The Changing Face

The mysterious "Green Light"

2010-01-26T16:18:00.000-08:00

In film, producers and screenwriters are always trying to figure out how to get the “green light” on their project. I’ve had a recent experience that allows me greater insight into the process. It comes from being the Chair, Chinese Canadian Advisory Panel to the Community Historical Recognition Program (CHRP). Our responsibility is to advise Minister for Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney on projects that address the history of the “Chinese Head Tax” and immigration restrictions.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, the "Head Tax" was an “admission fee,” levied solely on the Chinese, on those that immigrated to Canada. This lasted from about 1890-1923. Things got bleaker for the Chinese because when in order to stop any immigration, Canada instituted the “Chinese Immigration Act” (the Exclusion Act) which forbade almost all Chinese from immigrating, from 1923-1947. This was a dark time which we hope will never be repeated but yet must be remembered.

With a $5,000,000 fund, we have looked at projects with many perspectives, including artistic, legal, documentary and cataloguing. This is a competitive process and all of the selected projects show most, if not all, of the following attributes. It's an informal checklist that I've personalized.

1. Passion - do I love this idea? How much? Do I love it enough to spend 1, 10, 20 years trying to put this together?

2. Research & Knowledge – Is this a subject I really understand or the people I want to work with understand to a great depth?

3. Bureaucratic considerations – How much red tape do I have to go through in order to make this happen and do I want to go through it?

4. Community Support – How does the affected community feel about this and are they important to the project’s success?

5. Non-community interest - Will this project transcend local concern?

6. Credibility & Experience – Are the people who are proposing the project know what they’re doing or be able to convince others that they will be able to achieve their goals?

7. Creativity – Are we looking at something in a unique way?

8. Financing – Where is the money coming from? Am I expected to foot the entire bill, is there any other potential sources of funds?

When I think about broadcasters and film funding bodies I have dealt with, their decision-making is similar to how I address the issues above. Now in order to have a project go ahead, it is not necessary to score high on every single point but it is necessary to be able to address most of them in a realistic fashion.

For any of you that have a project idea that fits, the CHRP has just announced a new call. Details can be found at: CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Addressing the above is no guarantee of a "green light," but it is another tool you can use in trying to get inside the mind of the decision-makers.

How did THAT get made?

2010-01-20T14:13:00.000-08:00

As a filmmaker, I often get asked, “How did that horrible film get made?” The acting sucked, the story was no good, the music was too loud…” any number of things.

The easy answer is that someone convinced someone else to give him/her the money. And that is certainly true. But a question arises, “Why did someone give someone else the money?” Let’s look at some of the reasons.

1. FAMOUS ACTOR and REALLY FAMOUS ACTOR want to do the project. Now cast is absolutely critical in making a film work and more importantly to the investor – make people want to go to a movie – but this has always got to be remembered. Actors are human too. They can love script but that doesn’t mean everybody will.

2. PERSONAL CONNECTION. This can be anything – the director is someone I respect and want to work with. The film has a lot of values/minorities/beliefs that I identify with and want to promote. I’m in love with the star. This has nothing really to do with the film or story but more on personal feelings.

3. GUILT. Guilt? How does guilt play in one deciding to make a movie? This is related to “Personal Connection” above. Someone may feel guilty that they haven’t been treating some minority or another as well as they should have and they should “do something about it.” This is tokenism at its worst but it happens.

4. I LOVE THE STORY. One must always remember, “one person’s passion is another person’s poison.” In other words, someone else thinks the script sucks. However, I think as a general, you can say that a good story is the beginning of a good film. (As a side note to this, good storytelling is not the exclusive domain of the professional. Talk to anybody you know and chances are they will have some great ideas for story. The trick is to transform those great thoughts into a cohesive story or screenplay.)

Lastly though, a film is collaborative effort of often hundreds, maybe thousands of people and elements. Any one of them has the potential to mess up a great story.
The truth is that there is no formula for making a film that people will like. Everyone has different tastes.

That's why, when a lot of producers have the time and don't think they'll get sued, they will listen to a story idea, at least for a couple of minutes. You never know where the next Avatar will come from.

Asian American/Canadian

2010-01-06T07:27:00.000-08:00

The way, I see it Canada and the United States have two different approaches toward The Changing Face.

I was brought up in a time when institutional racism against the Chinese was alive and well. This made my parent’s generation heritage quite protective of who we were and my father used to say regularly, “Never forget you are a Chinese.” Thanks Dad – I look in the mirror and didn’t really think I looked anything like Morgan Freeman (although I am regularly mistaken for Tom Cruise.) Dad and his generation did that because they had to – Chinese were not completely trusted in North American society and the small community had to protect and build up each other.

To compound the difficulty, many couldn’t tell Japanese from Chinese and with memories of Pearl Harbor still fresh in the North American psyche, anyone with a yellow face was suspicious. As people from Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines and more from Asia immigrated, there was an ongoing difficulty with cultural adaptation that still exists for many today.

Why do I bring this up? It’s because today, Vietnamese, Thai, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and Philippinos are lumped together in North America as “Asians.” What makes this crazy is that these peoples historically don’t really like each other. Heck, depending where you were from in China, one village didn’t like another, claiming the others were too haughty or boorish or whatever. You know what? Caucasians don’t hold an exclusive copyright on bigotry. Not even close.

Again, the question is, why do I bring this up? Because this has enormous implications for The Changing Face, especially in the media. In a film, one cannot simply cast any Asian for a role. More than just cultural differences, every group has a distinct look and there are many who will not forgive one ethnic group being cast for another. i.e. to the informed viewer, casting a Korean as a Chinese is as blatantly wrong as casting Antonio Banderas as a Swede. Now with a serious makeover, Banderas could transform into a Scandinavian and that’s the same kind of care that would be needed in transforming one Asian ethnic group into another, a care not normally taken because of the attitude, “Aren’t all Asians the same?”

(For those of you that doubt this, often when I go into a restaurant or supermarket, the waiter or clerk knows what dialect of Chinese to talk to me in - I have the "look" of a Cantonese. Sometimes, the clerk/waiter is astute enough to speak to me in English. I have the "look" of a North American Chinese from the Toisan district of Guangdong.)

This is why the North American concept of the “Asian American” really is a work-in-progress. Many North American-born Asians do not carry the same baggage as their overseas or older counterparts do and the commonality of similar skin colour is enough for them to consider each others a “bro.” They consider me a relic of the Stone Age when I try to explain that there are real differences and that need to be recognized. Canadians are more inclined to agree with this which gives rise to two different attitudes depending on which side of the 49th parallel we reside – the Canadian “multiculturalism” and the American concept of “melting pot.”

Each has its advantages and disadvantages but the important thing is to recognize, not that one or the other is “right” but there are two different philosophies at work here which are inherently in conflict with each other. Depending on who I’m speaking to, I have to adjust my personal outlook and it’s important that you do too because for those that care, that button is white hot.

A Chinese is a Chinese is a Chinese and a Japanese is a Japanese and both have not only Asian heritages but a history of enmity that goes back centuries. And by the time you throw in the traditional animosity of other Asian ethnic groups, you wonder how the countries manage to co-exist in the same general geographic area for so long.

But now that we’re in America, our kids go to the same school, we shop at the same stores, attend the same church, does that mean we’re one big happy “Asian American” family then? Hmmm. Just be careful because for some, not recognizing the differences is a deal-breaker and they aren’t necessarily wrong. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say we are going to “celebrate our differences” from one side of our mouth and then on the other say that “we’re all the same.”

Or are we the same but different?

Happy New Year Everybody - eh?

Disney gets it

2009-12-15T15:24:00.001-08:00

Those that read our blogs know we believe that done properly, North America’s Changing Face is more than a social or cultural phenomenon. Done right, there is a huge financial opportunity. Black and Hispanic communities have demonstrated this with the latest proof being Disney’s The Princess and the Frog which has grossed more than $24,000,000 in just a week, the highest gross for an animated movie opening in December. For those of you that don’t know, The Frog and Princess is about a young princess in New Orleans who has an incredible adventure after she is inadvertently turned into a frog.

What is unique is that our Princess is black and the show is set in New Orleans - that's simply ground-breaking and breathtaking. Major American media are showing interviews about how inspiring this is to so many black children. Kids and parents alike talk about how wonderful it is to see that their dreams have a chance of coming true - one of their own is a princess in her own country!

I can remember growing up and having my parents take me to see the beautiful and enchanting Nancy Kwan in The Flower Drum Song.

As a child, it was so absolutely thrilling for me to see so many Asians onscreen. Little did I know how rare this was and that almost fifty years later, things haven’t improved much.

Why is this so important? Because film has become the “new literature.” In any given year, most of us spend much more time watching movies or television programs than we do reading books. With electronic media as the most important means of our receiving messages, we have to be really diligent about the messages that we portray. We already recognize that excessive violence and pornography need to be controlled because of the influence they can have on people’s everyday life.

What we don’t attach as much importance to are the things that don’t directly harm people and their implied messages. One of these things are the racial and ethnic backgrounds of the heroes in our media. Without credible heroes – and even ordinary characters – of diversity, we perpetuate the myth that only white is beautiful, only white is smart, and that "the white man's burden" is alive and well.

Am I advocating “affirmative action” in media? That’s a touchy subject but let me put it this way. I’m not a great fan of government intervention into our private lives but I do feel this - affirmative action is much better than what we have now – “unaffirmative inaction.”

Bravo Disney for “The Princess and the Frog.” You are doing what The Changing Face believes – there is money in diversity and I'm glad to see you are making a ton of it.

I look forward to the day when we have a film about an Asian princess in North America. A group of like-minded individuals and I have been talking - maybe we'll make the film!

Business Lessons from Missionaries

2009-12-08T15:58:00.000-08:00

I spend a lot of time with missionaries and mission organizations. They wouldn’t put it this way, but their job is to “sell” a “product” to a culture that is not their own. It's taken them a long time to learn - I cringe at the pain some have caused - but by now, they have learned many lessons about reaching out. They call it “evangelism” but I think they are smart business strategies that can be applied to many groups, both local and overseas. Here are some.

1. Few things are more offensive than someone parachuting into their culture to “convert the heathens.” For hundreds of years, this was the traditional Western missionary approach. While it worked sometimes, it also backfired. Lesson to be learned? When you go somewhere new, you are a guest in their culture and you are not superior. Act humbly until you’ve proven your mettle.

2. It takes time. When I tell people/organizations this, this is usually when they turn off because they are “too busy” to invest the time that it takes to genuinely know a people. But if you don’t know them, how can you possibly reach them? It sometimes takes years or decades before a different culture will trust you enough to allow you into their world. It’s why mission organizations want long-term commitments from their missionaries. In business, you want to reach across cultures – be prepared to spend some time. So-called "quality time" isn't enough. Quantity counts bigtime. This ties in with the next item.

3. Tokenism is not enough. A major organization recently said something to me to the effect of, “We did this six months ago, this last year… and so we just don’t feel we need to do anymore especially as it’s outside our mandate.” Hey, if you want to reach out, it must be on an ongoing sustained basis. If missionaries only did their big efforts at Christmas and Easter, they’d be out of business fast. It’s the everyday being part of the community doing small things that makes them effective. That way when there is a big issue to talk about, the credibility and trust to receive the message is already there.

4. Equip, not convert. One of my mentors was the head a mission organization overseas. Rather than being the focus of attention, his modus operandi was to train a few select individuals who would do a much better job of reaching into the community than he could. When he retired, he had sufficiently trained the locals so that they could do everything themselves. The business lesson here is, “Get the local community involved.” If you want to reach China, get the Chinese involved. You want to reach the First Nations, get First Nations peoples involved. You will never be as effective in getting the marketshare of a community as those that have a lifelong personal stake.

And you thought missionaries were only good for… hmm. What on earth are they good for?

The Changing Face

2009-12-02T07:27:00.000-08:00

In my lifetime, I have seen the American black go from the back of the bus to being the most important passenger on Air Force One.

I have seen an immigrant from India rise to become Premier of British Columbia, a Chinese go from person without the right to vote to representing Canada at the United Nations and I’ve seen a member of the First Nations hold a feather in symbolic defiance against the establishment of inequality in Canada.

The face of North America is changing. Minorities are becoming mainstream.

This applies to more than reality, it applies to how we spend our entertainment dollars. Hollywood is unprecedented in its portrayal of the black person as an integral part of the American fabric - Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact, Dennis Hasybert in the television series 24 and Danny Glover in the feature film 2012 are all black men who have portrayed Presidents of the United States. This from an industry that once had to put black paint onto Al Jolson because it didn’t believe the public would accept a “real” black man portraying a black man.

I believe Asians in the next few years will become as important in mainstream film and television as the black communities have become. I don’t expect it will be easy – it wasn’t easy for the black community – but enterprising people saw the shift in society and said, “There’s an opportunity here.” By being part of and leading the trend, they changed society - and became fabulously wealthy.

Some day, again hopefully in my lifetime, there will be a Chinese/Asian Prime Minister of Canada or President of the United States. If history will repeat itself, this will more likely happen in filmed entertainment before it happens in real life.

BTW, my late father used to say, “When you stop being better, you stop being good.” I don't think taking a comedy writing course from Humber College was what he had in mind but if you ever doubted it before, now you know for sure, Wes is certified.

Canadian content - eh?

2009-11-24T12:33:00.000-08:00

Most Canadian filmmakers owe at least part of their career, either directly or indirectly to some level of government, government program or government initiative. However, in the last number of years, it seems that many of our film and television bodies are no longer helping maintain a strong Canadian identity.

There is no doubt that much of this is due to the growing complexities of contemporary Canada, the ever-shrinking financial resources available and the vast growth of new means of communication.

However my feeling is that in times of difficulty, leadership needs to emerge with ideas to deal with the situation. If that leadership is not forthcoming from within the organizations themselves, then it is incumbent upon the government to provide some.

Here are a couple of things that drive me crazy.

I really can’t get my head around that my tax dollars are being used to get the American Game show, “Wheel of Fortune” on CBC. (Jeopardy is another but it has this tiny tiny link to Canada through Ontario-born Alex Trebek.) Can’t we come up with something of our own? If we want to have game shows, let's make our own. Game shows are fairly cheap to make and given enough time, we could build an audience there too.

The Canada that I see everyday is a wonderfully diverse community of people with heritages from around the world. Cultural diversity is part of our essence. Let's not be ashamed of showing what it really is.

Why is this so important? Because film, television and the internet is how most of us get information and allow ourselves to be entertained. If taxpayer supported messages are, "It's only entertaining if it's American" or "There are mainly Caucasians living in Canada," you know what I say?

I don't want to pay for this. Reduce my taxes.

Isn’t it about time that we start having Canadian content that is truly Canadian?

There's gold in shrimp embryos

2009-11-17T00:18:00.000-08:00

Many years ago, I went into a Chinese restaurant and it was obvious that English was not the proprietor’s first language. On the menu, there was a soup made with the small dried shrimp that the Chinese uses for flavouring. In Chinese, the dried shrimp had two characters. The first was shrimp. The second was the character for child, son, or a diminutive for little, in the way “tiny” is used in “Tiny Tim” or “little” in “Little John”.

In English, the dried shrimp appeared on the menu as “shrimp embryo”, which sounded extremely unappetizing.

Cultural faux pas
When you cross cultural lines, the risk of cultural faux pas grow. What works well in one culture doesn’t work in another. The instance of the shrimp embryos is a perfect example of how to fail in business when crossing cultural lines.

Today, China is growing in leaps and bounds. She is striving to assert itself economically and political as a regional and world power. Part of that initiative is to assert itself culturally as well. Asia Times reports that:

For several years now, Beijing has battled to reverse its "cultural deficit", where it imports 10 times more books than it exports. Now one of the world's largest economies and trading powers, China has spearheaded a cultural counteroffensive in a belief that cultural industry is the next step in its transformation from global upstart to superstar.

As part of this attempt to raise the country's cultural profile abroad Beijing has invested in hundreds of Confucian institutes that are teaching Mandarin around the world and launching new foreign-language media outlets.

The Asia Times article went on to detail incidents at the Frankfurt book fair that derailed the Middle Kingdom’s initiative.

Cultural offensive, version 1.0
The instance of the Frankfurt book fair can be best described as cultural offensive, version 1.0. No doubt they will get better as they unveil 2.0 and 3.0. There are also other instances of Chinese private cultural initiatives to penetrate the West. Nevertheless, the risk of labeling something as a shrimp embryo remains high.

An enormous opportunity
China is obviously embarking on a long-term strategy to make the world more aware of China’s culture and to erase its cultural trade deficit. Anyone who can bridge the two cultures and understand the crossover effect is staring at a long-term business opportunity of enormous proportions.

Consider what has been done in the United States alone in ethnically focused markets. In 2000, Robert Johnson became the first US Black billionaire when he sold Black Entertainment Television (BET) to Viacom for US$4b. In 2006, Univision, the Hispanic media conglomerate, was sold for US$12.6b.

What if someone were to harness the crossover effect of the Chinese market with the North American market?

There’s gold in them thar shrimp embryos!

Lest We Forget

2009-11-10T20:59:00.000-08:00

With November 11th being Remembrance Day, I want to take a break from the normal issues talked about to give thanks and pay tribute to those men and women who willingly put their lives on the line so that all of us can enjoy the freedoms and lives we enjoy today.

I spend a lot of time with Chinese Canadian WWII vets that are still alive. There is a recurrent theme that they share with all veterans and that is that they are most proud to have served their country 65 years ago. Many feel it is the most important thing they have done in their lives, despite having gone onto many other fields of accomplishment.

Pacific Unit 280, Chinese Canadian Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans is quite a remarkable group. They have met once a month since the end of WWII, come hell or high water. Some of them hate each other but they still faithfully attend the meetings, bound with their common bond of having changed Canada fundamentally. After WWII, they were instrumental in helping lobby for the vote, and Douglas Jung, Honourary Life President, was the first Chinese Canadian Member of Parliament.

I have discovered the bond of service to country is deeply imbedded in all persons in the military. This was re-inforced to me when I traveled to Washington DC a couple of weeks ago. The pride and respect exhibited by all when I visited the Arlington Cemetery made me think Canadians must do a better job of showing honour to those that are willing to defend us.

When I see some of the WWII vets now, many in their eighties or nineties, I try not to see them as the fragile elderly men they now are but look to see a teenager or young guy in his twenties, scared shitless that he might not last out the week, let alone the next fifteen minutes. Why did he do that? So a guy like me that he never even knew existed might have a chance for the future that he might not have.

As the Chaplain, I found a couple of quotes from the Bible that give real insight as to why military people do what they do.

Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than he give up his life for another.” While this applies to those who did pay the ultimate sacrifice, those who are or were willing to lay themselves on the line for us deserve an enormous debt from those of us who are the recipients of their dedication to their fellow man.

I was watching the Fort Hood Memorial today and saw General Casey offer these words from Isaiah that are so appropriate.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

If you see a vet or person in active service, do something for them. They have stood or stand on guard for you.

Creativity + Robust business model = Success

2009-11-04T17:11:00.000-08:00

In my last post I wrote that the combination of creativity and a robust business model equaled success in the film business. That statement is true for any artist.

Without the creative spark, the artist is just someone with artistic technique. On the other hand, without the right plan to get patronage, the artist will die an unknown.

I would like to explore a bit more about what it means to be a successful artist. The artist spark is up to you. However, I can supply you with a robust business plan that can lead to success.

What is art?
The theory of art that I prefer defines the artist that interprets, translates or makes real the inspiration from the source, which is also known as a variety of names: God, the muses, the Other, the Unknown, etc., into concrete form that other people can understand.

Consider the allegory the story around Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan. Coleridge claimed that the poem was inspired by an opium-induced dream but that the composition was interrupted by a visitor. The entire story of the dream and the interruption is an allegory of the creative process. The artist delves into the unknown and to make real and concrete his vision from beyond.

In the poem, Coleridge writes:

A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.

He then pines of the lost vision, in the same way that the visitor interrupted his vision:

Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song…

And he describes the the artist as:

And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

When distinguishing between art and artistic technique, I am also reminded of the movie Amadeus, the fictional account of Mozart and his rival Salieri. Mozart was the genius, while Salieri was the plodder, a musician who had the technique but didn’t have the vision or inspiration.

What makes a commercially successful artist?
A commercially successful artist has patrons who “get” his art. It doesn’t mean that you have to “sell out”. John Singer Sargent was arguably one of the best portraitists of his time and he was a wildly successful artist.

Moving to the contemporary era, the successful filmmaker needs to have the vision and the right business plan. I talked about the 5Ps, of which the most important are Philosophy (your niche), Process (how do you exploit that niche) and People (do you have the people to implement the process). Consider the case of Pixar Animation Studios. I would paraphrase their 3Ps as the following:

Philosophy: Make animated films with the human spirit inside
Process: Develop interesting and creative scripts and marry it with the technology of animation
People: The studio has to have creative script development (creativity) + Animation studio (technique)

When Pixar first started making animated films, their animation technology was a source of competitive advantage. Those kinds of technical competitive advantages are not long lasting. Today, animation technology is becoming much more commoditized but Pixar’s advantage of script development endures.

How Do I Get My Film Made?

2009-10-27T19:29:00.001-07:00

When you tell people that you are in the industry sooner or later, someone is going to say this to you. “I have a great idea. How do I get it made?” What I tell people is both encouraging and discouraging and that is “Anybody can do it.” Furthermore, you don’t need to convince hundreds of people of the greatness of your idea. Nor do you need to go to film school or have any special education. You only need to convince an audience of one that your idea is terrific.

But that’s when it gets tricky – that one person has to be able to write a cheque and sometimes it takes years, if ever to find him/her. But if you do and you can get that first person to sign on, it becomes easier.

I’ll use myself as a case history. I was a fulltime composer in film and television in the mid-1990’s when I started thinking about making being involved in the entire filmmaking process. I had never taken a filmmaking course, never written any screenplays or proposals – actually I had hardly any writing experience at all because my Master’s thesis in Music was an original piece of music. But what I did have was this very strong feeling then as now that stories and characters involving the Chinese cultural diversity needed to be increased in North America because of well… The Changing Face.

So I started writing words, dramatic scripts and documentary ideas. (I still do that today.) It was rather painful but eventually I would up with a six part documentary series proposal idea on a history of the Chinese in Canada. I talked to all kinds of people about the idea and got lots of good feedback and kind support.
Armed with this knowledge that "the people" wanted this series made, I went to the NFB and CBC and Knowledge Network about this and had a meeting at then head of the BC Region for the CBC, John Kennedy. He liked me and what I was proposing and then said, “I’ll work with you on a one hour program, not a six part series.” More than that, he wrote a cheque and more than that, he offered his guidance for over a year on various drafts of the documentary proposal, “Beyond Golden Mountain.” He didn’t like what he was seeing but had the patience to work with me until I got something that he could support for production. Beyond Golden Mountain won or was nominated for several industry awards. It remains relevant today and CBC recently re-acquired the rights to broadcast it again.

Thank you John for being that “audience of one.” It took me hundreds of meetings, phone calls, presentations to all kinds of people but eventually I found that right “audience of one.” Interestingly, when I went in with my letters of support etc., he never wanted to see them. His attitude seemed to be, "I'm paid to make decisions and I will make decisions on how I best see fit."

The takeaway that I want everyone to have is that ideas, not education or background, is the lifeblood of the industry. The industry is more fragmented now and money is ever more competitive to get but if you can, find that “audience of one” who can help you achieve your idea. My late father was quite a successful life insurance salesman and his philosophy was, “If one person closes the door on you, knock on the next door. The law of averages dictates that sooner or later, someone will let you in.” At the same time, be flexible in modifying your dreams. Whoever writes that cheque is going to want to have input too.

Next week, Cam Hui comes back with another insightfully entertaining look at business and the arts.

Multiculturalism & Money

2009-10-20T18:58:00.000-07:00

Is all this writing in this blog “ethnic navel-gazing” or is there another purpose other than allowing me (and select friends) to blow off steam about how unfair the “system” is?

Not.

I do what I do because of I feel that having visible minority representation in every part of society and media is vitally important, if we are to have a truly multicultural society. Now we can debate about the merits or demerits of multiculturalism but as it is still an official part of the Canadian identity, let’s make it real, I mean really real.

In order to do so, you have to go past the trappings of multiculturalism as pagodas and lions dances at Chinese New Year. In Asia, these are considered historical relics and even anachronisms, not at all reflective of life today. These are important and I have and continue to participate in these events but in North America, we are wrong in celebrating these as essential parts of being Asian contemporary culture.

Real multiculturalism is when the cultural identity is integrated into everyday life – we are not exotic people on display.

Why is this so important? It’s because multiculturalism is more than a way of creating jobs for a phalanx of bureaucrats as its critics often say. At its essence, multiculturalism is a redefinition of what we know contemporary society to be. And you can’t pin it down because culture is living, breathing and always changing.

Many dread the word “multiculturalism” the same way we dread a flu shot because we’re given the same reason for either’s existence - “ you may not like it but it’s good for us.” It may be but the real reason we need to take cultural diversity seriously is money. Done with the proper approach and understanding, there is a huge amount of gold to be mined from understanding how different cultures can work together. Where it counts is the “real world,” where money is earned the hard way – getting customers through the door.

How do I know this to be true? As a filmmaker, I’ve made several trips to Hong Kong and China in the last few years and one thing I continually hear from Chinese producers is, “How can we internationalize our product?” From North Americans, the question is, “How can I crack the Asian market?”

These simple questions are actually quite profound and remind me of Rudyard Kipling’s poem where he writes, “East is East and West is West but never the twain shall meet.” Please forgive me for contradicting the 1907 Nobel Laureate in Literature but the “twain are meeting” and the issue is not “if” but “how?”

This is a question that I’ve been exploring with a few colleagues who have had experiences in making films in Asia and in North America with Asian themes. We are convinced that a new paradigm of filmmaking is emerging and in short order, we’ll be outlining how this is not just cultural mishmash but a solid and most necessary business opportunity.

Multiculturalism is more than dinner, dance and drama. If we can get past the notion that multiculturalism is some government-inflicted concept that has been inflicted upon the populace, we will understand what it truly is.

Multiculturalism is the future of the world or to be crass and commercial, it is about money.

I don't want to live forever

2009-10-13T00:34:00.000-07:00

Another guest post from Cam Hui:

I see that they’ve released a re-make of Fame, the musical from 1980 that follows the lives of a group of students at the New York Academy of Performing Arts. The lyrics of that title song of the film were “I'm gonna live forever/I'm gonna learn how to fly…”

Just as medical schools don’t teach doctors how to run a medical practice, film schools don’t teach filmmakers how to run a film business. Like many artists before them, they fall into the trap of wanting to live forever – and they fail in the business.

If I were in the business, I wouldn’t want to live forever. I would want to practice my art and at the same time make a business of it.

Creativity + Robust business model = Success
Filmmaking is a creative business, but it's still a business. You need the combination of vision, creativity, a competitive advantage and the right business model to be successful. The success of the Star Wars franchise was a combination of good storytelling and the taking advantage of computer animation techniques which were coming in use at the time. By contrast, the film Tron, which was made in the same era, failed because it was all special effects and no story.

On the other hand, the lack of a robust business model has also made many film ventures disappear, never to be heard from again. Disney or MGM can make flops, but proper risk controls are in place so that any single flop doesn't render the studio insolvent.

I have found that finding the right framework for analysis makes a problem simple. Otherwise, excuses of “nobody knows anything” become a crutch for failure, a cop-out.

Be formulaic in business, but not creatively
While the expression of “nobody knows anything” is applicable to the creative process, it is not applicable to the creation and implementation of a business model. This is not a prescription to be formulaic in your creative endeavours, but to be formulaic in your business ones.

The trick is, of course, is to find the right framework for a business model. Here is one that I would suggest that I believe could be adapted to the filmmaking world. In my previous life as a fund manager, pension fund sponsors evaluated investment managers based on the 5Ps:

Philosophy: Where do you believe the opportunity lies?
Process: How are you going to capitalize on that opportunity?
People: What skills in your organization do you need to implement the Process?
Portfolio: Does your portfolio reflect what you say about your Philosophy and Process?
Performance: What is your track record?

In practice the last two Ps can be ignored. Many filmmakers have little or no track record, but that doesn’t have to be an impediment. Moreover, past performance is not reflective of future returns.

It is therefore important to focus on the first three Ps. In a future post, I will consider the case study of a well-respected independent production company was grounded in the 3Ps that was able to achieve some modicum of financial success. In process, they were able to “live forever.”

History made Alive

2009-10-06T17:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Cam Hui who gave a financial potential overview of what Asian in North America means. I’ve had people ask for more and Cam will be back next week with another great insight.

Today, I’m going to personalize the history of one of Chinese Canadiana’s darkest eras.

Live History
I was in Toronto last week where I was chairing the meetings for the Chinese Canadian Advisory Committee to the Community Historical Recognition Program, which looks at proposals relating to the preservation of knowledge relating to Chinese Immigration Restrictions, more commonly known as the Head Tax. As I did so, I couldn’t help but think of my maternal great grandfather and paternal grandfather, both who paid the Head Tax so I, and all Canadians with a Chinese heritage, can be doing what we do today. This is part of my family story.

When my great-grandfather on my mom’s side came to Canada, he was a dirt poor peasant in rural China and North America was considered the “Golden Mountain” where everyone had a chance to “make it big.” Lots of his fellow peasants felt that way and they came to America with dreams in their hearts. Life was pretty damn tough here but despite incredible racism, this generation survived. They survived persecution, they survived lower wages but one thing they almost didn’t survive was the implementation of the “Head Tax” and subsequent “Chinese Immigration Act.”

Why did Canada put this in?

After the railway was built in the 1880’s, Chinese kept coming even though they weren’t needed so much so Canada instituted a “Head Tax” to all new Chinese immigrants, hoping to discourage them from coming. It started as $50, but the Chinese kept coming so they raised it to $100. Chinese still kept coming so they raised it to $500 but Chinese still kept coming. Only with the passing of the “Chinese Immigration Act” in 1923 (more commonly known as “The Exclusion Act) which forbade the immigration of any Chinese, including immediate family members, was immigration to Canada finally stopped. The Chinese are the only group that Canada inflicted this upon.

My great-grandfather managed to do quite well in Victoria, had land and children born here. However, the Exclusion Act caused problems for his kids. My grandfather was born in Canada but because there were so few women around, he had to go to China to get married. Because of the Exclusion Act, he couldn’t bring any of his family to Canada. He returned to Canada to work, returning to China every couple of years, long enough to sire another child. What this meant, is that my mother, who was the child of a man born in Canada, was not allowed to join her father until she was nineteen, after the Chinese Immigration Act was repealed in 1947. Had it not been for some 800 Chinese young men and women in WWII, who participated in Canada’s WWII efforts without rights of citizenship or franchise, she might never have been able to come.

Fast forward almost a hundred years. Well, the dirt poor peasants aren’t around any more and by and large, never achieved too much… but their children and their children’s children have. In fact, not only are we not worried about getting our daily bread, we are providing the jam and butter that that make a country important, worthwhile… we have gone past worrying about making a living. We have gone Beyond Golden Mountain.

In this new century, there has been a paradigm shift in how Chinese are viewed, not only by Canada, but the world. No longer will you find a sign on a restaurant door in Shanghai saying “No dogs or Chinese allowed,” but the doors to the world are open to all of us who are descendants of the Han.

It's still not an advantage to be Asian but "we've come a long way baby."

The promise of the New Golden Mountain

2009-09-29T00:26:00.000-07:00

Today's guest blogger is Cam Hui. I've known Cam for over thirty years since the time he and my kid brother used to play Stock Ticker together. Cam went on to play real life Stock Ticker in Toronto, Boston and New York. I've been talking to him about how the world's changing dynamic represents a financial opportunity which he is in agreement with. His thoughts come from the hedge fund analyst side of him.

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A century ago, the Chinese looked across the Pacific and called it Golden Mountain – and they came. While the streets weren’t paved with gold, the Chinese and other Asians have largely settled in and succeeded in North America. In effect, they made a Golden Mountain of their own.

Canadian demographic studies are more difficult to obtain, but consider the following from the U.S. Census. Asians males are better educated than any other ethnic group in the United States:

Asians also earn more. The chart below shows that there are more Asian families with income more than $75,000 a year is more than any other ethnic group:

Making our own Golden Mountain
For marketers this has to be an enormously attractive demographic to focus on. Better educated, higher income – what would you pay per set of eyeballs compared to other ethnic demographics?

Consider how others have cashed in on ethnic demographics.

In 2000, Robert Johnson became the first US Black billionaire when he sold Black Entertainment Television (BET) to Viacom for US$4b. In 2006, Univision, the Hispanic media conglomerate, was sold for US$12.6b.

Admittedly, the Asian demographic in the United States is about only one-third the size of the Black or Hispanic population. Nevertheless, there is no home grown North American Asian focused media industry. But as an example of what is possible, Loblaws recently bought T&T Supermarkets for $225 million. The former is a well-established Canadian supermarket chain, while the latter is a chain of Asian focused supermarkets with 17 stores in Canada,

Any entertainment company that can create product that can penetrate this demographic will have created its own Golden Mountain.

In future posts, we will consider how to appeal to the Asian market and how to broaden appeal to the larger North American mainstream.

Media? Direction?

2009-09-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

Over the years, I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with many of Canada’s government funded broadcasters and funding agencies. However, in the last while, a sad truth seems to be emerging and “showing Canada to Canadians” is not longer a priority. It breaks my heart to see “Jeopardy” on the CBC.

I must admit that I am terribly conflicted by government involvement in our media and cultural agencies. On one hand, I see their necessity – how else can we tell some of the important stories of our nation? But then when I see some of the things that are put on or exhibited and I ask myself, “Are we living in the same country?”
The Canada that I see everyday is a wonderfully diverse community of people with heritages from around the world. Toronto and Vancouver are fantastically diverse which not only adds to the flavour of the city, it is part of its essence. So why is Canadian film and television so white? For the life of me, why does it seem as if programs set in Vancouver seemed to have more American blacks in it than Asians? Aren’t the largest two visible minorities in Canada, the South Asian and Chinese?

But diversity issues aside, almost anybody you talk to about Canadian media will tell you that the system is broken and something should be done about it. Here are a couple of thoughts that might be an interesting entry to discussion.

1. We need to encourage private investment. The media industry is fraught with risk and we need to encourage those that are willing to participate in it. We had a system of tax breaks before but they were so seriously abused, that the investor who only saw the term “tax deduction” didn’t realize that there wasn’t a solid project to go along with the tax relief. I’m not suggesting we go back to this model but we should have some incentives to help build the indigenous private film industry. There are many potentially profitable stories that can be told by Canadians and we need some help to tell them. These films don’t need government investment but private investors should be given some encouragement for their risk.

2. For our public agencies, let’s figure out what we want to do. Right now, it seems that policy changes every couple of years which makes it impossible to achieve an identity. I suggest some kind of Public Inquiry that will look at where we feel we are going as a country and what we feel is important. Once we know what we want to do, then it is easier to figure out who is going to do it and how much it is going to cost. Now this group has to be made up by more than one political party because we can’t keep changing policy every time there’s a change of government. Nor should it made it up of artists/media types only. A non-partisan comprehensive look at what we hope to achieve.

Once these suggestions for private and public companies are determined, let’s give at least a ten year window so that there is time for implementation and stability.
Knowing the rules allows us to know how to play the game. The hard part for those of us that play the game is when the rules keep changing or even worse, it looks like there are no rules at all.

Next week I will be in Toronto for some meetings as I’m the government’s Chair, Chinese Canadian Advisory Committee to the CHRP. I’ve invited Cam Hui, a really bright money guy , to be a guest blogger.

Hollywood North?

2009-09-16T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hollywood North. Sounds pretty glamorous and certainly Vancouver has many movie stars gracing our town. We also have a tremendous talent pool and wonderful production resources but I think we need to keep in mind the key reason people come to our fair town – money, or more importantly, saving money.

Between tax incentives, labour rebates and a lower Canadian dollar, we have been substantially cheaper to produce in than Los Angeles or New York. However with the rising Canadian dollar and other production centres becoming more competitive, work is no longer quite so easy to get . Moreover with many American productions, key creative, producing and acting jobs stay American so most of the activity in the film industry here is what is called “service work” – we serve to fulfill the vision of our primarily American clients.

This is a vital part of the industry but as this is so price sensitive, there is a need to develop sources of work that are not quite so cost dependent for survival.
One of these sources is to have a strong indigenous Canadian film and television industry where Canadians control the content, the finances and decision making.
The problem is that this is just darn hard to do. Many organizations and individuals have tried but in the end, there are few successful Vancouver-based companies and individuals that have sustained themselves on the long run at the international level. (There are more in Toronto because their water makes them a lot smarter there.)

Why is this? Well there are many reasons for this. I’ll tackle one reason now and others later.

Filmmaking is expensive, no ifs ands or buts. Paying everyone minimum wage and getting great deals on facilities and supplies, it would be hard to make a feature film for less than $200,000. And that’s lots of money for most people so by necessity, a filmmaker has to partner with somebody or many bodies in order to finance their films.

There are very few funders that one can pitch an idea to and have them say, “That’s great. I’ll finance it just as you described.” Usually, the answer is, “No” or “maybe.” The process of funding and subsequent making of a film can take years to put together. Without generous rich connections or being lucky enough to get government funding, filmmakers have maxed out credit cards, mortgaged their home… even sold their own blood to raise money for their films.

And then if one is successful in making their film, it then has to go out and compete with the mega dollar extravaganzas with huge promotional and marketing campaigns. Talk about David vs many Goliaths.

However, there is a little glimmer of light here. Academy-award winning writer William Goldman once wrote, “Nobody knows anything.” Even after years of sweating bullets to make a film, even with pre-sales, even with big stars, even with huge marketing campaigns – nobody really knows if the film will make money or not so our small indigenous film does have a chance and on occasion, one hits it big.
The problem is that it so seldom happens that it is akin to winning a lottery or as one of my business friends so aptly puts it, “Hope is not a business strategy.”

Oh and let’s not forget that if you have an interest in cultural diversity, things are even harder . More next week.

The Impossible Glass Ceiling

2009-09-07T14:11:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, I was the keynote speaker for the annual Canadian Heritage breakfast in Ottawa. This is taken from the talk.
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In the past and still in some circumstances today, there was the invisible glass ceiling of racism – it was unspoken but understood that a Chinese could only go so far. To a great extent, that ceiling is no more. We are finding Chinese in every part of society and at all levels of government. However, the ceiling today is not one of racial intolerance but of cultural misunderstanding. If you ask most Chinese in Canada if they have accomplished as much as their Caucasian counterparts with similar backgrounds, most will likely say no. To achieve the same goals, Chinese have to work harder and smarter and they still may not get there.

I do not blame this on racism.

The core of the problem is that the Caucasian decision makers don’t understand the Chinese or really understand cultural diversity because they evaluate needs, people and situations from their own cultural perspective. This is only natural and I do exactly the same thing. I’m a fourth generation Chinese Canadian and do you know something – I still really don’t understand how white people think and if I don’t have a good idea, then I’m sure that they really don’t understand me either.

How does that look in real life? What happens is that when you evaluate things solely from your own cultural perspective, you wind up with results that are remarkably similar to what has always been. In order to affect sea change that is more inclusive, one does not hire workers who look only like the captain. Key members of the governing and decision-making group have got to come from outside the norm of the comfort zone. I can’t tell you how many broadcasters and public funding agencies I’ve met with where the Chinese are the accountants or the clerks but never a key decision maker in terms of programming or policy. This is in Vancouver, where almost half the population is non-white. (And often when they do make decisions in favour of the “ethnics,” it is so clear that the decision is not based on real understanding.)

If we are to have a Canada that reflects a true multiculturalism, you must involve the Chinese, the First Nations people, the Indo-Canadians, the Filipinos - you have to bring us onboard the ship in a very meaningful way. Tokenism is not enough – we need to be able to have decision making abilities.

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After I gave his talk, then Secretary of State Jason Kenney introduced himself to me and his staff – a virtual United Nations with Canadians of many different heritages. I thought to myself – here’s a guy who gets it, in word and action.

Next Week – we start exploring the facts and myths of Hollywood North.

Hey You!

2009-09-01T08:32:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody and welcome to The Changing Face. While I’ve been writing and making films professionally for quite awhile now, it’s almost always been about something or somebody else. Recently, I have been encouraged to share some of my own values and views on the world so thus begins what I plan to be a weekly series of personal perspectives on the world.

To best understand this world, you’ve got to know a bit about me. I’m a Chinese Canadian, I’m old enough to remember when the Beatles first came out, I’m a Christian and have been working in media for twenty-five years. I made a living playing keyboards in bars and clubs for years, then went back to school and completed a Master’s of Music from the University of Toronto. Not wanting to teach, I hung my shingle out as a composer and did commercials for Shell and Toyota and spent four seasons on Sesame St.

In the mid-1990’s, I started writing, directing and producing of entire projects, documentary and dramatic, most of them with a particular niche of showing Chinese as part of North America’s cultural mainstream. The Changing Face is the name of one of these projects that got locked into development hell but the concept still holds true – North America’s face is changing and one key color is yellow. And anyone that doubts that China is now a predominant world player is in a different universe than I live in.

Now this is really important, culturally, socially, politically and financially, especially if one believes, as I do, that the Chinese will be as important a force in North American and world entertainment as the Afro-American community has become. While I’ll be doing most of the writing of the blog, I’ll be having some great guests sit in who can shed additional light.

I’m excited to be part of this growth but “it’s complicated” which means it’s real. It may even on occasion be controversial. Stay tuned.