Perhaps you have noticed Jeremy Miller’s 《杰里米 米勒》 fame in China such as here, here or here. Jeremy played “Ben”《本》 on the Growing Pains 《成长的烦恼》 sitcom. In the late 1980’s Growing Pains and Garrison’s Gorillas were the only two foreign TV shows allowed into China. As such, you can expect they left a big impression on the TV watching audience. Garrison’s Gorillas was from 1967 featuring a group of convicts recruited into the U.S. Army that function as commandos. If that doesn’t make you watch it, well… I guess I’m not going to watch it.

Jeremy Miller is circulating around the Chinese publications these days, as we finished filming Milk and Fashion 《牛奶时尚》. The film is unique that it is produced by a US production company, based in Shanghai, with a majority foreign cast, all speaking Chinese, with the film intended for Chinese audiences. Jeremy Miller’s Chinese is, of course, an exception, though he does have a few short lines in Chinese.

The other Hollywood starlet that was brought in for this film was Vanessa Branch (Chinese link here). Her Chinese as well as French speaking skills are outstanding, not to mention her acting skills. Unlike Jeremy she is virtually unknown in the Chinese market, but in Hollywood her most recent notable appearances are in Pirates of the Caribbean 1 and 2.

Kyle Rothstein has some exposure in China, as an actor as well as a fluent Chinese speaker. Impressive, considering he is only 16 years old.

As for me, my best Chinese is spoken after downing a few beers. Though, everyone in the film performed wonderfully and I look forward to seeing the finished result.
The film is now in post production, but expected release date is around July 2007, so look for all of us in theaters then. Until then, enjoy the pictures below:

Shots on the set:

Alas, since it was a show about fashion, there were plenty of models about. Here are a few shots for you to peruse.
Models:

One aspect that is always interesting about making movies is the stunt work… Here are some interesting shots of some wire work we did on set at Milk and Fashion 《牛奶时尚》. This was one scene in which one of the main characters had to do some amazing basketball dunks and jumps.

On another note, if you are a stuntman in Shanghai, there is a group of stuntmen working with the Megafit in Hong Kong New World Plaza to set up the official first training facility for stuntmen in Shanghai, and perhaps in China. For more info you should contact Drago Lazetich.

I have always enjoyed acting. From a small stage play to a big movie, it is always fun to take on a role, a new identity. The thing is, though, that is acting is fun, but most of the time spent is usually not doing that. In my experience, and (I seem to say this often) especially in China, that schedules are often floating and you spend many hours waiting for the next shot.

In the last movie I was filming, we had days as long as 16 hours, with only 2-3 hours of actual shooting. Unfortunately that is typical for the industry in China. Though, there is always something fun you can occupy yourself with. Some people have games, some books, or even sleep. Once you have memorized your script many times over, there is still a lot of time you have to practice your basket weaving.

Though the danger of immersing yourself in a book or some other activity is that when you are called up for your scene, you have to quickly get back into character and remember the lines and the scene. Next time, how about some more accurate schedules guys?

Anyhow, we did have an outstanding team of actors (Jeremy Miller, Vanessa Branch, Faith, and Li-Tong), as well as a great Director (Roy Chin 金国钊) and Director of Photography (Jeffrey Chu).

The Shanghai Short Film Competition 6.2 had some very impressive entries and some real stinkers! Anyhow, the range of talent was obvious.

Here are the Winners:

First Place: “The Corp.” directed by Jean-Michelle Tori
Second Place: “Talking Heads” directed by Michael Beets
Third Place: “Tradition” directed by Severin Bonichon

Best Actor: Richard Trombly in “Claustro”
Best Actress: Christy Shapiro in “The Love Story of Alfred J. Pintuck”

Special People’s choice award: “Tradition” directed by Severin Bonichon

The gay love story of “Tradition” was a memorable experience with excellent cinematography, music and a touching storyline. Thought the winners, I think won more for their visual flair than for the substance of the movie itself. “Talking Heads” was a very interesting seemingly roto-scoped experimental piece that had some amazing animation style visuals and cross scene effects. It was not at all in the style of Michael Beets, but he still makes it memorable piece, as are his other films. “The Corp.” can be best summed up as: “Bad guys in helicopter shoot at another guy, guy runs away, bad guys come inside, shoot some more and finally capture the guy”. The movie had amazing special effects with a helicopter moving around the office building and shooting through the windows, as well as bad guys with gun blazing in the building. The movie, as flashy as it was, was just that, all flash and no substance. Perhaps this film deserved an award for best visuals, but I would not choose it as the winner by far.

The people’s choice award was audience voted piece on which movie they thought was the best. Their choice was “Tradition”, a movie with no special effects and all substance which I thought was a better reflection on truly innovative filmmaking.

As always though, native NY actress Christy Shapiro gave an outstanding performance in “The Love Story of Alfred J. Pintuck”. She is truly one of the outstanding talents we have the privilege of having here in Shanghai.

One last congratulations and praise to all the filmmakers and actors out there! Keep up your passion, and let’s see if you can outpace yourselves at the next competition!

There is a Ripley coming to town, believe it or not. This would be the movie production of Ripley’s believe it or not. The lead role is played by none other than the most unbelieveable, Jim Carrey.

This is not to be confused with the movie Ripley Underground which is the sequel to The Talented Mr. Ripley. I am sure that Jim will play a very talented Ripley, but I want to know how he will handle the Chinese.

Working in China has proven to be  quite a challenge for the foreign production teams that have come over here, but the actors themselves usually have had favorable experiences.

Let’s see how believable their production is.

Yes, a big budget film, along the magnitude of Mission Impossible 3 will be hitting the shores of Shanghai before we know it. The name has not yet been disclosed, but they will be doing a lot more shooting in China that MI3 did. They will be shooting for several weeks in multiple locations. Actually, it seems their budget (at least in China anyways) will be larger than what we saw with the Painted Veil or MI3. Let’s see if that pans out.

One way or another, this is continuing the trend of US based production companies shooting in China. Of course, this will hopefully provide more opportunities for us actors here in the Pearl of the Orient.

You heard it here first folks! I will update if I get more info.

MeiWenTi Productions has done it again. Bigger and better they have put up a wonderful show, also incorporating a script contest. This time filmmakers were treated to a weekend workshop where they learned about the many aspects of filmmaking, such as camera, sound, lighting, editing, etc. MeiWenTi brought an expert in each field to lecture the eager filmmakers about it.

The contestants were given about 2 and a half weeks in which to shoot, edit an produce the film. They all came through with flying colors. The Prizes were handed out Saturday March 11 at Velvet lounge, where audience members had a chance to view all the 7 submitted films.

This is right now the only place you can get a list of winners from Saturday afternoons event: 

The winners are as follows:

• Best Script from the script competition: Beth (Last Name?)
• Best Originality of the Script: Finding Fidel
• Best Cinematography: Love
• Best Editing: Love
• Best Actor: Chad Bagley (Finding Fidel)
• Best Actress: Eve de la Rosa (Finding Fidel)
• 3rd Best Film: Party Piece
• 2nd Best Film: Love
• Best Film: Finding Fidel

I want to give a big congratulations and a standing ovation to everyone who was involved, the lecturers; judges and especially all the filmmakers.

Yes, it’s a film-about-a-film kind of film. China’s first film was shot in 1905 entitled “DingJun Mountain”. It is about a Peking Opera routine and it starred Tan Xipei. So in essence it is a film about a film about Peking Opera. I am sure that works out somehow.

The new movie, named after the old one, portrays the entire production of Dingjun Mountain (1905) - from preparation to casting and shooting, director An Zhanjun said before Monday’s premiere at the Daguanlou Cinema, where the old film also made its debut.

It is interesting to see that China was involved in movie production even earlier than Hollywood. The first movie shot in HollyWood was called “In Old California“, shot by D.W.Griffith.