You are currently browsing all entries tagged with 'journey'

Freddie Mercury Reincarnated

  • September 22, 2011 11:44 pm

Many of our readers know that we love Queen and Freddie Mercury. He was a rock icon who left an indelible mark on rock history. Sometimes bands with a vacant spot for a lead singer, because of death or they just hate each other, come back with a new singer to marginal success. Van Halen did it with Sammy Hagar after they parted ways with David Lee Roth, but they didn’t capture lightning in a bottle the third time around when they replaced Hagar with Gary Cherone of Extreme.

Then came Youtube and Arnel Pineda. When this once homeless and impoverished singer from the Philippines uploaded his Journey covers online and caught the eye of the actual band, Journey, it was appearances on Ellen and sold out stadium concerts all over again!

Yesterday, Youtube and Queen’s Roger Taylor launched online auditions for The Queen Extravaganza, which according to the website ” is a live touring show celebrating and paying tribute to the songs, style and vision of one of the World’s biggest bands, Queen.” Already, there are already bunch of videos, mostly bad renditions of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “A Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

Then, I saw this guy:YouTube Preview Image  Read more...

World is For Play – Trailer

  • July 25, 2010 10:20 pm

I’ve been working countless hours on a bmx webseries project recently. I know its no excuse for my lack of blogging but my mind gets distracted easily these days when the paycheck is on the line. As I’m creating this from start to finish, I wanted to share my experience with you as this project has made me grow as a filmmaker. I’ve usually taken the role of a writer and/or producer on projects. But after I wrote and pitched the idea to the company, my producer asked me to direct it too. I figure after listening to the interpretation’s panel at the VC film fest and heard what the panel had to say, I stuck to their advice and “dared to fail”. Hopefully sharing some of these experiences of my journey will help any young filmmaker out there, especially any of you preparing to shoot their own interpretations entry.

I’ve learned that in trailers, less is more. Part of the trick, especially something like bikes and bmx, is to evoke emotion. And for a youtube video, you want it quick and fast. I didn’t have to explain the story nor did I have a deep-voiced dude saying some voice over. Instead, I turned something fast pace and high energy into something more epic and surreal. Stay tune as I’ll try to go over my journey with you from storyboarding to shooting four locations a day to the editing process as each episode launches. Here is the trailer to the 3 part webseries.

Enjoy!  Read more...

Chinky Or Not Chinky: Filipinos Can Sing and Dance Better Than The Rest Of Us Edition

  • May 11, 2010 1:49 am

Unlike my fellow Offender Roger, I didn’t fear Filipina girls when I was growing up, but I don’t think I personally knew too many of them either (or I simply assumed they were Latina). So when this Filipina girl I liked (let’s call her Holly) agreed to go to a movie with me, it was my first real exposure to anything Filipino. Which is to say I expected them to be like the other Asians I knew at the time—studious, repressed, etc… Man, was I wrong.

The first sign that my preconceptions would be smashed took place as I was walking up to Holly’s house to pick her up. I could hear the sound of music—Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” to be precise—blaring from inside. When I knocked on the door, I was greeted by a 50-year-old Pinoy gentleman (Holly’s father) who grabbed my arm and implored me to come in and join in the “family dance time.” I entered to see Holly and her family—siblings, mother, grandparents and various cousins, aunts and uncles all singing and dancing to Stevie Wonder in the living room for no apparent reason except…they wanted to. I had never met another family who did anything like this, but I have to admit it was pretty cool.

I later asked Holly if that was a common occurrence in her household. “You mean do we break out into song and dance for no reason?” She asked. “Of course, we’re Filipino.”

And that was the first time I was introduced to one of the most common stereotypes pertaining to Filipinos—that they are naturally musical and have great musical ability. Or to put it simply—they can sing and dance better than the rest of us. Today, I present some of the “evidence” I’ve collected including comments that you sent us via email, Twitter and Facebook so you can decide for yourself if this is Chinky or not Chinky?  Read more...

Confessions of a Karaoke Drama Queen

  • April 5, 2010 5:34 am

Karaoke. Noraebang, KTV. KBOX. Perusing through my Facebook page at 2am made me realize how much of a narcissist I’ve become. Also, that I have an unhealthy amount of tagged photos of myself in karaoke joints. Here are some examples:

That last photo was taken at a KTV in Taipei around 4am. I may look like I’m passed out, but I was actually belting out the English lyrics to Faye Wong’s Chinese cover of “Dreams” (featured in CHUNGKING EXPRESS).  Read more...

Working on My First Movie

  • November 18, 2009 1:03 pm

finishing_the_game

The year was 2006 which actually wasn’t too long ago. But thinking back, it seemed like another era. It was my first hands on experience on a feature length movie. Popping my cherry sorta speak. At this point, I’d worked on many music videos and a few short length documentaries and shorts but never a feature length. I knew this opportunity not just as an Asian American nobody but an inspiring filmmaker would change my stars one way or another. My skills from the military and from just being me…cheap chinese, funny guy, quick on my feet…would be what I could bring to the table. The word “independent” definitely brought new meanings. And although I already had little experience, most of the young crew members on Finishing the Game had no experience at all. But still everyone had the same goal in front of them, to make a good movie!  Read more...