Editing Continues Its Inexorable Progress

We’ve been hard at work editing the film over the past two months, hence our long delay between posts. It seems once filming is done, the only “exciting” photos we have to share is us sitting in front of our computers staring at Final Cut and Aperture! So far, we have assembled nearly 50 minutes of footage for the final film. There’s still much to do, but we have a good sense for the narrative is shaping up to be.

There remains a few more pickup scenes to shoot along with recording the music and narration for the film. Our target is to complete those tasks by the end of this month.

In other news, we should announce that our fiscal sponsorship has moved from Film Arts Foundation to the San Francisco Film Society. After thirty-two years of serving the independent film community, Film Arts is closing its doors; fortunately, the SFFS was there to take on the task of supporting existing fiscally sponsored projects, including ours. Visit our support page to learn how you can donate to our project. It’s tax-deductible!

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 shot after shot.

Click the link to see the rest of the photos.

Scholar Interview Photos

We had a great few weeks of traveling to Southern California and the East Coast to interview three scholars for the documentary. We met with Professor Hu Ying at UC Irvine, Professor Lingzhen Wang at Brown University, and Professor Amy Dooling at Connecticut College. We’re headed back up to the Bay Area tomorrow, and we have just a few more scenes to film and photograph before we start our post-production schedule.

Click the link to view photos from our scholar interviews trip.

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!

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 Coast trip, we will be traveling to Brown University and Connecticut College to interview two additional scholars familiar with Qiu Jin’s life and work.

Click the link to see the rest of the photos of Tai Chi Master.

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 and his friends helped us return the furniture back to the Teak House in San Jose. Our garage is looking and feeling a lot emptier now that our 19th-Century Chinese Set has been taken down!

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 Jin’s husband and his drinking buddies, wedding preparations with the evil twin maids, and young Qiu Jin learning calligraphy. The featured photo is the Qiu Jin family portrait. You’ll never guess who the baby daughter really was!

Click the link to see more photos from this weekend.

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 China, where Connie and Li Jing discusses their plans for the Chinese Women’s Journal.

Our garage set once again was transformed into the Datong School. Finally, we had Richard return to reprise his role as Sun Yat-Sen for a quick portrait.

Click the link to view photos from Day 2.

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 our shooting schedule will be a little less hectic than today.

Click the link to see the photos.

Chinese Women’s Army

At Vista Point, we filmed scenes of Li Jing as Qiu Jin practicing Tai Chi and reading by a tree, mirroring those we shot in April with Melissa as Young Qiu Jin. The following day, we were at Berkeley’s Tilden Park for the Chinese Women’s Army. We had 34 extras for the army scene, all dressed in black kung fu uniforms. Led by Li Jing, the troops were drilled in wushu basics and taught female empowerment.

We got some great footage and some wonderful photographs, which you can see below. Thanks go out to Eric, JP, Edna and Erik, and Petrice for organizing and helping out with the shoot. Finally, big shout out to the members of the Chinese Women’s Army. You all did a fantastic job, and we couldn’t have pulled it off without you!

Click the link to see photos from the shoot.

Autumn Gem

A Documentary on Modern China's First Feminist