Behind The Scene of "Hong Kong Strong" with Brandon Li's Director's Commentary

That's a mouthful of a title. But if you follow my blog, you know I'm a huge huge fan of Brandon Li, the talented nomadic filmmaker. His latest short film is Hong Kong Strong. It is a gorgeous roller coast ride through the iconic city. 

To start off, you can watch Hong Kong Strong here.

And here's Brandon's Director's Commentary:

And there's also a commentary by Steven Richard Davis, the composer of Hong Kong Strong:

If you're totally inspired now to go out there and make your own beautiful travel films, here's a bit of advice for filmmakers from Brandon.

Gus Van Sant's 6 Golden Rules of Filmmaking

Gus Van Sant shared his six rules of moviemaking with Moviemaker Magazine recently. 

Rule No. 6 on Photography is my favorite:

Don’t get cuckoo with the lights; you don’t really need them anymore. Film stocks today can handle wildly different color temperatures and low light levels. Keep the pace lively. Don’t waste too much time making the shot look perfect, moving objects on surfaces, playing with the blocking—just shoot it. Don’t over-think. Get a really good director of photography, but don’t fight with him. He has the same control over you that you have over the actors, so he can make you cry.
 

The remaining five rules are:

1. Be strong. Confident. Get enough sleep. And relax. 

2. Stand up for your ideas. Be direct, as in being a director. Take it easy, but don’t let them tell you how to make your movie.

3. Take control of the budget. Go through the budget line by line, and decide if the items in there are things that you really need—or need more of. 

4. Make the directions clear and simple for your actors. 

5. Take liberties with the script. It's not written in stone.

For more details, check out this Moviemaker Magazine's article.

 

Werner Herzog's Advice for New Filmmakers

I'm reading Werner Herzog's book Werner Herzog: A Guide for the Perplexed, a 592-page book full of fabulous passages on life and the art of filmmaking. 

Werner Herzog - image via Google.

Werner Herzog - image via Google.

Here's my favorite quote-of-the-day from Mr. Herzog, a self-taught filmmaker who saw his first movie at the age of 11:

“The best advice I can offer to those heading into the world of film is not to wait for the system to finance your projects and for others to decide your fate. If you can’t afford to make a million-dollar film, raise $10,000 and produce it yourself. That’s all you need to make a feature film these days. ”
— Werner Herzog: A Guide for the Perplexed

Cameron Douglas's "Lisbon Love" - Sofar London

I discovered Cameron Douglas, a talented musician based in London, totally by chance today on sofarsounds.com.

Cameron Douglas, performing at a Sofar London event. Image via Google.

Cameron Douglas, performing at a Sofar London event. Image via Google.

After my sister told me about sofarsounds.com, a website that brings together musicians and music lovers everywhere in the world, I started browsing their list of international musicians. And soon enough, I stumbled upon a couple of YouTube videos featuring Cameron Douglas.

On their site, Sofar describes their mission as: 

“Bringing the magic back to live music. Amazing artists in intimate spaces, performing stripped-back sets to carefully curated audiences. Please, arrive on time, stay to the end. Sit down, settle in and just listen. You’re gonna love it.”
— Sofarsounds.com

And you will! When you sign-up to attend a Sofar event, you won't know who will be performing until close to the day of. The live music event can be hosted anywhere, and usually in an intimate setting such as someone's home or rooftop.

A Sofar performance on a rooftop - image via sofarsounds.com.

A Sofar performance on a rooftop - image via sofarsounds.com.

It's an event made possible by music lovers for music lovers! My sister is attending one tomorrow and promised to tell me all about it!

When I'm next in London, I hope Cameron will be there performing again. 

Billy Wilder's 12 Tips for Screenwriters & Filmmakers

How I came upon Billy Wilder's 12 tips for filmmakers was quite by accident. While driving to my parents' house today, I was listening to The Directors: Take Four on Audible. An incredibly interesting book read by Jeff Hoyt (a wonderful reader). I got to the section on Cameron Crowe (one of my favorite directors - yes he wrote and made Say Anything) and he mentioned his admiration for Billy Wilder and his movie The Apartment in particular.

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