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.
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.
We’re headed to Berkeley for the evening. Tomorrow morning, we’ll be filming the Chinese Women’s Army scene with Li Jing and thirty extras. Here’s a photo from today’s shoot at Vista Point, between Edgewood and Highway 92.
We spent the weekend building our Chinese house set in our garage. With help from our neighbor, Jerry, we got all of the walls raised and set up by the afternoon! Right now, we’re sealing the joints and screws with joint compound before we tackle priming and painting the walls. Soon, our furniture will arrive, putting the finishing touches on a late 19th-century Chinese house!
See the photos of our set building.
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!
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
Filming dates: May 10-11, 17-18 (Note: Extras do not need to be present for all days, most likely 1-2 days, 3-4 hours each day.)
Location: Santa Clara and San Jose
Filming dates: May 10-11, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm.
Location: Hakone Gardens, Saratoga
Filming dates: May 10-11, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Location: Hakone Gardens, Saratoga
Filming date: Sunday, May 4, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm
Location: Tilden Park, Berkeley
Filming dates: May 10-11, 17-18 (Note: Extras do not need to be present for all days, most likely 1-2 days, 3-4 hours each day.)
Location: Santa Clara and San Jose
Filming dates: May 10-11, 17-18 (Note: Extras do not need to be present for all days, most likely 1-2 days, 3-4 hours each day.)
Location: Santa Clara and San Jose
Extras will be provided meals and a free copy of the DVD when completed!
We’re on route to Shaoxing, where Qiu Jin’s former residence and school reside. We arrived in Shanghai in the late morning. The taxi drivers are crazy! Ours was weavng in and out of traffic at high speed, sometimes making three lanes where there were only two! After settling into our hotel, we walked around the area near our hotel on Pujian Road. In the evening, we met up with my cousin King-Jung and Rae’s former co-worker, Sid, going to Raffles City for dinner.
Our driver is arriving any minute now to take us to a film equipment rental house so we can load up on lights, stands, and modifiers for our shooting this week.
We just landed at Hong Kong International Airport and are waiting in baggage claim. The flight was safe and uneventful — just a little long at 16 hours. We watched several movie during the flight, including Minority Report, My Lucky Star, and Rescue Dawn. For the last movie, we watched in on my MacBook Pro using the new iTunes Movie Rentals feature from Apple. Once we get our film done, we’d love to get it distributed via iTunes!
Upon our arrival and exit from baggage claim, we were greeted by my parents and Rae’s parents, who took United to fly to Hong Kong. We took a 30-minute ride to our hotel for the next few days, the Royal Plaza Hotel.
Right now, it’s 10:44 pm our time, around 6:45 am back home in Santa Clara. Tomorrow, my cousin Peter is getting married to Zelda. We’ll be partaking in the wedding festivities for much of the day. We’ll take the next few days to get acclimated to the surroundings, recover from jet lag, and prepare for the meat of the trip, starting the 27th when we fly to Shanghai.
Check out photos from our flight to Hong Kong today!
We’re less than 12 hours away from boarding a Cathay Pacific Airways plane for Hong Kong! Over the next three weeks, our team of five people will be traveling and filming scenes from The Qiu Jin Project. Rae and I are excited to kick off principal photography for the documentary.
Here are some photos of what we’re bringing. Most of our photo and video equipment is contained in the Pelican 1510 case. The 1510 can be carried onto an airplane. It’s got our video camera, digital still camera, lenses, and accessories. It’s good that it’s relatively small (compared to this huge Pelican case I also own) because it forces me to bring only the essential equipment. The large gray bag contains my clothes, audio XLR cables, and my tripod. We’re bringing a small Gitzo 1128 tripod for photo and light video work. When we arrive in Shanghai next week, we’ll rent a heavier tripod for our video work. Finally, the laptop bag contains our MacBook Pro, which we’ll be using to download footage, process images, and stay in touch with the world.
This project explores the extraordinary life of the Chinese revolutionary heroine and women’s rights activist Qiu Jin (1875 – 1907). During the reign of the last dynasty in China, Qiu Jin boldly challenged traditional gender roles and demanded equal rights and opportunities for women. At a time when women’s lives were often marked by repressive practices such as footbinding, arranged marriages, and denial of education, she envisioned a future where women would free themselves from the confines of tradition and emerge as strong and active citizens of a new and modern nation.
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