the making of Enter the Savior - a memoir
The Recap & a "6th Sense" Twist!
Part 6/6

Man, what a rush
We walked out of the alleyway and encountered a mailman who we asked to take a picture of us.

Team Enter the Savior.  Mark, Young and Mike.  This was the moment when we were finished with everything.

Me and Mark standing on Canal street: good friends and brothers in filmmaking.

Me and Mike standing at the alley entrance: good friends and Asian brothers in filmmaking (actually Mike is a lawyer now)

I experienced a tremendous relief.  It felt like the end of an excruciating school semester, where the worst of the final exams and projects have finally blown over…and I was free. 

I had shot a total of 14 rolls of film.  This equals about 35 minutes of raw footage.  I sent them into be developed.


Left: Me and Mark in an editing room.  Right: Me, Mark and Mike in the school lounge.

Astounding.  Simply astounding.
The footage looked incredible.  Thanks to Mark and Mike, the martial arts sequences were beautifully photographed.  Even the 18 fps fast motion looked convincing.  And Mark did a phenomenal job with acting and doing everything else.  Julian looked great, even my acting looked good!  All shots were in sharp, sharp focus, and all shots had beautiful exposure.  It was amazing, of all the hundreds of shots that were taken, not one was out of focus, too dark or too light (unless it was intended).  I had one hell of a crew.  Mark and Mike, you guys rock.  The only technical difficulty was the last 3 seconds or so of film were overexposed in every roll, because we didn’t change film rolls in the dark.  But that was minor.

I sent all the film to be digitized onto miniDV so I could edit it later on my computer.

The recap
In hindsight, I look back at the experience with awe.  Not because of what I was able to accomplish in two and half short days, but because of the way God had set everything up so that it all worked out at the end.  Read carefully at the following, you will see what I mean.

Recall that I began my one month journey by boarding the New York bound bus.  I prayed hard during that trip, casting all my anxieties to the Lord, asking Him to help me be the best filmmaker I could be, and then come back with a film to show for.  During the trip, I remember being moved to tears during the prayer, as I felt the peace of God comfort me.

The inspiration
By the middle of the second week, I was faced with a dilemma.  Recall that time was critical because it was Wednesday night.  I only had two days out of the two weekends to shoot – not much time, and if I was to make a good film, I needed to have the story THAT night because I needed to scout for a location and the only time I had was on Thursday after classes.  Friday was out of the question because my crew begins shooting Friday morning.  So in a panic, I prayed my heart out that Wednesday night.  Then the inspiration for Enter the Savior came as a sudden floodgate of ideas after nearly experiencing writers block for two weeks straight.

The alleyway
Recall that the next day, on Thursday evening, within minutes of getting off the subway, I saw Cortlandt Alley, but immediately passed it off as being too wide.  I wanted something narrower.

Now remember that I mentioned that for one particular shot, in order to get me and Julian in frame at the same time, I had to move the camera all the way to the opposite wall of the alleyway.  If the alleyway had been any narrower, even by a few feet, I would not have been able to get the shot the way I wanted in addition to a huge portion of the footage because there wasn’t sufficient room to capture everything in the frame at once. 

Also recall that the first day of the shooting I was shocked to find that the alleyway was on the same block as the Canal-street subway exit (the day I scouted, I had gotten off at a different subway exit).  It only took a few minutes to walk to our shooting location.  The streets and sidewalk of Chinatown are crowded beyond belief on the weekends, and with humongous amounts of bulky and heavy equipment, walking even two blocks would have been overwhelmingly difficult and tiring.

Thus, Cortlandt Alley was the perfect location.  Remember how I was complaining to God, why he gave me such a great idea and then refused to show me a place to shoot.  But actually He did that Thursday evening when I was scouting, within minutes of me getting off the subway.  I was just too blind to realize it.

God took into consideration that we would be hauling around heavy things in a jam packed town.  And so, God, being the omnipotent, all knowing God that He is, with a complete knowledge of New York city’s vast and complicated urban architecture, helped me craft a story that took place in this one particular alleyway that He knew was close to the subway exit.

He cared enough to know our physical burdens to provide a location that would be convenient.  He also knew that the alleyway needed to be a certain width, else I would not be able to properly film many shots, and although I didn’t realize it at the time, it would have been extremely difficult to do martial arts in the narrow alley I originally envisioned.  God not only knows, but He cares.

The perfect 2-man crew
I formed my crew in the first week, long before I had even begun to think about my film project.  By seemingly fortuitous “chance,” I met Mike and Mark on the first day and we decided to be a group.  As time wore on, I realized that they were the two best guys I could ask for.  Without their tireless devotion and patience, this film would not have been possible.  They never once complained to me that my film took as long as it did.  They did everything efficiently, effectively and accurately. 

Now take special note of the significance of Mark’s appearance.  Out of the whole class and a few hundred actor head shots, Mark was the only guy who could pull off the role of the Savior figure in the film.  Many people who saw the film proclaimed that Mark was perfectly suited for the role and his performance was angelically professional.  “Where did you find this guy?  He’s so perfect!”

I formed the group with Mark without realizing that he would eventually play such a vital and significant role not only off camera but on camera.

God foresaw the idea He was going to give me, and knew that the film would take much time and commitment.  He thus gave me two of the best guys in the class who He knew were smart, hard workers and would go with me all the way and then some.

He also foresaw the need for someone angelic-looking to portray the Savior role and thus made sure not only that I was grouped with Mark, but that Mark, of all people in the world, of all the places in the world, would be with me at that film school, that summer of 2002, at the same place and at the same time, and in the same class.

The actor
Recall that I had no idea what Julian really looked like.  Head shots tend to be quite different from the actual appearance of the person, but because it was on such short notice and he was the only person who could come out to film, I had no other choice.

But, oh what a choice!  Julian was tall, built, athletic and a great actor, even without dialogue.  Many actors doing projects like these, knowing that they will not be paid, end up copping out, complain about everything, and lackadaisically do their roles.  But the fact that I was able to meet an actor who was willing to devote so much time without pay and be so committed is wonderful.

God realized that I needed someone who was big and was able to portray a threatening looking drug pusher.  So He made sure to provide me with someone who was big and threatening looking.  As I recalled the faces of the 5 actors that I had originally narrowed down for the role, I now realize that Julian was the best candidate. 

The technical perfection
Most other people in my class were less than motivated and caused each other a tremendous amount of stress.  A lot of the other groups ran into a ton of technical difficulties, including shots that were out of focus, underexposed, overexposed or just plain bad.  And it was expected, we were all beginners.  To complicate things, because we were shooting film and had no replay monitors, we had no way of knowing if our shots were successful or not.  But strangely enough, during my shooting, I ran into almost no technical difficulties.  Exposure, focus and camera movement was flawless.

It not only attests to the competence of Mike and Mark, but the fact that all my shots came out flawless the way they did was too good to be true. But it was.  God had his hand in everything.  Furthermore, the way the shots of Mark came out looked almost supernatural.  And it wasn’t just the filter that I used.  Another film that was made by someone else in the class using the center spot filter did not quite generate the same effect.

Where I lived
It was tremendously advantageous that I lived within 15 minutes of the film school, on the edge of Times Square.  Many nights that month my crew stayed up well into the night, as late as 4am.  The further the distance I stayed from the school, the more dangerous it was to walk the streets late at night.  The people that I stayed with were acquaintances of my parents.  Generous and kind, they only charged me only $200 that month, despite my insistence to give them more. 

God foresaw the late nights and wanted to make sure that I could get back home quickly and safely to sleep.  He provided me with this apartment and wonderful couple. 

In Summary
There were a million and one things that could have gone wrong.  My actor could have chosen to not show up.  Worse yet, I could have not even found a qualified actor, or one at all.  I could have been grouped with people I didn’t get along with, who weren’t motivated, or were less than willing to go the extra mile for me.

And worse yet, that would have more than been likely since we were not given much time to get acquainted with each other.  It could have rained both weekends.  The equipment could have broke.  The exposure and focus could have been off.  The location could have been closed off for whatever reason.  At one point, Mike fell down the stairs in the subway while carrying an 80 pound lighting kit.  If he was injured badly, we would’ve gone to the hospital, and be short a vital man in the crew.  But he was ok.  I could have injured or broken something while filming the martial arts sequences on the concrete road.

Could it all be coincidence?  Either I am the luckiest guy in the world, or God was there with me.  I don’t even know how to describe the depth of my emotions during and after this 1 month experience. 

During:
Fear, doubt, disbelief, worry, stress, frustration, anger, desperation, hopelessness, excitement, joy, happiness, exuberance, glory, gratefulness, humbleness.

After:
Awe, reverence, humility, shame, gratefulness, excitement, joy and peace.

All these lumped together!  I awed and revered God for his amazing plan.  I was humbled and shamed for my lack of faith.  I was grateful to his grace.  And I was excited, joyful and full of peace that the project was over and the mission was completed. 

Thanks for reading, I hope you found it insightful and inspiring.  I love email!  Send me something at regenesisfilm@yahoo.com or leave something at the guest book!

Young-H. Lee is an aspiring director, computer animator, actor and martial artist who does freelance web design on the side.  He is in his final year at the University of Maryland - College Park and will receive his B.S. in Computer Science in May 2004.  After that, he hopes to go to film school in California (USC or UCLA - he dreams) and eventually become a director of Hollywood films.  He gives all glory and praise to God. 

Check out Young's other film and websites online now!
http://www.innovativestudio.com - company website
http://www.glue.umd.edu/~younglee/big3d/regenesis1.htm - Award winning computer animation.
http://www.xanga.com/zmmmm - his online journal