Latest update April 29th, 2015 3:11 PM
Dennis Liu the Genius
By Xu Jia
I ran into director Dennis Liu’s work thanks to the North America Chinese Directors Short Film Collection finalist. PLURALITY, a 14-minute short film, tells a story of THE GRID, an urban system that tracks all human movements to reduce crime in New York in the year of 2023. It presents the question of privacy and surveillance with a fluid eloquence. Simply amazed by the director’s creative force, I had but one question: how big is the budget for such an expressive cast and clever VFX. A quick search suggests Dennis Liu has directed videos for artists such as Diane Birch, Mariah Carey, and Michael Jackson. He also made commercials for brands like Apple, AT&T and Pepsi. The fancy music video he made for Jolin Tsai has over 20 million hits on Youku while the one he made for Justin Timberlake has recently won 3 Clio Awards. It is not an overstatement to say that Dennis Liu might be able to surpass Ang Lee in filmmaking. Here is the director sharing his odyssey with The Chinese Film Market.
XJ: How much did PLURALITY cost? You seemed to have a very professional production team and cast.
DL: The cost is hard to define. I used to say a few thousand dollars, but you could say it cost me two years of my life and a lot of my own spare time, which is in a way, incredibly expensive. I’ve been making films since high school and through NYU Tisch, so it was mostly with friends on the weekend. But let’s just say it wasn’t very much. We didn’t even have enough money to shoot RED or Alexa, so it was all shot on 5D Mark II.
Some days, it was literally me and the actors. We ran around NYC on the weekend mornings, and the editing is fast so I think it gives an illusion much bigger than it actually was. I’ve been directing commercials and music videos for years in New York, so a lot of the crew helped on spare time. The actors did it all for free. It was done on a lot of favors. So it’s probably worth a lot more than we actually paid for.
XJ: You mentioned in an interview that you did most of the VFX on your own, but how did you make it exactly?
DL: So the story goes, I’ve been filming music videos and commercials professionally for a few years. I had worked with several respected VFX companies who helped me on some VFX for some pretty big commercials. I figured that they would help me do all the VFX.
In the end, they weren’t really interested in helping at all, since I had no money!! This was a real eye-opener. Even with relationships - it didn’t matter. By then, I had already shot over half the movie! I had a little background in VFX from film school, so I just started doing it all on my own. I had another couple friends who helped with the complicated shots, but in the end, I had to do probably 75% of the shots. I basically took time off and just rammed through it. This is why the film took two years to finish. I had already known some basics, so that helped. But I’m glad I went through that hellish, awful process because I’m a lot better and faster now. I know that VFX is the future of the film industry for number of reasons, and I’ve been trying to bolster that skill as much as I can.
XJ: How was your experience making videos in China?
DL: I have so much fun shooting in China!! I studied at Beijing University when I was in high school for a summer, and my family visited Taiwan when I was growing up, so it’s great to be back. I never thought I would be filming in Asia, since my heart was always looking to LA and Hollywood. That being said, sometimes it feels more comfortable in China. I’m a minority director in the US. There really aren’t that many directors of color in America. I actually am on the DGA Eastern Diversity Council, and you’d be shocked at how low the numbers are. Only 14% of US union TV shows are directed by minority men. And it is even worse for women. If you’re a minority woman trying to direct in the US for union shows, the statistic is 2%. Can you imagine, 2 out of a 100 shows are directed by minority women?
It was hard when I first started filming in China, and I would get lonely. There’s so much travel in filmmaking that no one tells you about in film school, but I have friends there now and it’s a lot more fun. China is not without challenges and it is difficult to shoot in. I have shot in many places around the world, and it’s probably one of the hardest places I’ve ever shot. Even with my language advantage, I need to lead a lot more than in the US. In the States, I think people anticipate you a little more, and love to offer their ideas, which help the project. In China, a lot of people stand around and wait for your next move. You really have to decide everything. In a way, that’s so refreshing, and in others, incredibly exhausting. I think it’s largely a cultural thing; in China the mentality is - he’s the director, so he tells me what to do. In the US, I do feel like the hierarchy is better structured. Each department head will bring their craft to the job as much as they can. And no one can truck equipment better and faster than LA. Those trucks pack up and go faster than anywhere.
XJ: Could you talk a bit about your upbringing please? Any cinematic influence from your family?
DL: I was born in Saskatchewan Canada, and raised in Watertown, Connecticut. I consider myself Asian American. Our family was pretty traditional, and I learned Chinese, played the piano and violin, etc. Looking back, those several years playing instruments is critical to how I direct my music videos today. I wish I had studied Chinese more as I’m pretty adequate but not fluent yet. And, I’ve been more and more shooting in China.
Like most Taiwanese families, my parents initially were not very thrilled with the idea of me going into filmmaking and always were telling me to think of a “back-up” career! But when I got into NYU for film school, I think they finally came around to it. Although, even in film school I think they were wondering what my back-up career would be! I had been filming since high school and wanted to make films since I was 12 so I just never stopped. I liked to write stories as a kid and I never stopped.
I’m a total black sheep. My brother is a doctor, my sister a lawyer and the other sister works at American Express, so the whole building sets and scouting in weird far out places is all pretty foreign to them. I have trouble explaining to them what I do other than showing them the end product. But they are supportive.
XJ: What does film mean to you?
DL: I think PLURALITY was a really great experience because I had a horrible senior thesis at NYU, and I didn’t have the energy to make another film for years. I got very discouraged because I had very high expectations for my thesis. I finally got over the hump that I could make a good film on my own.
The most important thing is that it gave me my confidence back, and that was a hard thing to rediscover. I think PLURALITY has shown me how tough the road is, even when I had a solid response from Hollywood. I met a lot of people from the film. There was a lot of, “That was great, what else do you have?”
In the end, you really just need to have someone take a chance on you, and that’s what I guess I’ve been waiting for. Then, hopefully when people look back, they’ll say, “Well, I knew that was going to happen, Dennis always made good stuff.” … But until then, it’s a lot of waiting. Who’s the person who’s going to make that leap of faith for you?
XJ: How on earth did you grow into such a talented filmmaker?
DL: I still feel like I have a lot left to learn!
I did it a lot when I was younger. I kept making movies with my friends. I was lucky in some ways to jump on Final Cut Pro version 1 when it just came out. When you get to NYU though, it’s amazing how many incredible filmmakers and artists that actually attend. The competition is very tough and many of my friends aren’t even trying to direct anymore, which makes me sad because several of them were great directors and better than me. But there’s quite bit of luck involved too.
You really have to sacrifice a lot. You have to want it really bad that money doesn’t matter, and nothing else matters. You just have to want it more than anyone else. You have to keep excelling for your very best. It’s not easy. At NYU, I think the most successful of us ended up not going to too many classes and just made films together on the weekends. That was probably the best schooling you could get - from learning from your mistakes.
XJ: What are your current projects? What your fans and followers could expect, for instance, in the next 5 years?
DL: I’ll have a feature done in the next 5 years for sure. It may be a small indie though if I can’t dig up the financing for it. I’m flirting with the idea of doing one of them in China. I just hope people are going to be still watching movies by then! It seems like the young generation has an even shorter attention span than my generation! I just finished a music video for Jolin Tsai, which was great, and a big spectacle. I’m working on a silly sketch comedy for fun with some friends. I try not to get too pigeonholed. If there’s an idea that I find interesting and challenging, I’ll try to do it. I really just want to keep learning and get better at my craft. I’ll probably never leave music videos, even though the budgets are terrible. I just have so much fun in them and they’re probably my favorite thing to do in filmmaking. I might do another short, but I think I’m just ready to gun for my first feature.
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