So, on September 26th we finally shot the first three episodes.

     We shot the major scenes for episode 1-3 of "Romantic Interlude" from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.   We did a lot of the character shots for promos early and went ahead and did the popular Chinese restaurant segment as well.  No one knew what I was doing because like most scripts and movies, you don't do things in order.   

I just remember us going into a Chinese restaurant  hoping to get the rights to shoot our scene.  We eventually made a deal to give her free advertising on "Asian Pacific Review".   Fortunately she agreed.  The owner of the restaurant was enjoying our filming and photo shoot in the restaurant quite a bit and her laugh was heard...so loud!  She's a cool woman!  For Mahito and I, we enjoyed the facial acting of James Hoang.  Also, to Lee Min Low.  Both are talented and their humor kept a lot of the actors going when we were doing our shots.

   In the Chinese restaurant scene of episode 3, what was more important to me was getting the eye contact scene which we call the "Eyes on Me" photos.  We did this a number of times and I don't know what to say but there was something magical about that scene.  Phillip and Norie did a great job and I just remember how happy I was to see the photos that Mahito took.  Here is a special real audio clip from the director's vault of the "Eyes on Me" shoot:

The following real audio segment is during the shooting of this one scene.  By this time, Mahito and the other actors were getting the idea of what we were trying to do and James and Min were very helpful during the whole shooting of the episodes by directing the movements of  Phil and Norie.  Click here to listen to this scene.

     The whole scene went very well and that concluded the first shot of the actors.  The next involved Norie in her sad scenes and Phil in his sad scenes for their introduction shots.   Still, the actors weren't quite sure how I was going to do this.   How I was going to push the first episode and also how was this going to transcend into print.  The unknown was evident in the post-shot interviews with the cast members.  Was these photos for print only?  Is this to be used for some animation shot?  I kept my idea vague because it was too difficult to put into words what I wanted to do.  So, I wanted them to wait until episode 1 came out.  So, here is the post episode 1 interviews via Real Audio.  You can tell that the cast were not sure what was to be expected from these shots, please click here.

We finished all shots within a reasonable time frame (about 6-7 hours) but no one expected things to be trickier the next time around.  A few days after, Jeffrey Hamilton came a few hundred miles to partake in "Romantic Interlude".  He opens and ends "Romantic Interlude" and he's somewhat of a key character in introducing the mood of the first episode.  Jeff's scenes took awhile to shoot because the part was created really quickly.

     During this time, I was talking with Brian Ige of Kamikaze for permission to use "When you think about me" by One Voice (aka Voice Five, One Vo1ce) for the first episode.  In fact, the first episode website promoted the group's first album.  As for Jeff's DJ Apollo scenes, they were taken at my home, I had to do a lot of manipulation with his photos.  For the backdrop of his radio station, that is from Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.   

     The only shots I had left to take was the scene with Joe's ex-girlfriend, Joe's ex-friend Chris and Joes confrontation with both people.  The question was who was going to play the character of Jenny and who can play her.  Jenny's character is supposed to be someone that can project a bitchy attitude.  The search was on and I found a friend who is a sweet young woman but she can give one hell of a stare.  Her name is Michelle Tottoc and she did a wonderful job in playing the character for Jenny.  

     For many fans of "Romantic Interlude", for episode 1 they enjoyed the fight scene between Phillip and Charles.  I selected my brother for the part of Chris because he kind of fit the character.  Also, these two are good friends that they would feel more comfortable working with each other for the scene.   The fight scene actually took almost an hour to shoot.  It didn't seem like it but it took awhile to get the right shots.  More of the emotional shots between the two guys and Jenny telling Joe that she doesn't want to be with him anymore.  The original line from Jenny was changed by the insistence of Phillip because it was so negative and so mean.  I changed it because it was too cold.  There had to be some love from Jenny in order for her to come back in the next episodes. 

      The first episode was released on my birthday, October 13th.  The response was very positive from the Web and also for the printed version.  One of the most exciting things was to see people of all races reading the printed version of "Romantic Interlude".  What a trip!  So, I decided to go on with further episodes but I knew some changes had to be made.  As a few director's have commented on their movies, a dash of controversy can spice a movie up. So, I wanted to add some controversy.  

     The biggest shock to the current staff was a decision that I made.  It was something that the others weren't expecting...I will discuss more about this in the next installment "All About Romantic Interlude".