Short Film: Youcake with their 3rd film “Interpretations”

I can’t get enough of these guys and working with them on their next installment called “Interpretations”, written and directed by my Melbourne-based film buddy Somchay Phakonkham. Its always great times developing my acting skills with these guys, as they are fun loving and know a think or two about keeping it real.

This time round I get to act alongside a newcomber, Sang Nguyen who delighted us with his enthusiasm and patience as myself and Somchay mould his skills accordingly to the script.

I love Melbourne but hate its dreary cold weather, but persevered nevertheless.

This time round, we got the chance to experiment with a series of different sets, from outdoors to indoors and wrapped our last scene at 11pm at a Thai restaurant all the way in Dandenong.

Shout out to Mr Somchay Phakonkham for all his hard work in pulling a dedicated team together for a full day Sunday shoot. I’m impressed the amount of focus he still maintained, even after a bad Friday night Usher concert.

Interpretations – coming soon to You Tube in May, 2011.

FEATURE FILM: Chains

I landed back to Sydney with only a days rest and waking up to the text message from director/ producer Amin Palangi of working title feature film "Chains". This is a Information & Cultural Exchange managed first time feature and has been running since July this year.

The experience on this production is so surreal and what I term as serendipity at its highest level. I'm so grateful to be advised and mentored by people such as Amin and Billy Marshall Stone King in terms of acting on this project.

In terms of acting, well, I still have long to fulfill the proper training for it, however, I do find myself improving from just getting hands on experience and just giving it a go on diverse projects.

Anyhow, back to "Chains". I play the one of the lead characters in the film name "Anna" - a Vietnamese girl who has been dating an Iranian boy for the past 6 months. She faces issues with her mother, who is of a very conservative nature - disapproves.

A very typical story, but if you mixed it with 6 other cultural stories and a magical bus...the outcome will be very interesting.

Amin Palangi hired a full bus out on Wednesday in the city and we (myself, Vanna Seang [DOP]) were all pressed for time to get the right takes.

I myself, looking like a dead cat, had an internal battle against micro-sleeping on set. Yikes!

Maria Tran & actor Hatef Ahankoob

My manual car ride!

I thought I'd blog about how I came about to transferring from an auto to a manual car. It all started last week on the stand in gig for the "Beauty & the Geek" rehearsal shoot and when the 2nd Assistant Director asked if anyone knew how to drive a manual car and, well...no one did. I didn't know either but a part of me was burning to learn this skill to hopefully put it to use when needed.

So the following day, my thoughts committed to buying a manual car, and with any callings in life, it works. My mum's friend was selling his Holden 2004 Barina for a seriously dirty cheap price and and that time my rego on my current bomb car was running out in three days.
I guess when opportunities present itself, one must seize it, as this same opportunity may not come back. So without have much skill in driving "Manual" cars I risked it; bought the car and decided to D.I.Y learn it via the help of You Tube. This clip is where I solidized my knowledge and understanding of what "manual/ transmission/ driving entails and after taking a few minutes to watch it, I decided to put it to practice.
Unfortunately, at the time, no one was able to help me but I knew I had to move my car to a more secure parking location to avoid any potential damages by passagerby deliquents (trust me, you get slightly paranoid when you own something new). So with my you tubey knowledge, paired with several stalls and strange car shrieks, it finally frog leaped forward (instead of backwards) to its destination.

Interestingly enough, my Dad discourage me from taking on this decision as I recall him saying that its difficult to learn, more dangerous and if I really want to learn, I should hire a professional to teach me 3 months prior to making my purchase.

So my risk taking decision has set me thinking, to change and grow in life, one must put themselves in challenging situations all the time and quickly adapt to it and channel it into something beneficial.

Learning how to drive a manual car (even though its not really a big deal) in a time space of 24 hours is a pretty good achievement that highlights the week. I guess one can do anything if they put their minds to it.

So check out my upgrade ride (courtesy of Mum's late birthday present to me). Also a shout out to Roger (the next door neighbour), Dad, Ali Kadhim (Parkour pal :p) and also Tiffany Lee Shoy for a demo, advice or free post lessons!

Lost and Found Community Arts Consultation

I've booked myself in for more storytelling activities this Sunday at Popperbox's event called 'Lost and Found'. I guess as an emerging artist, I'm always trying to plug myself in to as many storytelling stimuli and activities as possible to develop my range as a trainer and facilitator and I can't help but be a part of this one!

Popperbox are holding a community consult for all our public art projects, and thought of theming it around things lost and found - to kind of break the ice, and give people some context to talk about the art pieces and get some feedback. I've attached the flyer (and some of the activities we'll do on the day to give you an idea).

So part of the day will involve a group of speakers talking about stories they have about the theme of lost and found.

Activities

1. Main Talks 3 minutes max per person.

2. Favourite things
People will be asked to bring in their favourite things. These objects will be photographed with the owner, and a small drawing will be drawn by a popperbox member as a gift to the participant. Photos/drawings will be scanned to be included in our zine. There will also be opportunities for people to write, dictate or draw as a direct response to this topic.

3. Colour survey
Participants will be supplied with a wide range of coloured textas and pencils to colour in pre-set patterns. This simple exercise will give us an ideas of the colours people are drawn to.

4. Rorscharch Art literacy test
A survey of the community to determine the type of artworks the community responds to. We will be asking people one-on-one what kind of art they prefer, given two flash board options in which they will be asked to pick one over the other.

MEG LEFAUVE SEMINAR: SELLING YOUR IDEA - THE ESSENTIALS OF SHORT DOCUMENTS

This would have to be one of the highlight seminars I've been to date. Meg LeFauve high expertise in the industry in Hollywood was highly valuable for anyone wanting to ever make films that reach that niche international audience. Interestingly enough, it starts with a strong "Core Concept".

Screen NSW is delighted to announce that acclaimed US producer and development executive Meg LeFauve will present an exclusive daylong intensive seminar on the techniques of writing compelling short documents for feature films.

LeFauve’s expertise spans both studio and indie projects, and the seminar will focus on creating powerful short documents for pitching and as a key development tool.

Friday 23rd April, 11am - 5pm Screen NSW, Level 47, MLC Centre, Sydney The seminar is free, but places are limited.

The short document is an increasingly critical tool in the development and promotion of feature films. It is a concise distillation of story that illuminates the core concept and immediately brings to life the essence of a film. Filmmakers who can effectively present their projects in this form are able to cut through the competition in the market place. A well-crafted short document is also recognized internationally as a crucial development compass.

Powerful short documents enable filmmakers to present a fully-fledged vision of their idea to development financiers and accurately gauge market response from an early stage. They can also ensure a team are on the same page, highlight story areas that need work, lay out a blueprint for draft that leads to a more efficiently targeted scripting process, and capture the attention of marketplace, finance, and cast.

“The selling tools that communicate a film’s idea.”

This six-hour class will be broken down into 4 essential short documents - synopsis, beat
sheet, outline and treatment. Meg’s insights will reveal in detail industry expectations, how
different documents can be used, and how these short documents can unlock the filmmaking process, to ensure a solid film concept with thematic, character and plot all working together.
For any filmmaker or development executive wanting to capture the attention of agencies and the market place, this exclusive opportunity is an essential event.

The seminar is designed for high level as well as emerging producers, writers, developers, and directors.

Be my first customer! Jackie Chan Fan shirts on sale!

All it took was less than 30 mins and now my Jackie Chan Fan shirt has gone worldwide! Just imagine people from all over the world can now log online and with their credit details purchase and sport this original in their country!

That’s the fast paciness of modern day digital living. And to think this morning I purchased 20 plain shirts, a silk screen printer, cutter and all the paints, not to mention 4 x 2 hour sessions of silk screening printing training to start up my hobby-slash business.

About Redbubble: Its sort of like a virtual community for artists (particularly in photography and graphic design) to share their works. That includes selling it too! These guys are responsible for handling all the hassles of making, printing and shipping of the shirts, while all you have to do is sit and wait for the payments to come in. All they need is a digital file and the rest is history! They do of course charge a simple (yet very large) base price but that’s ok if all you want is to get your stuff out there in the physical realm.

I’m still intrigue to find out who may first customer would be (age, gender, martial status, country…the lot!) and how long will I wait till the first virtual one rocks up.

Only $30 (excluding postage and handling) worldwide!

In the meantime, to check out my account click here.

P.S - Shout out to Marie Setiawan for cleaning up my design up. 

Quest for Jackie! companions sporting the design. 

Participation: Young People in the Arts

Some interesting bit of research I came across today from the Australia Council for the Arts is that:

‘Young people in Australia displayed higher levels of creative participations than the rest of the population”.

This demographic are savvy in the engagement of the technology and creativity and this is quite evident amongst high schoolers these days.

When we refer to “participation” we mean the attending of arts events and/or creating art and young people tend to engage in visual arts and crafts, theatre and dance, creative writing and music. Meanwhile, the oldies are into being the audience of visual arts and theatre and youngies dig their music.

The internet has proven to be a gold field for artist development through research, creating and promoting own music, writing or video art and to engage in social network. 

Get Set for - Quest For Jackie

Source: Special thanks to Joseph Hieu Dinh for profiling this.

Hello everyone my name is Maria Tran and I’m on a nation-wide search for quirky Jackie Chan fans from Australia, individuals and/or groups who have pursued “Jackie Chan” inspired projects (made a film? wrote a song?).I want to hear from you (and perhaps…Jackie? You never know :p)Cut and paste the following details, Email me at maria.tran85@gmail.com.

P.S - Individuals outside Australia are also invited to submit their details.

CLICK FOR SURVEY

Up Close with Bren Foster

As requested from fellow Parkour buddy Ali Kadhim, I’ve finally sent him a promised photo of him, Tim, Bren & me at the Cedar Boys Premiere on the 10^th of December two years ago.

I didn’t know who “Bren” was at the time, only to be quickly educated that he’s like some sort of martial arts “legend” and I recall Tim and Ali’s excitement and girly glee when they shook hands with Bren Foster. Okies.... so he’s a profile of the man as featured from http://www.kenshusei.com.au/trainer%20bios/BrenFosterBio.asp

Bren Foster has been training in the martial arts since the age of 6 and currently hold a 5th dan Back Belt in Taekwondo, 1st dan Black Belt in Hapkido and 1st dan Black belt in Hwarang-do. Bren has also studies Thai Boxing, Brazilian Jiujitsu, freestyle wrestling and knife fighting. Bren has also competed successfully as a body builder by winning the Australian bodybuilding championships earlier in his career.

Bren has won over 150 first place medals and has competetivly fought in over 200 matches ranging from Taekwondo, Kickboxing and full contact Karate.

Bren also uses his talents to entertain audiences with his unique style of board breaking and acrobatic martial arts. He is one of the most in demand martial arts performers earning himself magazine headlines such as "Superkicker" and "Australia's most electrifying martial artist". Bren has also wo the Australian martial Arts Spectacular" for the last 2 years - a professional event where Australia's Elite Martial Artists congregate to demonstrate their skill in competition.

Bren has been inducted into Blitz magazines Hall of Fame as Taekwondo Instructor of the year and currently owns and operates Elite Martial Arts and Fitness Centre, a full time martial arts centre and gymnasium.

Bren has also studied classically as an actor at the University of Western Sydney, full time for 3 years and at the Actors Pulse, part time for 2 years. Bren works consistently as an actor in Australia, most recenty completing the feature film, Shadow of Sin in which he played the lead role of "McGuiness". He is currently contracted to Sony for a Playstation game as the lead, a Private Detective.

John Brenkhous and Mickey Stern from base Productions noticed Brens skill in martial arts and cast him in their Discovery Channel television show Extreme Martial Arts. Bren recently joined Base Productions for what he feels is the ultimate martial arts program, Fight Science.

Bren is now shooting a new feature called Travelling Warrior in which he travels the globe pitting his talents against those of other martial arts systems. He recently travelled to Thailand to shoot the first of the series and will soon be filming in Brazil to compete against some reknowned Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighters.

Bren has joined the Kenshusei education team to share with you some of the exercise science methods and training programs that have helped him make it to the top.

Science Fiction Martial Arts Flick "Vela 734" - What's Your Thoughts?

Now I’m gonna get to the point, here’s Antony Szeto’s latest developments called:
Sci Fi martial arts - Vela 734. Check out the link below.
So what do you think? Wanna get you comments across to Mr Szeto?
Leave your name, age, area, profession, email and comment at info@mariatran.net and I'll pass it onto him.

Okies, back to where I am.

Its 1.30am the beginnings of the 26th of Dec, Boxing Day 2009. I’m on the computer formulating the next Vietlish TV! projects, pile and packed away “Vietnamese Storyexchange” past projects and organized “Rumble High” TV series concepts to be posted out at the next available date. Mum’s decided to have an “all night” watching a full dose of senseless midnight movies and making absurd comments about different actors.

But a highlight of the early morning is most probably Mr Szeto’s email revealing his latest developing project in Hong Kong this time, a science fiction martial arts feature flick in pilot mode; Vela 734.

Antony Szeto, once was a Sydney sider, a part of Australian Wushu team has come a very long way in terms of fly kicking into the world of action flicks.

It’s funny how I bumped into this character while on my early morning yellow skin “stalk” campaigns – endlessly googling prominent fellow Asians in Ozland and across the globe and seeing what they’ve been up to, their struggles and triumphs, their ups and downs and their colour preference, somewhere between yellow and white.

Antony has got to be one of the “good” guys on my list and replied to my enquires and rants about “making it”.

But anyhow, back to Mr Szeto.

Antony Szeto, 45 years of age, is currently a film director residing in Hong Kong. Some of his uber cool works include Dragonblade. Check out the trailer here.

This project was pioneering indeed. It was a world's first 3D computer animated martial arts film that sported a range of headline HK actors such as Actors: Karen Mok, Daniel Wu, Doug Baker, Grant Thatcher. A very family friendly film that was set in a fantastical version of the ancient Middle Kingdom, the film follows Lang, a teenage martial arts fanatic, who dreams of one day finding the legendary DragonBlade a weapon of ultimate power which may only be wielded by the pure of heart and noble of spirit.

Unfortunately, I didn’t hear about it when it was released and had to rummaged high and low in all the dingy Asian video stores to find a legit copy to hire.

Next big jump is Wushu (2008) directed by Antony Szeto and produced by Jackie Chan.

Check out the trailer.
Here’s a pic of me with Wushu Wang Fei who was one of the leading actresses of “Wushu” when she was contracted out to Australia and I got a short opportunity to work in the pre-developmental stages of "Shanghai Ladykillers".

It was fun getting to know her, however, most of the time communication was via excessive pointing, hand gestures and facial grimaces. *Lol*. She’s gone back home now and is scheduled to be back next year.
Check out her sick wushu form. All I can say is…jawdropping…..

I want some FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY!

Missing the old days of fight choreography. I do hope 2010 will bring some fight choreography my way. I had a rare chance to work on the pre developments of “Shanghai Ladykillers”, but wushu and dance choreography was a super challenge so I ended up finishing up my moment on the production.

But I’d still recall the achievements of 08/09 as being “Downtown Rumble”
Come on, how often do a bunch of Asians from the “ghetto” west make a TV series for mainstream?
Here’s the fight choreography demo that action choreography Tim Ly edited together. It was choreographed in between my working days at from 10pm to often 3am in the morning.

Everything shot on handycam and we had Rudge Hollis, Stephen Ta, Wayne Pham, Tan Nguyen and Ryan Peters come in for sessions in the wake of the shoot day.

Click here to check it out!

Here is the "Downtown Rumble Trailer" that seems to have gotten more hits than the actual series on ABC JTV. Perhaps, peopel simply don't watch that much TV anymore? Oh well, for those who have missed out, here it is again.

“Downtown Rumble” trailer

Yes, I'd thought it was a wise to have a silly and fun production reel of what goes on "behind the scenes" of Downtown Rumble. The majority of people who got on board were from TAFEs, film schools or just really want the experience of working with us.

"Downtown Rumble" Production Showreel

And finally we have a personal production blog of two Brisbanite go-getters who have travelled from good old Queensland to be a part of the production. Pure dedication and passion from Steve Ada and Bill Giang. This is their version of the experience. (Keep in mind they had to stay awake all night to complete the edits before they leave.

Drumroll for the final product.....

“Downtown Rumble” Snippet Series. And here are comments –

kakkorrotto
Oh that looks like so much fun - how do you guys and gals get everything to look so good?
Re: Timothy pinches me if I get it wrong

MDSguy
thats bloody amazing, hope the worked paid off! good to c u guys make it to the big screen!

quocies
that's hot
Re: yes, literally too! So hot that I quickly Jackie Channed out of my black jacket in the speed of light to continue the fight

rockaphobia
WOW!!very cool!! never look away from your opponent maria! loved 0.12
Re: Can’t help if the opponent is hard to look at

Sydney Film School 11th Festival - What's A Winning Idea?

Date: 15th Tuesday, 2009

Venue: Twin Palace Cinema

3A Oxford St, Paddington.

Yesterday, myself and some of the Youth Digital Cultures members (Steve Ada, Marie Setiwan, Andy Minh Trieu & Timothy Ly) headed to inner Sydney to check out this event held by Sydney Film School panel discussion “What’s a “Winning” idea: Funding Opportunities for Graduates’.

Of course I’m not a graduate from any film school really and only can take pride in a community weekend course I did at Information & Cultural Exchange (ICE), being a part of Rumble Pictures which led me to other avenues such as completed “A Little Dream” Metro Screen funded short film and onto Vietlish TV! So you can say I took the alternative route (guerrilla and gungho way) and landed myself into the 3D world of filmmaking.

The panel focuses on the relationship between funding bodies/investors/distributors and the generators of ideas. It aims to provide guidance to emerging filmmakers on how to develop and produce their film projects in line with existing funding opportunities and to understand the expectations and criteria set by their respective constituents.

So yes, nerdy me, I rowded my crew up to see intimidatingly close to the stage, scribed furiously to what is being said and actively listened to see what aspects I can apply to my collaborative projects.

Representatives of public and private funding schemes will discuss and exchange their views on what constitutes a ‘winning idea’ or a ‘winning project’.

Attached are my random “key points” for the event.

Participating in the panel are:
Sam Jennings (Development Executive at Screen NSW)

Nicole O'Donohue (Independent Producer, "Griff the Invisible")

- Trial relationships, start off as an intern, learn what you don’t like to do, which people you don’t like to work with.

Julia Overton (Documentary Investment Manager at Screen Australia)

- watch everything and anything, network, network, network, go for the best person – not the one below you, do not tell us the story is bold, beautiful and compelling – let us decide.

Caterina DeNave (Executive Producer - Drama/Comedy, SBS)

- This women is funny and witty, SBS is looking for singular ideas, she says lots of things that she gets is mediocre

Peter Newman (Executive Producer, Factual - Commissioned Content, SBS)

- Know your audience – core of your project, make it for the people, know the channel’s content, provocative, ideas that stand out, teaming up, mentorship, concentrate on the story before the script, have a book of ideas

Rachel Okine (Hopscotch Films Distributor)

Michael McLennan (Sydney Film School graduate representing the emerging perspective)

Overall, it was a good event to check out the heads of these funding bodies and hear it like it is. It is a good shortcut lowdown of that these guys are looking for in regards to content.

Now to get the two major projects I have in my mind up and running. I can’t reveal what it is, but let’s just say I’m thinking epic. So far, I’ve got a good team attached to the project, especially RH Series. They are dedicated, driven and their passion is what driving this project in regards to content. My role is to keep them hubcubated and to remind them and myself of the bigger picture of getting this up and running. I can not let anyone in the way of saying else wise of this project and if they are smart about it then be a team player and get on board. Yes, the last paragraph was vague, but it was one for me to read and reflect.

Cheerios!

Australia Media Preview Screening of "The Storm Warriors" - Movie Review

Date: Monday November 30
Time: 6.15pm for a 6.30pm screening
Venue: The Reel Room
Basement level State Theatre Building
49 Market Street
Sydney, NSW

Myself and Andy Minh Trieu saw ourselves invited to the Sydney preview screening of The Storm Warriors before its Hong Kong release on Dec 10. This was the press preview screening the Pang Brothers long-awaited and highly anticipated sequel to The Stormriders as presented on behalf of Vendetta Films and Cineasia.

I recall The Stormriders as one of my favorite feature films growing up during my teens (It was made in 1998, by the I was undergoing the traumas of my pubescence years from year 8 onwards). It was a film that introduced me to dreamy Aaron Kwok a.k.a ripped up “Storm” who was so fiery, rough and typically brute hot.

Storm Warriors… I wish I could lie but this film felt awkward. The sense of adventure feel disconnect and it was a CGI mish mash with inspirations evident from 300 and Sin City.

So this is how the story goes, a new baddie in town name Lord Godless (Simon Yam) and Wind (Ekin Cheng) and Cloud (Aaron Kwok) have to find short cut ways to up their powers to battle against the tyrant. One catch is faced by Wind, to defeat evil he must embrace evil.

What is certainly down quite catch is the two new “love” interests - two girls named Chu Chu (Yang Tang) and Second Dream (Charlene Choi). It just seems that their purpose in the film was to render useless and your typical damsels in distress that continually utter “Wind!” or, “Cloud!”. Charity’s role from Storm Riders was was engaging, why go so wrong in this department?

Overall, if you have seen the previous film, Storm Riders, this is a must. If you haven’t, don’t bother because its hard to follow the plot and easy to get lost in the array of experimental fight sequences.

About The Film: The Storm Warriors

In the summer of 1998, the comic-adapted movie The Stormriders ("Fung Wan I"), starring pop idols Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng, premiered to great regional success. The movie was in theatre for 45 days and topped the box office chart for the year at HK$41,532.235. In Mainland China, the unofficial box office number hit RMB 100 million.

The Storm Warriors will be China's biggest martial arts fantasy ("Wu Xia") film of 2009, with direction by The Pang Brothers - Danny and Oxide (The Eye, Kung Fu Hustle, Re-Cycle and the original The Storm Riders [Edited by Danny]).

Zack Snyder's 300 (2007) set the bar for the realisation of comic-inspired cinema, and The Storm Warriors is set to bring the massively popular "Fung Wan" franchise back with a bang. Produced extensively across three custom-created bluescreen soundstages (60,000ft), with sets and scenes expertly rendered in CGI, this highly anticipated sequel is screening to Australian fans on the same day & date as its Asian release - December 10.

About The Cast: Ekin Cheng & Aaron Kwok

The sequel to 1998's CGI smash-hitThe Storm Riders (based on the comic 'Fung Wan') sees Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok reprising their roles of WIND and CLOUD.

Kwok and Cheng are massive, multi-award winning Cantopop stars in Hong Kong/China, Taiwan, Singapore & Malaysia. Aaron Kwok joins Jackie Chan as the only actor to ever win 2 Golden Horse awards ("The Oscars of China/HK/Taiwan", very prestigious) for Best Actor, in addition to one at the Changchun Film Festival.

Cine Asia bring big screen, big budget Asian movies to Australian cinemas on the same day and date as they are released in Hong Kong and China. Supported by Australia's leading cinema chains (Event Cinemas, Greater Union, Village Cinemas and Birch Carrol & Coyle), fans of Asian cinema can now enjoy a consistent monthly stream of quality Asian movies, all in Chinese with English sub-titles.

Check out: www.cineasia.com

My Comment 1: I think its really awesome to see initiatives happen to connect Hong Kong Cinema in Australia. It just shows the growing interests in the film making realm and potentially this could lead to co-production natures in the nearest future.

My Comment 2: Don't be tight please my Asian fellows! Don't do what you are stereotypically notorious for, taking glee in ripping films off the net. Get out of your homes and go watch it on the big screens!

Check out the trailer!