FRUITS OF LABOR

Finally.  The harvest has arrived.   The gestation period is over.  The trigger was pulled.  The fat lady has sung.  The Randy Savage/Macho Man graduation song is playing.  And whatever other analogies you can think of to indicate the culmination of something.

First at the San Diego Asian Film Festival this past weekend, we made a Louis CK-esque announcement about YES WE’RE OPEN‘s self-distribution plans!

We’ve cut out the middle man and made it super affordable for the public to purchase and enjoy.

By visiting www.YesWereOpenFilm.com, you can download the film now for a mere $5!  And for $10, you’ll get DOUBLE the content with 2 commentaries, music and promo videos!

The poster sums it up.

The usual story with small films like these — is it hits a festival, gets seen by a few hundred people in the audience, while everyone else has to wait months or a year until it arrives near them.  And once in theaters, it gets buried under the studio advertising avalanche and blockbusters chock-full of the usual 20 actors with Low Q-Scores.

So I’m ecstatic that we’re taking ownership of the film and making it accessible to WHOEVER the hell wants to see it and pass on the savings to them.

But as Porky Pig probably never said — “That’s NOT all folks!!”

Another long, percolating project is ALSO out today.  SHATTERED: The Asian American Comics Anthology  can now be purchased on all on-line book retailers.

Honestly, it’s heads above the first volume and I absolutely love how my pieces (continuations of characters from Volume I) “HIDE and SIKH” with artist Jeremy Arambulo (Pg 83) and “THE HIBAKUSHA: Secrets” with artist Sean Chen (Pg 153) turned out!  Plus lettered by Janice Chiang, who I’ve grown up reading her lettered comics in the 80’s and now to my kids (she currently letters THE SMURFS).

But don’t take my word for it, check out  the new trailer below by Michael Velasquez and see how excited Jubilee from the X-MEN is!!!

Behind voicing BATMAN and BANE

A friend forwarded me to a  hilarious ‘condensed’ script of ‘Dark Knight Rises’ that The Editing Room posted for Cracked.com.

It’s pretty great how Bane’s lisp is worked into the dialogue and how the suspension of disbelief areas are totally called out.

I could really hear the characters in the dialogue, so much so that I found myself reading in their voices.

Then I just took it a step further (well, many steps), until I could go no further and made a video of me voicing BATMAN and BANE.  I wanted to voice the entire script but felt it best to just stick to the strongest two voices, or else I’d still be editing this piece.

For Bane/Tom Hardy, the recipe was a deep British version of Sean Connery and Yoda (in hindsight, a bit too much of the latter at times).  And for Batman/Bat-Bale, the secret was: 1) the tongue never touches the roof of the mouth 2) to mouth breathe the entire time 3) a pause needs to be inserted after every 1 to 4 words.

Then I ran into a potential issue with the battle in the sewer — I only had one still of them fighting.

So I used a Robert Rodriguez trick from his low budget feature, “El Mariachi” where his automatic rifle kept jamming, so he only had one shot of it firing 5 shots  and he just kept flipping the reverse of the same shot back and forth for movement.

Yes, this is what I do when I have time on my hands.  But essentially, this is exactly what I do for voice-over auditions — yelling and screaming into a microphone and then emailing it to my agent.

The only difference here is, you’re just getting to see/hear it.

Hope you enjoy!!

Desert Scout

So the 60 minute interview last week, was very painless.  Fruit Ninja did not need to be called upon to fill time.

The host, Cerris Morgan-Moyer, was wonderful in segueing and navigating through my career better than I could’ve!  You can see the end result here.  From talking about favorite actors to producing, a pretty wide range of topics were covered.  In fact, at the end we thought we had an additional 10 minute segment and were ready to keep going.

While on the subject of producing, I just did an all-day scout in the desert a few days ago that were filled with places that looked like this:

It looked like I was walking on the surface of a giant brownie while on this Dry Lake Bed.  But then I’d be walking on the dessert and not the desert!  HA!  Get it!?!  Dessert/Desert?

Hmph.  

Ironically, that photo above isn’t actually of me but of my fellow producer who accidentally walked into my shot and it wound up being the best photo of the day.  That’s me below with the director, Jason Miller.

The surface, although hard and cracked, actually feels quite spongy.  There’s a certain bounce to it like those rubber race tracks the ritzy high schools had when you’d compete on their track (Yes, I’m still bitter my high school track was made of plain ‘ole black asphalt.)

We were told whenever it rains, the lake bed is pretty much closed down for weeks as it basically becomes miles and miles of muddy quicksand.  And that would royally screw up any production shoot.

Quick reminder —  if you’re in LA next, next Saturday night – get your tickets to the  ‘YES, WE’RE OPEN’ May 12th screening here!

Interviewed — LIVE!

On Monday, April 23 – 10 AM PST, I will be interviewed and streaming in a live video feed on the web for one hour.

Yes, ONE HOUR.

You can tune in here: www.ActorsE.com on Monday, to see how well I fill up that slot with halfway decent content.

There’s also a portion of the show where I field questions from viewers.   If you want to join in on the chat, you’ll be instructed to fill out some info and click the ‘submit’ button — I’m told it’s very simple.

I’ve mocked up a photo below of what I hope DOES NOT happen:

It’s me realizing halfway through that I’m out of material and whip out my phone to do a live demo of Fruit Ninja until time’s up.

Wish me luck.

Buried in…

There’s a good reason why I haven’t updated in over a month.  And it’s summed up with one word: Paperwork

Tons of muther-effin’ paperwork.

The SI gang and I are in the middle of putting together, SHATTERED: The Asian American Comic Anthology (that’s SECRET IDENTITIES: Vol 2, which for some reason isn’t an acceptable title with the publisher — so much for brand recognition ).  So back and forth edits, drafting contracts and last minute outreach are abound.  Heck, some of you have seen what the board looks like:

Then I’m producing my first project (a secret one — that will probably remain one until it’s shown) that I’ve been working on since January.

Things are coming together amazingly well and I don’t want to say any more than that, less to jinx it all.  But besides the shooting itself — it involves setting up the LLC, payroll, SAG signatories to use the actors, scouting locations, pulling permits, getting insurance, drafting up contracts and setting up bank accounts.   Below is a snapshot during a location scout and is my favorite one so far.

And then to top it all off, we’re doing a re-fiance for the house.  Which if you haven’t been through one before — man, it’s a full-time job with the stuff they need you to collect and verify within days for the lender and escrow.  It amazes me how in the world anyone can get a re-fi done these days.  I’m one of the most organized people you’ll ever meet and even I’m having problems keeping up to speed.

But despite all this paperwork, it couldn’t stop me from doctoring up another “YES, WE’RE OPEN“ poster — Hollywood Style!   I’ll always be able to find something to stick inside that poster board we’re holding.

The LA screening will be at the beautiful, 600-seat DGA Theatre on Sat, May 12 at 9PM.  Tickets are available here:

The screening last month at The Castro was amazing.  It was a rush to see it alongside 1,400 people laughing (at the funny parts, of course).

Below are a few pics from the night.  But let’s take some new ones at the DGA on May 12!!

When Sisters Meet

Almost 4 years ago today, my two girls met for the first time.

Man, it’s so important to take video — I totally forgot that the whole Hide and Seek thing happened until I recently went through this footage — and I shot it (and hid the baby, Kori really didn’t really get into the drawer herself)!

Time goes by so quickly.  But when they hopefully grow to be each other’s best friend – they’ll always have this video to see where their life-long, friendship once began.

Sometimes I wish Avery still spoke the way she does in the video, but I suppose after a certain age it’s considered a speech impediment.

Watch YWO HERE!

I wanted to do a good thing.  Really.

It sounded like a good idea on paper to give a free show to all the folks out there but things just didn’t pan out the way I planned.  See for yourselves.

Guess it’s probably best to just see it in the theatre after all.  This Sunday.  San Fran.   Tickets available here.

Also here’s a bonus MUSIC VIDEO for the film:

Lyrics & Arrangement by: HP Mendoza:

All of Our Friends Are Getting Married
No more singles here
All of Our Friends Are Getting Married
Unless our friends are queer
All of Our Friends Are Getting Married
No more crazy nights
All of Our Friends Are Getting Married
No one feels our plight

I don’t believe in marriage as an institution
But sometimes I just want to wear the white dress…that..you shun

HEY! Don’t need to be a bride
HEY! I’ll wed when I decide
HEY! My social life has died
All of it’s getting pretty scary
‘Cause All of our friends are getting married!

All of Our Friends Are Getting Married
Most already did
All of Our Friends Are Getting Married
Most have at least one kid
All of Our Friends Are Getting Married
Building brick by brick
All of Our Friends Are Getting Married
Roman Catholic

I see the flower girls and bridesmaids looking sporty
I scoff until I realize I’m almost for-ty

HEY! Don’t need to be a bride
HEY! I’ll wed when I decide
HEY! My social life has died
Why are my girlfriends getting hairy?
Cuz All of our friends are getting married!

HEY! Don’t need to be a bride
HEY! I’ll wed when I decide
HEY! My social life has died
Don’t you judge and questionnaire me
Cuz All of our friends are getting married!

HEY! Don’t need to be a bride
HEY! I’ll wed when I decide
HEY! My social life has died
So come sing along with Lynn and Parry
Cuz All of our friends are getting married!

Done, Done & Done.

Gettin’ excited for this weekend and seeing this for the first time alongside a potential crowd of 1,400 peeps.  If you’ll be in the Bay Area, won’t you be one of them?  If so, there’s a pretty simple checklist below to follow.

And stay tuned on Wednesday, for my special ‘interpretation’ of the movie!  Tickets are available here.

“SLEEPING DOGS”

… is now the NEW TITLE of the game I’ve been working on for several years.  That’s not my body, btw (but thanks for wondering/humoring me).

Last month, I was called in to do some ADR/dubbing for a “live action” version of my game character (the blonde thug).  “Wait… say what?”

Then they showed me the footage below.

Holy cow.

To be honest, it literally took me a good 5 minutes to figure out if it was still my voice being used.  I printed out the lines and read it aloud many, many times to myself.  Only when I recognized my own delivery and intonation — and asking the opinion of a few friends — could I make a confirmation.

For those following along for awhile, you might remember the clip below was the original trailer (when it was with Activision and called “True Crime: Hong Kong“).

Since then, I’ve gruff’d up the voice ala Batman-style but hearing it with that huge, blonde dude mouthing my words, threw me for a bit.

But why a Live Action Trailer?  Well, according to the Marketing Peeps at “Sleeping Dogs“, “Because it’s awesome”.   Well, can’t argue with that logic.

It looks like the game is coming out in Aug 2012 and of course can be pre-ordered here.

Amazing this all started three years ago, with me wearing a uni-tard with balls.

Y.W.O. WORLD PREMIERE

I think this is fairly self-explanatory.

It’s an honor to be SFIAAFF’s Centerpiece Film in the historic, 1,400 seat Castro Theatre and in the perfect city to debut this movie — San Francisco, where it all started almost a year ago.

So if you’re in the Bay Area that weekend…. tickets are available to the public here on Monday, Feb 13.

There will also be a shin-dig at the W Hotel downtown afterwards – so, let’s boogie.

I might be wearing clothes this time.  Might.