(In the upcoming weeks, we’ll be highlighting other INTERPRETATIONS entries that caught the jurors’ eyes but didn’t make it to the final five. But each day this week, we’ll spotlight the five winning finalists in their own words, followed by a few words about their films from a few of the jurors. Next up, Andrew Oh.)

ANDREW

Writer/Director Andrew Oh’s 2007 short film ILLEGAL premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for a Golden Reel Award at the VC Film Festival. Oh and his writing partner, Myron Kim, have developed scripts for several notable Hollywood Production Companies and are working together on getting Oh’s first feature off the ground. See Andrew’s INTERPRETATIONS profile page here.

Participating in this year’s inaugural Interpretations Film Initiative, put on by the creative minds of You Offend Me You Offend My Family (YOMYOMF), was one of the most exciting experiences in recent memory. Yes, the prize money was certainly tempting, but that wasn’t why I wanted to participate. It was the jury, a panel that appears to have been assembled in a filmmaker’s wildest, wettest fantasy… a list of Industry giants that even the most prestigious film festivals would be envious of – truly an [THE] EXPENDABLES type cast for the 80’s action junky. How often do aspiring filmmakers get the chance to showcase their work in front of such an esteemed panel? Never. “Snowball’s chance in hell,” jaded and bitter ex-industry veterans would say. But somehow (by what torturous means, I do not know), Justin Lin and his crew have made it possible.

I really liked how everyone had to start from the same place… with those four vague lines that fail to evoke an emotion and confuses the audience if not set up properly in context. But that was why it was so genius. And it resulted in a myriad of films with varying tones and messages. It was definitely a sight to behold as evidenced by some of the incredible films showcased on the Interpretations Film website.

For me, I love gritty crime dramas and slick thrillers as much as the next guy. It’s plain to see that guys like Michael Mann and Christopher Nolan have influenced my film, but I think everyone is inspired in way by their favorite Directors. Inspiration is what motivates us as filmmakers. It’s the creative kindling that ignites the desire to want to make something out of nothing. It’s the same for guys like Spielberg and Scorsese, who in the 80’s, inspired and pushed each other to make bigger and better films. But inspiration and influence can be dangerous if you let it become ADR (automated dialogue replacement or just dubbing) and replace your voice as a filmmaker. You must always bring something new to the table, even if we are working with unoriginal and sometimes uninspired material. That’s what makes you a successful Director and a promising prospect for the studios.

With that said, VIEWPOINT in essence is my retelling of the famous HIGHBEAM urban legend. One of my YouTube viewers pointed out that the tale actually stems from a story called [THE] CHOKING DOBERMAN, an insight I’m grateful for. I thought taking the famous urban legend and merging it with a legal thriller would be something fresh and entertaining. Actually, that’s what a lot of successful films do – take two seemingly different ideas and put them together a la Doctor Moreau. Most of the time, the resulting idea is fresh because it is an “experiment” of sorts.

We spent just under $200 making this film. The majority of the costs went to buying food for the actors and the all day metro passes. We tried to keep the crew as lean as possible for fear of getting shut down. We never had more than one or two people there other than the core group. It was usually the three actors (Thomas Blankenship, Lauren Gilmore, and David Aldridge), myself, my EP (Tommy Suh), who was also my grip, and my DP (Milton Santiago). Yup, not even a sound guy. We ADRed and folied the entire film in order to keep our numbers down, and because a boom pole tends to draw a lot of attention. Everyone came on board and worked for free as a favor to me. Something I am truly grateful for. I owned most of the camera equipment, which also helped keep the costs down. Even my extremely talented composer, Pakk, who had worked on such scores as SKYLINE, FINAL DESTINATIONS, and EAGLE EYE, came on board thinking he was going to work for free. I don’t want to downplay the fact that if I had paid for everything, the total production budget would have been significantly higher, because for some of the other filmmakers, they had to pay for everything, down to the last C-stand, out of pocket. Having access to these resources definitely helped in getting the production to look a certain way, but please understand that it did not come without years of sacrifice.

Just to give the readers a little background, I’ve been at this for about 8 years now. I graduated from UCLA in 2001 with a Business Economics degree and a minor in Accounting. The following year, I started working at PriceWaterhouseCoopers as an auditor, ticking and tying numbers for Fortune 500 companies that were intent on making our lives as miserable as possible (sometimes inadvertently). After a year of playing the corporate game, I was so unhappy with where I had ended up. Sure, the money was great, but my dream of becoming a filmmaker was collecting dust, tucked away in a dark corner of my desk drawer. So I decided to quit and start over. My mentor and friend John Cheng helped me get an internship at MTV Films shortly after.

This is where the story gets really interesting. Coincidentally, the same year I was at MTV Films was the same year they acquired BETTER LUCK TOMORROW at Sundance. As a lowly intern, I never got the chance to meet Justin Lin, but I was able to see the impact that film would have from the inside out. It was awesome to see all the Execs at MTV Films so pumped up about a movie about Asian Americans made by an Asian American. I still remember the first box of DVD’s they received from the printing press, that pale aqua colored cover with the cast iconically posing in black ink press. It was incredible. Breathtaking even. I will never forget how inspired I was at that very moment.

In a weird way, it almost feels like I’ve come full circle in my journey as an aspiring filmmaker by participating in the Interpretations Film competition. With that, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone at YOMYOMF for putting together such an exciting, dynamic, and competitive initiative. Thank you for the huge dose of inspiration guys.

In addition to voting, some of our industry jurors also included comments about the films they enjoyed. Here are some of the juror comments about Andrew’s entry:

Rigorous, clean, and engaging storytelling, told through beautifully-composed shots, precise editing, and a satisfying formal structure. — DAVID HENRY HWANG (Tony Award-winning writer, M. BUTTERFLY)

The filmmaker does a nice job of making the story feel quite fresh and cinematic, really transcending the small and short formats. — ANNE LAI (Sundance Lab Producer-In-Residence)

LA….noir….good photography, well edited, good use of rack focus, the city, subway, good misdirection thru editing/pov, good score…. — CHRIS LEE (Producer, SUPERMAN RETURNS)

Great unfolding, suspenseful, mysterious, very cool; nicely done. — BRIAN TYLER (composer, HAWAII 5-0)