Category Archives: Production

1. Three-Inch Golden Lotuses

   At the age of four or five, a young Chinese girl growing up during the 10th and early 20th centuries would begin the process of foot binding. Her feet would be broken and bound into tight bandages for the next ten to fifteen years. The goal was to achieve the desired size of the three-inch [...]

   Posted on October 20, 2008 in Photography, Post-Production, Production | No comments

2. Music and Audio Recording

   The past few weeks, we’ve been recording music and audio for The Qiu Jin Project. Melody Chen and Min Seun Kim have recorded their guzheng and flute pieces respectively for the documentary. Rae went over to Matt’s house in Campbell to record the narration. We’ve been laying these clips on top of our existing audio [...]

   Posted on October 20, 2008 in General, Production | No comments

3. Betrayal

   We’re on the home stretch for completing our principal filming and photography. This morning, we photographed our betrayal scene with Xu Xilin and a Qing Dynasty Governor. Preston and Stan did a great job posing for the camera. I’m famous for the line, “One more time,” and they both were very patient when I snapped [...]

   Posted on June 7, 2008 in Photography, Production | 1 comment

4. On the East Coast

   Rae, JP, and I took the redeye flight to Newark, NJ and Providence, Rhode Island yesterday evening. We’re on the East Coast to interview two more scholars, Lingzhen Wang of Brown University and Amy Dooling of Connecticut College. The weather in Providence is great; it actually feels like the Bay Area with sunny skies!

   Posted on June 2, 2008 in Production, Travel | No comments

5. Tai Chi Master

   This weekend in Southern California, we filmed some scenes of Qiu Jin learning and practicing martial arts with her relative. Rae’s cousin was great for the role of Qiu Jin’s Tai Chi Master relative! In addition, we filmed our first interview with a U.S. based scholar, Professor Hu Ying from UC Irvine. On our East [...]

   Posted on May 23, 2008 in General, Photography, Production | 1 comment

6. Off to SoCal and the East Coast

   Rae and I are heading down to Southern California for our next round of filming and interviews for The Qiu Jin Project. We had a a very productive past three weeks filming in Berkeley, Saratoga, San Jose, and our very own Santa Clara. Next up are Irvine, San Diego, Connecticut, and Rhode Island! Today, Tim [...]

   Posted on May 20, 2008 in Production, Travel | No comments

7. Domestic Scenes

   Our actors and actresses braved the scorching heat in our garage to complete filming for the month in the Bay Area. We are now headed down to Southern California and the East Coast, where will will complete the rest of our filming. Nearly a dozen domestic scenes were filmed this weekend. Notable scenes include Qiu [...]

   Posted on May 17, 2008 in Photography, Production | No comments

8. Hakone Day 2, Datong School, and Sun Yat-Sen

   Day two of filming last weekend took us again to Hakone Gardens in Saratoga. We filmed scenes of Qiu Jin discussing political ideas with a group of Chinese female students. The actresses’ kimonos were prepared expertly by Yuki, who is a master at tying the obi! Hakone Gardens was also used as a fill-in for [...]

   Posted on May 13, 2008 in Photography, Production | No comments

9. Hakone Gardens, Overfelt Gardens, and Secret Society

   We had a 16-hour film shoot spread across three locations: Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, Overfelt Gardens in San Jose, and our Qing Dynasty House Set in our garage! Filming and photography yielded a lot of good footage and photos. Thanks to everyone who came out and participated! Tomorrow, we do it all over again, although [...]

   Posted on May 11, 2008 in General, Production | 1 comment

10. Melissa as a young Qiu Jin

    Yesterday, we photographed and filmed Melissa, who is playing the role of a young Qiu Jin. Melissa was very patient as we fought through the cold, harsh and unforgiving wind at Vista Point and San Jose. More photos from our shoot to come soon. Thanks to JP, Sammy, and Melissa’s parents for their assistance in [...]

    Posted on April 20, 2008 in Production | 2 comments

11. Chinese Furniture

    We are looking for traditional Chinese furniture items to be used in several scenes set in Qiu Jin’s residence and school. These scenes will be filmed in the Bay Area. If you have traditional-looking furniture similar to the ones pictured below that you can lend to the production, let us know!

    Posted on April 1, 2008 in General, Production, Technical | No comments

12. Casting Call

    We are currently looking for supporting actors and extras for various scenes to be filmed in the Bay Area during weekends in May and/or June. If you or someone you know fits into one of these categories and would like to be an extra, send us an email at info(at)qiu-jin.com Asian men (able to pass [...]

    Posted on March 31, 2008 in General, Production | 33 comments