He\nlikes working out and cooking, which are his secrets of meditation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> How long have you been making films and videos?<\/strong> <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
After graduating collage in 2016, I have been\nwandering in the industry since. I went back to China in 2017, working in a\nproduction company for a while then came out and freelancing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> What film was your directorial debut? <\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Technically speaking, it would be a short film made in my Junior year for\na production class called Medium Rare. It\u2019s a story about an elder sister\nseeking revenge in her younger sister when she came back to the house after a\nlong break. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> What is your recent film about? <\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Happy Hour Karaoke tells a story of a young kid spending Chinese New Year\nin his father\u2019s Karaoke. He fell in love with a hostess girl Fang Fang and\nspent a subjectively romantic time with her. Then he found out the secret\naffair between his father and her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> How did you go about casting for the film?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The casting process went on for a week or two and we received lots of\nresumes from different individuals and agencies. I casted the kid online since\nhe lived in another city. He behaved quite mature, telling his mother \u201cdon\u2019t\nmind my business\u201d when she tried to tell him what to say in front of the cam.\nIt caught my eye immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> What was the most important lesson you had to learn that has had a positive effect on your film? How did that lesson happen?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
During college, I\u2019ve never tried to come close to my private feelings and\nmemories. Before this short film, I had tried different genres of story, but I always\ntried to be rational. After I went back to China, things went here and there, I\nfinally decided to write a feature based on my memories back in collage. I felt\nlike walking on the edge of a cliff, but when I completed the whole script, the\nsatisfaction was very real. I started to force myself to walk closer to what\u2019s\nreally inside of me. Happy Hour Karaoke was based on my childhood memories. I\nwas a shy and introverted boy, and kept being thrown to an environment filled\nwith lust, wasted people and occasional violence. I still couldn\u2019t figure out\nhow much that experience had shaped me, but I know it\u2019s worth telling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> Tell<\/strong> us a bit about the other films you\u2019ve made and your other projects.<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Actually, I made a very low-budget (about 100 bucks) short film just before this one. It\u2019s called The Jokes of Sisyphus. It\u2019s about a frustrated writer trying to create a killer character in his novel, but never made it because he is trapped in his mediocre, repetitive life. The killer becomes real and makes a decision for him. It was a really small crew (me, three actors), which was totally different from my other production experience. The scale gave me much time to try different things, and the result wasn\u2019t bad. I\u2019ve also made a commercial for Volvo, and some other commercials\/music videos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/image-2.png\")
Photo Credit: Mo Mo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n - NY Glam:<\/strong> What role have film festivals played in your life so far?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
I remember back in sophomore year, Medium Rare got into a small film\nfestival in California. It was my first film festival experience. Me and the\nproducer Patrick wore our suits, drove an hour to a small theater with an unnoticeable\nentrance. It had a red carpet about 15 feet long. I walked very slowly on that\ncarpet, thinking, \u201cOh, maybe I could really become a filmmaker\u201d. Though I know\nreal world is tough and cruel, and that festival won\u2019t really take me anywhere,\nthe 15-feet red carpet still warms me up (maybe just a little bit) and reminds\nme that perhaps, I still have a small chance to really make films and survive\nin the industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> Is it harder to get started or to keep going? What was the particular thing that you had to conquer to do either?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m still struggling on the \u201cget started\u201d phase so definitely it was harder for me currently. Anxiety often attacks me because you never know when you will really be seen, yet time doesn\u2019t awaits you. Also I have to learn how to sell myself in the market while balancing the passion to write and create. I hate selling myself (and really bad at). Living in mainland China also puts me in dillema because many rich stories are happening, but few can be told due to environmental and political reasons. So finding a hidden voice and learning to tell it in an obscure way will be my third lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> How has your style evolved?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
It was a very hard question for me. I think I\u2019m\nstill on the way of discovering my style and I try not to analyze myself too\nmuch. So my short film, to some extent, represents my style. I might tell my\nfeature story in a colder, more objective way (if I have chance to make it). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> What has been your personal key to success? <\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t think I have a strong relationship with the word success, yet. I\nknow being honest is the key to start writing and creating. Success is\nsomething uncertain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> What are you thinking about doing next?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m preparing my feature film. It\u2019s also a karaoke story but focus more\non a family instead of a little kid. Wild Life by Paul Dano is a good\nreference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> Where does your studio want to go from here? <\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m working as a freelance director now. I do want my short film to be\nmore exposed and see if anyone likes it. My feature film Good times (as\nmentioned upon) is currently looking for possible investments and funds. I\nwould also like to find out if there\u2019s any chance to sell the project. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Exclusive interview with Solax Zhu – Filmmaker Solax is an independent filmmaker based in Beijing. He graduated from USC film school in 2016, spent a year in LA, and then came back to China for he found out that his motherland has the richest earth for his expression. His short films got into several film […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19191,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9050\/revisions\/19191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- NY Glam:<\/strong> Where does your studio want to go from here? <\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> What are you thinking about doing next?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> What has been your personal key to success? <\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> How has your style evolved?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> Is it harder to get started or to keep going? What was the particular thing that you had to conquer to do either?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> What role have film festivals played in your life so far?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> Tell<\/strong> us a bit about the other films you\u2019ve made and your other projects.<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> What was the most important lesson you had to learn that has had a positive effect on your film? How did that lesson happen?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> How did you go about casting for the film?<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> What is your recent film about? <\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- NY Glam:<\/strong> What film was your directorial debut? <\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n