Well, we are entering our second-to-last week here in China and we have yet to expose a single frame of film… not even a film test. This past week, things have been “picking up a little” with location scouts in the afternoons. But there is still no talk of scheduling any dates for a test or the start of production. Communication is still very poor and we are left in the dark most of the time.
On top of the lack of communication, we believe that there are still actor/casting issues to be solved. The lead male role of Ming Yuan had been tentatively cast with an actor named Kenny, but we were told that Fang Fang doesn’t want Kenny as her first choice but her first choice actor wanted more money in his contract and then got on another film. But now he is available and Fang Fang wants him, but Kenny is still around which leads us to think that the original actor is still going over contract negotiations with the investor. So as long as Kenny is around we know that we probably are not going to start filming any time soon, unless he is playing another role now… And they don’t want to do the test until the actors are cast.
So Rob and I are both going to stick to our original day of leaving, which is May 12th probably without shooting anything at all. We both have commitments back in the US we need to take care of like Karolina moving down to LA, finding an apartment, Rob’s friend’s bachelor party, and now a possible music video and some other work. The only thing that we are worried about is that Fang Fang might offer us a lot of money to commit to another month out here, but unless the offer really is an amount that we can’t refuse, we’ll be on that flight home on the 12th.
As we go on these scouts though, a little faith is renewed for Rob and me that maybe there is a reason to stick around, but the hard part is keeping in mind the amount of time we’ve wasted here already. So we need to keep that in mind if Fang Fang asks us to renew our contracts for only a small raise. The problem is that after about eight weeks of literal standstill, the momentum is now starting up again like it was in the first two weeks here and she might say, “Now that we are almost ready you want to go home!?” So, unfortunately, the amount that it would take to keep me and Rob here another month would be way out of their price range considering the amount of money we came over here for in the first place for. But who knows… right now I think we are 85% for leaving and 15% to stay.
But then the only reason we would be staying here is out of greed, which is not why I decided to go to film school and make movies in the first place. But I do need to keep in mind that I have bills to pay and financial stability is important and an honorable motivation to work. Rob and I have been using the only phrase that fits what we feel right now, which is morbid curiosity. I still am 90% sure we’ll be coming back in the 12th.
The other thing we want to avoid is bad blood, but I think that if we leave it open and are honest with her and say that we would like to come back and support her and work with her when they are ready to shoot, then things should be fine. I am looking forward to coming back to California, though
PhillM tip-of-the-day:
If you are limited in the number of gels you can get, I recommend getting the thinner gel because you can always double or triple them up to get a thicker color. For example: if you can only get two kinds of CTB, I recommend getting 1/2 and 1/8 CTB because you can always double them up to create any thickness of CTB using those two gels.
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