Short Film Night — Myriad Misadventures

If you’ve visited the blog in the last couple months you know that my friend Dan and I took a stab at fight choreography and filmed a video we called “The Map.” After filming it Dan said I should submit it to…any place that might show it. I was a little hesitant, thinking it would be better to fine tune our choreography and filming/editing skills before submitting it to anything. He won me over though and at the end of May I submitted “The Map” to the “New Hope Short Film Night,” which was put on my Overlay Media at the Nanshan International Cultural Exchange and Service Center in Shekou with Rode Microphones and Evryday Studios as sponsors. I was still a little on the fence about doing it but Dan had a point. I really had nothing to lose.

So on the 26th Max and I went out towards Shekou for the film night. That was probably the worst part honestly. The trip from Futian District, where we live, to Shuiwan on the Nanshan Peninsula is pretty far. The subway ride must have taken at least 40 minutes. Luckily China has some of the best subways I’ve ever seen, which makes the trip a little more tolerable. The Peninsula also has a lot of great restaurants that I don’t often visit because I don’t frequent the area. Max and I went early so we could eat beforehand and take advantage of that. We had planned to get some Italian food but stumbled on a tasty looking Thai place while wandering around and decided to get that instead. After we ate we were getting dangerously close to the beginning of the event so we took off to find it. After a small hiccup we found the place and finally arrived at the Nanshan International Cultural Exchange and Service Center. I was getting a little nervous by this point.

The event seemed to be aimed at local directors making short films and “The Map” didn’t seem to really fit in to me. But Dan said we had nothing to lose and the people running the event didn’t turn our video down. Still though, I was afraid what would happen after the audience saw our video after a number of much more polished videos. Arriving didn’t help. The location was nice, they had a room set aside for the viewing, and another room with some cakes and cookies and drinks. Watching the first film REALLY didn’t help. They were really good. Much more professional than what we had done, with whole crews, while we made “The Map” with three people for YouTube. Our video was the sixth out of ten videos shown. They showed the first 5 then we had a break and I spent the whole break worrying. I even considered sneaking out.

Talking about ‘The Map’ after. Photo by Overlay Media

Turns out it wasn’t that bad. Our video was the first shown after the break and it went over pretty well. It was obviously not at the same level as the others but it was the only one with much action or comedy, which helped it stand out a little. It got some laughs where it should have and I was pretty pleased after it was over. Turns out I had worried for nothing.

Plus everyone there was really nice. They all enjoy what they do and didn’t seem to mind a new person showing up. They talked to me about what I did and what they were doing, asked me some questions, and gave me some advice. Then it was time to head home. The event was a Sunday night and I had work Monday morning so I had to head home pretty soon after it ended.

Although I wasn’t sure if I should go and I was all nerves after getting there I’m glad I let Dan talk me into going. It turned out to be a great event where I learned a lot and met some people who can hopefully help me with the next video. Special thanks to Overlay Media for all the photos and don’t miss the vlog here.

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