the making of Enter the Savior - a memoir
The First Week of Challenge
Part 2/6

The first day in a big, big city


 One of the many interesting things I saw in NY.  This man walk around for hours holding a Bible in the air with this message on the back of it.  It reads:

The next morning, I woke up at 7:00am and rushed out the door.  I headed to the subway and even though I had visited the school yesterday, I was unclear how to get to the film school.  I took some train that I thought was going in the direction I wanted to go but it ended up going the wrong direction.  I jumped off and got onto another train that went the right direction but didn’t go to my school.

By that point in time, I was so hopelessly lost, I just got off the subway and walked the rest of the way while asking random people for directions.  I arrived at the school 40 minutes late and made a big embarrassing grand entrance in front of 200 some people who were staring at me while I strode on in.  They were listening to the director of the school (an apparent big time producer of Hollywood films and Broadway shows).    I also had to introduce myself last because that was what everyone who came on time did already.

Enter the Crew Members
So I get my materials and walk into my first class, “The Director’s Craft” with an Austrian woman who reminded me of Governor Swarzenegger.  I listened intently to what she had to say, as she presented to us video clips and hands on exercises with a Dvcam (digital video).  I found the class to be extremely interesting and I also met the people who I would be working with for the rest of the month.  The person sitting directly behind me had just gotten out of the British armed forces and decided to pursue film.  His name was Mark Hayden, and he would eventually become one of my closest friends while at the academy.  

So I remember him.  Mark.  The first day we met.  It was after the first directing class.  We were sitting in the lounge and getting acquainted with each other.  Mark sat next to me, and we started chatting.  Certainly seems like a nice guy.  Perhaps I should ask him to be in my group? 


Mark Hayden


 Mike Chen

Anyways, within the first week, I got to meet and know a few people including Mike, Mary and a few others.  I remember having lunch with Mike, Mark and Mary as well as some other folks, one other guy from Switzerland.

By the middle of the week, it came time to form groups for the rest of the workshop.  I had hardly gotten to know anyone well enough!  How could I know who was dependable and willing to work hard and not screw me over?  I could only hope that all my group members had the same mindset as I and we would be a good team.  At that time, I had been more comfortable with Mike, Mark and Mary than anyone else and we formed a group.  Everyone else formed theirs and so it was set. 

For the rest of the week, we were immersed in the technical aspects of production, learning how to work the camera’s aperture, focus, load the film, shoot etc.  The first weekend’s task was to go out and shoot a short 1-shot scene, mostly as a technical exercise to get acquainted with the equipment.  My crew and I checked out the equipment on Friday morning and worked all weekend long, traveling all around New York City by metro and taxi to make our first films.

The second week - Here it comes...

"I began to panic as the hour passed vainly.  Still nothing.  Desperate, I got on my knees."

It was the beginning of the second week of the month.  I began to feel the pressure.  I needed an idea for my final film project.  Because we only have 3 production weeks (the last week of the month was reserved for editing the final film), the second week is when I needed the final idea. 

As I mentioned before, I wanted to make sure that I went home with an awesome film product that I could show the world and say, “hey this is what I can do.  This is why I should be a filmmaker.”  I wanted to justify my father’s $5,000 investment.  I did not want to make a “film” featuring 10 different shots of a not-particularly-attractive girl running across the camera followed by a suicide (film student inside joke).


My bedroom by the second week (messy!)

I wanted something great and wonderful.  And I only had 2 days to shoot it in the last two weeks left (1 day a weekend).  It was a lofty, almost unrealistic goal.  But, as always, ambition and drive got the best of me.

So it was around Monday or Tuesday on the second week that I began to feel the pressure.  “What to film, what to film” I asked myself.  What was going to be my main idea?  The busyness of the two days made me push it off to the side until Wednesday night.

Now this was THE NIGHT when I had to absolutely come up with my idea.  Why?  The reason being, that I needed to scout (find) a location tomorrow (Thursday), so I could begin shooting Friday (which is when we get our equipment).  If I didn’t know where to film my movie, then, I would be in trouble.  Simple as that.  Now this was WEDNESDAY night.  Not Wednesday during the day.  The night time.  It was about 8 or 9pm.  I sat there on my bed trying to come up with something…I could not come up with anything.  This always happens.

I began to panic as the hour passed vainly.  Still nothing.  Desperate, I got on my knees.

With all my heart, I prayed, “Father God, my Lord, you are the greatest artist in the universe.  Please Lord, as the master of all creativity, inspire me, oh Lord, just as you have done in the past, inspire me divinely, so that I may make a film for your glory, and not mine.  Lord, please, inspire me.”

Then, something amazing happened.



 The original script, scanned in.  Notice the wear and tear of it, as I had hauled all my sweat-rain soaked notes around the dirty alleyway for the entire shoot.

A sudden influx of images, ideas, thoughts, visions flooded my mind!

KUNG-FU, CHRIST, JESUS, DRUG ADDICTION, FREEDOM, ALLEYWAYS, FRIENDSHIP.

WHAT WHAT WHAT?!

A conglomerate of seemingly random thoughts seemed to fit together somehow!  I wasn’t even sure how or what was going on, but at that moment, I knew the Lord had heard me.

I picked up my pen and pad.  I began to write the script.  Unbelievably, I wasn’t even sure what this whole story was about.  I could not “see” or play out the thing from beginning to end.  I just had this complex medley of ideas that I had to sort out on paper.  The remarkable thing was, I did no more brainstorming that night, I already had all that I needed in terms of my plot.  I began to write.  I wrote non-stop, from beginning to end.  In less than an hour, I had finished my script.  I caught my breath and reviewed it.  Good story, I thought to myself, good story.  It wasn’t an awesome story, but lets be realistic, my first short film, in a shooting time of 2 days, I couldn’t expect to make a feature film. 

It was about 10pm.  I began to storyboard.  And OH DID I STORYBOARD.  I never stopped until it was almost 3am and I had to sleep because I was so exhausted.  I went to school late the next morning but really exhilarated.  I continued my storyboarding any extra free time that I had.



Just a few pages from a thick pad of storyboard drawings.  I crossed out each picture frame as they were shot.

 My original script is as follows:

Enter the Savior
by Young-H. Lee

Chapter 1
EXT. ALLEY END – EVENING
PETER struggles desperately with himself as he is about to inject himself with drugs.

Suddenly something catches Peter’s eyes.  He looks up, forgetting the syringe momentarily.

CUT TO other side of alley.  A figure enveloped with light reaches out to Peter.  Peter stares in wonder and curiosity.

Figure has a warm smile on his face.  Figure waves his hand downward.  Peter, as if his hand was suddenly not his, looks in amazement as his hand stops trembling and the desire for drugs is gone.  He drops syringe in front of him.

Chapter 2
Figure smiles, continues to offer his hand.  Peter struggles to get up, but he is too weak.  Peter tries as hard as he can, and gets up halfway, but falls.  He looks at figure.  Figure is still smiling warmly, still offering his hand.  Peter tries harder and gets up all the way, takes one step forward, trips on something, but suddenly figure catches him.  Peter looks in amazement, and begins smiling.

Together they begin walking toward the light.

Chapter 3
Suddenly, a dark shadow envelops Peter and Figure.

EVIL appears.  Peter recognizes Evil, and pushes Figure to the side, as if saying I can handle this.  Figure looks on with concern, objects, but Peter insists that he handle this himself.  Evil smiles menacingly, and holds out the drug needle and offer it to Peter.  Peter pushes Evil’s hand away in disgust.  Evil offers it again, this time forcefully, Peter pushes hand away again.  Evil’s face’s evil grin disappears and turns into horrific frown.  Peter becomes afraid.  Evil strikes Peter.

Peter falls violently to the ground.  In hatred, Peter stands up (weakly) and throws a few futile punches at Evil, Evil grabs Peter’s throat and lifts Peter off the ground.  Peter is about to die.  Figure suddenly intervenes.

Chapter 4
Figure raises hand and Evil flies back, releasing Peter.  Peter on ground gasps for air.  Evil approaches Peter to finish him off.  Figure stoops down next to Peter.  Looks at Peter sternly, motion to him to continue fighting Evil.  Peter looks at Evil and is terrified, shakes head at figure, saying “no!”  Evil at that moment raises both arms to strike Peter.  But Figure suddenly raises both arms outward (crucifix) and blows Evil back.  Peter stands up.

Chapter 5
Figure’s head is bowed but looks at Peter.  Figure’s arms slowly close in on Peter’s head (as if to crown him with an invisible crown) and suddenly Peter is endowed with Kung Fu skills.  Eyes open and smiles confidently.  Evil is approaching again, a little more hesitant than before.  Peter runs toward Evil and attacks Evil.  Evil tries to withstand Peter’s newfound power.  But is beaten.  Peter makes one final finishing blow and destroys Evil.  Evil is gone.

Chapter 6
Peter is panting, tired from the battle, crouching on ground.  Figure warmly helps Peter to his feet.  They grab each other’s hands and walk out of the dark alley and into the light.  The syringe is seen left behind.

Chp. 6 – END

Armed with a script, the next step is to find the location that I will shoot the film in.

The Location

This is my original storyboard, and this is what I wanted: a narrow alleyway.


 Cortlandt Alley: the first alley-way I saw during my scouting.
It was a street-wide alleyway that I did not want to use.

I needed an alleyway.  That was for sure.  So I planned to go scout for a nice alleyway after classes on Thursday.  And because I got out of school at around 6pm, I only had about 2 hours before the sun set in.  So immediately after I got out of class, I took the subway to Chinatown.  I had learned from Mike that there were a lot of alleyways in little Italy and in Chinatown.

So I got off at around Canal Street and began to walk around.  Within minutes, I saw a wide alleyway called “Cortlandt alley.”  It was too wide for my film so I dismissed it immediately.  I walked around some more, time passed, and I began to feel a bit nervous.  After an hour, I had passed through many streets without any luck.  I saw several narrow alleyways that had the dimensions that I wanted, but either were closed off by a gate or were too clean.  On a side note, I wanted an alleyway that was very narrow, perhaps 10 feet wide at most.  The reason being was that I wanted to have shots where the Christ-figure would stand at the entrance of the alleyway with the sides of the buildings framing a narrow column of light that would envelop his figure.  This would symbolize his “descent” from heaven.

After another thirty minutes, I became desperate.  I began to grumble to God, “Hey, you gave me this awesome idea last night, and I need an alleyway to film it in.  Now there isn’t much sun left, so why haven’t you shown me the alley yet?”  I even went up to a homeless man and asked him what alleyways were around this area.  He told me the only one he knew of was Cortlandt alley, the one that I had already dismissed.  Finally, the sun went down, it got dark, and I got frantic.  I took the subway back to my apartment disappointed, confused and a little angry.  I kept questioning God and why He was doing this to me.  The only choice was just to use Cortlandt alley, although it was less than ideal.   

My Actor
I had begun my search for my main actor the next morning after my divine inspiration.  The film school had several books of headshots of actors willing to work without pay in student films.  I needed an actor able to effectively play the role of the drug pusher.  As I flipped through the pages, I kept my eye open for several things including body build, martial arts training and height.  Several hundred faces later, I had a list of about five people who I then tried to contact.

Only three of them responded to my inquiries, but due to timing, two were not able to make it.  That left me with only one person, Julian Song.  I was a little worried because I did not know what he really looked like, whether he was tall or short, whether he was buff or thin, but because I had to shoot this weekend, I had no other choice.