01 Oct Q&A WITH ANDY HUANG, DIRECTOR OF DOLL FACE
SAM CHEN: WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST CHALLENGING ABOUT MAKING DOLL FACE?
ANDY HUANG: Finding the determination to finish it. Also, embarking on a project when I was not sure how i would go about executing the visual effects
CHEN: TELL US WHETHER THE USE OF ANIMATION MAKE IT EASIER OR HARDER TO TELL YOUR STORY,
HUANG: I think the only other media outside of animation that could have told this story would have been art piece like an illustration. Animation made it harder, but having still surrealist imagery alone without the addition of time would not have been the most effective way to convey my idea.
CHEN: WHAT TOOLS DID YOU USE IN THE PRODUCTION OF YOUR FILM?
HUANG: Maya 6.0, Adobe After Effects 6.5, Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5, adobe photoshop, reason 3.0, Windows XP pro, Canon XLI.
CHEN: WHAT WAS THE SINGLE BIGGEST LESSON YOU LEARNED FROM MAKING DOLL FACE?
HUANG: I came away from this project with a better knowledge of what i can handle and what I can’t, and how much I can handle from living off my computer for months until I begin suffering from Vitamin D deficiency. I’m still learning the financial and personal costs of seeing your product take on a life of its own. Sending it to festivals and letting it treble the internet takes some tougher skin to handle the brutality of the public eye.
CHEN: WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ULTIMATE ACHIEVEMENT IN ANIMATION?
HUANG: I think as long as i produce something that inspires someone else or makes them see differently, i’ll be happy. Art is about sharing, so if I can share something with someone that gets us both pumped, then that means a lot to me.
CHEN: WHAT DO FILMS FESTIVALS LIKE SDAFF MEAN FOR INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS?
HUANG: SDAFF means lot to me because it allows, me to share my film with community I’ve been brought up in. I do feel a conviction as an asian American to increase asian American visibility in entertainment.
CHEN: DOES BEING AN ASIAN AMERICAN HELP OR HINDER YOUR PURSUIT OF FILM-MAKING?
HUANG: I think being Asian American helps or hinders my filmmaking as much as it would help or hinder anything else in my life. It was hard at 12 years old to imagine myself as an asian american in entertainment. But i knew t the time that there were Asian Americans in the business still trying, and i had a passion for what i wanted to do. So, it’d be silly for me to count my Asian American identity as an obstacle that keeps me from doing what i need to do.