For Pete’s Sake

Interestingly, this is a story that I randomly found online. Reedsy is a weekly writing contest. I tried to write on it but most often I ended up just reading others’ stories. When I was browsing, For Pete’s Sake caught my attention right away. It’s a story about a father and a son doing arm wrestling matches as the son grows up. The son finally wins against the father but the victory only brings the son sadness as he realizes his father is getting old. The story resonates so much with me because that was also a time when I felt the same way with my father.

I immediately left a comment under the story, asking if I could adapt it to a short film. Soon after the writer got back to me, saying he was definitely interested! In the video call with the writer, I was surprised to see a man in his 60s from Virginia. His name is Thom and he told me how everything in the story actually happened between him and his father in real life. We had a great conversation and got to know that his dream is to publish his own novel. The making of this short film was kickstarted right there and then.

But this story is indeed pretty hard to pull off. First off it was a 9-page script that spans over a decade of story timeline. Also at the very start, a coproducer who is black suggested I make it an all-black cast and I agreed. We had to find a black screen family that looks convincing, and also the son character needs at least a kid and an adult version. What’s more, for the first scene of this film we also need to find a bunch of kids to do arm wrestling matches together. 

With all the complexity, of the story we decided to make it a two-and-a-half-day shoot. With greater shoot, comes a greater budget. I estimated this would cost at least 1300$. I felt a bit desperate about the money.

I think one of the boldest moves was that I decided to reach out to a bunch of organizations to see if anyone would like to ‘sponsor’ the shoot. I had completely no idea if anyone would be willing to help out with a short film.

Whenever I feel dreaded about something, I tend to procrastinate. My coproducers also think that ‘Meh nobody would give you money bro.” After pondering about this thought for over 3 weeks, one afternoon I found 17 organizations and shot them a cold email each. Yeah, I remember the exact number. 

I totally thought nobody would reply. But to my utmost surprise, one of the organizations replied to my email willing to have a meeting with me! It’s just like how Saul Goodman says, “One, Just One.”

Before the meeting, I carefully prepared a script for the pitch. When the people showed up at the meeting, I felt so much more at ease. The executives were so friendly. They just want to meet us and listen more about the story. I just explained the story and genuinely told them how it resonated with my experience. I could tell from their faces that the executives were so rooted in the story too. 

Just like that, they granted us 1200$ of sponsorship money. I am beyond thankful for their kindness. 

After finishing the adaptation, I was thinking about who should direct this film. I was scared of directing again, especially after the last failure. I tried asking my director friends I know in Toronto if they’d like to direct. But in the end, I thought, if I really want to become a director, why should I let go of this opportunity of trying again? If I fail again, so let it be.

But instead, this time, I decided to find a co-director to do this with me. I figured, it’s better to have a driving instructor sitting beside you when you first start learning to drive.

For the 3-day shoot, on the first day, I had to be by myself because my co-director would not be able to come. I was so nervous still to direct by myself. But I prayed so hard to let my nervousness get out of the way. I can’t let that destroy everything again. Gotta be courageous - like how I always tell myself.

The first scene was with a bunch of kids. They need to do an arm wrestling match together. Luckily, because of the experience I had doing summer camps with kids. I know how to draw their attention. And with so many kids being there I did get so much less nervous because of how the kids are just so worryless and cute. 

I remember one of the kids specifically. After we were finally done and everyone started having pizza, I was still stuck in my thoughts (thanks to my ADHD traits). With a slice of pizza in his mouth, one of the kids waved another pizza at me and shouted to the other kids, “Save Max one.” He said it so confidently. It sounded like he was my boss and didn’t want to leave his hardworking employee empty-bellied.

The shoot did go so well for the rest of the two days too. I think the key difference was that I became so much more chill. I realized worrying won’t help at all, even though worries will always come. Am I still nervous sometimes? Of course. But I can cope with it so much better now. 

After I became less tense, the whole experience was so much better. I could take the time to joke around with the crew and cast. Everybody felt so much more at ease, I remember during two setups, because of the story we were making, the crews had a long conversation talking about how their parents are also getting older. 

That moment still stayed in my mind because of how I felt everyone was genuinely feeling comfortable on the set, despite the huge workload. And for me, that means even more than whether the film will be successful or not.

Speak firmly, convey my message clearly, and even demonstrate by acting it out myself. Directing also seemed to be less challenging now.

In the end, I was happiest after showing the final film to the story writer. He says he couldn’t help crying watching this story coming alive and was 100% happy with the final result.

Lessons Learnt:

• Having a monitor is actually extremely important. Because we tried to maintain a low budget, I didn't get a monitor but that did make it so hard for me to observe the performance of the actors in detail.

• As a director, it's really important to know exactly what result you want from each actor. During the shoot, it's very important to watch closely to see if the expected performance is brought up.

• Be prepared to say no to your crew, for the sake of the priority of the story. There was one shot the DP really wanted to do that was actually very complicated to pull off. At that time, I should have said no because it took too much time from the production. It's important for the director to know what shots are most cost-effective (helps storytelling and easy to do) especially when time is so limited.