Red Doors Weblog

RED DOORS and THE MOTEL on DVD!!

2007-02-01T15:21:00.002-05:00

Sorry about the radio silence for the past few months. We are very excited to announce that RED DOORS is now available on DVD from the usual retail suspects (Amazon, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.) And we're doubly excited that RED DOORS is graduating to DVD-land with its good friend THE MOTEL, a wonderful film by my friend Michael Kang.

THE MOTEL is a quirky sweet story of a Chinese American boy growing up in a seedy motel. It is one of the most nuanced and well-directed films I have seen this year. And (as you know) RED DOORS is a quirky sweet story of three Chinese American sisters growing up in the suburbs of Connecticut. Two sides of the Asian American film coin. You can actually buy both films together at Amazon as a package deal.

Both DVDs are loaded with extras, including for THE MOTEL:

* a behind-the-scenes doc
* commentary track by director Michael Kang, Sung Kang and Jeffrey Chyau

For the RED DOORS DVD:

* Commentary by me (dir. Georgia Lee) and producers (Jane Chen and Mia Riverton)
* "Behind Red Doors" featurette
* "Educated": an earlier short film we made
* Photo gallery

Please help spread the word. Buy it. Rent it. Netflix it. Live it. :)

For those in the press or interested, we have attached our distributor's official press release here.

Thanks so much again to everyone for all their help and support!

Georgia

Taking our show on the road

2006-09-24T23:34:00.000-04:00

Jane here.

Sorry for the recent radio silence but we've been busily planning the expansion of RED DOORS to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Also, we've moved to the Village East Cinemas in NYC. We are currently showing on 5 screens in the three cities.

We've been more than a little nervous since our strong opening weekend performance. There's nothing like high expectations to derail our best laid plans. After a strong opening weekend, the next most important milestones are being able to show lasting power (continued performance over time) and repeatability (success in other markets besides the first).

In terms of lasting power, we posted a strong weekday gross of over $8,000 at the Angelika and a very respectable $6,800 over the second weekend (on just one screen).

While the numbers are not yet in, anecdotally it looks like we performed well in Los Angeles and excellently in San Francisco. As of the second matinee show at the Clay Theatre in SF, we had sold over 1,150 tickets.

Special mention needs to go out to our cast who have been stretched very thin trying to accommodate Q&As at ALL the theaters. Tzi and co-producer John Fiorelli have been holding down the fort in SF. Freda, Elaine, Jacqueline, and Mia have been running between Pasadena, Beverly Hills, and Encino for our LA area screenings. Georgia spent 2 days in SF before flying back to LA - all the while battling crazy airport delays and flu-like symptoms.

We also need to thank our West Coast PR team - a group of highly talented and devoted professionals who managed to help tremendously in a very short period of time. Corey Tong has been a lifesaver in SF and David Magdael has been phenomenal in LA for us.

We'll be circling the wagons this week to figure out other cities and markets to take RED DOORS to. Please check the website frequently for new city and screening information. And if you haven't watched RED DOORS yet, please go see it in theaters this week. If you've seen it already, take it from me: the film improves with repeat viewings.

RED DOORS is #1

2006-09-12T15:59:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends,

I am extremely excited to report that all of your great efforts spreading the word and supporting RED DOORS' opening in New York helped make the film a huge success! RED DOORS grossed $35,050 on only two screens, earning a stellar per-screen average of $17,525, and making it the NUMBER ONE film in the country on a per-screen basis!!!

We are so grateful to each and every one of you for all your amazing help to support our labor of love. This opening is a phenomenal beginning, and we hope to continue the momentum into the film's second week in New York (at the Angelika Film Center) and then on to Los Angeles (at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills and the Laemmle Playhouse in Pasadena) and San Francsico (at the Landmark Clay Theatre) where RED DOORS will be opening on September 22.

I cannot tell you how overwhelmed we have been by the love and support we have received from the community. Thank you so much again. Let's harness this great energy to rally folks to see the film in New York this second week and in Los Angeles and San Francisco on September 22!!

Gratefully yours,
Georgia Lee

Guest Blog: Michael B.

2006-09-08T13:14:00.000-04:00

With RED DOORS momentum at critical mass, and the whole team facing tough work with PR, premiere ticket distribution, and the other misc. excitement that comes with opening a small feature film, what can you do to take a break and have some fun?

Why, you can send stars of the film Tzi Ma (playing Ed Wong) and Freda Foh Shen (May-Li Wong) to Chinatown, have them meet with an enthusiastic group of volunteers assembled by the Chinatown Youth Initiative, load everyone up with as many posters and postcards as they can carry, and turn them loose to the streets!

Tzi keeps the crew on task...

while Freda inspects the finished product.

Thanks to everyone who came out to help and to Wendy from CYI for organizing our afternoon.

Welcome to the RED DOORS family!

-michaelb

RED DOORS at BLVD

2006-09-07T03:00:00.000-04:00

Georgia here.

Am going nuts trying to get the million and one things that needed to be done yesterday done now. Went to bed at 5am for the third night in a row and looks like it's going to be a fourth tonight. Tzi has arrived from LA and did a great press conference in Chinatown today. After that we swung by a special preview screening at The Core Club hosted by the NY Mayor's Office of Film and TV and then over to Dolby 88 for another preview screening hosted by the PGA East's Diversity Committee. And am finally back at home staring at an over-flooded inbox...

But in the craze, I wanted to send a shout out to Gary Lee and his cousin Pamela Tsao. I am convinced the Energizer Bunny genes must run in their blood because everyone I meet from Gary's family is UNSTOPPABLE. In addition to having a full-time banking job, Gary (and now with the gracious assistance of Pamela who ALSO is a banker) has single-handedly helped us reach out to the Asian American community in NY. We know the folks in entertainment, but Gary has been instrumental in connecting us with folks in business, politics, non-profit, party-promoting, and the list goes on and on.

So Gary and Pamela threw a launch party for RED DOORS last Friday at BLVD in downtown Manhattan. I just wanted to thank them very much for helping spread the word. AND I wanted to post up some of the fun photos from that night!

Ok, 24 hours to go. See you all at the theaters!

Guest Blog: Freda Foh Shen "May-Li Wong"

2006-09-05T10:16:00.000-04:00

Late, late, late. Late at night, late with my blog. Blog. Makes me think of the horse I rode this morning, who has the exceptional ability of being able to cough and fart at the same time. This is not off to a good start.

Late, late, late. Friday approaches. So strange, hard to remember. Who WAS that
wigged woman?? That umbilical cord was cut a long time ago. Now, I watch - she floats. The character may have exited the womb, but our film's cord still needs nurturing. Such a long birthing process. It seems so simple - you approach the counter, lay down your bills, and receive a ticket that lets you into parallel universes. If only we knew the chaotic histories of all these creations.

Late, late, late. So much to do, and late with it all. The day so hot, that 92 degrees inside the house felt cool. So hot, that by noon the brain's multiple folds felt as if they were smoothing out, flattened by heat exhaustion. So hot, nothing got done. Ah. One thing got done - a trip to the fridge to make a root beer float. Yum yum smack smack. I look at stacks of papers and think hopefully, another float?

Soon - later - Henrik (isn't that a lovely Sondheim tune). Everything will get done. Or not. At any rate, come Wednesday, sans gels or liquids, I'll be in the air headed for the vortex. Whoooosh.

Chinatown, New York

2006-09-05T02:35:00.000-04:00

I can't believe we are less than four days from the opening! I have been running around like a madwoman - printing out stickers, putting up posters, getting postcards to gracious friends who have offered to hand them out to others, chatting up restaurants and stores to let us hang up one sheets, etc.

In this craze, I wanted to take a moment to thank Telly Wong, John Leo (LMDC), Paul J.Q. Lee, Eddie Chiu (Lin Sing Association), Mark Wong (Silk Road Cafe), William Lee, and countless others in the Chinatown community for all their amazing help and support to spread the word about RED DOORS!

Also, there will be a press conference/reception in Chinatown on Wednesday, September 6 from 3-5pm at Silk Road Cafe (30 Mott Street). Tzi Ma (our peerless actor who stars as Ed Wong in the film) is arriving and will be available for Q&A. Jane and I will be there as well to hand out more posters and postcards :)

And if you happen to be down in Chinatown before then, check out the kiosk on Canal and Baxter/Mulberry Streets to pick up a postcard! :)

Ok, back to work. No rest ever for indie filmmakers!

Happy Labor Day everyone!
Georgia

It's perfectly natural to be curious about stuff like this

2006-09-04T00:45:00.000-04:00

Jane here.

We are in the process of finalizing our opening weekend party schedule. We will be having parties on Friday and Saturday night. Anybody with a ticket for RED DOORS for a screening on that day will be able to get in. Time and location to be announced soon.

More fun events on opening weekend: we are excited to announce Goth Night at RED DOORS. the 10pm screening at the Angelika Theater on Sunday September 10 is Goth Night! We will be featuring a special Q&A with director Georgia Lee to be moderated by Voltaire. Informal drinking, dancing, and howling at the moon to follow.

Off the Grid

2006-09-03T23:03:00.000-04:00

I find myself reflecting as the Pennsylvania countryside whizzes by my rain-splattered window seat. There is a zen-like comfort in riding the train. My town of departure, Altoona, PA, is a long-since burnt out town, hanging onto prosperity with a lucky mix of geography, strip mall construction, and a lush PSU branch campus. Leaving the town on a train isn't so bad, the railroads built Altoona, and have since left their skeletal fingers on every facet of the area. Trains are the only thing the area does well (Along with the trafficking of heroin and meth-amphetamines, if one is to believe the local papers). I fortunately live a few towns west in the extended Pittsburgh suburbs, and have little daily encounters with trains or drugs. Before I get too whimsical, I should introduce myself. I'm the RED DOORS online/street man, known round these parts as Michael B.

Soon I'll be on the ground in New York City, rushing between premiere screenings, poster-hangings, group meetings, and zany street promotions, cleverly designed to not result in any of us going to jail. I even find myself getting ahead of schedule, thinking about flying to LA for West Coast screenings, and plotting DVD strategies for the coming months (#1 on Amazon? Anybody?).

The RED DOORS machine has been pumping full-steam for some time and has been one of the more incredible creative undertakings I've born witness to in my life. For two years now I've been in the background of this process, watching every decision and making minor contributions when possible, often in awe of the energy level and
commitment of those steering the ship. Being landlocked in Western/Central PA, there were not many digital editing opportunities for me to pursue. I finally figured I'd be better off paying someone (a school, a person, anyone!) for an amazing editing project than staying at home and working on public access commercials for a house fitting business. The Edit Center lets students learn the craft on actual film. Someone shot it and it could be a product someday! How evermore exciting than a tutorial disc! I met Georgia & Co. at The Edit Center in NY during my final year of college. I poured through the RED DOORS script during my first week in NY. No friends nearby, no distractions, just a heavily revised stack of pages to keep me company. To my surprise, the raw footage we later saw at the Center matched many of my brain's visuals for the script. The visual sensibilities displayed echoed my own imaginings of the script. I knew I wanted to stay close to kindred film spirits. From that point on, I've been in the fold, handing out buttons and fortune cookies to Tribeca-goers, annoying celebs at CineVegas, and furiously plugging the film from my well-worn iBook at home amongst the PA trees.

Name a webishly-sounding verb: podcasting, myspacing, posting, demoing, coding, converting, cross-promoing. I've done it, many times with little or no prior experience for the given task. As with any independent art excursion, little compensation has come my way (or to anyone involved). Why would a human eat, sleep, and techno-regurgitate a project of which he bore no creative part of it's birth? I've been asking myself this question for the past few months, and think I finally understand the answer. Forget the compelling back-story of Mia, Georgia, & Jane's decision to shun the corporate life in pursuit of an even more challenging sector. Forget about the fortuitous casting, the tempered pacing, and the deep cinematography of the finished product. Forget about the raw footage equaling my own take on the material. I'm able to rest easily because of what people tell us after seeing the film. I've seen the broadest possible collection of people come up to the producers after a given screening and offer them their heartfelt thanks. Elderly Jewish men thank Georgia for accurately portraying the uncertainty of retirement. Go-getters applaud the depiction of eldest sister Sam, the driven corporate drone. Women of all creed and color appreciate the character of May-Li, the loving mother who just isn't sure how to let go and allow her family the space needed to grow. Middle sister Julie's plight will be familiar to anyone who has broken the norm and sought acceptance, while youngest Katie is embroiled in first love and the search for identity. Every audience member finds themselves embedded in this film.

The power of film is certainly best realized when one sees its effect on another. It has lead me to believe that though we lead separate lives, rich with cultural traditions and differing goals for ourselves and our families, the power of a darkened theater bonds us, allowing that brief and fleeting moment where we all silently acknowledge our needs for life, love, and change.

Who wouldn't want to help share that experience with as many people as possible?

Thanks to everyone involved for allowing me to do exactly that.

-Michael B

Win a Date with...ME!

2006-09-01T12:36:00.000-04:00

Has my love life really come to this? Apparently so... In any case, I wanted to let you guys know about this hilarious/ridiculous little gimmick Michael B came up with as a, um..."unique" way to promote the RED DOORS release. I've always said I was willing to pimp myself out for this movie, and now I guess I am! Anyway, Page Six (the NY Post) caught wind of this and ran a little blurb about it today. So I guess that cat's out of the bag...MEOW!! Know anyone who might actually be interested in going to the NYC premiere with me (and 500 of my closest friends)? Send 'em over -- hey, who knows, maybe I'll meet Mr. (or Ms.) Right... ;)

xx
Mia
----------

RED DOORS - Win a Date with Mia Riverton!

Move over, Tad Hamilton! To commemorate the opening of RED DOORS (in theaters Sept. 8th), the producers have created a one-of-a-kind contest.

By purchasing advance tickets for any RED DOORS opening weekend show, you are eligible to win a date with dazzling actress-producer Mia Riverton to the RED DOORS New York premiere and exclusive VIP after-party (or another RED DOORS screening of your choice). Five others will receive RED DOORS theatrical posters signed by Mia and the rest of the RED DOORS cast and filmmakers. Mia enjoys the company of both men and women and encourages everyone to enter the contest...

HOW TO ENTER:
1) Buy tickets online by 11:59 pm on Monday, Sept. 4th. Tickets are available at the RED DOORS website: www.reddoorsthemovie.com
or directly via the theaters:
Angelika Film Center
ImaginAsian

2) Email your ticket purchase confirmation code to: michaelb@reddoorsthemovie.com with "Date Mia" in the subject line.

OR send a postcard with your name, email address and phone number to:
DATE MIA
8491 Sunset Blvd., Box 416
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Winners will be randomly selected and notified via email by Tuesday, Sept. 5th. If unable to attend the premiere, the grand prize winner has the option of selecting a screening time during opening weekend (Sept. 8-10, 2006) to suit his/her personal schedule. Friends and associates are welcome to attend / chaperone but must purchase their own tickets. You must be at least 18 years old to enter. The producers are not liable for any fun, motion sickness, fainting, or heartbreak induced by Ms. Riverton (trust us, we've worked with her)*. She's waiting for you...

www.MiaRiverton.com

*By entering the contest, you agree to take sole responsibility for your own health and well-being while participating and agree to release the producers from any legal liability in the event of injury, death, property damage, or loss, and you waive any claim you may have, now or later, arising out of or relating to your participation in the contest. The producers disclaim any and all responsibilities and warranties relating to health, medical and legal issues, express or implied.

Ask her how the date went with the nice Stanford doctor

2006-08-31T03:16:00.000-04:00

Jane again again.

We just got word that Laemmle will be screening our film in the Los Angeles area. Very exciting! RED DOORS will be opening on September 22 in LA. This is the same day that we will be opening in San Francisco so we're going to attempt some magic to juggle cast and filmmakers between all the Q&As.

So for LA we will be in either the (Laemmle) Music Box or the Sunset 5 and we will definitely be at the Playhouse in Pasadena. In SF we will be in either (Landmark) Opera Plaza or the Embarcadero Center. Exact theaters to be determined soon.

As for our grassroots update, Georgia, Mia, and I have been working overtime reaching out to organizations, planning group outings, and coordinating marketing material logistics. Georgia has become poster and postcard central. I think she's going through about 100 posters a day - getting them out to organizations, storefronts, and volunteers. She's been juggling all this while doing interviews and speaking engagements every day.

Mia has been coordinating our trailer and print distribution while heading up (re: running the whole damn thing) our west coast grassroots outreach efforts. She's also been managing cast logistics and coordinating our opening weekend Q&A schedule.

I've been pressed into multimedia duty: encoding promotional videos for MichaelB to put up on websites, designing graphical emails and promotional jpgs. Helping to plan the parties and get-togethers for opening weekend and a whole slew of unsexy business and legal stuff in the background.

8 more days until the opening. We have so much to do, but I can't wait...

I'll get the tickets, it'll be fun

2006-08-25T00:08:00.000-04:00

Jane again.

For those of you living in Manhattan who ride the M15 bus down 2nd Avenue, you may have noticed the blindingly beautiful bus shelter ad for RED DOORS on the SW corner of 42nd and 2nd. If you haven't, go take the M15. It's air conditioned!

In addition to the two posters up on 42nd and 2nd, we also have shelters up at Broadway and 133rd, Houston and Allen, and Pike and Division.

We were able to get such great advertising exposure - FREE - courtesy of the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting which has a great marketing credit available to productions that are majority-based in NYC. You may have read about the city's "Made in NY" tax credits intended to attract production back to NY. What you may not know is that even small films like ours can benefit from the incentives.

So, go make a film. Make it in NYC. And get a beautiful bus shelter of your own.

For more information about the "Made in NY" program, check out their website.

Hey, if any of you want to take stupid pictures of yourself in front of one of our bus shelters you can email them to info@bdcfilms.com. There might even be a prize involved for the best picture. Maybe a pair of tickets to our premiere...

Sweet 16...

2006-08-24T12:03:00.000-04:00

...and counting down. Hard to believe that we're just over two weeks away from the Sept. 8th date that has loomed large but hazy on some distant horizon -- for the past few months it's felt sort of like the mid-90s, when the year 2000 seemed too sci-fi to ever actually come to pass. And now we're closer to 2010, which is too strange to contemplate in my current sleep-deprived, wild-eyed state. Georgia, Jane and I have been running ourselves ragged on both coasts, trying to release this movie the way we made it -- with 5 bucks and sheer force of will. We are fortunate, however, to have been blessed with many angels who are working side by side with us to bring this labor (and I do mean LABOR) of love to its biggest audience yet -- this is by no means a comprehensive "thank you" list, but in honor of our 16-day mark I'm singling out 16 of our teammates in this Caucus-race...

Ira Deutchman (and everyone at Emerging Pictures, especially Josh Green and Vincent Nebrida) -- Ira has truly been our godfather throughout this entire process, and we would be lost in the proverbial woods without his guidance. Booking theaters? Check. P&A budgets? Sure. Grassroots marketing? No problem. We are learning from the master.

Wellington Love -- our publicist extraordinaire, without whom we would be hopelessly buried among the sea of bigger, more "commercial" films with the types of elements press tends to covet (movie stars, gratuitous sex & violence, Scientology scandals). Despite our underdog status, we've managed to achieve a strong toehold in both the local and mainstream press -- this is no accident, it's the work of the best-named man in the biz: "Love. Wellington Love."

Michael Bartholow -- Michael B is our right-hand man in innumerable ways. I hereby dub him the official RED DOORS Online-Marketing-Guru-Podcast-Master-Street-Team-Warlord-Overall-Idea-Generator-Guy. Tough to fit on a resume, but Michael B will never, ever have trouble finding gainful employment -- we're selfishly keeping him to ourselves until the big, bad studios catch on and start showering him with dolla' bills, y'all...

Gary Lee -- an amazing man (with apparently limitless energy) who has singlehandedly brought our film to the attention of the corporate community. Gary has coordinated a number of corporate diversity events around RED DOORS, which has already had an impact on that all-important opening weekend box office figure. He's also inspired many other people to aid in our efforts and rally for the cause -- he's like the student council president, prom king, and captain of the cheerleaders all rolled into one.

Finally, I have to mention our wonderful cast -- Tzi Ma, Freda Foh Shen, Jacqueline Kim, Elaine Kao, Kathy Shao-Lin Lee, Jayce Bartok, Sebastian Stan, Rossif Sutherland, Steve Rowe, and Bridget White. They have been so supportive and understanding as we stumble blindly through this process for the first time. Everyone has generously reached out to their own friends and networks to garner support for the movie, and they continue to spend much of their time and energy promoting the film through their presence and positive energy.

Conclusion: This has been a group effort from beginning to (almost) end. Filmmaking is not a solitary experience, nor should it be. It is a communion with creative cohorts, friends and supporters -- and it thus represents a microcosm of the human experience. Q.E.D.

Song du jour: Art Brut, "Formed a Band". 'Cause we did, and we're taking this show on the road.

-Mia

I mean, some place you'll meet... people

2006-08-20T09:50:00.000-04:00

Jane here.

Hopefully by now, our email blast has gone far and wide. I wanted to take a moment and explore this concept of box office math.

As Georgia explained in her letter (posted below), opening weekend box office is critical for independent films. It's critical for all films but the metrics of success are slightly different for a small film opening in limited release. Because limited release films are only out on a few screens at a time, the absolute box office number ($135,634,554 for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, for example) is irrelevant. The appropriate number is the per screen gross, calculated simply as the total box office gross divided by the number of screens shown. And weekend numbers are typically tabulated for Friday through Sunday.

Let's look at the per screen gross of some recent independent film releases. All numbers are from www.boxofficemojo.com.

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE -- 7 screens -- $52,999 avg
HALF NELSON -- 2 screens -- $26,991 avg
QUINCEANERA -- 8 screens -- $11,925 avg
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN -- 5 screens -- $109,485 avg
SAVING FACE -- 6 screens -- $12,517 avg
BETTER LUCK TOMORROW -- 13 screens -- $27,751 avg
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE -- 6 screens -- $19,444 avg
GARDEN STATE -- 9 screens -- $22,346 avg

In general, a per screen gross above $10,000 is considered a success. Above $15,000 is a big success. And above $20,000 is an incredible success that should go wide. Of course several other factors should be taken into account such as the total number of screens (reaching a high per screen gross over just one screen should be taken with a grain of salt) and what markets the film is opening in.

Now let's look at the potential numbers for RED DOORS. We are opening on two screens in New York City on September 8. The Angelika Film Center (capacity: 260) is screening our film 6 times a day and they charge $10.75 per ticket. The ImaginAsian Theater (capacity: 285) is also screening our film 6 times a day and charging $10 per ticket. A quick calculation yields a total possible gross of $101,610. The highest per screen gross for us would therefore be $50,805. Both theaters offer discounts to seniors and children so the total grosses would likely be lower.

Our goal is to break $10,000 per screen over opening weekend and short of Georgia, Mia, and I finding 2,000 friends to show up over the weekend, we will be very dependent on grassroots marketing and reviews.

The scary truth is that while critics' reviews of big-budget blockbuster films have almost no impact on box office performance (BO performance for these films is more correlated with advertising spend), reviews are absolutely essential for limited release independent films.

For example, HALF NELSON, a Sundance film starring Ryan Gosling that opened on 2 screens in New York City grossed $26,911 per screen over its opening weekend. It has an 89% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and, more importantly, got glowing reviews from The Village Voice and The New York Times - the two pillars of New York film criticism.

On the other hand, THE GROOMSMEN, a film by Ed Burns starring Burns and a recognizable cast including John Leguizamo, Brittany Murphy, and Jay Mohr opened on 3 screens and grossed $8,682 per screen over opening weekend. It has a 56% rating on Rotten Tomatoes classifying it as a "rotten" film. THE GROOMSMEN got a mediocre review from The New York Times and a scathing review from The Village Voice.

So the moral of this story is to go out and buy tickets for opening weekend. Your efforts will have much more impact than waiting until the second week of release.

Oh, and pray for a great review.

Opening in Three Weeks!

2006-08-17T09:50:00.000-04:00

My giddiness about the upcoming release of RED DOORS has been mixed with a new dose of anxiety today. I was walking around NY and saw all these wild postings (large posters pasted onto scaffolding, etc) everywhere for studio films. I realized that our film does not even have a budget for wild postings (we barely had $ to make postcards!). We are truly indie and truly poor. I was suddenly seized by this fear that folks who may be interested in seeing RED DOORS may never even know about the film since we have no marketing budget. But then I also realized that we may be able to reach our audience without having to buy up big ads in the New York Times if we could effectively leverage the power of the internet.

Therefore, I have started to email out the following text to my friends and family in the hopes that they will forward it to their friends and those people in turn will... well, you get the point. :)

So, PLEASE feel free to copy and paste the below text and email it out to everyone you know. With the power of the web, it is not mere lip-service to say that your individual actions can really make all the difference!!

COUNTDOWN: 21 DAYS

~ PLEASE COPY, PASTE, AND EMAIL THE FOLLOWING TO YOUR FRIENDS ~

"RED DOORS" OPENING SEPTEMBER 8!

I am writing to you today because RED DOORS is opening theatrically in New York on *September 8* and we urgently need your help!

The first weekend box office determines if a film will sink or swim. Independent films like ours are left to fend for themselves each and every week. RED DOORS is currently scheduled to open in three cities: New York (Sept 8), San Francisco (Sept 22), and LA (date TBD). The opening weekend numbers in New York will determine how wide and how long our film lives.

RED DOORS is a dark comedy about the Wongs, a dysfunctional Chinese-American family coming of age in New York. The film has been described as AMERICAN BEAUTY meets JOY LUCK CLUB.

RED DOORS was an incredibly difficult film to get made. In the financing stages, studio execs who loved the script wanted us to make the Wongs a Caucasian family, or make the lesbian couple heterosexual, in order to have more commercial potential. So Jane, Mia, and I made RED DOORS on our own terms: completely outside of the Hollywood system. We raised our own financing, maxed out our credit cards, and called in favors in order to create our labor of love.

Needless to say, RED DOORS does not have a marketing budget to buy expensive TV commercials or billboards. We have only the power of community and grassroots outreach. Supporting independent films like this one is like voting in an election. You are voting with your feet and your dollars. If you are interested in seeing more diverse cinema, the best way to let the system know is to buy a ticket. If enough people vote for change, then the system will ultimately take notice.

So what can you do? There are two very easy things you can do right now from where you are sitting. Either one of these actions will help us tremendously!

1. Please forward this email to all your friends and any groups you think may be interested in a film like this.

2. Buy tickets and come see the movie! Especially on opening weekend if you can. Tickets are already available on-line now. And if you don't live in a major city where the film is opening in September, consider your purchase to be a donation to the cause. If the film does well enough in its opening weekend in New York, it will
come to the rest of America as well!

To find more information about the film, to view the trailer, to read our blog, or to buy tickets, please go to: www.reddoorsthemovie.com

Let's send Hollywood a message that we want to see more diverse faces and stories in film and on TV!

The RED DOORS cast and filmmakers will be at both the Angelika and ImaginAsian theaters in New York during opening weekend for Q&As.

Hope to see you September 8 at the theaters!

Thank you,
Georgia Lee

Simple Pleasures

2006-08-16T10:50:00.000-04:00

Our poster just went up outside The Angelika Film Center this week!! I was so excited that I ran over to the theater and took pictures!! Forgive the low-res as it was taken from my phone. As it happens, I am a huge Michel Gondry fan. So needless to say, I was thrilled to have my first film poster next to THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP!

The poster and trailer just went up at The ImaginAsian Theater as well!! Harder for me to run over to though. Would be good exercise... The NY Mayor's Office of Film and Television has also graciously donated five bus shelters to us. We are waiting to hear where our RED DOORS posters will be going up with them. Once we hear, Jane and I are going to run around Manhattan and take a picture with each one! Waiting for the M34 has never been so exciting :)

I can't believe it is really happening. Our little labor of love is FINALLY making its way to the big screen. It has been a difficult, winding path, and we have been fighting for so long to make this happen. And now only 22 days to the opening. So much to do. So many emails to write. So many bus shelters to visit!

-Georgia

Outfest, Part Deux

2006-07-22T21:40:00.000-04:00

Outfest has once again come and gone, and I found myself feeling slightly nostalgic on closing night as I realized it's been over a year since RED DOORS had its coming-out - er, debut - at the festival. This year, I had the pleasure of serving on the festival jury for U.S. Narrative Features - the first-time I have ever (or will ever) be happy about being assigned to jury duty. My two fellow jurors were actor-director Craig Chester ("Adam and Steve") and film critic Ernest Hardy. We had 15 films to watch in little over a week - with my first-hand knowledge of how important awards can be to independent filmmakers, I took my responsibility very seriously. In addition to screening each of the films at least once, I spent hours writing meticulous notes on an Excel spreadsheet I created with such categories as "characterizations", "visual style", and "queer factor". And yes, that last one did include some illustrations.

On the last day of the festival, all of the juries met with our respective Outfest jury coordinators for deliberations - I was expecting a reenactment of "Twelve Angry Men", but it was more like "Two Boys and a Half-Asian Chick Sipping Lattes on Melrose". We did actually engage in some lively discussions, as there were a number of strong contenders for each category, and we ultimately awarded the Best Feature prize to a wonderful film called "The Gymnast". It is the feature debut of writer-director Ned Farr, and it stars Dreya Weber as a former world champion athlete questioning her marriage, her sexuality, and her purpose in life. Gorgeous performances, stunning cinematography, hot lesbians, aerial gymnastics - really, it's all you could ever want in a movie. The other award winners in our category were Q. Allan Brocka and Philip Pierce for Best Screenwriting ("Boy Culture"), Diane Gaidry for Best Actress ("Loving Annabelle"), and Michael Carbonaro for Best Actor ("Another Gay Movie").

Despite our hefty workload, I definitely found some time to play at the festival - I'm pretty sure there's incriminating footage of me at the infamous Outfest pool party. I'd be more specific, but as I've said before..."What happens at Outfest, stays at Outfest!"

Song du jour: "Now at Last" by Feist. If Billie Holiday and Sarah McLachlan had a baby - well, that would be weird, for a number of reasons...but I bet she'd sound a lot like this!

-Mia

Mia and her "beard" - Outfest
programmer David Courier.

Your father's always picking on the dog

2006-07-14T15:51:00.000-04:00

This is Jane.

It's funny now that I've made one film I feel like an advice-dispensing machine. Over the past couple months, we've been gearing up for our theatrical and video distribution. I spent several weeks editing the special features for our DVD. Georgia, Mia, and I recorded a filmmaker commentary track that I had to lay down against the film. I did a lot of editing on that one. We talk A LOT. There are also interviews with each of us and the cast members.

For the last several weeks. Michael Bartholow has been helping us record podcasts that are now available in weekly installments for download on our website and at iTunes. Again, more talking and more opining from the three of us. Add to all this the panels we've spoken on and all the Q&As we've done at film festivals... we are practically professional speakers on the independent film circuit.

The thing is, in the independent film space, one film DOES an expert make. The learning curve is so steep and the potential mistakes so costly that it really does help to listen to those who go before you. Here are my best bits of film festival advice:

Your festival premiere is paramount. The ultimate goal of an independent filmmaker is to gain distribution for your film. In this day and age, the best way to do that is to sell your film at a film festival. Certain film festivals are known as "markets" that is, acquisition execs go to them with their checkbooks ready. Sundance is, of course, the biggest American festival that is also a market. Tribeca is rapidly becoming a market as well. It is every filmmaker's dream to take their film to Sundance and sell it for millions to Harvey Weinstein. The unfortunate reality is that A) it is really hard to get your film into Sundance - this year, 120 feature films were selected from over 3,100 submissions. That's less than 4% acceptance rate (you have a better chance of getting into Harvard). B) Only a small percentage of Sundance films get acquired. C) The Sundance films that are acquired for big bucks usually have stars in them. i.e. "The Illusionist" with Edward Norton - $7 million; "Little Miss Sunshine" with Steve Carrell and Greg Kinnear - $10 million. D) Many of the multitude of films that go to Sundance but don't get acquired unfortunately never do. The sad truth is that your premiere is the most buzzworthy event of your film's lifecycle and it is a small window to generate interest. Sometimes, a film that isn't "discovered" at its first festival will be passed over at subsequent festivals because of the perception that it has already been picked over and discarded by the rest of the industry.

A corollary to maximizing your first festival is to go to your premiere with your A-team intact. That means, getting a publicist and sales agent (producer's rep) on board and working before your world premiere. You have one chance to make a first impression and you attack it with all guns blazing. Unfortunately, I have met so many filmmakers at festivals who go to their first festival hoping to find a producer's rep there. That's too late because the premiere is the best sales tool in a filmmaker's arsenal and instead of using the heat and buzz to attract a sales rep, you and your sales rep should be using that buzz to SELL YOUR FILM. Start a few months before your premiere and send screeners and set up meetings and find a good rep who gets your film and will stick with it through the sales cycle.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you probably won't sell your film at the first festival. Buyers will sniff and circle but typically junior acquisition people screen films first and then they bump it up to their bosses and their bosses bosses. There will be second looks and second thoughts, and third thoughts... basically it will likely take several screenings over several festivals before all the right people have a chance to see and sign off on the buy. So patience and persistence are important. Also, this is where a committed sales agent is important. Some of the "top" sales agents are known for pumping and dumping - that is, if a film doesn't sell at its first festival, the rep will dump it and move on to fresher clients. Make sure your sales rep is in it for the long haul because chances are, it will take a while to seal your deal.

Maximize each festival experience. This means befriending the programmers in advance and lobbying for key screening times. Depending on the festival, this usually means shooting for an opening weekend screening - preferably in the evening. Make sure your film is not up against a powerhouse film in the same time slot. Also try and get into the competition section of the festival. Usually competition films get more press and, of course, there is a chance to win which is huge exposure. Hustle to pack your theaters - call all your friends and family and hand out postcards like a madwoman. You want to make sure that the theater is as full and rowdy as possible for the acquisition execs.

I've got tons more advice but I think I'll just let this sink in for the time being.

Jane spreads the gospel of Red
Doors at a recent panel event.

In Pod We Trust

2006-07-14T13:54:00.000-04:00

I want to take a brief pause to marvel at the 21st century phenomenon that is the podcast. Every week I sit in my PJs in LA and talk into my computer, Georgia and Jane do the same in New York, and puppetmaster Michael B engineers the whole shebang from his underground lair somewhere in the environs of Pittsburgh, PA. Through a peculiar alchemy involving iChat, Garageband and various hallucinogens, the four of us somehow conjure up our very own podcast week after week and set it adrift into the internet ether (okay, iTunes). Why, you ask? Umm...I dunno, it seemed like a cool thing to do. We were trying to think of fun ways to reach new RED DOORS fans, and it was either this or streaking through lower Manhattan with "RED DOORS Opens Sept. 8th!" painted on our posteriors.

Blogging, vlogging, MySpace-ing, reality television - it all fulfills some basic human need to be seen and heard. The proliferation of these activities has led me to the inevitable conclusion: soon, there will be no more audience. We will no longer be spectators or even voyeurs, just a vast pool of performers, orators, and bloviators engaged in an endless cultural dialogue made an order of magnitude more meta with each new technological tangent. I mean, here I am blogging about our podcasts - yikes, I think I just blew my own mind. Or was that a braingasm? I guess if you have to ask...

So yeah, we're jumping on the podcast wagon. Solipsistic? Maybe. Narcissistic? Definitely. Entertaining? I certainly hope so. If you want to let us know what you think, feel free to ping us on MySpace - email is soooo 2004...

Song du jour: "Can I Stay" from Ray LaMontagne's new album. Real men rock out with string quartets.

-Mia

Eight - My Lucky Number

2006-05-16T19:20:00.000-04:00

I thought 2006 may slow down a bit and allow me to catch my invariably asthmatic breath, but the past few months have been a continued whirlwind. So, here are some quick postcards from my travels - first there was Sundance in January where I had the pleasure and honor of being on the jury for International and American Short Films. I have always loved animation, but I truly fell in love with stop-motion animation and claymation in Park City. In particular, "The Wraith of Cobble Hill" was a pure delight. I can't get over the time and meticulous attention that is lovingly lavished on each frame. On the live action side, "Wraith" shared top honors with a most deliciously sick, gay horror-romance short (or rather a "medium" at its 35 min running length) called "Bugcrush". February was completely consumed by family matters as my father fell very ill and is only now slowly recovering. March was filled with a flurry of RED DOORS appearances from a fun event with Asian Women in Business at the new flagship ESPRIT store in New York to the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival where RED DOORS screened at the Kabuki 8 in San Francisco followed a week later with a premiere showing in San Jose. We were really overwhelmed by the audience turnout and enthusiastic response! Thanks so much to everyone in the Bay Area for coming out and supporting the film!

Time truly does fly when you're having fun and it approaches light speed when you are doing the film festival circuit. When April came this year, Jane, Mia and I were slack-jawed that it had been a FULL YEAR since we debuted RED DOORS at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2005. In that time, we have taken our celluloid baby around the world from Las Vegas to Pusan, Korea and secured that increasingly elusive holy grail in the independent film world - theatrical distribution. But more on that in a second. Tribeca 2006 was a very different but equally exciting experience as I sat on the jury of the New York Narrative competition this year. It was so great to finally WATCH films since last year we had no time! We awarded the Best Narrative Feature in our category to a lovely dramedy called "The Treatment" and an honorable mention to Charles Busch's tender and comedic film "A Very Serious Person".

I am most excited to announce that we have finalized the release date and theater for our opening in New York! "Red Doors" will be opening September 8, 2006 at the Angelika Film Center in SoHo. We are finalizing the details for the other primary cities but they will most likely be a week or two after September 8. Details coming very soon! I can not fully express how exciting (and anxiety-causing) it is to have your labor of love finally showing in a bona fide movie theater! And EIGHT is a very auspicious number for the Chinese. It is phonetically similar to the words for fortune, good luck, and prosperity. I am a firm believer that we all make our own destiny. But hey, a little box office luck couldn't hurt! Hope to see you all at the theaters in September!!

Georgia

Photos by Wendy Tang

Posters and Trailers and Prints...Oh, My!

2006-04-07T12:50:00.001-04:00

Forgive the perhaps inelegant Wizard of Oz reference, but these days I do feel a bit like Dorothy tripping down the Yellow Brick Road. The Emerald City (and the Silver Screen) looms in the distance, shrouded in mist but intimidatingly real. Of course, I wouldn't be caught dead in ruby slippers, unless they were strappy Jimmy Choos, but you get the point. Before we meet the proverbial Wizard, however, there are seemingly innumerable tasks to complete...

For almost a week I sat in a dark, silent room, staring at colored lights on a wall and slowly going mad. Never mind that I do that anyway. I learned phrases like "digital artifact" and "dial down the magenta", both of which would make fabulous names for emo bands. Though decisions about our transfer process along the way -- Super 16mm to HDCam to 35mm -- have been driven by money (or lack thereof), the result is quite astonishing. Our baby (sorry, film) now exists on a pristine and gorgeous 35mm print -- truly a sight to behold, and believe me, I've beheld some sights.

Meanwhile, we've also been working with a great poster designer named Will Ragland to capture the essence of the film in a single image. Harder than it sounds. Our old poster, featuring a black-robed Ed Wong (Tzi Ma) in the foreground, seemed to confuse people -- they thought Tzi was either a) a serial killer; b) a martial artist; c) a Jesuit priest; or d) all of the above. Our new design (soon to be unveiled on this very site) is brighter in hue and conveys more of the comedic elements of the film, which our distributor feels is important from a marketing perspective. Apparently, people like to laugh -- just not at serial killing, Jesuit ninja-priests.

The trailer, which will also be posted here soon, touches on a few plot points -- but mostly, it just puts a smile on your face and a bounce in your step. Having screened the film for diverse festival audiences over the past year, we felt fairly knowledgeable about how viewers respond to particular scenes and which moments would play well in a "best-of" highlights reel. Even so, the process of slicing and dicing the film into sound bites and visual punchlines felt a bit odd, like turning a five-course meal into a casserole. Mmm, casserole...damn, I'm hungry.

Anyway, we hope that all of this will add up to a successful release for RED DOORS. Georgia, Jane and I are very new to this part of the process, so it's comforting that our executive producer (and de facto Wizard), Ira Deutchman, is on board to help us with marketing and distribution. Cross your fingers and link arms...cuz, baby -- we ain't in Kansas anymore.

Song du jour: "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. I double-dog-dare you not to dance.

-Mia

I'm not interested in being one of your pets

2006-03-17T22:21:00.000-05:00

This is Jane broadcasting live (sort of) from the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

RED DOORS will be screening tomorrow night (Saturday March 18) at the Kabuki 8 theater in SF and again next Saturday (the 25th) at the Camera 12 theater in San Jose.

Every screening brings with it the requisite adrenaline rush and anxiety attack but I must say I am PARTICULARLY giddy for our screening tomorrow because it will be the first time our film will be projected on film.

Well, technically the film was screened for press last week and - quel horreur - two of the five reels were accidentally mislabeled and screened out of order. From what I've been told, some of the attendees noticed and told the festival staff about it. The others? Well, we've been getting great press and mentions in the local papers lately so maybe the film actually plays better out of order...

Although we are at the tail end of our festival run and gearing up for our impending theatrical release - mark your calendars, we are targeting mid-May for our theatrical premiere - I always get a special case of the warm fuzzies when we screen at an Asian-American film festival.

This year, there are twelve films playing in the Asian-American features competition. That's right, there are a dozen of us. Nine years ago, in the landmark class of 1997 there were four. The tide is certainly rising for As-Am cinema and I believe that soon, our films will breakthrough the way African-American films and Latino films have done so before us.

Over the last year, we have been somewhat frustrated by the dichotomy of reception that we have received over RED DOORS. Time and again at film festivals, audiences, critics, and juries have praised our film. We've won awards. People from all ethnicities and ages have come up to us after screenings and told us that they related to or responded to this character or another. Journalists have labeled our film "universal" and broadly appealing.

Yet the "mini-major" distributors we talked to when we were selling our film voiced a much different concern. While they told us that they enjoyed the film, most expressed the belief that Asian-American films were too hard to market. They complained that unlike African-Americans or Latinos, Asian-American audiences have yet to demonstrate the box-office driving fervor that has elevated other ethnic content. Furthermore, they claimed that other than The Joy Luck Club, no other Asian-American film has crossed over enough into the mainstream to really deliver Hollywood-style theatrical returns. One well-known distributor (who shall remain nameless) looked at our film twice, really liked it but was on the fence for a long time, and then ultimately passed on it because they "weren't sure they had the skill set to market an Asian-American film."

We are lucky to have found distribution with a company that "gets" our film and passionately believes in its marketability. The dirty little secret in the film business, the thing they don't teach you in film school, is that getting distribution is infinitely more difficult than making a film. And to date, getting distribution for an Asian-American indie film has been perhaps more difficult than average because of these preconceived notions about marketability.

I guess the purpose of my rant over the last three paragraphs is to say that we just have to prove them all wrong. Georgia, Mia, and I have devoted the last several months reaching out to Asian-American, LGBT, and women-centric organizations to get the word out about our film's theatrical release. Over the next several weeks we plan on blogging more descriptively about the various projects and events we have planned. Only time will tell if we can move the needle but we are wholly committed to the effort.

Festivals like SFIAAFF and the VC Film Festival show me that Asian-Americans are a rally-able demographic. We self-identify and self-reflect. We have stories we want to tell and an eager audience waiting to consume this content. When I am at this festival, thumbing through a brochure featuring twelve quality, diverse Asian-American flicks - all made within the last 2 years - I know, with fervor and conviction, what many distributors are too unimaginative to see: Asian-American films have outgrown the genre of being simply "Asian-American;" they are comedies, dramas, sci-fi, romances, and epics chomping at the bit to entertain audiences from all walks of life and more than ready to crossover into the mainstream.

Ladies of RED DOORS with our friends
from TigerCinema at the SFIAAFF.

Dim Sum and Bratwurst

2006-02-16T04:47:00.000-05:00

One of the things I have grown to love about independent filmmaking is the variety of places it takes you. Since preproduction, I have traveled with the film from my hometown of Los Angeles to exotic and exciting locales like New York, Las Vegas, Honolulu, Korea, and Altoona, Pennsylvania. As we prepare to unleash our cinematic creation upon the theatergoing public, I'm already beginning to feel nostalgic -- strains of "On the Road Again" start running through my head every time the wheels touch down at LAX. Luckily, we have a few more festival flings before retiring from our inaugural world tour...

At the Pusan Film Festival in October, I met Dieter Kosslick, the director of the Berlinale (aka Berlin Film Festival). Dieter is a jolly, irrepressible gentleman with a dashing sense of style -- sort of a straight, German version of Richard Simmons. Dieter invited me to participate in the Berlinale Talent Campus, a program that brings together actors, directors, writers, producers, and other creative folks during the festival in a college-meets-summer-camp-meets-United-Nations extravaganza. So I now find myself in Berlin making new friends from around the world, soaking up the local culture (which seems to revolve primarily around beer) and meeting with such luminaries as Michel Gondry, Charlotte Rampling, and Wim Wenders. Fortuitously, our international sales agents at Forward Entertainment (Michael Thornton and Sheri Levine) also decided to take RED DOORS to the European Film Market, a yearly gathering of international film buyers and sellers that accompanies the Berlinale. They just closed the sale of the film in Australia and New Zealand, so RED DOORS will soon be making its way to the southern hemisphere.

Meanwhile, Georgia and Jane are holding down the fort back in the States. We're really in the thick of things as we get ready for theatrical release -- editing the trailer, (re)designing the poster, booking theaters, making 35mm prints of the film, etc. I'll let them fill in the particulars -- judging from the flurry of emails, everything is moving forward at a rapid pace.

Oh, and lest I forget...a belated Xing Nian Kwai Le (Happy New Year) to one and all! Last week, the cast was invited to ring in the Year of the Dog by riding in the annual Lunar New Year parade in Pasadena. So Tzi, Freda, Elaine and I showed up, RED DOORS poster in hand, to join in the festivities. I was expecting a convertible of some type, or possibly the flatbed of a pickup truck -- much to our surprise and delight, our mode of transport turned out to be a white, spherical, wrought-iron Cinderella carriage drawn by an amiable horse named Fanny. Despite some minor flatulence, Fanny made a most competent escort, whinnying to the crowd and tossing her mane like a true diva as we smiled, waved, and called out New Year's greetings.

Song du jour: "The Suffering" by Coheed and Cambria. Is it just me, or does this song sound like a mash-up of Def Leppard and Michael Jackson?

-Mia

Mia and Berlinale Festival
Director Dieter Kosslick

RED DOORS Cast celebrates the Lunar
New Year in a horse-drawn carriage

Retire? You're about to get a promotion!

2006-01-04T23:34:00.000-05:00

This is Jane. Well, I am incredibly pleased to be able to finally say out loud: we have distribution.

First details, then gushing.

Our distributor is a new company called Polychrome Pictures. RED DOORS will be the second film they distribute. The first is ON THE OUTS, last year's Slamdance award winner which will be in theaters in just a few short weeks. RED DOORS is tentatively scheduled to be theatrically released on April 7. Cities to be determined but will likely include New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Our DVDs should be out by year's end and will be distributed through Warner Home Video.

Wow. It's hard to believe that this journey has lasted over two years... fast by indie film standards, but still a good chunk of time. It's a big sigh of relief for us too, since embarking on an independent film is always a bit of a gamble. Sure, we knew that the script was great, our cast was phenomenal, and every member of our crew top notch (not to mention the brilliant and disarmingly attractive producers). But still, the distribution world is a finicky beast and we had the misfortune of neglecting to cast any penguins, giant apes, or gay cowboys (ah, hindsight is 20/20).

So now begins the real work: the ramp-up to theatrical distribution. Georgia, Mia, and I have been working non-stop through the holidays coordinating trailer editors, poster designers, and publicists. Since our film is coming out in early April, everything should have been done two months ago and now we find ourselves double-timing it to make up for lost time.

We're really jazzed though. And because we know you all are just hanging on our every word, we're going to blog frequently to give you a behind-the-scenes look at preparing a film for theatrical release. It'll be indie rather than textbook but that just makes for great drama, no?

So stay tuned and tell all your friends that three crazy chicks will soon be bringing their little bundle of joy to a theater near you.

Red Doors the Soap Opera

2006-01-02T05:35:00.000-05:00

The press is a funny thing. Somehow word has leaked out that CBS has given us a script commitment to turn RED DOORS into a "primetime soap opera". First of all, we had not planned on going public with this information since a script commitment is still painfully early in the TV development process. After I told my family that CBS had bought a pilot script for a one hour drama (sorry day-time soap fans, we're thinking more along the lines of an Asian American Six Feet Under than Days of Our Lives), they were clamoring to know what day and time they could tune in on the telly. I had to explain that not only will the network have to greenlight the pilot to be shot (typical industry odds at this stage are less than 10%), they would then have to decide to order a series (roughly one in ten odds at this final stage as well). So we thought it best to keep our powder dry until there was a channel, day, and time to announce. Of course we are incredibly excited that a major network like CBS is even considering developing a one-hour drama about a Chinese-American family. Needless to say, if the show ever airs, it would be a quantum leap for Asian-American representation in mainstream Western media.

So somehow The Hollywood Reporter got wind of the pilot script and announced it on Thursday: (read the article at the Hollywood Reporter website). We don't know (a) how they heard about it and (b) where they got the soap opera concept. But it's definitely given us an idea for future TV ideas! I wish I knew how to do that sarcastic wink in html. Ah, ever the luddite. Note to self: ask Jane, our resident tech goddess. So here's the real story: Steve Tao, a TV guru (and one of the first Asian American TV execs in the business), happened to see our film at Tribeca. In fact, he was not originally scheduled to see RED DOORS at the festival. Having seen our posters around the neighborhood, Steve had made a mental note that he should "support Asian American cinema" and planned to see our film, probably more out of a sense of duty than talent scouting. However, due to his busy schedule, he never made it to any of our original three screenings. Lucky for us, Steve did attend the additional screenings of the festival's winning films. So that is the beginning of our story. Steve saw RED DOORS at the tail end of the Tribeca Film Festival and contacted us to develop a pitch based on the characters and story from the film. We had no clue how the TV industry worked (we're just beginning to figure out the film business!) and Steve has graciously taken us under his wing. Sometime in August, Jane, Mia, Steve, and I pitched the idea to the execs at CBS.

Another point I would like to clarify is that Jane, Mia, and I have written the TV pilot script together. The Hollywood Reporter mentioned that Mia co-stars in the film and that Jane and Mia will produce but they left out that all three of us have written the show together as well. And it's funny to see how facts get further distorted as news gets passed around. On futoncritic.com they have posted: "Georgia Lee, the feature's writer and director, is on board to pen the pilot script as well as executive produce along with Mia Riverton, Jane Chen and Steve Tao. No other specifics were given." Ok, here are the specifics: Steve Tao is THE executive producer. Jane, Mia, and I are producers and writers. As Mia has joked, next thing we know Jane will be directing, Steve will be starring, and I'll be designing the action figures! So please send resumes and headshots to my dog Edison as he will be casting director. We are very happy to give specifics. Just ask. :)

Happy New Year to everyone!

Georgia