Dig In Magazine: The Film Issue #1 | Online by Dig In Magazine

Dig In Magazine 2010 - 2011 : The Film Issue www.DigInMag.com p 1: Academy Award Nominated, Robert Dalva p 7: “Touching Home’s” Logan & Noah Miller p 25: Rebel Spirit Clothing Motion Sports Management p 40: 168 Film Festival: Christopher Shawn Shaw

Asian American Film: p 45 : Actress Lynn Chen p 49: Comedian/TV Host, Joey Guila Actors p 13: Feodor Chin p 19: Robert Wu p 32: George Nguyen p 35: Film Criticism: New Asian Cinema

598673

10704

June 2011

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: Dig In Magazine is an online publication, which was launched in January 2010. The idea for Dig In was born out of the creative mind of Cindy Maram, an Web/Interactive Media Developer and writer/editor who grew up in Los Angeles, CA and now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Because of her lifelong interest in Hollywood and film culture, as well as being in the hub of the San Francisco Bay Areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s music and art world, Dig In was created as a vehicle to express and share the world of film, music, art, fashion, style and culture with readers. The contributors of Dig In come from multi-cultural backgrounds and express their various outlooks through lenses that are sensitive to minorities and cultures around the world. Dig In Magazine covers people, events and happenings around the globe. On a local level, we have interviewed artists, photographers, fashion designers, actors and filmmakers from the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and beyond. Through photography, film, interviews and articles, Dig In is committed to bringing you the freshest, most cutting edge images and information from around the globe. We hope you enjoy a glimpse into the world of Dig In culture. So go ahead, DIG IN!!! SPECIAL THANKS: Dig In Magazine would like to thank all of those who contributed to the online publication including, but not limited to, Carly Ivan Garcia, Robert D. Harris, Richard Morales, Nick Strayer, Scott Edward Fowler, and all of the artists, actors, filmmakers, film critics, musicians, and fashion designers that were interviewed, as well as our guest writers that keep this publication fresh and interesting to read! Your endless creativity and passion for your craft are an inspiration to all! Further, thank you to my friends, my sister and parents who encouraged me to keep writing, interviewing and producing articles to share with the online community. Also, thanks to all of you that visit Dig In Magazine online and for all of your continued support over the first year and a half since our launch in January of 2010! Cheers, Cindy Maram, Executive Editor http://www.diginmag.com 2

Dig In Mag [PROFILER] NAME: Robert Dalva OCCUPATION: Film Editor/Filmmaker HOMETOWN: New York, NY

Robert Dalva

CURRENT TOWN: Words by Cindy Maram

On Hollywood Film Hollywood Film Editor & Cinematographer, Robert Dalva IMdb Website:: http://www. imdb.com/name/nm0198395/ Dig In Magazine: How did you get started in the film industry? Robert Dalva: When I was in college, I ran a film program at Colgate University. And it was kind of by mistake. The fraternity I was in ran the program and I took it over at the end of my freshman year and started booking movies and started seeing movies that I was interested in. It kind of changed the whole attitude at the university. And what had been a non-money making organization became a money making organization, because I brought interesting movies, Antonioni, Fellini, whatever…Good, good movies. But the real start for me was seeing “The 400 Blows” (1959) by François Truffaut. It was then that I realized that movies

could really capture [you]. When I was at Colgate, I took a course at Syracuse, a filmmaking course. I would drive there every Friday and learn how to run a camera and then, the woman that became my wife (who was attending Syracuse) suggested that I go to film school, and so I applied to USC (University of Southern California). And I got in there and went to USC. And at the same time, George Lucas, John Milius, Caleb Deschanel Walter Murch and Randel Klieser were among others that were there. So, that’s how I started. The first year, I went at night and I worked as a camera assistant and as a gofer…whatever job I could get…[I worked] as a production assistant as they call it now. And I also had a job in New York City with a man who was a cameraman. He helped train me to be a camera assistant and handle lights. There was always this kind of passion. The movies have this great ability to capture someone’s mind and attention in

Larkspur, CA HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Big River Beach, Mendocino ASIAN ZODIAC SIGN: The Horse MOVIE: Ernie Kovacs from the late 1950’s ROLE: Film Editor, Cinematographer; With a gun to my head, directing MUSIC: Lynard Skynard FOOD: Italian SPORT: Baseball and the 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants!/Sailing CREATIVE OUTLET: Making movies CLOTHING: SF Giants baseball hat GOALS/DREAMS: Get George Bush out of the White House. Oh, that happened... WEBSITE: http://www.imdb.com/name/ nm0198395/

this dark room. DIM: How did you land your first editing job? RD: When I was at USC, I really liked editing and I directed there. Out of school I got the job to be an assistant editor with a famous editor, who at that time was not quite famous, Verna Fields. And she had a film to cut for the USIA (United States Information Agency) that makes films for the

government to give to dignitaries to visit the United States. So, whatever the USIA does is only shown outside of the United States. It’s propaganda. They were doing a film about President Marcos and President Johnson wanted to hand it personally to Marcos when he came to the Manila Conference, which was going to happen in three weeks. And Verna Fields turned to me and said “Can you cut?” and I said “Yes.” So, I spent less than a week

as an editorial assistant and then, became an editor and she was kind enough to give me screen credit. So, now I could call myself an editor. Then, I cut a low budget feature for a French filmmaker, Agnes Varda called “Lion’s Love” (1969) and it was cut on a flatbed machine and I think it was the first time anyone in the United States or certainly in California had used a flatbed editing machine. So, it was great! And then, I moved to San Francisco and became part of

Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope. I directed more than I did editing. I made two films for the government. Then, [I] started doing television commercials in which I shot, edited and directed. DIM: Can you tell me a little more about Zoetrope Studios? RD: I was there from the beginning. I got a call from Francis to direct two films that he had gotten for George Lucas to do, but “THX 1138” (1971) got a green light from Warner Brothers [and was a joint venture with American Zoetrope]. So, George was going to do that and I got a call from Francis to come up to San Francisco and do these two films for the government. Zoetrope Studios is development, production and post-production. So, back then, Francis had screening rooms and a mixing stage. There were editing rooms. There were offices and local Bay Area filmmakers like John Korty rented space there. It was kind of a community. It was a wonderful vision that Francis had. And it has evolved into his own company, which is now at Columbus Towers. But originally it was on Folsom Street. DIM: I understand that you were nominated for an Academy Award for film editing for The Black Stallion in 1979, what was it like working on that movie and being a part of such an incredible film? RD: Well, it was fun! We had almost a million feet of film. A two-hour movie is about 12,000 ft. And the island section of the movie, which was about 37

minutes of the film, represented three quarters of that million feet of film. So, the big battle was getting the island section down to a manageable length that made sense. The second half of the movie…when Alec gets home, that section was shot in Toronto, the story telling…the scenes, [there] were many fewer scenes [of that]. I don’t know how many scenes that Carroll shot, but you could of made a good two-hour movie of just him on the island, but it didn’t tell the story. So, it was great fun. I had a great time doing it. We had a great crew and worked in the Bay Area. We worked at George Lucas’ house for a while. Then, we moved into the city and worked at a building that Francis owned down the street from Columbus Towers, which was at the same time that Apocalypse was being edited.

editor on The Black Stallion in 1979 to director on The Black Stallion Returns in 1983, what role do you prefer, editing or directing?

DIM: How was it working with film legend Francis Ford Coppola on both The Black Stallion and it’s sequel The Black Stallion Returns?

DIM: In a few words, can you explain the art of editing and the secret behind being a good editor?

RD: Well, the story of how I got the movie was fun. I was walking out of Columbus Towers one morning at 10 or 11 am. And Francis pulled up in a taxicab and got out. And he said, “Robert, if there’s a sequel to Black Stallion, you want to direct it?” And I said, “Sure, Francis.” So, it was great! He was very helpful and we had a great production crew. We shot in Italy and in Morocco…but mostly in Morocco. It was hard, but fun. DIM: Francis Ford Coppola produced both of these films, but you changed hats from film

RD: I love directing. I wish I had done more. As I said, I directed television commercials. I directed documentaries, and an episode of “Crime Story (1987),” which was a TV series. Last year, I directed an episode of “Clone Wars (2008-2010),” which is a series that George Lucas is doing. And that was fun and different. But I love directing. Like I said, I wish I had directed more. But I also love editing. I can’t complain. I’m happy with both. Editing is an intricate look into all of these pieces, trying to put them together and tell a story. That’s really what the magic is. But ultimately, editing is about storytelling.

RD: NO [laugh]! As I said, finally, it’s about storytelling. It’s kind of minutiae…how to make a single cut and join a bunch of pieces together. First, you cut the script and then, you cut the movie. And a good friend of mine, Paul Hirsch, says editing is the final rewrite. And that’s really what it is. You’re looking at performance; you’re looking at story and change in the story, clarity and emotion. It’s putting this thing together that moves in time for two hours that drags you along and takes you along into this wonderful mystery that we call movies…that captures our hearts

and minds in a dark room. DIM: How do you keep your head clear and maintain strong concentration when editing such large, lengthy films? RD: Oddly, I think I’ve always had good concentration [in which] I could focus on what was in front of me…an editing machine. But years ago, before I edited “Black Stallion Returns,” my wife gave me, as a birthday present, a course at a driving school where you drove race cars. It was a session up at Sears Point in Sonoma, California. Certainly, you were sharpening driving skills, but at the heart of what they were teaching was concentration. It was kind of a method to help you focus on what was happening right in front of you. And if you are in a car driving a hundred miles per hour, it makes sense to be completely concentrating on what you are doing. I came away with a sharpened ability to concentrate. And it has helped me enormously. I think I had the ability, but the driving school sharpened it. DIM: Regarding directing, would you want to direct another film in the future if you had the opportunity? RD: Absolutely. DIM: Some of your recent work includes Jumanji (1995), October Sky (1999), Jurassic Park III (2001) and Hidalgo (2004), how was your experience working with director, Joe Johnston and Steven Spielberg, the executive producer of Jurassic Park III?

RD: We certainly had great contact with Steven. He was certainly very positive and helpful. He really liked the movie and we really liked the movie. And Joe and I have had a special relationship. We work very well together. I really enjoy his movies. I think he has a great sense of humor. I think a great thing about Jurassic Park III is that it is funny. Jumanji is very funny. I think October Sky is a remarkably good movie and it never got the play that it deserved. DIM: You’ve worked with director, Joe Johnston on Jumanji, October Sky, Jurassic Park III and Hidalgo, how did you two meet and end up working together on so many movies? RD: You know, the odd thing was that when George Lucas was shooting the original “Star Wars” I got a call from George. [He said] “Come down to LA,” which at the time that’s where ILM was, and shoot two shots of the land speeder going across the desert. They hadn’t shot a convincing version of it. So, I went out, did the two shots and there was a young guy there from ILM. And years later, Joe and I realized that it was Joe. I’d say [that] it was on “Hidalgo” that we realized that he was in on that [and that] he was on that little crew and had been the ILM representative. It’s pretty funny! So, when we did “Jumanji,” Joe lived in Marin County where I live. So, the post-production was going to be in Marin County at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch. So, I think that had some influence on hooking up the production. I was a little cheaper, because I lived in the Bay Area and

they didn’t have to house somebody from LA. So, I think that had some influence on the phone call. But Joe and I get along really well. So, exactly what the chemistry is…if it happens, it happens and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. DIM: As a film editor, how closely do you work with the directors and producers in the film projects you are involved with? RD: You are essentially working for the director. And the director is making the movie. The producers certainly have an influence creatively, but finally, the creative process is at the hands of the director. So, an editor works very closely with the director. You don’t necessarily have day-to-day contact with the producers. You do have hour-by-hour contact with the director. So, the director is in the cutting room three or four hours a day and will leave while you are fixing something… [he will be] taking his notes and doing it and then, come back to look. So, the contact that you have with the director is extremely close, extremely intimate and it’s very creative. The relationship that you have with producers is economic, schedule [based] and then creative. DIM: You recently edited the new California Film Institute movie, “Touching Home,” which stars 4-Time Oscar Nominee Ed Harris and was written and produced by Marin County’s Logan and Noah Miller, what was the editing process like for this film in terms of how long it took to edit it?

RD: It was pretty quick. I think it was seven to eight months. And what was odd was [that] they shot in September without Ed Harris. And I was in the cutting room putting stuff together. Then, in the last week and a half or last two weeks of November, Ed came up to shoot the parts that he was in, along with Robert Forster and Brad Dourif. And I was the B-camera operator and shot some moments independent of the production as sort of a second unit camera. And so, I was around on the set during the shooting. I am also a DP. So, it was great! I had a great time with the brothers, the twins. They are sponges. They want to learn everything about the process, about how I was thinking, about how I got to wherever I got to. And so, it was an extraordinary fun time for me. And they are such entertaining good guys that it really was a trip. I don’t know how else to describe it. They listened to me and they liked what I did. They are team players. I think the baseball experience for them really sharpened their ability to play with the team. The analogy [to directing] doesn’t fit baseball completely well…it was more like football where the quarterback is calling his own plays, not from the bench…but moviemaking is about teamwork and you have to work with other people. You can’t do it all yourself. And their pleasantness, their sharpness, their intelligence and their ability to be team players really contributed. I think they got the best from everybody. So, they were going to be directors… so what do they do, they take

acting classes, so that they know how to talk to actors. You know, I’d mention an idea to them that was in a book and I’d realize two days later that they had gone and bought the book…and were reading the book. It’s pretty amazing! DIM: How long does the film editing process usually take for a feature length film? RD: Well, I’d say the average is a year. You usually start before principle photography usually starts. DIM: As a film editor, do you work in your own studio or do you have to work on location at times? RD: I would say that I rarely work at home. I do have my own cutting room at home and basically, I cut Jumanji in the Bay Area, and both Black Stallions were cut in the Bay Area. Jumanji was shot in Vancouver, so I was in Vancouver during principal photography. And then, I was in the Bay Area. But since I live in the Bay Area, I end up having to go to LA or go to where they are shooting, like Montreal where I am now, and [then] ending up in LA where we do post-production. That often occurs. And it was nice with “Touching Home,” because I cut it in their [the Miller brothers] mother’s house that they had grown up in. DIM: What film editing programs do you generally use for the majority of your film projects? RD: I’m a huge fan of the Avid.

I think it’s a great program. It is really accurate and easy to use. It does what it needs to do. There really isn’t anything better. I’ve worked with Final Cut and I’m not as big a fan. DIM: How difficult is it to mix sound in the editing process? RD: I have very rich soundtracks when I edit. I think that sound is a very important part of the process. So, if you are doing a sword fight, the swords are made of rubber on the set, because they don’t want to get anyone hurt. When you edit it, it sounds like “thump, thump, thump, thump” [instead] of “clang, clang, clang, clang.” I would, in the cutting process, take out the thumps and put in clangs, because I miss it. I want it to be realistic. Because I think it’s distracting to hear something that you don’t expect. But also, I want to enhance it. I think putting temp music in is also very important. I use as many tracks as I can. Sometimes you don’t need many, but sometimes you do. DIM: What are some of your more recent projects? What are you working on now? Who are you working with? RD: I’m helping out on a film called “Immortals” that is shooting in Montreal. It is directed by Tarsem Singh. I’m the second editor. I don’t know how long I’m going to be on the picture. I’m sort of helping them get through the shooting process and getting scenes cut, so that they know that they’re in good shape and whether or not I stay on until the end, at this point I have no idea.

Dig In Mag [PROFILER] NAME: Logan & Noah Miller OCCUPATION: Writer/Director HOMETOWN: Fairfax, CA CURRENT TOWN: Fairfax, CA ASIAN ZODIAC SIGN: Leopard/Horse

Logan & Noah Miller

MOVIE/TV SHOW: Words by Cindy Maram

On “Touching Home” Logan & Noah MIller on their California Film Institute Movie, “Touching Home” “Touching Home” Website:: http://www.touchinghomemovie.com/ Dig In Magazine: Logan and Noah Miller are the authors of the Book Either You’re In or You’re in the Way and their film “Touching Home” premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in April 2008. Dig In Magazine was there opening weekend of the American Film Institute’s release of the film. First of all, I just want to say congratulations to you two on the success of your book and your movie. It was very inspirational!

And the first thing I want to ask you Miller Brothers is how long did it take to write book and make the film? The Miller Brothers: To make the film it took almost two years… from pre-production through to the final cut. Noah Miller: And the book, the book didn’t take that long…probably wrote the book, first draft, in like three months. And of course you edit it…once you turn in the manuscript you edit it and edit it. Logan Miller: So, the total process including editing and revisions and everything…probably nine months to a year. DIM: How much did the movie cost to make? And how did you raise the funds for the film?

Logan: Rapscallion Roundup Noah: Breaking Away DIRECTOR: L: Bernie Mayweather N: My Brother SPORT: L: Horseback Riding N: Vigorous Exercise CREATIVE OUTLET: L: Modeling N: Writing HOME AWAY FROM HOME: L: My Car N: My Girlfriend’s Apt Thing to Wear: My Birthday Suite Goals/Dreams: L: To Be #1 N: Keep Writing & Directing WEBSITE: touchinghomemovie.com.

NM: The movie cost around two million. LM: And we raised the financing by printing up a bunch of business plans and just started handing them out to everybody that we knew. And the business plan made it’s way from a guy named Pete Dederding to a guy named Curtis Rapton to the hands of Brian Vail. And Brian sent us an email and said “Are you still looking for money?” and we said “yes.” And we got into a series of negotiations and he ended up underwriting about 97% of the movie and then, Pete Dederding and Lance Logan also contributed.

tion and we said “well we think that you guys would be sort of the perfect fit for our movie.” And so, we needed a distributor and they were getting into distribution so… DIM: So, it all worked out from there. Great! And where was the film made? LM: The film was shot in all of West Marin [California]. NM: And three days in Tucson [Arizona].

DIM: How did you get distribution?

DIM: How did you meet Ed Harris, who played the role of your father in the film? And what made you decide that he was the right actor for that role?

LM: Well, we played at film festivals for almost about a year…year and a half. And then, we had met with a few distributors…thought that our movie was going to be like any other movie that they were going to be distributing. So, we were talking with Mark Fishcan who runs CFI [California Film Institute]…we were having lunch one day and he had said that they were trying to get into distribu-

LM: So, our dad knew about the script and he used to always ask us “when you guys gonna make our movie?” and we’d always say “we’re gonna make it soon.” And we visited him in jail shortly before he passed away…and he said “who’s gonna play me? He’s gotta be good lookin’!” And we said “Oh yeah, we’re gonna get Ed Harris to play you.” It was just a joke at that point. And then

our dad passed away shortly after that and we just made a vow that we were going to tell the story. And we received a Panavision New Filmmaker Grant and went and shot this little two minute trailer. And then, we read in the San Francisco Chronicle that Ed Harris was coming to the Castro Theatre and that he was going to be doing an interview on stage. And so, we went there with our laptop that had the trailer on it, with our script in a manila envelope and we ended up sneakin’ backstage after the interview. And then actually making our way into the alley and showing Ed the trailer in the alley. Then, he took the script and he called us nine days later. DIM: I understand that you both have been writing screenplays for awhile, what other screenplays did you write before this film? And is this the first one that was turned into a film? NM: Yeah, this is the first screenplay that was turned into a film. We have thirteen other screenplays. LM: This was the first one that we wrote and also it was the first one that was made. DIM: Were you trained in film, i.e. acting, directing, producing and screenwriting? And if so, where were you trained? NM: We trained ourselves. DIM: Self-taught? LM: Yeah, in our apartment.

DIM: Just like reading books? LM: We read hundreds of books…just educating ourselves on the process. And watched many, many, many movies. And when you’re interested in something you start to study it with a certain intensity. And it was just like when we’d play baseball you know…you’d get up each day and you work at your craft. So, we just applied that same work ethic to screenwriting and making movies. DIM: And that brings me to my next question, so let me ask you this, if training for baseball was an analogy for life and your work ethic, how would you say that it helped you or transferred over to your newer role as screenwriters and filmmakers? Can you talk a little about your motivators and your work ethic during the screenwriting and movie making process? NM: Sure. In baseball, you work everyday to get to…let’s say your goal [is] the major leagues…so you wake up everyday and say “what do I need to do to get to the big leagues?” And the older you get you have games every single day. You’d be lucky if you have a day off in a month. And so

that rigor or that sort of demanding of a schedule translates, at least for us. We said okay, we’re going to take the same template that we used for baseball and apply that into writing. So, we’re going to read and write like we played baseball everyday and lifted weights and sprinted and did all [of ] the auxiliary exercises that helped me be a better hitter or a better pitcher. You know, we took the same idea and applied it to writing. So, we’d get up everyday and we’d write and then we’d read as widely and as broadly as we could everyday until our eyes got so tired that we couldn’t read. I mean, that’s how we’ve done it for many, many, many years. DIM: Would you say that it [baseball] brought you through some of the hard times like [the] struggles like with your father…your focus on baseball and striving for success? LM: For sure, that was like our outlet. When we played baseball that was like a release….[we] focused all our energy on that. You know, I think whenever you have a goal that you can focus on it helps push away all of the other noise in your life. DIM: How was it working on a

screenplay together? Did you bounce a lot of ideas off one another? How does it work? The Miller Brothers: Yeah, that’s pretty much what we do. DIM: Because I hear [that] you guys have one computer…one person types… NM: Yeah, he types, I write freehand…You know, writing a book is a little different than writing a screenplay. A screenplay, you’re mostly talking through it and it gets put down in spurts. Same with writing a book, but we’ll separate for a couple hours and I’ll write and he’ll type and we’ll come together. DIM: What was the hardest part about making the movie? NM: My answer to that is that there’s no easy parts. DIM: Was it therapeutic to make the movie? LM: Yeah, making the movie was very therapeutic. It allowed us to say goodbye to our father and express a lot of pain…a lot of frustration that we had had. It helped us kind of move on. Yeah, it was very therapeutic.

that inspires the imagination. DIM: And what role(s) would you like to play in your next film projects… like would you also like to act in [them] or do the behind the scenes types of things like directing, producing and writing? NM: There’s nothing we’ve written to this point…that we would act in. LM: And we don’t need to necessarily direct everything that we’ve written. But we really love directing. We love writing. DIM: How true were each of your characters in the film to who you are and how you interact with one another in real life? So, like do you guys argue as much in real life as you do in the film? LM: It all depends on the day! NM: We argue all the time. LM: I’d like to think that the characters…their temperaments are very true to who we are. I think that hopefully we’ve sort of evolved since then…since when the time of the movie takes place. But I tend to be a little more reserved and a little more shy and he tends to be… NM: But you couldn’t tell from this interview! [Laugh] DIM: What types of films would you like to make? Are there some in the vault? NM: Family entertainment.

LM: …Movies that you could take the whole family to. Ideally we have a company up here in Northern California… NM: But not dumbed down. I think there’s sort of a hole in the marketplace right now…Pixar comes out with an amazing product every year, but after that a lot of the family movies are dumbed down. Like when we were growing up… LM: When we were growing up we had “ET”, “Goonies”, you had “Raiders of the Lost Ark”… NM: …“Gremlins” LM: Movies that parents appreciated, as well as the kids. NM: John Hughes, you know… “Home Alone.” You could watch “Home Alone” as a ninety year old or a nine year old and it’s equally entertaining. So, I think we’d like to make those types of movies. So, quality family entertainment

NM: It’d be nice to partner on some projects…maybe get some director we really like and would enjoy working with…sort of partner with them and oversee the whole project. Producing in that aspect would be a lot of fun. DIM: So, if you could work with anyone in the film industry who would it be? NM: There’s a few people that we’d like to work with. LM: Love to work with Will Smith. NM: I think, I mean, I haven’t met the guy…you never know when you meet these people…it could be a nightmare! ...Will Smith, Steve Carell…I think he’s very, very funny. Chris Columbus…he’s a local director…[I’d] love to work with him. LM: We’d love to work with Ed Harris again. Ed was awesome! NM: Who else? That’s a good

question!

NM: It’s pretty simple.

NM: There’s so many talent people!

LM: Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know. You’ll figure it all out. But if you don’t attempt…if you don’t go after it you won’t give yourself the opportunity to figure things out.

LM: And I’m sure there’s somebody that we’ve thought of several months ago that we would think of again, but just off the top of our head[s].

NM: Go out and do and don’t let anybody tell you [that] you can’t!

NM: …Everyone at Skywalker. And pretty much most of the people on our crew. I’d love to work with them again…Everyone out at Skywalker LM: Skywalker Ranch. NM: They’re the best group of people in the world! I’d love to work with them. DIM: What advice can you give to young, aspiring filmmakers? NM: Just go out and do it! LM: Yeah

I’m sure that I had come across

Dig In Mag [PROFILER] NAME: Feodor Chin OCCUPATION: Actor/Writer/bon vivant HOMETOWN: The City Words by Cindy Maram Feodor Chin On Acting & Producing Actor Feodor Chin on “Baby” (http://www.babythemovie. com/) Dig In Magazine: So the movie “Baby” was featured at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival in March of 2007 and was shown recently in film houses around Los Angeles and San Francisco. I understand that it was a film about inner-city Asian American gangs, and has been called an Asian version of “Boyz in the Hood”. What made you decide to do this film? Feodor Chin: I auditioned for “Baby” in 2004 when the producers were creating a spec trailer in order to obtain financing for the feature film. I was cast in the role of “Benny,” the “villain.” (Although in a film about gangsters it seems a bit odd to give any one character that distinction.) We shot the trailer in about four days and frankly I never expected to

hear from them again. But to my surprise, about a year later I got a call from Juwan (Juwan Chung, director) and he said, “Hey, we’re shooting the whole thing, are you in?” Naturally, I said yes. If you can believe it, the original script was actually quite a bit darker than what the completed film ended up being. But it was definitely a very good script and I knew it would be a great opportunity for me to really sink my teeth into an especially meaty role. DIM: Did you know much about Asian gangs before doing this film and what type of research did you do to prepare for the role of Bennie? How did you go about exploring the dark world of Asian gangs and gang violence? FC: Before working on “Baby,” I probably knew as much about Asian gangs as the next guy, which is to say, not very much.

CURRENT TOWN: LA HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Jamba Juice ASIAN ZODIAC SIGN: Tiger MOVIE/TV Show: Recently-Extract; Curerntly: Mad Men ROLE: I’ve always wanted to play Willy Loman MUSIC: Guns N’ Roses FOOD: Rib Eye SPORT: Niners, baby!!! CREATIVE OUTLET: Filling out forms like this! :) CLOTHING: Nudity is highly underated GOALS/DREAMS: To see a Guns N’ Roses Reuniion WEBSITE/BLOG: ironoxideproductions.comco

Find me on Facebook! Cheers!

a newspaper article or two, but I certainly didn’t have any direct experience in anything like that. In order to prepare, Juwan suggested some films to watch including: “Year of the Dragon” (perhaps the definitive 80’s era Chinatown gangster film, starring John Lone and Mickey Rourke), “China Doll,” (a quasi-”Romeo and Juliet” story set in the same 80’s New York Chinatown milieu), and “Infernal

Affairs” (the classic Hong Kong thriller on which “The Departed” was based.) We also watched a very interesting documentary about young (I believe they were Cambodian) gang bangers in Fresno. Juwan also had me spend some time with a fellow who had been involved with a Chinatown gang in San Francisco in the 70’s and 80’s. We talked about his experiences and he shed some light on the otherwise “hidden” world of Asian gangs. It

was very interesting and frankly, kinda scary. And for my own purposes, I rewatched “Scarface,” of course, as I think there are a good deal of similarities between Tony Montana and Benny. I knew that it would be a fun role to play, but it was also very important to me that the character of Benny not come off as a caricature. I wanted him to be grounded in a very real place and not be your typical, B-movie, mustache-twirling, cartoony bad guy. I wanted the

DIM: Would you say that this movie, in the sense of its focus on Asian gangs is somewhat true to the real-life situation of gangs in our culture today or in the past? Where was the movie set?

audience to know where he was coming from and perhaps even empathize with him. DIM: Who was the actor that played the role of “Baby”? How did you interact with the actor that played “Baby” on the set? He seemed to convey so much intensity on the screen and seemed to be a really emotional role for him, which delved into a deep subject matter of youthful dilemmas of family, (with his difficult relationship with his father) to young love and the temptation of falling into gangs and gang violence in terms of a young person’s desire to belong, and their feelings of acceptance and importance that gangs fulfill in the lives of many inner city youth. FC: The role of “Baby” was played by a very sweet, terrifically talented, young actor from Canada by the name of David Huynh. http://www.david-huynh.com. We met during the spec trailer

shoot. Without knowing him personally, I don’t know that audiences are truly able to appreciate the acting job that David had to do because, as a young kid from Winnipeg, David could not be more different than the role he played. I’m pretty sure that the closest he’s ever gotten to a gang fight was probably watching a brawl break out during a hockey game on TV. That being said, I think that’s part of the reason why he works so well in the role. The character of Baby has this tougher than nails exterior, but underneath there is still this sense of his lost innocence. I had a great time working with David. We’ve remained friends since the shoot and at nearly every film festival or screening we’ve attended together at least one person will comment that they’re surprised to see that we’re so friendly with each other. Which I suppose could be somewhat difficult to imagine if you’ve just spent the last 90 minutes watching us trying to kill each other.

FC: The movie takes place in the late 80’s and early 90’s in Southern California, presumably the Los Angeles area, though it’s never expressly stated. While “Baby” is certainly a film about gangs and, more specifically, Asian American gangs, to me the film has always been about the notion that everyone always has options in life. Sometimes, as is the case with Baby, your options are quite limited, but you still have options. And Baby, like everyone else, discovers that if you don’t make the right choices you invariably have to suffer the consequences of your actions. DIM: Had you worked with Director: Juwan Chung and Producer: Jason Serrato before? What was it like working with them? How about the cast… had you known and worked with the other actors in the film in the past and if so, in what capacity? Is the Asian American community of actors and filmmakers a tight knit group? FC: I had not worked with Juwan or Jason prior to shooting the trailer for “Baby.” But I certainly got to know them very well over the course of the film shoot. I had a great time working with Juwan. He is the kind of director that I believe most actors would like to work with, in that he 1) has a clear vision of what he wants and 2) he is always open to input and

coming, young screenwriter and his struggles to maintain some semblance of artistic integrity in the “anything for a buck” world of Hollywood.

collaboration from other artists. He is willing to let you “play” and push the envelope. And, in keeping with his personality, he was a very steady, calming force on set. Jason, Juwan’s partner in crime, is a terrific producer. The community of Asian American actors in LA is actually a fairly small, generally tight-knit group. Spend enough time working down here and you will get to know most of the Asian actors in town. I hadn’t met Ron (Ron Yuan, “Tommy”) or Kenny (Kenneth Choi, “Mike”) before the shoot, but the two of them had been friends for many years before and have worked together on a number of films before and after “Baby.” And certainly of the numerous other Asian American actors I do know, it can be said that if they weren’t in the film, I’m fairly certain that they auditioned for it.

“Golden Boy” DIM: What is “Golden Boy” about? Is it a comedy? Is it a TV show or movie? You seem to be growing and evolving in terms of the types of projects you are working on. You are acting in it and you produced and directed it, right? What is your new project “Golden Boy” about and what festivals is the TV show being featured in? I understand that it is on the festival circuit right now. FC: “Golden Boy” is a spec pilot presentation for a half-hour, single camera comedic television program. http://www. ironoxideproductions.com It’s a television show in the vein of Ricky Gervais’ “Extras,” with a little bit of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Entourage” thrown in the mix. “Golden Boy” tells the story of Scott Wong, an up-and-

I wrote the pilot episode and was the executive producer of the project. It was directed by William Lu, a very talented filmmaker whom I worked with on a short film of his called “ATF: Asian Task Force.” (which you can watch here: http://www.staytunedtv. net/showvideo.php?sid=7, visit http://www.myspace.com/ asiantaskforce or see the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=vVEjUlHPIdo) And fortunately, Jason Serrato was available to come on board as a producer and serve as production manager. So far, “Golden Boy” has screened at the DisOrient Film Festival in Eugene, Oregon and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. We’re waiting to hear from a few more festivals and hopefully we’ll be screening it again soon. DIM: Who are you hoping “Golden Boy” will get picked up by? What production companies are you marketing it to? FC: I had always envisioned it to be a “premium” cable type show, but I think that the premise is flexible enough that it could be adjusted to fit just about any network. DIM: Is “Golden Boy” your first project and experience with directing and producing? FC: “Golden Boy” was definitely my first time working on the other

side of the camera in a production capacity. It was a great experience and I learned quite a bit. (Mostly, what not to do!) But I think the most important lesson I learned about producing is that you want to surround yourself with the very best people you can get (cast, crew) and then just sit back, relax, and let them do their jobs. Feodor on Acting DIM: Where did you begin your acting career? I know that you are a San Francisco native, did you study film in the Bay Area? Did you go to film school or have any formal training? What got you into acting and did you always know that you wanted to act? Did you always have an interest in acting and film? FC: I started acting in high school, taking drama classes at Lowell High and performing in the school productions every year. At UCLA, although my major was Communication Studies, I spent most of my time hanging around the Theater Dept. at MacGowan Hall, taking classes and acting in plays and student films. During my summers back home in San Francisco, I also trained at the American Conservatory Theater. After graduation, I returned home to San Francisco where I spent the next few years building up my resume and eventually, getting all my union cards (SAG, AFTRA, AEA). At that point I felt like I was ready to head back to LA and I’ve been there ever since. DIM: What other movies or

TV shows have you acted in or produced? FC: http://www.imdb.com/ name/nm1216120/ DIM: What acting job was most important to you as a director/producer? What made you decide to move beyond acting into the realm of directing and producing? Would you say that a great deal of your knowledge and experience of producing and directing was generated from working with other directors and producers as an actor? What is the most challenging part of working behind the scenes and wearing the hat of a director/producer while acting in your film projects? FC: It’s safe to say that the majority of actors don’t get to work as much as they’d like. You could probably even say that the majority of actors don’t get to work

much at all. So with this in mind, it’s only logical that a good number of actors end up writing and/ or producing not only for the sake of creating more acting opportunities, but also to explore other creative outlets. Certainly, for me on “Golden Boy,” initially I did find it tricky wearing the multiple hats of writer, producer, and actor. Usually, when you’re working on a film, as an actor, you just show up, do your thing, and that’s a wrap. Fortunately, I had a great core team that was really on top of everything. Will Lu, my director, Jason Serrato and Candice Hill, my producers, and our fantastic director of photography, Noah Dille. And the crew we had assembled was simply the best. So I really should’ve been able to focus on just acting. And I was eventually able to relax a bit, but definitely for those first few days I was still worrying about whether we were

going to make our day or not or if there’d be enough lunch for everybody, stuff like that. But as I mentioned earlier, as a producer if you are able to get the very best people you can and just let them do their thing, your job is essentially done! DIM: Who would you like to work with in the future? FC: I’d love to get into Judd Apatow’s good graces. Ricky Gervais, of course. Larry David, Woody Allen, Mike Judge, pretty much any and all of my comic heroes. And I’d love to do an episode of “Mad Men.” Of course, I’d probably have to be Don Draper’s manservant or something, but I’m cool with that.

“Spice It Up!”

DIM: Who do you look up to in the film business? FC: Woody Allen has always been a real idol of mine. He is perhaps one of the last true “auteurs” working in the film industry today. Even his worst films are still unmistakably his. Naturally I don’t care to dwell on his misfires and I feel that anybody who can make films as brilliant as “Annie Hall,” “Manhattan,” or “Bullets Over Broadway,” can be forgiven for the occassional “Curse of the Jade Scorpion” or “Hollywood Ending.” The man’s a genius, plain and simple.

“Three Sisters” Photo by Karl Gajdusek 18

Dig In Magazine: Hi Rob, how have you been? It’s been awhile since we last chatted. What have you been up to and what types of new projects have you been working on these days? Robert Wu: Great, been busy with a number of things. I’m in rehearsals for a play right now that will tour Los Angeles from Sept until possibly spring 2010. I also have been steadily continuing to work on various on-camera and voiceover projects. Plus, I am in the process of developing and writing an Asian triad gangster script with a producer friend of mine. But best of all, my wife and I are about to celebrate our two year anniversary with a camping trip. A woman who loves roughing it in the woods – what a find! Definitely a keeper. DIM: You have a really broad spectrum of experience ranging from theatre and film/television shows to commercials, video games and voiceover work. What is your favorite medium for acting? RB: I don’t think I have a favorite medium. For me, it’s about the role. I love to work on characters that are fresh and unfamiliar to me. I love to challenge myself with something that I can really sink my teeth into. Of course, in this town, unless you’re Brad Pitt, you don’t really get a choice most of the time. You take the work as it comes. A good working actor friend of mine says, “I do theater for my art, and commercials and TV to pay the bills.”

Actor Robert Wu

Dig In Mag

Words by Cindy Maram

NAME: Robert Wu

[PROFILER]

OCCUPATION: Actor/Writer/Journeyman HOMETOWN: Frisco! CURRENT TOWN: L.A. HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Wilburton, OK ASIAN ZODIAC SIGN: Rat MOVIE/TV Show:

But like I said, for me, it’s the role. There are some really inventive and creative commercial and TV projects out there right now. Theatre is so time-consuming and so hard to juggle with the other mediums that I will only take on projects now that I feel can really make a lasting impact on an audience and the world. DIM: Tell me more about the theatre play you’re working on now. RW: It’s called The Last Appeal. It tells a very compelling story about five men serving life on Death Row. The play was actually berthed out of our church a few years ago. We formed a non profit theatre company and are now taking it on the road. It’s a wonderful tale of redemption, forgiveness, and hope. You can get more info at http://www. thelastappealplay.com

Good Will Hunting; Truffant (So I seem cultured) ROLE: I wanna play Rocky! MUSIC: 10th Avenue North, The Fray, Ol’Skool Rap, 70s 80s Rock FOOD: Chicken Pot Pie, H2O SPORT: Hiking, Swimming, Destressing, Sleeping CREATIVE OUTLET: Telling stories (by any means necessary) CLOTHING: Those jeans that make my booty look just right GOALS/DREAMS: To reach 1 million Facebook Friends, no, no, to have joy peace that lasts through anything WEBSITE/BLOG: www.robertwu.com

DIM: I heard that you’ve done some foreign film work. When you worked in China, did you have to study the language or did you already know Chinese from your upbringing? RW: Haha, I’m what my family calls “hoy san doi” or “juk sen doi”. That’s the slang term for American born Chinese. I think it means literally ‘bamboo boy’, like I can see through the bamboo stick but not all the way through. So I’m only partially knowledgeable on the language, culture, etc. I was raised speaking Toisan, similar to Cantonese. Practically everyone in Chinese television speaks Mandarin, so when I did my TV series there, I had an on-set coach. Plus, my step mother provided invaluable help. DIM: Didn’t you play a Korean bad-boy on an episode of the television show, Threshold (2005)? I recall you had lines in Korean. How are you able to pick up foreign languages and accents so quickly and speak as if you are fluent? Did you ever take formal speech or voice lessons to prepare for your roles? RW: Ok, here’s my process, if you want to call it that. When I find out that I have to read for a role that is not my native tongue, I call up a friend or friend of a friend who speaks the language in question and take them out for lunch or dinner, and I go with a tape recorder. I record them saying the lines and phrases and practice fervently before the audition. Now if I get the role, then I get way more into intonation

Robert Wu Starring in a Chinese Soap Opera and pace and intent and everything. Plus, there’s usually an on-set coach if the budget is big enough. It’s crazy, I’ve portrayed and spoken Korean, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Japanese and countless other languages and dialects in voice and on screen projects. I guess maybe sometimes they do think we all look the same -I’m not complaining! How do I learn it so fast? That’s all God. DIM: In the film, November (2004), you played opposite Courtney Cox, and you played opposite Glen Close in the television series, The Shield (2005), how was it working with such well-known Hollywood stars? RW: As I continue to evolve as an artist, I’m trying to take people off pedestals and see myself as equal collaborators with them instead of stars. (Although my brother loves it when I bring

home autographs and photos:) I had a recurring part on The Shield, and Glenn and I both started working on the same day for the season. I remember we were in the makeup trailer together and she was playing a CD that her partner made for her. She really is very charming. November was a very short shoot, they shot the whole film in 2 weeks. It was when 24p technology was just coming out, and you could shoot really high quality digital video really quick. I had about 3 meaty scenes with Courteney, but they all ended up on the cutting room floor. In fact, I didn’t even discover it until I saw the final cut at Sundance in 04. I had flown up there to promote the film, and it was quite a letdown when I saw the finished product. Greg Harrison, the director, apologized and told me it was a necessary edit for the story they wanted to tell. Same with Nanking. Two juicy emo-

had been hired weeks prior. I was the only one there still trying to get the job! Well, I ended up booking it and shooting the next week, but I can tell you, it had NOTHING to do with me. Only God can break down doors and speed up time like that. The real faith comes in trusting that He’s always there, in busy times and slow times, and believing without a shadow of a doubt that He will turn the tides in your favor again.

Robert Wu Guest Starring on the “George Lopez Show” tional monologues… gone with the wind. It happens all the time. I’ve learned that in this town, you just gotta roll with the punches because sometimes it rains, and sometimes, it’s a downright desert. DIM: What keeps you going when times are slow? RW: I truly believe that you cannot make it in this town without faith. I used to say to myself and people that I’m not an optimist, I’m a realist. But I read in a book once (I think it was Michael Shurtleff’s Audition -which is a must read for anyone thinking about pursuing this career), that to be an actor is to be the biggest dreamer in the world because it’s the biggest long shot in the world. You

have to be willing to give up control and trust that you’re being led to the roles that God wants for you. Sometimes, it’s painful because there are some roles out there that I really wanted bad. But I can’t tell you the number of times I booked roles that I had no shot of getting or the number of times I skipped all the normal steps to get an amazing role. I remember when I booked a series regular role on an NBC pilot a few years back. To book a pilot in this town is pretty big. It takes an initial audition and then several callback auditions for the show producers before you even get to test for the studio and network. I had one audition for the pilot, and the next day, I was in front of all the execs and the president

DIM: You’ve had guest star roles on television shows like The George Lopez Show (2005), Num3ers (2005), Seventh Heaven (2007), Bones (2009), played an important part in the documentary film, Nanking (2007), as well as played a memorable role in Baby (2008), the independent film about Asian gangs. Is it difficult to work with such a broad spectrum of roles, going from television comedy and drama to dramatic film and even voiceovers for commercials and video games? RW: I love it. Like I said, the richer and more diverse the character, the more fun I have developing it. In the theatrical production right now, I’m playing an atheist, who was framed for murder and is serving his sentence on Death Row. I’m spending all my time researching atheism online and watching prison documentaries on MSNBC. I’m having a blast! It’s like IKEA for me. You have this big box of all kinds of pieces and screws and everything, and you work on it, putting stuff together where you think it fits, and when you’re done, you have this finely crafted toilet paper holder!

of the network in a table reading with all the other actors, who DIM: What was your first role ever? How did you know you wanted to pursue acting as a career? RW: I was not one of those people who just knew they were destined to be an actor since they were a wee lad. I got in very late in the game. I didn’t get my first role until after college. I graduated with my degree in Exercise Physiology and went back to City College in San Francisco to take my prerequisites for Physical Therapy school. I remember it was my birthday, and I wanted to shake up my life. So I went out and auditioned for a play, having never taken an acting class. I saw a TV program about Will Smith that day, and he said he prepared for his Fresh Prince of Bel Air audition by watching a few hours of TV, and I said to myself, “well, heck, I’ve been watching TV all my life, so I can do this!” I got the part and later the next year, I went on to reprise the role in a production at the Fringe Festival in Scotland. It was awesome. I gave up PT and have never looked back. Ok, “never” might be a little strong. DIM: What was your training in? RW: I am a major proponent of training, but I’m also very fond of the Mamet learn-by-doing approach. I’ve had a hodge podge of different types of training interspersed with lots of working breaks in between. Of course, when I first started and didn’t know my stage left from my stage right, I was knee deep in classes.

Robert Wu “Baby” I started at City College and branched off to American Conservatory Theatre and then improvisation at Bay Area Theatresports and then to LA with Second City, Lee Strasberg Theatre, and a bunch of individual teachers along the way. But I found that the teachers and the classes that helped me the most were the ones that helped me to discover who I really was and being confident with that and bringing that to the role. Personalization. There are anywhere from 20 to 500 people sometimes reading for the same part. The only thing that separates me from the pack is me. The real me and letting that light shine confidently. I’m learning and relearning that on a daily basis. DIM: Is there any actor or director past or present that you look up to? And if you could

work with any one in Hollywood right now who would it be? RW: There are so many actors out there right now whose work I admire. Sean Penn, Robert Downey Jr, Denzel, Will Farrell, Jim Caviezel, and the list goes on and on. But to be honest, I’m learning to use this acting thing right now as a means of self development. It’s in the area of auditioning for a job and not getting it where I’m trying to grow. I’m trying to see the big picture, to be less selfish. Instead of thinking about who are the big actors and directors I’m personally dying to work with, I’m trying to see who I am called to work with, who can benefit from working and collaborating with me and contributing my efforts there. I read an article in the trades when I first moved to LA about Don Cheadle and how

I didn’t have at the time. DIM: Are more actors branching out and doing work in the video gaming industry since it is a hot, up and coming field? RW: I honestly couldn’t say. I know my voice-over agent brings me in for tons of video game projects regularly. And if you look at the trades, lots of established name actors are signing up to do these games now in conjunction with their feature film releases. Everyone’s trying to keep up with technology and use it for their benefit, and video games are definitely the hot thing right now.

Robert Wu Plays Oppostie Hugh Jackman in the Video Game “X Men Origins: Wolverine” when he first started to audition after college. He would see all the same regulars at the audition, and they would all selflessly support each other. He would be in the audition room saying to the casting director, ‘hey have you seen soand-so for this role yet?’ He said that he knew not every job was going to be his, but the ones right for him would be. He knew that he was called to this world of acting and that eventually, he would be working on the projects that he was destined to work on, but in the meantime, he would just enjoy the ride and play nicely with the teammates he had along the way and help them to succeed. I think God gave the best example of this selflessness in Jesus. He gave up everything He had to help others and trusted that God would take care of Him in the end. I love what Denzel Washington says, talking about the philoso-

phy he learned from his mother. She says life comes down to four things: “the grace of God, the will of man, the hand you’re dealt, the way you play it.” There’s this cool quote that’s been ascribed to everyone from St. Augustine to Martin Luther to Tony Robbins. How awesome is that?! It goes, “Pray like it all depends on God, then when you are done, go work like it all depends on you.” Sounds like a pretty peaceful way to live. Voice Over Work : Video Games DIM: How did you get into the niche of doing voice-over work for video games? RW: By accident. I didn’t even know the ‘niche’ existed. My commercial agent called me in for Rise to Honor, which was really weird because it should have went through a voice-over agent, which

DIM: What type of training or qualifications does a person need to do voice-over or character action work in the video gaming industry? RW: It varies. Some people get in by referral with no training at all, and some take voice over classes. What the everyman really needs to get into video game voice work is a voice-over reel and a voiceover agent to submit your reel for projects. DIM: I recall you did the voice over work for the Jet Li video game, Rise to Honor (2003), as well as played opposite Hugh Jackman in the new Marvel Comics/Activision video game “X Men Origins: Wolverine”, which was just released this Summer 2009. Did you do the action for these games as well? RW: No, that’s motion capture. A completely different ball of wax. If you figure out how to get into that, give me a call:)

DIM: Did you work with Jet Li or Hugh Jackman directly? RW: No, we taped on separate days. That’s the beauty of voiceover. It sounds like we’re kicking the crap out of each other, but in reality, we’re just beating the air and yelling at ourselves. Very primal. DIM: Do you own a gaming system like an Xbox or Playstation and play video games on your own? RW: No, but my brother has a Wii that he is trying to pawn off on me, now that he bought a PS3. I act in mainly the action games, but I love to play the sport games. Madden and NCAA. Go Sooners! DIM: What spawned your interest in the gaming industry? I think it would be any young gamers’ dream to act as a character in a game. RW: It’s an incredible amount of fun. But it’s work too. We never get our scripts ‘til we get into the session that day. And we could be playing three, four different characters. Different ages, types. You have to do a lot of the background and history work and imagination work on the spot. And there is a LOT of yelling. With multiple day sessions, the producers separate the days out far enough for the actor to get their voice back to go again. DIM: So, when you are doing voice over work on video games are you recording in a studio with other characters or solo? Is the game generally already completed in terms

Robert Wu Voice Over Work for Video Game “Ready To Rumble” of the motion and animation before you record? How does it work? RW: I’ve done both. With other actors and solo. The degree of completion of the game at the time of voice recording varies from project to project. Sometimes, they’ll have a beta version of the game itself to show us, sometimes they’ll just have the live motion capture video for us to match our voices to the actions, and sometimes they won’t have squat. DIM: Both Rise to Honor and X-Men have a lot of fighting in it, is it hard to create sounds that imitate fighting if you are recording in a studio or are you actually doing physical movement while doing the voices?

RW: You’re doing minimal physical movement unless you want to chalk up a serious repair bill. It’s a very small space you have to play in. The good voice booth directors give you a lot to play off of. Like she’ll say, “ok, now I take a hot poker and stab you in your eye.” And I have to react and respond, a.k.a. scream. DIM: I have a few last questions. Any upcoming video game projects that you can give us a hint on? RW: Sorry, I’ve gotten in trouble for this in the past. The video game industry wraps are just as tight if not tighter than the film industry wraps. I did just go online and found out that one of the projects I worked on was released a few months back. It’s called Ready 2 Rumble: Revolu-

Dig In Mag [PROFILER] NAME: Jon Nielsen OCCUPATION: Hustler/Move Maker HOMETOWN: Cerritos, CA CURRENT TOWN:Cerritos, CA HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Ronnie Devoe, Jon Neilsen & Ricky Bell in the Rebel Spirit Lounge

Jon Nielsen

Words by Cindy Maram

From Pro Football to Entrepreneur Dig In Magazine: You’re the President and CEO of 2 companies, Motion Sports Management and Aquaries Entertainment, how did you become such an entrepreneur? What motivated you to start your own businesses?

contacts had gone on to other companies like EA and Midway. My phone kept ringing to get players, thus MSM was founded.

Jon Nielsen: When I was playing professional football, I was able to meet all different kinds of people in different professions. I decided that when I was done playing, I didn’t want to go the corporate route. Motion Sports Management (MSM) fell into place. I was doing mocap (motion capture) for Microsoft’s game, NFL Fever. When I went to go play my season, the producers still called to get my friends involved with the game. When I retired, a lot of my

JN: The companies can only grow as much as I want them to. I am a one-man operation at this point in time. I over see everything from day-to-day work to mapping out the business plans for each of them. It is a never ending cycle, but a great problem to have.

DIM: What is your role in each of the companies as President and CEO?

DIM: What made you decide to create a voice over and motion capture company for the video gaming industry?

Hawaii ZODIAC SIGN: Aries MOVIE/TV Show: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory DIRECTOR: Spike Lee MUSIC: Boyz II Men; New Edition FOOD: Japanese SPORT: Football HOTSPOT: Palms Hotel in Las Vegas CREATIVE OUTLET: Tatoos CLOTHING: Jordans GOALS/DREAMS: Live Forever WEBSITE/BLOG: www.motionsportsmgmt.com

JN: While I was playing professional football, I was also a SAG actor in the industry. I focused mainly on sport related commercials. I had contacts to a lot of my friends who were also in the industry and just decided to jump behind the scenes of the game. There is a need for motion capture talent. The video game industry is a very small one and I am fortunate enough to have a great name in the business. I have gotten a lot of business from word of mouth or producers looking at their competitors game credits to find out who they used for mocap. DIM: And how did Aquaries Entertainment, a company that services the sports and entertainment industry, come to be? JN: I founded Aquaries Entertainment before I founded Motion Sports Management. I have gotten to know and become good friends with a lot of sports and entertainment personalities from my playing days. I became good friends with Ricky Bell of New Edition and BBD back in 2000. He brought me into the New Edition camp in 2003 when they were signed with Bad Boy Records. I hooked all the members up with clothes for the “One Love” album tour. I have since established work with all the members of New Edition and continue to work with them today. One great positive that came out of that work was my introduction to the legendary group Boyz II Men. New Edition’s PR contact at the time, Heidi Buech Crescendo PR, put

DIM: I know MSM worked on Madden Football, what are the most well-known and popular games that MSM has been a part of? JN: Microsoft NFL Fever series, EA NFL Madden, EA NCAA College Football, Midway Blitz I and II, the 2K NBA series, 2K March Madness, EA NBA Live, EA NCAA Basketball, Sony NBA series, Ubisoft Wheelman, and the Nerjyzed BCFX: Doug Williams Edition. me in touch with Boyz II Men for a Dub Magazine photo shoot. Their manager and I hit it off as well as the Boyz and they hired me on as their fashion coordinator. I have been part of them BIIM crew since 2004. My role with them has expanded over the years. I do a lot of work with them individually as well as help bring some deals to the table. DIM: So, you used to be one of the actors that did the motion capture work, how did you make the jump from that to being President and CEO of Motion Sports Management, your own motion sports company? JN: Ben Cammarano (Microsoft) hired me to work on NFL Fever back in 1999. I did the quarterback mocap for all of the NFL Fever games. Through that, one of their producers, David Ortiz, left and went to EA. He brought me and my MSM crew over to work on NFL Madden, NFL Street, and NCAA. I still supply the football talent for NFL Madden and NCAA to this day. It was an easy transition.

DIM: Who do you hire for your voice over and motion capture work? Are most of them professional actors and professional and college athletes? JN: All of MSM’s talent roster have either played professional or at major college programs. Most of my guys/girls are also SAG actors as well. DIM: What types of sports in video games do you focus on, i.e. basketball, football, etc…. any other sports? JN: MSM has the football and basketball industry on lock. I can only branch out MSM to other projects as my personal time permits. I have a lot of stunt men in my stable. I am going to go after some of the fighting/army games in the future. Technical Questions on Gaming DIM: How long does it usually take to shoot, do voice overs

usually knock it out in one take unless they want a variation of the move. DIM: What type of equipment do you need and use for doing motion capture for a sports video game? JN: Every game is sports specific. Football shoots will have football equipment plus trainers and technical advisors on hand to help ensure safety. For basketball, just your standard basketball equipment is provided.

and capture everything for a video game? JN: Typical mocap sessions are 8 hour days and voice overs are typically less than that. DIM: Are you in the studio for the voice over work to record and do motion-capture? JN: I do usually supervise the mocap shoots from time to time. I have been working on some of these titles for many years, so my being present is not necessary. If it’s a new client, I try and attend to make sure they get what they want. DIM: How many times does it take until you get a perfect motion capture for the finished product of a game? For example, how many tackles or passes/catches in a football video game until it is perfect? JN: It depends on the degree of difficulty of the take. My guys

DIM: Who comes up with the ideas for video games? Does MSM work with other companies like movie studios or animation studios in the creation of games? Can you name a couple of other companies that you work with? JN: MSM works with: Sony, Electronic Arts (EA), Take 2 (2K), Nerjyzed, Midway/Ubisoft, Giant Studios, and House of Moves. I have consulted on a few football projects, but for the most part we make come alive what the producers and animators envision. My crew is really good at making the impossible into reality. You have to understand some of the moves they have to capture are technically unsound and dangerous, MSM finds a way to make it all happen. That translates into great playing games. DIM: After you do your part of the voice over work and motion capture work, who does the animation to create the actual game working with your company’s motions?

JN: Motion capture is a key essential to bringing reality to any game. The animators of the games take the mocap and bring it to life in the game. My guys laugh all the time, because we can tell who did what moves when playing the games. DIM: Would you say that your actors are paid well now that the video gaming industry is booming? How is MSM doing in term of the gaming industry? JN: My crew of guys receive a nice amount of money for their hard work. We are great at what we do. That is why we always get repeat work from the different companies. We don’t do a lot of takes to capture what the client needs. That is what really sets MSM apart from athletes off the streets. You waste time and money trying to teach a novice athlete how to create the move you want. MSM provides elite service! DIM: When does Madden 2010

DIM: Who are some of the stars that you have worked with in the past and are currently working with in terms of both sports and entertainment? I know there might be too many to name, but who are a few of them? JN: Boyz II Men, New Edition, BBD, Joey Fatone, comedian Jo Koy, Barry Bonds, actor Jason Kyson Lee, actor Miguel Nunez, American Idol’s Randy Jackson, Ne-Yo, Young Lloyd, Musiq Soulchild, NFL players: Davone Bess, Colt Brennan, and Will Blackmon. DIM: What type of clothing lines are you associated with?

Jon Nielsen Filming Gatorade Commercial and Black College Football Experience come out? JN: NFL Madden 2010 drops on August 14, 2009. BCFX will be dropping within the next couple of months. DIM: Any new games in the works? JN: Just had some of my basketball guys do some finishing touches on 2Ks basketball games and EAS Basketball games. We are set to do a Madden 2011 shoot in the next couple of months. DIM: As an ex-professional football player and a commercial actor, do you still do the voice over and motion capture stuff even though these days you’re the man running the show?

most part I am retired from active duty. I can still physically do all of that stuff, but I rather have one of my guys do it. It saves the wear and tear on my body!!!

JN: AQ has relationships with several clothing lines. I have been involved in the clothing game since my professional football playing days.

Jon on Aquaries Entertainment

DIM: Would you consider yourself a fashion designer or stylist?

DIM: So, Aquaries Entertainment (AQ) is a company that has to do with fashion and styling those in the entertainment industry, right? What services does Aquaries offer sports and entertainment personalities?

JN: Neither!!! Haaa…what I do is bring people together from different industries. I guess you can say I am still playing “quarterback” in the clothing industry. I am not pigeon holed into having an official title. I like it that way.

JN: AQ has broadened its services. We have added road managing and consulting services. The industry is ever changing and I strive to be ahead of the curve. Certain people are good at certain things. I am able to provide a lot of different things that most people can’t provide.

DIM: What is Rebel Spirit? Is that your new clothing line? Who wears it?

JN: I jump in and do some fill in work when needed, but for the

JN: Rebel Spirit clothing has been around for the past 5 years. I am in charge of their sports/entertainment marketing of the brand. I have expanded their image by putting it on some A-list clients. Boyz II Men are big supporters,

Joey Fatone, Randy Jackson, Barry Bonds, Miguel Nunez, Jason Kyson Lee are a few of the people I have brought into the Rebel family. DIM: What types of fashion do you usually work with? For example, jeans and casual wear or formal attire? JN: I have connections from suits to sneakers to jewelry. I have contacts in every facet of the industry.

Jon Nielsenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Motion Capture Company

DIM: What big events have you dressed your stars for? Anyone who was at this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s BET Music Awards wearing your gear? JN: Rebel Spirit clothing did a gifting suite for the BET Awards this year. A lot of celebs came through. The brand is doing well at the retail boutiques as well as department stores like The Buckle and Metro Park. DIM: So, do you go shopping with your clients or do you bring the fashion to them? JN: I am not a personal shopper. I just take care of my clients needs and get them in the hottest brands that are out there. Jon on Acting and Commercials DIM: How did you get into acting? JN: While playing professional football during the off-season, some of my friends brought me to an audition. I actually booked my first national commercial for Motrin that day. I have been a member of SAG since 1999.

Jon Nielsen Motion Sports Management

DIM: What commercials have you been in? Have you done print ads, as well as television commercials? JN: I have done several national commercials: Gatorade, SBC Communications, Budweiser, Motrin, McDonalds, Coors Light plus several modeling print ads: A. Tiziano and billboards for Coors Light. Personal: Video Games DIM: Now on a more personal level, what is your favorite gaming system and what are your favorite video games? Would you consider yourself a video game junkie? Do you ever play your own video games that MSM has worked on?

Jon Nielsen’s Rebel Spirit Client, MTV’s “Jersey Shore” in Rebel Spirit Gear

JN: I have the Wii, PS3, and the 360, but I don’t play any of them.!! Haaa, my nephews come over and play on all the systems. I am not a video game junkie at all. I take great pride in the games MSM works on, but I don’t have the time to actually play the games!! DIM: One last question, what are your current and upcoming projects? What can we expect to see from MSM, Aquaries Entertainment and Jon Nielsen, the entrepreneur, in the months ahead? JN: MSM is back working on all of our sport titles and hopefully some new titles as well. Aquaries Entertainment is busy expanding our entertainment marketing. Look for some new brands to pop up as AQ clients in the next few months.

Jon Nielsen with MTV’s Jersey Shore” Star DJ Pauly D

Dig In Magazine: What is your racial and cultural background? George Nguyen: I’m 100% Vietnamese American. I was born in El Paso, TX but grew up in San Francisco. My parents came over here to teach Vietnamese for the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA.

Actor George Q. Nguyen Words by Cindy Maram

Actor HOMETOWN: San Francisco, CA CURRENT TOWN: San Francisco, CA HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Hawaii

DIM: When did your passion for film and acting begin?

GN: I was formally trained at The American Conservatory Theater here in SF for acting in their summer training congress and studio classes, which also offered on-camera classes. I originally majored in film in college, but switched to cell and

[PROFILER]

OCCUPATION:

GN: I’m currently residing in San Francisco, CA.

DIM: Were you formally trained in film and if so, where were you trained?

Dig In Mag NAME: George Nguyen

DIM: Where are you based?

GN: My passion began when I was still a very young child. My parents loved taking me to watch films as a kid from Disney to the James Bond franchise. I remember vividly as a kid, I was watching the Oscars and telling my parents I wanted to be an actor. I was so young, my Parents probably thought nothing of it. My first experience in theater was in elementary school and that’s where I first started acting. We did plays for the school and had also performed at Macy’s Downtown once.

Berkeley, “Teahouse of the

ASIAN ZODIAC SIGN: Dog MOVIE/TV SHOW: Inception/Breaking Bad molecular biology. I worked at A.C.T. for six years and was able to attend their classes in the evenings, which helped during my time studying science.

ROLE: Skelly from “The Rimers of Eldridge” MUSIC: Michael Jackson/ The Police FOOD: Rib Eye

DIM: What types of acting have you done?

SPORT: Wing Chun/

GN: I enjoy improvisation and physical acting, and I have done contemporary plays to the classics. I’ve mainly acted in theater and independent films.

CREATIVE OUTLET:

DIM: What theatrical productions have you been in? GN: Let’s see, the shows I’ve been in include, “A Cabal of Hypocrites” with the American Citizen’s Theater, “Merry Wives of Windsor” with Marin Shakespeare Company, “Six Degrees of Separation” with the Actors Ensemble of

Basketball Photography CLOTHING: Blue Jeans GOALS/DREAMS: To be a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences WEBSITE/BLOG: http://sites.google.com/site/ geogenes/

August Moon” and “Sacagawea” with the Willows Theater Company, and others. The most recent play I was in was called “Meadowland” for Second Wind Theater Company. DIM: What role did you play in “Meadowland,” which was written and directed by Ian Walker for Second Wind Theater Company? What was the play about? GN: I played the husband in Meadowland. The play, which is based on a short story called “In a grove” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, is also the same short story that Akira Kurasawa based his film Rashomon on. The play is about an investigator searching for clues about a murder that takes place in a grove. In his quest we see three different versions of the murder. There is also a love story that is about the investigator and his sister in law and the inner conflict with him. DIM: What types of characters have you played in theatre and film? GN: I’ve played from 10-year-old kids to 80-year-old hermits. I’ve played mainly character driven roles, which I enjoy. DIM: How did you get into the film industry? GN: I’ve also always been interested in film as it is a medium that goes along with acting. I studied some filmmaking in college, but I knew that my passion was more in acting. As an actor I enjoy acting in both theater and film. In Theater you have a connection

George Q. Nguyen On Set of Film “Opened” with the audience and you get to go through the full arc of the play every night. As for film, I enjoy the technical aspects and understanding different camera angles and shots. Being an actor, you cannot limit yourself to one medium. DIM: What films have you acted in? GN: I’ve mainly worked in independent short and a few independent feature films. DIM: What film festivals have your films been featured in? GN: I’ve only attended a few film festivals that include San Diego Asian American Film Festival, Damah Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival and the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. DIM: What film organizations do you belong to? GN: SAG (Screen Actors Guild),

AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and AEA (Actors Equity Association). I am an Equity membership candidate. DIM: When did you become a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and how did you become eligible to join? GN: I joined SAG back in 2007. I was eligible to join SAG from a principle role in an Industrial that I performed. DIM: I understand that in addition to your acting work in other films, you worked as a first assistant director on the film, “Hubris: A Short Film” (2009) and as a production manager on “Bampinay” (2004), what type of film work do you prefer? GN: I prefer acting, as that is my passion, but I enjoy helping other filmmakers and friends with their productions. As you know, a lot of

independent filmmakers do not have a lot of money and I support them in their art by assisting in other ways when I can. DIM: What types of roles would you like to play in the future? GN: I enjoy the craft of acting in that I would love to play any type of role in the future. Every role and character you can create will be something original and different as long as you take the risk. Sometimes it will work and sometimes it will not, but at least you have taken the creative steps in developing that character or role. DIM: What do you like to do outside of acting and film? GN: Outside of acting and film, I like to spend time with family and friends and enjoy traveling overseas. I also enjoy doing outdoor activities like camping, swimming and hiking. I also enjoy photography.

George Q. Nguyen On Set of Film â&#x20AC;&#x153;Openedâ&#x20AC;?

Dig In Mag [PROFILER] NAME: Bob Davis OCCUPATION: University Prof./Babysitter HOMETOWN: Foat Wuth (as we say in Texas) CURRENT TOWN:

Film Critic: Bob Davis

LA, CA Words by Cindy Maram

On New Asian Cinema Bob Davis is a former film critic for SPIN magazine and a regular contributor to American Cinematographer. He teaches New Asian Cinema at Cal State University, Fullerton. Dig In Magazine: “Tokyo Sonata” (2008) is Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s newest film, which screened at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes. The film is a dreary tale of a family that is falling apart, but ends with a sense of hope as they make an attempt to solve their dilemmas. Some of his earlier films are “Cure” (1997), which has themes of emotional disconnection of human interaction, “Pulse” (2001), a haunting film about human alienation and disconnection and our human interaction with the impersonal nature of

technology in modern urban culture, and “Bright Future” (2003), a film that also possesses characters that are emotionally isolated and portrays a family with relationships that are disjointed and ironically puts it’s characters’ focus on a jellyfish that symbolizes the dangerous and hazy life course of the film’s youthful, but imperfect characters. Bob Davis: Wow! That’s a mouthful. For me, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s films are much less about certain themes (though you’ve perhaps nailed some of them) than they are about tones, feelings. The films are creepy, vibrant, uncanny, familiar, and alien. Sometimes all at once. It’s no wonder the rights to films like Cure and Pulse were snapped up by Hollywood but that Hollywood, with its abhorrence of subtlety and ambiguity

HOME AWAY FROM HOME: Slanted Door Restaurant, Ferry Building, San Francisco ASIAN ZODIAC SIGN: Gojira MOVIE/TV SHOW: I once claimed my favorite film was “My Little Pony: The Movie” - about half of my class believed me. DIRECTOR: Yoshimitsu Morita (no kidding) ROLE: Music Director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra MUSIC: Nikolaus Harnoncourt FOOD: Lemon Gelato Pie at Pizzeria Mozza SPORT: Foooot-ball CREATIVE OUTLET: Sleeping GOALS/DREAMS: The Big Sleep

Hirokazu Kore-eda

of tone, was incapable of translating them into its own idiom. DIM: So, what did you think of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s new film “Tokyo Sonata” and how do you think it is compared to his earlier films in terms of plot, characters and themes? What about it did you find interesting or significant? BD: I saw Tokyo Sonata at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. The audience, most of whom were familiar only with Kurosawa’s genre films, was unprepared for such a “dysfunctional family drama”. This new film is perhaps closest in its feel to Kurosawa’s 1998 License to Live, about a boy who comes out of an extended coma with the body of a twenty-year-old but the mentality of a ten-year-old. There Kurosawa uses the high concept premise to develop ideas about lost innocence, false expectations. In License to Live the protagonist wants to get his estranged mom, dad, and sister back together,

Kiyoshi Kurosawa

even if just for a moment, to relive his childhood. The movie, like his mom – she flatly tells the boy, “What you want is impossible.” – is utterly unsentimental. Everything goes wrong.

directors (nine of whom I have no interest in) who contributed short segments to the film. I haven’t seen New York, I Love You yet, but when was the last time you saw a good anthology film?!

The first 100 minutes of Tokyo Sonata has a similar feel, but instead of a refrigerator falling on the protagonist and killing him (the random ending of License to Live) the dysfunctional family in Tokyo Sonata is transformed by … well, I’ve already given away the ending to one film, maybe I shouldn’t say more.

DIM: Director Hirokazu Koreeda’s older films are “After Life” (1998), “Distance” (2001), and “Nobody Knows” (2004). All of these films seem to explore deep, dramatic and sometimes traumatic themes. What are these films mainly about and do you think that he does a good job at exploring these themes?

DIM: Both Hirokazu Kore-eda, “Still Walking” (2008) and Shunji Iwai, “New York, I Love You” (2009), just came out with these new films that the American audience is especially keen on. Have you seen either of their newest releases?

BD: My sense is that Kore-eda’s films are becoming less and less successful on a variety of fronts. The three films you mentioned all have intriguing narrative “hooks”. After Life asks what memory we’d like to take with us into eternity. Distance concerns the reunion of the family members of a AUM-like cult who’ve all died in an attempt to poison Japan’s water supply, and Nobody Knows concerns kids who’ve been left to fend for

BD: I saw Kore-eda’s Still Walking at the London Film Festival a year ago. New York, I Love You is an anthology film, so Iwai is one of ten

ter”, which was released in the United States under the new title “When I Close My Eyes”. He also teamed up with musicians to create the high school pop film, “All About Lily Chou-Chou” and went on to develop his first comedy in 2004 with “Hana and Alice”. What did you think of these films and Iwai’s focus on youth? What are some more recent examples of Japanese films that surround this popular Japanese obsession with youth?

Shunji Iwai

themselves by a crazy mother. All, as you say, relatively traumatic situations. DIM: It has been said that Koreeda’s new film “Still Walking” (2008) falls within the tradition of the legendary director Yasujiro Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” (1953)? If you agree, in what way do you think it correlates to it? What did you think of this family drama? BD: Still Walking is a family drama in the vein of Ozu’s most famous works (Tokyo Story, Late Spring, Who’s Who of the Tenements), but without the family crisis around which Ozu’s movies wrap themselves and without the rigorous formal patterns that makes Ozu’s films such unusual viewing experiences. DIM: What is the significance of his documentary-style filmatic approach? What do you think

this style communicates to the audience and what type of effect do you think it has versus taking a more traditional fictional cinematic approach? BD: Interestingly, Kore-eda – who trained in non-fiction filmmaking – seems in his last movies (Hana yori mo nao, Still Walking, and his newest film, Air Doll, about a man who falls in love with a sex doll) to have abandoned the documentary style. This is too bad, since what was an interesting marriage of heightened fictional content and documentary style is now being usurped by less radical content and a more generic image-making. DIM: Shunji Iwai has won numerous awards for his films “Love Letter” (1995), “All About Lily Chou-Chou” (2001) and “Hana and Alice” (2004). He had much success in Japan and South Korea with “Love Let-

BD: Love Letter is a professionally made tearjerker. It is a quality example of the kind of film that I typically have no interest in. That said, the Japanese seem to excel at this kind of “nostalgia for youth” genre. A huge percentage of Japanese films take place in classrooms – what could be less appealing to the typical American movie-going 15-year-old – and they inevitably reduce me, who’s often thought of as a heartless @#$%^ by my students, to tears. Hiroki Ryuichi’s Love on Sunday (2007) and Your Friends (2008) are two more recent examples – well-made sentimental stories about kids in uniform. [Hiroki is an interest example of the kind of director the Japanese system has regularly created, someone who goes back and forth between art films (Vibrator), sexplotation films (I Am an S&M Writer, and M) and mainstream efforts like Love on Sunday. Kurosawa Kiyoshi also made his share of soft-core sex films.] DIM: What choice of music does Iwai use in “All About Lily ChouChou” that makes the film so

surreal and moving? BD: All About Lily Chou-chou is another beast altogether. This movie is sui generis. Its characters are obsessed with the music of a fictionalized artist who claims Debussy as an influence, and Iwai has created a visual and editoial style that matches the music’s impressionism. The movie is 150 minutes of fragile arabeske. DIM: There have been a number of American remakes of Japanese films, such as horror films like “The Ring”, “The Grudge”, and “Dark Water”. What are some of the other remakes of Japanese films that have been successes in the United States? How do you feel about American remakes of Japanese films or foreign films, in general? Do you think that the remakes do the films justice or sometimes miss the point?

BD: I can’t really answer this because I’ve found the American remakes to be unwatchable. Literally! I don’t think I’ve stayed in the theater until the end of any of them. When the Japanese film causes the hairs on the back of your neck to stand on end, the American remake smacks you in the forehead with a hammer! DIM: What are your picks in terms of new Asian foreign films, Japanese and beyond? Can you expand on why these films are the ones to see? BD: The mid-to-late 90s may have seen a peak in interesting Japanese art films. Kitano’s best work ran through the 90s; Iwai, Kurosawa, Miike Takashi, and Kawase Naomi got their real starts; Morita Yoshimitsu made haru, Keiho, and Black House. But I’ll limit myself here to some movies from the past five years:

In Japan, Sono Sion (the director of the infamous and fabulous Suicide Club) has continued his Dionysian explorations with movies like Yume no naka e [Into a Dream] (my favorite film of 2005, a movie that seems to rumbling around inside the head of an insecure actor) and Strange Circus (now available on DVD in the US) and Noriko’s Dinner Table (a companion to Suicide Club). His latest, Love Exposure, is four hours of non-stop deep psychology. Miike’s Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (also now on DVD) is an epic in 80 minutes, part Daivd Lynch, part Jean Genet, part Stephen Hawking. In a report on the 2007 Hong Kong film festival, where I saw it in a theater packed with over a thousand high-school aged girls, I described it as “a pressure cooker of desire roasted over a pit of repressed violence compressed by demonic powers into an infinitesimally tiny singularity sucked back through a black hole of time.” In Thailand, Apichatpong “Joe” Weerasethakul, who trained as an artist in Chicago, has been making a stream of the most powerful artfilms around. Tropical Malady, a love-story in which, during the second half of the film one of the lovers has become a tiger, gets under the skin, speaks about the animal nature of human relationships, in a way no other film I can think of has. Even Quentin Tarantino, chairman of the Cannes jury that awarded the film a top prize, couldn’t shake it. Korean film has had its moment in the sun. Perhaps the least interesting of the new Korean “auteurs” are the two most famous, Park Chan-wook (Old Boy) and Boon

Jong-ho (The Host). Three others have much more to say. Both Hong Sang-soo (A Tale of Cinema, Woman on the Beach, and Night and Day) and Im Sang-soo (The Good Lawyer’s Wife, and The President’s Last Bang) seem to be grinding an ax against the macho, mindless Korean male. Kim Ki-duk lashes out at both sexes in his subtlely hilarious Time, about lovers who test each others’ commitment by leaving the relationship, having enough plastic surgery so as to make themselves unrecognizable, and then contriving to meet again to see whether, new looks and all, they might still fall in love. Unfortunately, the most interesting Korean movies I’ve seen, well, ever, is completely unknown. It’s the only movie by only female director “working” in Korea I know, Shin Jae-in. It’s called Shin Sung-Il is Lost. It takes place in a Christian orphanage, involves lots of Choco pie and self-denial, force-feedings, a revolution. Amazingly bizarre. Finally, my favorite movie so far this year is also a woman’s, that of the Malaysian director, Yasmin Ahmad, who, sadly, died of a stroke at the age of 51 a few months ago. Her best prior film, Mukhsin, a love story of two ten-year-olds, won her the Best Director prize at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival. Her last film, Talentime, which I saw in Hong Kong, is not even really professionally made. The lighting, the camerawork, the cutting are all, at best, “advanced student” level. But Ahmad’s perfect manipulation of the melodrama and her control of the performances left me devastated during the last 30 minutes of the film.

theme, each team in the competition gets a Bible verse to springboard

Dig In Mag [PROFILER] NAME:

Christopher Shawn Shaw OCCUPATION: Filmmaker HOMETOWN: Plainfield, OH CURRENT TOWN: Rohnert Park, CA HOME AWAY FROM HOME: On the set

Christopher Shawn Shaw

ASIAN ZODIAC SIGN: Words by Cindy Maram

I’m not Asian. DIRECTOR:

Actor & Director

Steven Spielberg ROLE:

Dig In Magazine: Where are you based out of? Christopher Shawn Shaw: I currently reside in beautiful Sonoma County in Northern California. DIM: How did you get involved in film and filmmaking? CS: As a child, I was fascinated by film and television, and had aspirations of becoming a “movie star,” even majored in acting in college, and it was in college where I learned basic cut-to-cut editing. My parents had also purchased me my own VHS Slimcam Camcorder, so I got more and more interested in directing and editing on the side in college as well. DIM: Where did you study acting and filmmaking?

CS: I studied acting as a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Otterbein College (now Otterbein University) in Westerville, OH (I was born and raised in Ohio). After moving to Southern California in late 1994, I also studied some at WeistBarron-Hill Acting For Television & Film...and before attending there, even took Judy Carter’s Stand-Up Comedy Workshop, where we actually got to perform at a real club at the end of the workshop. It actually went rather well. DIM: Where did you come up with the idea for the film, “Skip Listening”? CS: The theme for this year’s 168 Hour Film Project: http://www.168project.com/ was “Hearing God.” Based on that

Director MUSIC: Mostly Christian (Casting Crowns, Tenth Avenue North FOOD: Pepperoni Pizza/ Mountain Dew SPORT: Bowling (even have my own bowling ball) CREATIVE OUTLET: Filmmaking/Editing CLOTHING: Pajama bottoms, T-shirt and hooded sweatshirt GOALS/DREAMS: Married and in love with the woman God has for me/Successful Filmmaking Career that glorifies God

him. He’s so self-involved that he doesn’t even know one of his radio staff (Lexi Marman, http:// www.LexiMarman.com) is Deaf! Skip stumbles into a traumatic circumstance that forces him to hear in a way that he would have never considered possible before, with special thanks to the Deaf community. One of the tag lines for “Skip Listening” is “What is the difference between Skip Stonewall and a room full of Deaf people? They can hear better.” DIM: What was your role in the film?

Cast of “Skip Listening” at the Egyptian Theater off of and integrates their verse into their short film. Actress/Model Kristin McCoy (http://www. KristinMcCoy.com) came onto our team as a Production Coordinator, but that soon changed. Before we knew our specific Bible verse, we had our first production meeting where the crew got to meet each other and talk about the game plan for the shoot...and we all shared a fun fact about ourselves. Well, Kristin’s fun fact was that she has been an ASL (American Sign Language) Interpreter for the past 12 years. I was like, “Hmmm...The theme is ‘Hearing God’...Kristin’s involved with the Deaf community...Nobody else is going to explore this!” So, Kristin became one of our story team, Deaf Actors Casting, ASL Consultant, and even had a small acting role in the production. After we got our verse, which was Nehemiah 8:9b – 10, we could then write the story, incorporating the locations and resources we had into

it. We had an on site story team of about 5 people, Comedian John Branyan: http://www.JohnBranyan.com in Indiana was our Remote Writing Consultant, and Comedian and star of SKIP LISTENING Thor Ramsey : http://www.ThorRamsey.com was our head screenwriter for the short film. We are planning to put together a feature-length film version of SKIP LISTENING http:// www.SkipListeningShort.com , too, with Thor Ramsey as the head screenwriter again. DIM: What is the film, “Skip Listening,” about? CS: “Skip Listening” is a comedic short film about a narcissistic radio DJ (Skip Stonewall, played by Comedian Thor Ramsey) who does not take the time to listen and hear the people around

CS: I had the honor and privilege of being the lead Producer on the film, being the Director, and even had a small role acting in it...as Billy Bob, one of my previouslyconceived short film characters. God blessed us with a stellar cast and crew of professionals, and they are more so the reason “Skip Listening” turned out as well as it did than me. God graciously blessed us this year with a team of key people who continue to work together on other projects. DIM: How did you find the cast and crew for “Skip Listening”? CS: Our team this year (Team 3) basically started with just me committed to it. I had asked my now producing partner, Josh B. Jacobs (who also played The Kidd in “Skip Listening”) to join me again. We had participated in the 168 Hour Film Project a couple years ago, there was a total of about 7 of us that year, and I – for one – was wearing way too many hats, and basically the cast was also the crew, for the most part. It was major guerilla filmmaking...

and ridiculous (but was still fun). I was determined to not do that again this year, however, so after Josh committed to working on the 168 this year with me, we brainstormed a list of crew positions we desired to be filled. He got on the horn with his friend, Colleen Bennett, who graciously came on board as our Line Producer...the person who assembles the crew. So, initially via Colleen, the crew team started snowballing, and someone else on the crew would bring on somebody else, and so forth. Our behindthe-scenes filmmaker Josh Schleh (also a friend of Colleen) shot and edited an award-nominated BTS (Behind-The-Scenes) Documentary in which we talk a little bit about how the crew came about, too. Please check that out via the http://www.SkipListeningShort. com web site, by clicking on the

“168” tab. Thank you.

DIM: In terms of getting the cast and crew together for the film, what were your requirements in the hiring process? What were you looking for in an actor or a crew member to help out on this in this film? CS: Honestly, availability and the willingness to work for a few days (or less) for little to no financial compensation. Creativity and personality were pluses, too, of course...However, I didn’t choose most of the crew; other people referred them and/or brought them on board. As far as actors, I’m really big on casting. The actors need to look the part they are playing and be able to act believably. So, that department is absolutely crucial for the direc-

tor to be hands-on in, which I was, along with Colleen and our screenwriter and lead actor, Thor Ramsey. Deaf Actors Casting was beautifully handled by Kristin McCoy, who also served as part of our story team, as our ASL (American Sign Language) Consultant, and as an actress in the short. And as far as Thor Ramsey goes, I met him on Facebook (as well as Remote Writing Consultant John Branyan), eventually asked if he’d be interested in joining the team, and he thankfully was and did.

None of us knew what the story would be at that time, just that I sensed the genre was comedy, but not even that was solidified until we got the Bible verse for our team to integrate into whatever our story would become. DIM: Where has “Skip Listening” been shown? CS: “Skip Listening” premiered this past March at the 168 International Film Festival at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, CA. My pastor was

so supportive that he even sponsored a Northern California premiere on May 1st at the new facility for City Life Fellowship (http:// www.CityLifeFellowship.com), and that premiere was the first official/public City Life Fellowship event at the new meeting location. It screened with some other short films in June at the historic Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, CA. That was the first time it publically screened in front of a very mixed audience, and multiple people commented afterward that it was their favorite presentation that night. Comedian Thor Ramsey has also screened “Skip Listening” at some of his stand-up comedy events. We’re planning some fundraisers for the featurelength film YOUTH GROUP that Thor wrote the screenplay for as well, taking place in Northern and Southern California and Washington, where we plan to screen “Skip Listening,” too. We also hope to have an online premiere of it soon. DIM: How did you get involved in the 168 International Film Festival? CS: I was first told about it by an acquaintance at a Christian fellowship I attended in Northern California, because she knew I was interested in filmmaking. I took the information, but procrastinated really looking into it and getting involved until about 2 years after. I finally participated in 2008, and am so glad I did. I love the 168. If shooting schedules and so forth permit, Thor and I plan to do it again in 2011. (I’ve actually already signed up for 2 entries.)

DIM: What was “Skip Listening” recognized for at the 168 International Film Festival? CS: “Skip Listening” was RunnerUp Best Screenplay-Comedy (Thor Ramsey), Runner-Up Best Comedy, Runner-Up Best Film, and Joshua Schleh’s BTS short was Runner-Up Best BehindThe-Scenes Documentary. “Skip Listening” was also nominated in the following categories: Best Production Design (Colleen Bennett, Matthew Eason, Scott Fales), Best Sound Design (Durand Trench, Billy Savage), Best Editor (Matthew Reithmayr), Best Cinematography (Dominic Bartolone), Best Supporting Actress (Heather L. Tyler), Best Supporting Actor (Robert G. Lee), Best Actor (Thor Ramsey), Best Actress (Lexi Marman), and Best Director. It was the second most-nominated short film at the 2010 168 International Film Festival. DIM: What other film festivals have you been involved with and in what capacity? CS: I’ve mainly only been involved with the 168 International Film Festival, but “Skip Listening” has been entered into other film festivals as well. It screened at the AOF (Action On Film) Festival in Pasadena, CA, in July, and is scheduled to screen at the Redemptive Film Festival in Virginia in November, to name a couple. DIM: I noticed that you have acted, directed, produced and edited what do you like to do the most? CS: I like being on set the most, I think, so directing. Editing is a

really close second, though, because although it is very tedious and time-consuming (and I take a lot of time with the footage), it can be so much fun (and funny) and very creative. I’ve laughed out loud a number of times during the editing process of certain comedy shorts, and it’s really fun to see it all come together. To me, directing and editing go handin-hand more or less, because the director has to be thinking about how the footage he or she is shooting will look in the editing process, and make sure the footage is compatible to be edited together and flow properly. DIM: Where do you get the funds to make your films? CS: Most of it thus far has been money God has blessed me with through my current full-time job, as well as contributions from friends and family. A huge chunk of what made “Skip Listening” affordable was the result of A LOT of gracious favors and people sharing their expertise and time for little to no financial compensation. Josh Jacobs and I did some fundraising via e-mail for “Skip Listening” as well (and he helped pay for a huge chunk of it, too). I am currently moving toward fulltime filmmaking and other fundraising ventures. DIM: What other films have you made? CS: ...YOUTH GROUP is my feature-length film producing (under Thor Ramsey as lead Producer) and directorial debut. It is a romantic comedy, written by and starring Thor, that takes a satirical look at how sincere people can be

pher! I wish you the best of luck with your present and upcoming film projects!

sincerely misguided...but with a redemptive theme. We are fundraising for it right now and shot some footage for a trailer to help with the fundraiser process. Our other producer and editor, Matthew Reithmayr (http://www. DoulosMedia.com), is finalizing the official trailer. More information about YOUTH GROUP and upcoming fundraisers for it can be found by searching Youth Group Feature Film on Facebook. I also recently started fundraising for a comedic web series called D.O.T.Y., created by another 168 Film Project filmmaker, Mike Capozzi: http://www.MikeCapozzi.com , who has brought me on board as a producer, director, and actor. Colleen Bennett is also producing on that, with Mike as the lead producer, the lead actor, and the lead writer. Comedian Thor Ramsey is also chiming in on the writing, as well as playing D.O.T.Y., a Wi-Fi capable, digital video calendar...and wreaks havoc in Mike’s character’s protective little world. DIM: I’ve seen a few of your shorts and they are really funny, what do you like about comedy? CS: Thank you very much! I love to laugh, and I love that comedy can be very uplifting, as well as a very powerful way to communicate something very important, even very serious at times. Certainly not everything is fun and games, but I do believe people need to laugh more. DIM: What are you trying to

communicate through your films? CS: Depending on the film, a variety of things. Most of my comedy shorts currently online are very quirky, and some are just simply ideas that I thought would be funny and make people laugh, no real message. Other shorts are faith-based and tackle Biblically based spiritual themes and messages. DIM: Thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview with Dig In Magazine, Christo-

Dig In Mag Photo By Chopper Platt

[PROFILER] NAME: Lynn Chen OCCUPATION: Actor HOMETOWN: Cresskill, NJ CURRENT TOWN: LA, CA ASIAN ZODIAC SIGN: Dragon TV SHOW:

Actress Lynn Chen

Mad Men Words by Cindy Maram

“Surrogate Valentine” & “Saving Face”

DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater and Woody Allen ROLE:

Dig In Magazine: Where were you born, where did you grow up? I understand that you come from a family of entertainers, what was your upbringing like? Lynn Chen: I was born in Queens, NY and grew up in NJ. Everyone’s a musician – my father founded the Kunqu Opera Society and my mother sang at The Metropolitan Opera House for over three decades. My brother has been playing guitar and singing since he was a teenager. We were going to concerts almost every weekend, and I felt most at home around other artists – I went to band camp (New England Music Camp) and loved it. DIM: When did you first know that you wanted to act? LC: Since I can remember remembering?

DIM: How did you get into acting? LC: I started performing when I was five, as a member of the Children’s Chorus at The Met. My mom arranged the audition, since she worked there. I sang “The Star Spangled Banner.” DIM: What was your first acting job? LC: I was in a ballet at the NYC Opera with Rudolf Nureyev. I stood there while he danced. I had to “act” like I wasn’t freaked out. I still remember him sweating like crazy. DIM: You won the “Outstanding Newcomer Award” for your role as “Vivian Shing” in Sony Pictures Classic’s feature film “Saving Face” (2004). You and your co-star, Michelle Krusiec

Vivian Shing in “Saving Face.” That was my first feature film. MUSIC: Pink Floyd, The Pixies, The Beatles, and The Beastie Boys. Ani DiFranco and Tori Amos FOOD/DRINK: Water; Sandwiches, cakes, soups. HOBBY/SPORT: Blogging/Video Games CREATIVE OUTLET: Acting and Karaoke WEBSITE: www.lynnchen.com www.theactorsdiet.com

Photo By Chopper Platt

played the first Asian American lesbian couple in an American theatrical release. In the midst of the backdrop of being raised with the more conservative values generally connected to Asian culture, how was this role of playing a lesbian challenging for you? LC: Thankfully, not at all challenging! Growing up around the opera world, and having gay/lesbian members of our family, I never felt that playing someone homosexual would be an issue. I was also a Women’s Studies major in college and embraced the idea of playing a lesbian. DIM: How many films have you done? LC: Counting random shorts and bit parts – about 15. DIM: What television shows have you acted in? LC: Almost all of the Law and Order shows (including the short-

Photo By Chopper Platt

lived L&O: Trial by Jury), NCIS: LA, Numb3rs, and a nice cushy year on the ABC soap opera All My Children. My favorite TV role, unfortunately, will never be seen by the public – an unaired series for NBC called “The Single’s Table” where I played John Cho’s exwife. DIM: A few of your films, like “Saving Face” (2004) and “The People I’ve Slept With” (2009) have a strong focus on love, relationships, and sexuality. What draws you to these types of films and the roles you play in them? LC: They were opportunities to be in well-written movies and work with talented people. The themes didn’t have much to do with my decision. DIM: What types of characteristics do you look for in a film or acting role when you are choosing your next job? LC: As I said above, I look for

good writing, strong characters, and opportunities to work with people I admire. It varies from job to job. Sometimes the timing is right. Sometimes you need to make health insurance.

DIM: You’ve worked on films with director Dave Boyle, such as “White on Rice” (2009) and the more recent “Surrogate Valentine” (2011), a film which premiered at SXSW and was shown at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. In “Surrogate Valentine” (2011), you played musician and actor, Goh Nakamura’s love interest, what was it like working on these films? And how did you like working with Dave as the films’ director? How was it working opposite the very talented Goh Nakamura in “Surrogate Valentine” (2011)? LC: I love working with Dave – I feel fortunate to have been in two

LC: There’s a long list of directors I’d like to work with (which I blogged about at the bottom of this post). I see myself wellsuited for an ensemble TV drama – something about everyday people living everyday lives. And I would love to host some sort of food-related show. DIM: So, I hear that when you’re not acting you’re contributing your time, energy and writing to blogging about food and healthy body image. Where can people find your blogs on the web?

Photo By Chopper Platt

of his films, because I have such respect for him. It’s a nice feeling to have complete trust in your director, because working on a film can get very crazy. Goh is also an incredibly talented artist who happens to be super down-toearth. Making movies with those guys was like hanging out with your buddies and being inspired at the same time. DIM: What attracted you to the films that Dave Boyle has made?

LC: 95% of the films I’ve done have been low budget, so there’s a lot less pressure. But the stress of the TV world is definitely worth the paycheck. It’s also quicker, and that instant gratification is nice. DIM: What do you like about working in theater? What theater performances have you acted in?

LC: I love that he writes for the actor (as he did with “White on Rice” and “Surrogate Valentine”) rather than trying to fit into some mold. He lets the character grow out of the performer’s uniqueness.

LC: I love the rehearsal process of theater, and getting immediate feedback from your audience. My favorite experience was working with The NiteStar Theater Company in NYC, where we educated students about social and sexual issues. It felt like we were directly impacting lives.

DIM: How do you like working on films in comparison to working in television? What do you prefer?

DIM: What types of film projects and television shows would you like to work on in the future?

LC: I have two blogs – one is my personal one, “The Actor’s Diet” (http://www.theactorsdiet. com) about my day-to-day life as an actress with a focus on what I eat. It’s really my personal journal. The other page is “Thick Dumpling Skin” (http://www. thickdumplingskin.com) which I co-facilitate with Lisa Lee. It’s a community-driven site for Asians about body image and eating disorders. DIM: What types of things do you blog about in terms of food and body image? LC: I’m fascinated by our relationship with food. It used to be an intense struggle for me, as you can read about on my blog. After many years of recovery, I am finally at peace. But it’s an ongoing struggle, and that’s why I continue to write. I blog as therapy, and also to discover the best places to eat! I also do product reviews, which is not only informative for my readers, but a nice way to score some free food.

twitter and facebook so follow me there or on my blog to stay updated! DIM: What are your dreams and goals for the future? LC: I try not to think too much about hopes and dreams. I want to focus on what’s actually happening right now, and to accept what’s in front of me. To carve out the best life I can possibly live right now.

Photo By JJ Casas struggling with food as well. DIM: What made you decide to start a blog? And why do you blog about the subject matter of food and body image?

DIM: What can we expect from you in the future in terms of your many film, music and web projects, and beyond?

LC: I began blogging because I wanted to hold myself accountable when it came to binge eating and anorexia. I figured if I channeled my obsessive mind about food in a public forum, there would be no hiding. I certainly hoped that I would be successful and inspire others, but when I initially began I had no idea what was going to happen. I felt it was important to show that if somebody whose career depended on how they looked could come to terms with the truth – that size/ weight/outer beauty isn’t important- be honest with herself, fall down and make mistakes, and still persevere, then maybe that would inspire/help someone who was

LC: I’ve started dipping my toe into the filmmaking world, cultivating projects for myself rather than waiting around for opportunities. My husband and I produced a short that I star in, Via Text: http://www.viatextmovie.com, which is beginning its film festival run this spring. I’m currently promoting Surrogate Valentine

http://www.surrogatevalentine. com and also gearing up to shoot

another microbudget movie in a few weeks. There are a whole bunch of other projects that are in development – some being created for me, some I am working on myself. I’m very active on

Photo By Austin Fausto

Dig In Mag PROFILER: NAME: Joey “Jerry Curl” Guila OCCUPATION: Comedian, TV Host, Police Dog HOMETOWN: San Francisco CURRENT TOWN: San Leandro

Photo By Austin Fausto

Joey Guila

Words by Cindy Maram

Comedian & MYX-TV Host Dig In Magazine: Hometown? Joey Guila: I was born and raised in the macho city of San Francisco, then moved around to cities such as Daly City and Vallejo where everyone looks like Manny Pacquiao. DIM: How did you get into comedy? JG: As a kid, I was like a parrot imitating accents. My father is Filipino, Mother is Burmese, Spanish, English, Irish, Italian, Filipino, but born in India, so you know I’m crazy! While living in L.A. as a straight hair dresser, I decided to take a comedy class and had my 1st showcase at The Haha Cafe in Hollywood. DIM: Ideas for comedy and jokes?

JG: It’s a combination of exaggerated life experiences and people watching.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME: On the set ASIAN ZODIAC SIGN: The Roach TV SHOW: The Wife Wisperer COMEDIAN: My Drunk Uncle ROLE: I like Sashimi

DIM: What inspires you to do comedy?

FOOD: Cambodian Burrito’s

JG: Since I can’t be a Caucasian Rockstar, the next best thing is to do Knock Knock jokes in Tagalog to get the ladies...Awe Yeah!!!

HOBBY: Using my Flip Cam on Flips

DIM: Where is your favorite place to perform? JG: In the bedroom at Ikea. DIM: Kings Of Comedy Competition? JG: After a year of doing stand up I heard on the radio that Walter Latham, the Founder of the Regional Kings And Queens

MUSICIAN: Musiq Soulchild

SPORT: What ever the brotha’s play HOME AWAY FROM HOME: My Moms in Vallejo HANG OUT: Starbucks CLOTHING: Anything Rebel Spirit WEBSITE: www.twitter.com/

joeyguilalive, www.joeyguila. com, www.facebook.com/joey. guila

Of Comedy, had a nationwide competition. It was kinda scary, because the audience had their booing skills on point just like the Apollo. With the grace of Buddah and Cool Waters I was chosen the winner that night and took 1st place in California. After winning, Walter Latham then connected me to perform on P Diddy’s Bad Boyz Of Comedy. DIM: Where have you toured? JG: Some of my tours include Brown Seoul Comedy Tour, The Kings and Queens Of Comedy Search Tour, The Filipino Kings Of Comedy Tour, Slanted Comedy Tour and currently on the Dim Sum Funny Ass Ninja’s Tour. I have toured throughout the US as well as Hong Kong and Singapore, but I perform most in Hawaii, at least a few times a year. DIM: What comedians have you performed with? JG: My good friends who I love performing with and who have paved the way for Asian comedians are Jo Koy, Russell Peters, Edwin San Juan, Rex Navarette, Kevin Camia, Alan Manalo, Bernadette Balagtas, Paul Ogata, PK and Ron Josol. These are all the Asian Veteran comedians I personally know and admire, all of them are on another level. DIM: What TV shows have you hosted? JG: A few years back I was the Host of Comedy Zen on Imagin Asian TV. I currently host two TV shows on Myx TV. One is called “That’s My Jam” where I have had a variety of guests from Boyz II

Men to Justin Bieber. Yeah I said “Justin Bieber” kids!! I’m also really excited to be co-hosting with Olivia Speranza on our new show called “Myx Rated,” produced by Roland Posadas. This is a show you have to watch if you like nudity and robots. Check out our site at: www.myx.tv for your local listings.

JG:

DIM: What is your connection with Rebel Spirit Clothing?

DIM: What are you currently working on and what are you plans?

JG: I was introduced to Rebel Spirit by my buddy Jo Koy. He saw me wearing their clothing line and linked me up to Jon Nielsen and Edgar Munoz of Rebel. These guys treated me like family and showered me with the dopest clothing line ever!!! I went from rocking hand me downs to feeling like royalty, girls say Yes now when I ask for their pager number. Seriously go to: www.rebelspiritclothing.com DIM: You were involved with Imagin Asian TV and now are on Myx TV, how does being Asian influence your terms of the projects that you work on? JG: I feel blessed that we finally have channels that cater to our Asian community, as well as to the White Devils...Jk. I can say that because I’m part English mate! Being a host of an Asian Music Channel is so exciting, I feel like I’m at home, because our break room smells like Kikoman. DIM: Where can people find you?

http://www.twitter.com/joeyguilalive

http://www.joeyguila.com http://www.facebook.com/joey. guila http://www.myx.tv

JG: I’m currently on Showtime. It’s called Edwin San Juan’s Pacific Rim Comedy. Our new show, “Myx Rated,” is currently where all my focus is right now along with touring doing comedy. I plan to get deeper into acting in case they ever make a La Bamba part 2.

Photo By Gary Green

http://www.DigInMag.com http://www.Facebook.com/DigInMag http://www.Twitter.com/DigInMag ÂŠ 2011 Dig In Magazine 53