presskit - Media Design Imagingmdifilm.com/2016/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/the-chase-presskit.pdf · For all the scenes involved with the freight elevator, Johnny Wu opted to use

1265 W. 106th Street #1Cleveland, Ohio 44102

Tel: 216.373.3278Fax: 917.591.4748

www.mdifilm.com/[email protected]

MEDIA DESIGN IMAGING PRESENTS A MDI FILM "THE CHASE"ANNA HOFFMAN JOE SHININGERJON STAN CHRISTOPHER QUINN

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY BRANDON HARRISON EDITED BY JOHNNY K. WUASSOCIATE PRODUCERS SHAWN WICKENS/MARC MOSER

WRITTEN, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY JOHNNY K. WUhttp://www.mdifilm.com/thechase

www.mdifilm.com

MediaDesignImaging,Inc.

1265 W. 106th StreetCleveland, Ohio 44102

Tel: 216.373.3278 3

4. Synopsis

5. The Production

8. Credits

9. Artist Statement

10. Biographies

15. “We’ll Fix it in Post”

18. Stills

content

4


Tel: 216.373.3278

Synopsis

The Chase, written and directed by JohnnyWu, follows the plight of a young beauty asshe flees from a mysterious pursuer throughthe halls of an abandoned building. As she istrapped at a dead end inside of a freightelevator, all hope seems lost until fate placestwo rescuers in the pursuer’s path. A fightensues, but who will win? And is our damsel indistress any safer if the other guys win?

The Chase is the result of a self-imposedchallenge by the filmmakers to produce asilent, yet compelling martial-arts driven storyin an enclosed environment. Containing highly-choreographed fight scenes, stunt performers,wire-work and stylized lighting; The Chase isan attempt to create a live-action Anime.

Using the same location and scenario, a filmversion was shot by film purist Robert Banksfor the purpose of comparison between styleand medium.


Tel: 216.373.3278 5

Production

The Chase, a production that begun as an idea inNovember 2002 during Johnny Wu’s conversationwith Ray Elkin, Brandon Harrison, Shawn Wickens,and his martial arts student Y Yuen Chan. Theconcept was to create a concise and entertainingfight sequence with no dialogue while theproduction team would learnthe many aspect of filming anaction sequence. Y agreed tobe cast as the Chaser forthis short, his martial artsinvaluable to the part.

In January, 2003, with somepersonal issues, Y had to stepdown. Johnny started hissearch to fit the differentroles for this short project.During a closed audition, he cast Anna Hoffman,Joe Shininger, Jon Stan and Christopher Quinn toplay the different roles required. Although none ofthem had any previous acting experiences, Johnnyfelt it wouldn’t be difficult to deliver the vision hehad.

Photos were taken of the freight elevator wheremost of the fight sequences would take place. Tomake the fight scenes interesting, Johnnyrequested his martial arts friend Andrew Sokol, a5th degree black belt in Tae Kwan Do to

choreograph. Andrew came up with manyinteresting motions while staying in theunderstanding that we would like to experimentwith how to wire actors for scenes.

Production begun on April 26, 2003, a full daystarting 9am till 8pm. We broke down in groups to

increase productivity. JohnnyWu and 2nd DP Ryan Polackworked with actress AnnaHoffman in the beginningsequences at the frontstaircase, elevator and thehallway, while main DPBrandon Harrison set thedifferent lighting needs forthe freight elevator. At thesame time, Associateproducer, Shawn Wickens

capturing several backplate shots to be used forvisual effect editing.

For all the scenes involved with the freightelevator, Johnny Wu opted to use several camerasto film in different angles. This helped reduce thetime to obtain enough footage for editing. Duringpreparation, we used Canon Xl-1, Sony VX2000,Sony TRV900, these three cameras are 3ccdprosumer equipments. In addition, a 4th camera, a1ccd small portable Canon PCl-1 is used for pickuprolls. All cameras are set with the same levels, and

6


Tel: 216.373.3278

we have agreed not to set any of the cameras inits progressive mode, this would provide a widerlatitude for Wu during editing.

About 85% of the raw footage, over 400minutes, were shot on April 26th, and just twodays later, Johnny Wu created a rough cut (wiresand all) and posted online for the cast and crew toview.

While talking to his friend Greg Petusky, an awardwinning photographer and composer for theCleveland Museum of Natural History, he agreedto compose the score for the Chase withorchestral sound. The piece he created was used inthe beginning sequences. Although it was a greatpiece of cinema score, it wasn’t enough to speedup the pace of the story. Johnny Wu then addedsome additional sound and beats to convert Mr.Petusky’s work into a high-energy piece toaccompany the sequence where the Diva waschased.

Additional sounds were included, such as sound fx,punches, kicks and another score for the fightsequences were slowly finished by Wu’s own frameby frame synching.

On a later date, an intern, Michael Dunkle helpedcreate the opening smoke-fade-away title forthe short, and Johnny Wu started in working withPinnacle’s Commotion Pro 4.0 to slowly removethe wires of one scene. A 40 frame scene tookabout 8 hours to finally remove the wires. A fewminor effects were created.

There were 3 more areas that require additionalwire removal work, but due to time constraints, itwas impossible for Johnny to work on. In thebeginning of August 2003, during an emailconversation with Cleveland filmmaker WilliamJohns, Mr. Johns agreed to take the task to


Tel: 216.373.3278 7

remove the wires, and thanks to him, and afterover 30 hours of frame by frame work usingPhotoshop and After Effects, the wire removalwas complete. Tweaking the entire short with alight blue color to make it a cold environment wasthe last process, and the movie was completed

The Chase, during its rough cut through its finalversion, was posted online for many onlinefilmmaking boards to review, at the Indieclub.comand Adobe’s forum, it seems everyone had goodthings to say about the 3 minutes 30 secondsshort.

We hope audiences beyond the Internet will enjoythe final version of “The Chase”.

Another version of the same short is currently inpost-production stage. Robert Banks Jr. shot thesame short with different actors to reflect hisversion of the story, Robert shot his with 16mmcameras applying the same principles and usingsimilar angle shots. His version will be editedtogether on a flatbed. Both films will later besent for a 16mm print and projected to big screenfor image and style comparison.

8


Tel: 216.373.3278

CreditsThe Diva

ANNA HOFFMAN

The ChaserJOE SHININGER

Protector 1JON STAN

Protector 2CHRISTOPHER QUINN

Produced, Written and Directed byJohnny K. Wu

The Chasing (2003) composed byGreg Petusky

Audio/Music mixed byJohnny K. Wu

Edited byJohnny K. Wu

Associate ProducersShawn Wickens & Marc Moser

Director of PhotographyBrandon Harrison

First Assistant DirectorShawn Wickens

Cinematography ConsultantRobert Banks Jr.

2nd unit Director of PhotographyRyan Polack

3rd unit CameraTim Hoffman

Fight Choreographer/Safety DirectorAndrew Sokol

Audio Mixing/GripRay Elkin

Storyboard/GripC. M. Holtwick

FX MakeupTom Luhtala

Assistant MakeupCarla L. Walker

Wire SafetySam Jones, Mark Pittenger,

Peter G. Taylor, Tom Trassare Jr

Visual FXWilliam Johns

Visual Effect AssistantsCharisse Pinzone, Michael Charles Dunkle

Production AssistantsCharisse Pinzone, Renata Tomicic, Anna Boroughs

The crew and cast of The Chase would like to thank thefollowing for their support and dedication:

Loresa Novy, 2044 Euclid Partners,Wild Planet Toys, Inc., Oakley, Inc.


Tel: 216.373.3278 9

By Johnny Wu

Being a computer geek since 1983, I’ve alwaysfound technology to be fascinating. The same canbe said for any kind of creative visual endeavor.Ever since I was young, I have been fond ofcreating visual arts that poked fun at myteachers (moku-comics), competing in artcompetitions, and organizing visual-related events(dancing, choreographed shows, etc). Slowly, thisfondness has built up inside me and now enhancesmy creativity.

Blending art and technology is what enables me toexcel in creating a different short film style thanyou see commonly today. Each has its own genreand taste, and each is completed with the use ofmy own resources (computers, cameras, lights, andpersonal skills). All my films have a style totallydifferent from each other.

Each project has helped me to understand thedifferent areas of filmmaking and truly pushes meto my limits by helping me strive to learn the many

Artist Statement

styles of visual arts.All of this is possiblewith the help oftechnology.

I hope to continuedoing projects of thecreative nature andalso breaking rules in“indie” filmmaking. Tome, making anindependent film is an expression of ideas,concepts, dreams, and sometimes even fantasies.While transforming my stories into a visualinterpretation, I also crave the need to break thedifferent molds set by most independentfilmmakers. I do not play by the rules, nor createmy films based on the rules set by most people inthe filmmaking industry.

I believe in creation that is not limited by thesociety.

10


Tel: 216.373.3278

Biographies

Johnny K. WuDirector/Writer/Producer

With an MBA specializing inmarketing, Johnny has beeninvolved in visual and audio mediacreation since 1998 when he co-founded an independentfilmmaking company called MediaDesign Imaging (MDI). Since then,he has helped small and mediumbusinesses to develop focusedvisual media through commercialand corporate videos anddocumentaries.

Johnny wrote and directed his first feature filmTwisted in 1998. This movie is based on a truestory and featured newcomers Jim Auyueng andSean Faris. In 2000, Johnny created an oralhistory documentary entitled An AmericanHistory: Resettlement of Japanese Americans inGreater Cleveland. The documentary received aCleveland Chapter Japanese American CitizensLeagues’ Community Service Award and was airedin many cities.

Since then, Johnny and his team at MDI has beenfeatured in many publications including the Smart

Business magazine, ClevelandFreeTimes, Cleveland’s SceneMagazine, and FilmThreat.com.Johnny has attended many eventsspeaking on behalf of MDI andlocal independent filmmakers. Healso contributed enormously inhelping several nonprofitorganizations with his creativemedia talent and logisticsknowledge. He planned and producednumerous events for theseorganizations including a benefitheld at the Hard Rock Café in

Universal City with participants that includedAlicia Keys, Steven Seagal, Uncle Kracker, KevinBacon, Kid Rock, Will Smith, Eve, PamelaAnderson, and many others. During his 2 yearscommuting between Cleveland and Los Angeles, hehas worked directly with such public relation firmsas PMK, Lee Solters and Co., and Roger andCowan.

Locally, Johnny is a supporter for IndependentPictures, formerly known as the Ohio IndependentFilm Festival. He helped successfully produce theirannual fundraiser “Summer Crush”, which consistsof several workshops that include instructionfrom the Director of Photography at WVIZ/


Tel: 216.373.3278 11

PBS. Nationally, Johnny is involved with severalorganizations including the American Federationof Film Producers, Indieclub.com, the InternationalKarate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame, and World ofHead Family Sokeship.

Johnny has filmed, produced and directed severalshort films, including The John Doe Projectseries. John Doe’s The Vigilante and John Doe’s ABusiness Day were screened at the 3rd AnnualMidwest Music Conference and Film Festival in2002 and at the 2002 Ohio Independent FilmFestival and Market. Both are now available inDVD through ShortKutzdvd.com, Indieclub.com,and Publifilm.com.

Throughout the years, Johnny has helped severalCleveland filmmakers produce their own films.Some of these filmmakers include Alex Michaels,Robert Banks, David Karges, and David Manocchio.

Other projects produced by Johnny Wu and theMDI team include:

* Warped Boxes, a sadistic short story currentlyavailable on DVD distribution via Publifilm.com andShortKutzdvd.com.* The Chase, a 3-minute fight-choreographedshort film, currently online at http://www.mdifilm.com/thechase* The Raven, feature film with principalphotography planned in Los Angeles in 2004. Co-

produced by Steven Lebed, with participation fromNeal L. Fredericks, Al Leong, and others.

Marc MoserAssociate Producer

Over the years ofstudy, practice andexperience bring to theset a persona whichwill undoubtedly berecognized by the filmindustry as sheergenius. His beginningswere hashed out withmany other

independent film makers yet, he seems to besingled out for the respect, courtesy andknowledge of film production which make him thebest all around choice for this series. Moser has areal working knowledge of all aspects related tobringing about the best from any script. He hasworked in front of and behind the camera as anactor and cinematographer. Also his input has beenan asset to several up and coming directors andproducers of future award winning independentproductions. Mr. Moser is a key member andpartner of the MDI team that without hiscontribution and support would not make thingshappen easily. Moser plays John Doe in A BusinessDay and The Vigilante.

12


Tel: 216.373.3278

Shawn WickensAssociate Producer/First AssistantDirector

A member of the MDIproduction for nearlyfive years and fromthe start of the firstfilm project, Twisted,Shawn brings a keen knowledge of multiple crewpositions. Shawn has taken numerous writingcourses, including those at the Second CityTraining Center and his first completedscreenplay was a finalist at the 2002 LosAngeles International Horror/Thriller FilmFestival (A.K.A. Shriekfest). He is also on theBoard of Trustees for Independent Pictures whichruns the Ohio Independent Film Festival andMarket that had premiered several shortsdirected by Shawn including John Doe’s A BusinessDay which received 3.5 star review atFilmThreat.com and Drinking Games

When not helping out independent filmmakers onprojects, or working on his own, Shawn works as adirector, editor, camera operator for the City ofAmherst’s Public Access Station. There, he is thedirector of the WACC’Y Movie Show, whichshows old, B&W monster and sci-fi moviesinterspersed with comedy bits and stand-uproutines.

Brandon HarrisonDirector of Photography

With a degree in architecture, always been fond inexpressing his creativity through arts and design.Brandon started participating at the first 5 DPWorkshop held 3 years ago. As a professionalphotographer, he has expressed much interest inworking in motion pictures. In 2000, Harrison wasworking under the wings of Robert Banks and wasone of the instrumental key grip and assistantcamera for many of Banks shorts and films. In2001, he joined Independent Pictures as a board

member and helped in creatingmany programs thatdedicate the freedomof expression throughmedia art. Harrison hadworked with Wu innumerous videoproduction including co-charied the first fund

raising event Summer Crush, onJuly 30, 2002 with over 400 participants and

media coverage. Harrison is one of the two mainMDI team members that Wu and Moser stronglyrely on. Harrison was the key grip/DP for the 2ndunit team during Warped Boxes shoot and he isalso the director of photography for Wu’s JohnDoe’s One Time, the John Doe 3rd installment.


Tel: 216.373.3278 13

Robert Banks Jr.CinematographyConsultant

Robert has been working inthe real of experimentalcinema and photographywith such vigor and quality

that he has become knownas one of the leading talents

of this medium in Clevelandwhose work is underlined with

the belief that film is theextension of photography.

Robert utilizes classic method of filmmanipulation to bring forth a vivid display of filmloops and film tests involving a nude figure,sculptures, oil paints, and clay. The result is a highenergy stop motion montage which complementsthe entire exhibition.

It is hoped by Robert that people will come to abetter understanding of the ideas in his work inthat cinema is indeed an extension ofphotography.

Robert directed the 2nd version of The Chase in16mm reversal film stock to experiment thedisplay of cinematography differences andcomparing the final products between two visualformat: digital and film.

Andrew SokolFight Choreographer/Safety Director

Andrew Sokol has been teaching Taekwondo, Judoand Hapkido since 1982 at numerous locationsaround Cleveland, including the Case WesternReserve University, Kim’s Martial Arts Schools inNorth Ridgeville and Fairview Park, to name a few.He was one of the founder for the MiamiUniversity Korean Martial Arts Society inOxford, Ohio. Andrew Sokol was an instrumentalkey member to help made Han Wei NationalTournament a success from 1995-1998 that washeld at ClevelandState University.Andrew Sokol alsohad done manydemonstration andworkshops onself-defense andthe Koreanmartial arts.Andrew firstinvolved withHayWire featurefilm produced byJohnny Wu and later by Wu’s request, he helped inThe Chase as Fight Choreographer/SafetyDirector plus also starring at Robert Banks’version of The Chase.

14


Tel: 216.373.3278

C. M. HoltwickStoryboard/Grip

C.M. Holtwick is an up and coming filmmaker inthe Cleveland area. The Chase is the secondproject that CM has worked on with MDI alongwith John Doe 3. He has gripped other localCleveland productions such as Dave Karges’ GhostTour and John Baumgartner’s Prom. AlthoughC.M. is always toying around with new ideas andconcepts for various films, he steadily works asthe webmaster at the Chronicle Telegram inElyria, Ohio. Aside from his experience with theinternet and film, C.M. spends much of his freetime working in photography, digital imaging, anddesign. For more information about C.M. Holtwickand his work visit his ever changing website athttp://www.fountaingeo.com.

Tom LuhtalaFX Makeup

Tom Luhtala’s love of film and art is the drivingforce behind Cleveland FX. While huge budgetmovies are fine for the most part, they are drivenby money and sadly, too few offer anythingworthy of $8 a icket. Independent films offer amuch better opportunity for the artist to conveyhis vision and story unmolested to the audience.To be able to do this the producer and director

must have access to high quality special effects,and most importantly they have to be able toafford them, that’s where Cleveland FX comes in.Offering high quality special effects at anaffordable price Cleveland FX hopes to servethose wanting to make their vision a reality in theCleveland area. It doesn’t matter if it’s astudent film, a short, digital, or a feature. Checkout his website at www.clevelandfx.com

William JohnsVisual FX

Bill is a Cleveland area writer,producer, and director, whosays he ‘toys’ with SpecialFX. Having created a medalionprop and a scene that lookslike a furry creature beingblown away for his awardwinning short film, “We HaveYour Daughter” , he offeredto help on “The Chase” by removing our fightscene wires. Though he only used Adobe After FXand Photoshop for this job, he’s also usedLightwave 3D with eerie success in another shortfilm called, “Too Good to be True”, which isavailable for viewing at www.TriggerStreet.com.


Tel: 216.373.3278 15

“We’ll fix it in post”

Those four little words (and one contraction) strikefear in the hearts of CGI artists and FX animatorseverywhere, and now I know why. Although manythings cannot be erased on the set and require specialFX, there are some things that would take more timethan the producer or director can afford at thatmoment, so they opt for post production FX. Notlong ago, it was called rotoscoping and it requiredthat prints be made of every single frame of film foreach F’ected scene. The prints were then retouchedusing inks and bleach and then re-photographed backto film. This process resembled the old flip books,because artists literally had to flip through theirphotos so they could see the motion and be able totell if the rotoscoped effect worked. I’ll admit thattoday it’s a lot easier, but still very time consuming.

I saw Johnny Wu’s short film “The Chase” in it’s “un-F’ected” stage and naively mentioned I could take thewires out… “How hard could it be,” I thought. Well, myfirst attempt sucked. (I used Adobe AfterFX, so if

you’re not familiar with it, you might get a little lostand I apologize, but I get lost in it too.) I started bylaying the original clip on the timeline, duplicating it,and then creating a mask on the top clip thatsurrounded the rope as closely as I could get. I thenreversed the mask, so that where the rope was, therewas now a hole. Then I just moved the bottom clip afew pixels to the right and the rope was gone.However, when played back, instead of a rope, therewas now a Predator-like stutter that was just asdistracting.

I started over by first finding a few frames thatrevealed most of the background. Then bycompositing in Adobe Photoshop, I was able torecreate the whole background sans rope and actors.This background plate would then be used underneaththe original clip to bleed through to. Now, in a coupleof the shots the camera was not locked down, so Ihad to place my plate above the clip, set it’stransparency to half, and then ‘track’ the motion ofthe clip below it. This sometimes meant rotating, and

16


Tel: 216.373.3278

so it helped that there were a couple of good rivets ormarks on the floor that were clear enough to line upthe plate. Once the motion was tracked, I could play itand adjust it until you couldn’t notice that there wasa stationary background on top of the moving one.With that done, I returned the opacity to 100% andplaced the background plate below the original clip.Now my original rope mask would show the backgroundplate where the rope was. This worked for anytimethe rope was only on the background and was notinterfering with the action.

In one particularly nasty scene (FX-wise), there was arope, brightly lit and running right across the actor’sface and arms. However, since he moved during theshot, the new background plate would only work on…well, …the background, so I had to come up withsomething else for his body parts. I began, by onceagain taking a couple of representative frames intoPhotoshop and creating a ‘face brush’ and two ‘armbrushes’ with the rope removed (this was done by justpainting out the rope like any artist). These brushelements were then imported into AfterFX and laid inplace over the original clip. Again, transparency wasused to line up the elements so that they tracked his

movements under the rope and then a mask was usedon each element to isolate the rope. The transparencywas reset to 100%, the masks were reversed and therope disappeared. These moving elements under therope are what really took the most time, so for whatwould have taken an extra hour on the set to MOVE,required 20 hours in the computer to RE-move.

Finally, where the bright red harness was visible, I hadto take each frame into Photoshop and paint it out,no tricks, no digital magic, just cuttin’ and pastin’little pieces of his jeans into the red areas. The onlything you want to remember is to try and take thesame pasties from the same areas in every frame,otherwise the ‘painting’ will look animated when playedback. The same single frame painting technique wasused where the actor’s shadow (with rope) met theun-roped, un-shadowed background.

All in all, it was quite a challenge, and if you’re lookingfor it, you can see the plates and the strangecontortions of his face, but in context, at realtime,it’s not bad. You’re welcome to email me withquestions or comments at [email protected] – BillJohns


Tel: 216.373.3278 17

18


Tel: 216.373.3278


Tel: 216.373.3278 19

20


Tel: 216.373.3278


Tel: 216.373.3278 21

Documents

presskit - Media Design Imagingmdifilm.com/2016/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/the-chase-presskit.pdf · For all the scenes involved with the freight elevator, Johnny Wu opted to use