Edmund Yeo

CONTINUED FROM PART 1 July Pia Film Festival and Skip City D-Cinema Movie Festival happened. One in Tokyo, the other in Saitama. I was happy to see Kazue Fukiishi at the premiere of Gegege Nyobo in Pia. She didn't see me, though.

It is 5:39am, 31st of December, 2010 as I am writing this. Less than 18 hours left for the year. I guess I'll just take a bit of time to reflect on the past year and make some sense out of it. My life is probably defined now, by my filmmaking career. Ever since I started actually directing in 2008, I had derived a lot of joy from creativity, to be surrounded by like-minded people, to indulge myself in films, to further my own craft. My last tweet was laced with some sort of irony-induced nostalgia.

It's quite a contrast, a year ago and today. A year ago, I had just finished the EXHALATION shoot and capped an unbelievable 2009. 2010 had been an incredible year as well (I am referring only to my own filmmaking career, anything outside that is a tragedy to describe), but as I am few hours away from the last day of 2010, I realize how quiet it is ending for me. Solitude is fine, all the peace and stuff, yet to be occasionally being surrounded by like-minded people during film shoots is a warm feeling, maybe that's why I enjoy them. Before I go for a more proper year-end blog entry, I'll just share with you all a very nice performance I had the pleasure of witnessing on Christmas day, of a lady named Yadako (you can follow her on Twitter ).

I posted about a bowling game in Christmas Eve yesterday. At that time, I was trying to find an editing software for my laptop that could help me edit the videos that I shot that night. In the past, I used the Adobe Premiere Pro for PC. Edited my first few short films (Chicken Rice Mystery, Fleeting Images, Love Suicides) with it, also edited telemovies like Cinta Tiga Segi with that too. But once I switched to shooting stuff on HD, I had to use Final Cut Pro on Mac, which felt immensely more convenient. (Ming Jin's two films WOMAN ON FIRE LOOKS FOR WATER and THE TIGER FACTORY, and my short films beginning from KINGYO, all done with Final Cut Pro) I still use a PC laptop, and I don't have Adobe Premiere Pro anymore, so I scoured the net, trying to find a good free editing software that could help me. Downloaded a few (I won't name them), but none of them seemed to be able to edit Canon 7D videos. The only good one I ended up using in the end was EDIUS, but it t

On a Christmas Eve, I had some delicious food at a place called Hana Hana in Shibuya. The food was delicious. There's this egg dish.

This concludes my Dubai International Film Fest 2010 recap. Before the closing ceremony, I was excited to meet the star of Lee Chang Dong's POETRY, Yun Jeong-Hee, seen here with her husband, the renowned pianist Paik Kun-Woo.

Beginning from the 16th of December, I was staying at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. It had a nice view of the Burj.

Okay, I'm back from Dubai, but I'll still have to give a quick recap on the very first screening of EXHALATION. So here's a quickie.

Here's Carey Mulligan, presenting Variety's International Movie Star of The Year award to Colin Firth, and also his acceptance speech, on the 13th of December, second day of the Dubai Film Fest. He's really eloquent. video page

So, I'm now at Dubai. Today, my film EXHALATION will finally have its world premiere at the Dubai Film Fest. But this will chronicle my first day in the place. Here are some pretty photos of me right before the opening ceremony on the 12th of December, courtesy of Indonesian documentary filmmaker Daniel Rudi Haryanto.

I'm now in Dubai, took numerous photos and videos. But before I give you all updates of my misadventures there, I'll do a recap of Cinemanila International Film Fest first. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I went to Cinemanila right after the Torino Film Festival/ Film Lab . 3rd of December. I arrived in Manila during the afternoon, I was picked up at the airport. I intended the festival to be one where I could rest, since the Torino schedule was so hectic. "Well, for tonight, I'll just relax, and maybe catch the SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD screening." I told Raymond, who was picking me up. His day job is actually as a TV writer. "Oh, I'm afraid you can't do it. The awards ceremony is tonight." Raymond said. "What? But today's only the second day of the festival!" I was flabbergasted. "Yes, but they wanted to get the awards out of the way first." Raymond said. So... that evening, we went to the award cere

I'm actually leaving for Dubai tonight. My short film EXHALATION is making its world premiere in the Muhr AsiaAfrica Shorts competition section at the Dubai International Film Festival.

After visiting the National Cinema Museum , I saw another group of student protesters. Dum dum dum.

Despite being slightly delayed by the student protests , the last pitching session went by pretty smoothly.

I'll take a break briefly from the Torino recaps to write about something that happened last night.

30th of November, my last day in Torino. It was an eventful day, so I'll need perhaps 3 blog entries to cover them all.

It was snowing on the morning of November 28th.

I flew to Torino on the 25th of November for the Torino Film Lab (which is part of the Torino Film Festival. 3 years ago, Ming Jin won a jury award in this festival for THE ELEPHANT AND THE SEA). When I arrived, it was already dark. I had to take a bus to the city center. The journey lasted around 45 minutes.

Yup, I came back from Manila two days ago. For the past two weeks I was in Torino (Italy) and Manila for the film festivals and other stuff. The screenwriting workshop I've been attending throughout the year concluded its session in Torino (the first two rounds were in Bratislava, back in March, and Brignogan, France, back in June). Then I just headed off immediately to Cinemanila Film Fest to present INHALATION and THE TIGER FACTORY. Many photos, videos to share, many stories to tell. My computer died (again) just when I reached Torino, hence the lack of updates. Frustrating, but it had happened so often that I've grown numb. I'm leaving for Dubai on the 11th. Not a lot of time to rest from my constant flying, haha.