Please tell us about the projects you worked on before making ‘Northeasterly Wind’. How did you start, and how did you learn to make films?
Before “Northeasterly Wind”, I made a similar film “Xiao Long Bao”, named after the famous steamed soup bun in Shanghai. It also explored themes of homesickness, especially a nostalgia through food. This was also a deeply personal experience. While it was relatable to some who experienced a same homesickness, I wanted to make my next film resonate with more people. That’s why, in addition to personal experiences, I made sure to involve many others during the writing of “Northeasterly Wind” so that it reflected their experiences as well.
I started filmmaking in After Effects. I was simply exploring cool computer programs at the time, and AE was one of the coolest. I managed to make several semi-convincing gunshot muzzle flashes, explosions, and splatter effects, but eventually I realized to make a good video, you need much more than just good effects. Over the years, I learned how to write a good story, how to use a camera, how to light, and how to record audio.
Tell us about ‘Northeasterly Wind’. How do you describe it?
“Northeasterly Wind” is based on my personal experiences, as well as similar experiences from my friends. It is a fictionalization of real life events, which gives me artistic license to create more coincidences and tension, while still being a reflection of intimately relatable experiences. It adds fiction without taking away from the truth.
Please tell us about your favorite filmmakers.
It is definitely hard to pick a favourite, but I can definitely list several. I admire Ang Lee for creating acclaimed films both in Chinese/HK culture and in the American Hollywood zeitgeist. I respect Damien Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz’s rapidly growing careers and musical talent. I appreciate Greta Gerwig’s nuanced approach to every one of her characters. I applaud Yorgos Lanthimos for being unapologetically weird in his own unique way. I’d like to highlight Sean Wang of Didi, who represents us emerging Asian filmmakers breaking into the mainstream. And of course I often reference the masters, Spielberg, Tarantino, Scorsese, Kubrick, Nolan, who don’t need an introduction.
If you were given a good budget, what would be your ideal project?
I would like to make a feature film or series one day, but in the meantime I have to perfect the material that I want to pitch. A short film requires care and attention to detail for 5 or 10 mins of runtime. I need to bring the same attention to 90 mins or more for a feature, which requires a lot of effort.
Describe how you would ensure that production is on schedule. What steps would you take?
As a director, you have to understand when to be persistent, and when to make sacrifices. There’s no such thing as a perfect project, as there’ll always be limitations to time, budget, and ability. Sometimes, a certain scene or element is critical to the success of the film, that is when you press on to get it exactly right. Other elements may only be tangential, which is when you must let it go, “kill your darlings”, and cut it out. Nothing goes exactly according to plan in practice, so prepare a Plan B, sometimes even and Plan C and Plan D.
What was the hardest part of making ‘Northeasterly Wind’.
The weather was a critical part of “Northeasterly Wind”. I knew I was going to shoot during winter, and since a few big blizzards usually blow through Rhode Island in January or February, I wrote a snowstorm into the script. I thought I was smart by incorporating the weather, rather than letting it prevent me from shooting. Instead, there were no storms that year. Snow fell in December, but that was too early for my shoot. I couldn’t find any snow that my film desperately needed to advance the plot, and it messed up our shooting schedule. This was certainly a Plan B and Plan C situation. Eventually, I worked out this solution: I used B-roll shots of the snow in December to set the scene, and shot the actors in January without the snowstorm. I minimized the need to show the actors in the snow, and instead used sound design to communicate the presence of the storm outside. For the necessary shots of actors in the snow, I figured out how to add snow via VFX and achieved decent results.
If possible, tell us about your next work. What plans do you have for your future work?
I am very interested in world building, creating fictional worlds that have their own unique settings and guidelines. I’m envisioning a film about a near future technology that controls our experiences in our dreams, and the company behind this tech eventually commercializes it for its own benefit. In a hypothetical future, I have more artistic license to analyze our modern day fears and anxieties. We’ll see what could happen if we head down a certain path, and speculate on what alternatives could be.
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