October 29, 2008 by me.

Casting can be a challenge at times. For once a story is birthed onto the page, courtesy of the author/playwright/screenwriter/etcetera and the plot, theme and characters are finally approved — this a process in and of itself — one of the next steps (among many) for the producers is to find the actors to help bring these characters and this story to life.

And oftentimes, among the factors determining who gets cast is:

1) the talent pool;

2) awareness of the whereabouts of said talent pool;

3) budget (who can we afford?)

4) availability (they can do when and for how much?!?);

5) talent (do they have the spark, can they bring something new to the role?);

6) experience (sometimes equated with talent but not always);

7) opportunity (Actor #1 is out of town that week and can’t do it — what about actors #2 or #3?);

deadlines (we can’t see anyone else, we’re shooting next month so we’ve got to cast them all now!);

9) and of course national and/or international brand-name recognition — though for the majority of Asian-American actors right now, this is currently more of a case of something to aim for than of something already obtained…

All right. So taking all of these into account, suppose one or more of these factors are missing, what then? If for instance, as determined in the script, the actor isn’t the right age, doesn’t have the right look (wrong height or age or hair color, or even ethnic background) or lacks a certain skill set (can the actor lasso a rock with his or her left foot? A note to the obvious: don’t try this at home), sometimes if time and budgets permit, it is possible for the playwright and/or screenwriter to step in, to amend the lines and/or revise the character to accommodate the specific abilities of that particular actor — in short, casting him/her.

And other times someone is cast because “they fit the suit.” Sometimes this is a question of looks and at other times because the producers can’t afford new costumes for the replacement cast member of a long-running show (more often heard in musical theatre circles, as a producer’s budget for such works are easily three times those of straight plays).

As for “Wingmen” we did experience some challenges of our own, with respect to casting. For instance, one of our lead characters was originally envisioned as a Vietnamese-American gynecologist. However after auditions, we decided to cast an actor with the right comic touch, someone who was not of Vietnamese heritage but instead happened to be Filipino-Swedish. So we changed the character’s name and his ethnic heritage because well, there was no way he could pass for Vietnamese-American — thus Tran (which is actually a surname) was transformed into Hans, to reflect our actors actual background. And since one of our other lead guys was already “paired” up with a non-Asian woman for a love interest, we made Hans’ fiancee and her family Filipino too (though much more traditional) so that we could feature an Asian-American couple besides.

A large part of our decision in doing so was because although we as Asian-Americans have an easier time among ourselves identifying our originating ethnic heritages, to be honest, we figured this was one way we could help non-Asians tell us apart. A trivial matter to some I know, but a constant annoyance to a great many of us — similar to the feeling I had recently when a show (of whom for courtesy’s sake shall remain nameless) included a family with a surname from one Asian country and yet the mother spoke the language of another..!

Not that I’m faulting the show for including this family in the first place. By no means, I was glad of the chance for the writers to include them (as a reflection of the changing demographics of our country) and for the chance for more Asian-American actors to be paid for their work. But whether it was a matter of a tight shooting schedule, the need for advance network and/or studio and/or advertiser clearance in changing the script or possibly a fear on the part of the actor that not knowing the language intended would result in the loss of a job (and thus a desired paycheck), who can say?

Still, to those assuming that a language and/or dialect coach was therefore needed in order to reduce this television viewer’s cultural disconnect (assuming those on staff knew of the difference in the first place), there was no need. In fact, all that was needed (since the family’s country of origin was not tied specifically to the plot) was to change the family’s surname and everything (for me anyway) would have been fine.

Btw, kudos to Anna Friel (plus her dialect/language coach — and no, I don’t know her) for her mastery of her Mandarin lines in “Pushing Daisies” last night. Because she not only remembered how to pronounce her lines but (and the following is a big deal) she got the tones right, too! Can’t tell you how often I’ve cringed at actors who “spoke” a foreign tonal language and they were completely unintelligible because they mangled the tones…

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October 23, 2008 by me.

Originally one of the scenes we wrote for “Bubble Tea and Sympathy” took place in an elevator. Having lived in a building with an elevator and a host of transient neighbors that were constantly moving in and out, I thought this would be fun because I’d always wondered just what kind of thoughts people tend to keep to themselves when in an elevator with strangers and/or acquaintances and what type(s) of situations might ensue from it.

Unfortunately because of the difficulties in finding someone who would (and could) let us shoot this scene in their building’s elevator and because we were running out of time with which we could shoot this scene, we ended up changing this location to a staircase.

But not only the location was changed. In the end, after setting up the camera and lights and rehearsing the scene a bit (and this late at night), for reasons that remain a bit of a mystery, it was determined the scene wasn’t working and so all of the lines were thrown out and the first of our two staircase scenes were then completely improvised by our actors. Granted, owing to the talents and abilities of our improv-based cast, the scene worked (and that fairly well), but there’s a part of me that still longs for the what-might-have-been…

Fast-forward to about a month before our screening at the Music Box (this being about June 2007) and I’m finally sitting down to watch “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle” (more because I felt it was time for me to figure out just what it was about these lead characters that resonated so much with Asian American men and because I kept getting recommendations from my AsAm guy friends to see it, than for anything else; no offense, but stoner flicks have never been my thing — I’m more of a Jane Austen and “Strictly Ballroom” and of course “Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald” kinda gal) when about ten minutes into the movie I’m (okay not horrified but definitely) depressed and not a little paranoid because there’s an elevator scene here too and 1) I’m bummed because their screenwriters thought of it first; and 2) I’m paralyzed at the thought of people possibly assuming that maybe this was how we came up with the idea for our elevator scene in the first place..!

So frustrating (and I guess comical) sometimes, the life of a writer…

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October 17, 2008 by me.

The set-up continues, actors and crew get in place to check lighting levels and to rehearse a bit. Because of the heat from the lights and the length of time we’ll need to shoot this scene, the vegetables for the hot pot are brought out first; we’re saving the meat for later.

But first things first, we record the voiceovers for the Chinatown montage. The montage itself was a substitute for an interior car scene which had morphed into a five-shot walk around Chinatown with our lead actors, which then because of time and scheduling considerations (sound familiar?) became our montage. Well that and because we also wanted to add a definite flavor to our pilot, something that marked us as Asian-American Chicagoans and with an identity of our own.

So we finally start and each shot of our 5 leads takes an average of 3 takes. During this time, the meat wilts (it had been frozen shaved into very thin slices) under the lights and after a number of takes is eaten (very appreciably I might add) and replaced with a bit more. By now it’s lunchtime and as a few customers enter and are seated a bit further down. Curious, as the staff takes their order they watch the proceedings and ask interestedly about the shoot. The food is served, they eat and drink and chat and then pay their bills and leave, and all of this savored with the added whoosh of having been present at the making of a certain — well, they’re not sure what it is exactly, except that it’s something film-y. Or at least, for TV…

Finally, the shots are done and by this time it’s about 4pm. We’re in a major rush because not only do we need to wrap up, clean up, eat our lunch and transfer everything to our next location (fortunately it’s around the corner and down the street), but we also need to shoot the footage for the Chinatown montage to boot!

Thankfully this was done in record time, mostly around Chinatown Square and a little bit down Wentworth Ave. — and fortuitously for us it turns out, the rain that sprinkled down that night added an extra moodiness to the nighttime shots.

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October 11, 2008 by me.

I don’t have a lot of time at the computer today, so until I can return to finish my last posting, here’s a bio of the man who wrote the music for “The Theme From Wingmen”…

Winston Chang, aka Kato, is a Chicago hip hop artist coming from a classical cello background.  Born in Chicago and raised in the west suburbs, he left the Army in 2005 and started his hip hop career.  Performing in various cities and working with local artists such as J. Ivy and Tarrey Torae, Kato has a Chicago hip hop sound influenced by classical music.  You can check out his mix tape here.

link: http://www.mediafire.com/?ndhikdn0z0x

Okay, ciao for now!

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October 7, 2008 by me.

Shooting on location can be tricky at times, especially when one is on a vermicelli-sized shoestring of a budget, as we were. So when friends (and friends of friends) step in to help, they can often be a lifesaver. Case in point: Mandarin Kitchen at 2143 S. Archer Street in Chicago’s Chinatown…

Because we had no money to rent out a restaurant, the places we could approach for our shoot were therefore diminished. The ones that didn’t reject us outright were located in the suburbs (meaning transportation and loading issues) and required our shoot not interfere with the running of their business (meaning no loss of revenue for them). So to say finding a restaurant that would fit our requirements (and theirs) was an understatement.

Fortunately, after we had finished casting our lead roles we discovered that the wife of one of our cast members was also friends with the owners at Mandarin Kitchen. She talked to them (good thing, because at best I speak Mandarin like a 9-year-old), explained our situation — and happy day, they said yes!

They did have one caveat: that the shoot occur on a slow day, and that it not interfere with their business. No problem there: we knew just how important this is for a mom-and-pop restaurant, as every dollar counts. Later on, they asked if we could feature their specialty of the house (Hot Pot), so we rewrote the script to reflect the difference. This worked too as we would have had to rewrite the script anyway, since the restaurant in which we were shooting was no longer Pan-Asian but Chinese.

The day of the shoot arrives and everything is unloaded: camera (we had hoped for two but could only afford one, based on the funds that were coming in), cables, lights, barn doors, black wrap, etc. The cast is finalizing their wardrobe (their own) with the art director and fixing their own hair and make-up (we couldn’t afford a hair or make-up person). The director is reviewing the camera set-up with the Director of Photography while the Sound Technician is checking the boom. Craft Services is set up (in the basement) and both cast and crew stop by to grab some soda or a snack. And so on and so forth…

A few days prior to our shoot, there had been talk of rearranging some of the menu items (written on slips of paper in Chinese) and reposted elsewhere on the walls to improve the composition of the mise-en-scene for our pilot. But knowing the task of reposting everything exactly as before (requiring our remembrance of the order and the spacing by which these slips were posted, not to mention the risk of offending the owners by potentially treating their restaurant as just another set) would be beyond our ability and schedule (we had another location to shoot later that day — and as I had the feeling I would end up being the one to restore and repost them), such talk of this was quickly quashed.

(To be continued…)

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