This little short had a couple of big firsts for us at Moth to Flame. First science fiction piece, and because it’s science fiction it was the first time where the production design played a big role.
When we (Christine Chen and I) decided to make “Ya Albi,” a film about a Syrian refugee, we knew that we may be dealing with a topic that could be political or controversial. We didn’t care about that though, because we just didn’t see it that way. We just wanted to make a good film about the human condition through the eyes of an immigrant that was relevant to today’s world without any political agenda.
I’m so proud of this film. We all worked so hard and so well together.
From the very beginning, we did some serious pre-production. This is one of the first films we were able to meet together and discuss the look of the film. We looked at examples of lighting and coloring to pinpoint the kind of look we wanted.
When I wrote “Ya Albi,” my first goal was to honor the story of my parents. Both of my parents are immigrants from Taiwan. Though they are not refugees, I can only imagine what they still had to go through in order to adapt and succeed somewhere so far from friends, family, and what they know.
When Christine first approached me with what would become Ya Albi (My Heart), I had to literally tell myself to play it cool. She probably doesn’t know this, or that I had written her name down on my wish list of directors I’d love to work with after seeing “A Bird’s Nest” two years prior. I guess I played it cool enough … thankfully!
In preparation for A Bird’s Nest showing up on Shorts HD Christine and Adam had to submit a little video introduction. It appears they had a bit of fun with it, maybe a little too much fun…you be the judge and watch the video below.
Anyone who knows me, knows that I don’t believe in accidents. I’m a firm believer of the rule, “everything happens for a reason.” If you go through a breakup, there’s a reason, if you get fired from your job, there’s a reason, if you bump into one of your kindergarten classmates from 40 years ago, there’s a reason…..you get the idea.
James Crouch attended this years Texas Film Awards and took some photos. Maybe you’ll notice a few people that look familiar.
One downside to shooting in real locations is sometimes you get in rather cramped quarters. As you can see in the photo it’s not just people packed in tightly out of shot, it’s also equipment like lights. Lights that warm up the room quite a bit. Luckily on this day it was a rather quick shoot.
This was taken at the fabled Peter Pan Mini Golf course in Austin when pirate love was in the air on the set of Funemployment.