ALDOUS

Aldous Davidson is an NYU Film graduate who has been acting, writing, and directing for the past 10 years. He has directed numerous shorts, comedy sketches, and music videos which can be found on his website. He is currently on the 3rd draft of his feature film. Aldous is the front man/rapper for the hip-hop rock fusion band, ESP, and was one of the five winning finalists in YOMYOMF’s Interpretations Film Initiative with his short How to Greet the Dead. In his spare time, he co-manages an Asian American non-profit organization called the AAFilmLab, which launches its 72 Hour Film Shootout this week. 

I’m a big fan of filmmaking. I genuinely can’t stop attempting to master this art form, but yes, sometimes it can be a very damn hard and wicked beast to tame. I often compare filmmaking to opening and closing a small business in a short amount of time. There’s money involved, there is a lot of hiring to do, schedules to coordinate and someone often has to drive a truck. But its always gratifying and I get to bond with a lot of new friends and old during the process.

For better or worse, I feel knee deep in this industry (NYC-style) and two things keep me going: 1) the chance to express myself w/ good storytelling and 2) working with my friends. I am blessed to have so many talented friends. They run the gamut: actors, directors, cinematographers, producers, make-up artists, costume designers, art directors, the list goes on. I love bringing these talented people together and creating something special. Whether shooting a short comedic sketch, a day long music video, or a 16 day indie feature, you are capturing something that will be in the world forever and it is a shared experience you all will grow from and remember fondly (even if its grueling!).

I’ve seen videos at PS 1 where people are tastefully and artfully flinging fecal excrement on walls and I’ve seen the Transformers trilogy. Both are amazing pieces of shit, but more importantly, I guarantee every single person associated with these productions, both behind and in front of the camera, had experiences that they’ll never forget!

I’d like to give back to filmmaking. I’d like to give Asian Americans an opportunity to make a short film with the possibility of reward. Five years ago, I participated in an event called the 72 Hr. Film Shootout sponsored by the AAFilmLab (a NYC-based non-profit where the AA stands for Asian American). It’s a contest where you have 72 hours to write, shoot and edit a 5-minute film based on a given theme.

I like these contests since they give us filmmakers a structured scenario to make a film (YOMYOMF’s Interpretations contest also provided similar structure). I find when we have structure, we really get motivated. As far as this contest went, I knew what story I wanted to tell and had gathered my team beforehand. I also had my locations locked. Now we had to wait for the theme which, traditionally, the AAFilmLab announces during their launch party. That year, I was unable to attend the party as I was working at a gourmet pizza shop called Pie near Union Sq. My Team went to the party in my place and texted me the theme: “Elizabeth Ong is Missing”.

I have no idea why they chose this as a theme and I’m still baffled by it. At the time I didn’t like it – I still don’t – as I found it was harboring and too specific (previous years’ themes were more open-ended), but anyway, like I said, I knew what story I wanted to tell and now I just had to integrate this bizarre theme into it. It would be challenging. The story I wanted to tell was about an ex-girlfriend who chose LA and career over our relationship. I have a lot of mixed feelings about LA and what it represents and I wanted to express this in my film, but now I had to deal with this obscure theme! Who was this Elizabeth Ong? What did she have to do with my story? It was frustrating but I was ready to meet the challenge.

My team left the party and hightailed it over to the pizza shop where we wrote and re-wrote the 5 page short in the back area for the next 4 hours, while I occasionally cut a slice of pizza or two for a paying customer (thank goodness it was a slow night) – it was a bit of a thrill writing the script at my place of work, knowing that I was on the clock and getting paid; in a roundabout way, it was the first time I was paid for my writing! We left the pizza shop with “Sam & Ben: A Love Story”, about a guy who shaves his girlfriend’s hair off cause he’s afraid she’s going to leave him for the glamourous world of LA modeling.

We were able to integrate the theme by saying the protagonist’s old girlfriend (Elizabeth Ong) had previously taken off for LA and was now missing, thus motivating the protagonist’s concern and wariness about his current girlfriend leaving for LA. This was perfect and my aggravation toward the theme dissipated now that it worked to my advantage. On set (we shot at the co-director’s apartment – easy location!), my SPFX make-up artist threw a bald cap on the actress (it looked amazingly real and I contend this had a lot to do with the film’s success) and put nasty bruises on my face (the actress hits me in the face with a frying pan) and we filmed all night, starting at 6PM and wrapping at 5AM. Each member of the team shared a mixture of relief, exhaustion and accomplishment once we finished: sort of like a film high! We topped everything off with pancakes at a local 24hour diner, stuck the DVD in the mail and waited it out. Waiting is the worst. Anxiety, teeth-grinding and nail-biting ensues, hoping beyond hope that post office doesn’t mis-deliver your package and thus ruin your short-term dreams. As it turns out, the film got delivered safely and we made Top 10!

I find these contests extremely therapeutic and often catalysts for my best work. Just prior to YOMYOMF’s Interpretations contest, I had broken up with another girlfriend (this one of two years) and in order to deal with the heartbreak, I threw myself into their contest. I converted my apartment (formerly occupied by myself and my ex) into a forest – fake mulch on the floor, fake trees in the living room, black string strung from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling; the real furniture all shoved into my bedroom making it hard to traverse. The romantic in me likened this home transformation to a rebirth – the old me/old apartment was now forever changed and cleansed.

With a month of pre-production, a 14 hour shoot day, 2 days of breaking down most of the trees, washing a bloody bathtub, and removing the mulch from my apartment, then a week of post-production, I was able to concentrate my energies on something besides my break-up. I can honestly say that the Interpretations contest and the 72 Hour Shootout helped me get through a tough periods of my life. I owe a lot to these contests.

Flash forward to today and I’m helping keep the AAFilmLab alive. As part of this initiative, I am re-launching the 72 Hr. Film Shootout. It has an eight-year history and has produced some great films in its time and equally great experiences. It’s a contest designed to showcase Asians and what they can do in our beloved visual medium. Hopefully, it will provide a structured scenario to have some fun and also allow some writers/directors to express themselves and work through an issue or two. I hope I can do my community justice with this contest and I hope it gives way to some great experiences that will keep the love for filmmaking alive.