. Nothing would make us happier then to discover an aspiring filmmaker with talent and vision who otherwise would have no way of getting their foot in the door.

And now those photos from the panel:

Our panelists and commissioned L.A.-based filmmakers

MC Offender Roger takes the stage

Waiting for the panelists to take the stage

Visual Communications' Walt Louie introduces the panel

Offenders Iris and Sung in the back row with our panelists

Danny and fellow filmmakers/panelists in the back row.

live blogging

Offender Sung introduces CAR TALK DISCUSSION

Offenders Roger and Justin

Iris, Danny, Timothy, Chris and Mora w/mike

Iris talks

If that's your arm, let me know

Our industry panelists--Dan Lin, Jeff Kirschenbaum, Trevor Groth, Rowena Arguelles

Rowena talks

Goodie bag

Strike a pose

Post-event: Goodbye everybody

Thanks to Toyota, our title sponsors for Interpretations and our panel, and our additional sponsors: Audrey Magazine, FOX, KoreAm Magazine, Universal Studios and WGA. Also, want to acknowledge the support of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Amauta Lab and Intertrend. Finally, a special thanks to my fellow Offenders who have made all this possible through their hard work and commitment.