In Conversation with Michael Oblowitz Director of Confidential Informant
Confidential Informant stars Mel Gibson, Dominic Purcell, and Kate Bosworth
HANK
Date: 13th August 2019
Director: Hongyu Li
Producer: Baihui Chen, Hongyu Li, Mimi Masters, Yuan Yue
Writer: Austin James, Hongyu Li
Lead Cast: Jason Stuart, Jay Disney, William Nicol
indieactivity : What is your film about?
Hongyu Li : Since I moved to Los Angeles,I began to wonder if the question of opening up the relationship was a dilemma for couples who have been together for many years. So I started to research the lives of older gay men, thinking “How do they struggle with stereotypes? And what do older gay couples, who no longer fit these stereotypes do when their long term relationships hit hard times? Hank explores the challenges older gay men face and the often heartbreaking choices they make to keep their marriages alive.
indieactivity : Tell us about the festival run, marketing and sales?
Hongyu Li : It has received more than 15 acceptance letters from the film festivals including the prestigious Palm Springs International Short Film Festival and lots of well-known LGBTQ+ film festivals in Copenhagen, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Kansas City, London…
Related Story: Hongyu Li, How HANK Tackled Stereotypes in Older LGBTQ Relationships
indieactivity : Dramatic Feature?
- Director: Hongyu Li
- Producers: Hongyu Li, Mimi Masters
- Budget: 50,000
- Financing: 50,000
- Production: IMC Film Productions
- Shooting Format: Red Digital
- Screening Format: DCP
- World Premiere: Boston LGBT Film Festival
- Awards:
– Winner for Best LGBT Short – LA Independent Film Festival Awards,
– Nomination Best Student Short Film – Palm Springs International ShortFest
– Nomination Best Drama Short – North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival – Nomination Best Dramatic Short Film – Kansas City LGBT Film Festival
– Honorable Mention – Columbus International Film Festival
– Honorable Mention – Los Angeles Movie Award
– Official Selection – Burbank International Film Festival
– Official Selection – Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival
– Official Selection – Mix – Copenhagen LGBTQ+ Film Festival
– Official Selection – Philadelphia LGBTQ+ film festival
– Official Selection – Wicked Queer Boston LGBT Film Festival
– Official Selection – OUT HERE NOW: Kansas City LGBT Film Festival
– Official Selection – Hollywood Reel International Film Festival
indieactivity : Give the full Official Synopsis for your film?
Hongyu Li : After reluctantly agreeing to an open relationship, middle aged gay man Hank starts a wild journey with a mysterious young man only to find he’s put himself in danger. Narrowly escaping with his life, and forced to walk home alone and naked in the middle of the night, Hank realizes the compromise he made to save his marriage has gone too far.
indieactivity : Development & Financing?
Hongyu Li : This script took me around 6 months from development to script lock. Based my educational background, my writing process was very academic. Everything started from an image: a middle aged gay man walks on the street alone nakedly at midnight. Then I wrote my short synopsis and pitched it to some friends I can trust.
I talked about it everywhere just for testing which part made them excited and which part bored them out. Then I wrote beat sheet on index cards for getting a good structure of the story. I wrote down the first draft of outline until I felt very confident about it and handed in to my co-writer for the further discussions. We had around 13 revisions for Hank (which scared my producer because she was afraid of the location changes so that I locked script locations in the 7th revision for the pre-production team).
I self financed Hank because I knew it would become the calling card of my career. Now Hank is a big hit in film festivals and some big short film festivals like Palm Springs International ShortFest has the biggest short film market in US, and some distributors in Europe are contacting with me.
indieactivity : Production?
Hongyu Li : We spent six months in pre-production for guaranteeing four days production work well. It had four major locations and each location has its own tone. So me and key crews: cinematographer, gaffer, key grip, production designer and producer had two times location scouts and then I went to those locations by myself many times just for checking details, feeling the vibes, or thinking about the camera and actor’s blocking.
The post production is very intensive: I worked with a Canadian editor living in China which means that we had to work distantly. I set up a post production on google calendar and shared it with my editor, composer, sound designer and colorist. I received the first cut after a week. As all the rough cut, It looked terrible. I gave five pages of notes and had a facetime meeting with him. After seven revisions, I felt it was time to lock the picture.
Thanks to my production sound mixer, 99% of production sound has a very high quality. But we still had an ADR session for clearing couple lines. Another purpose of ADR is: I had another chance to change few lines that we felt it didn’t work in the editing room. It does make the story stronger and more logical.
indieactivity : Festival Preparation & Strategy?
Hongyu Li : I had a lot of research of film festivals to see which one fits me and I learned that, in the cover letter, I need to make it personal and find the connection with my project and the film festival. After I received the acceptance from the film festival, I had to prepare the press kit, posters and promo materials. I also made a DCP which guarantees the screening quality. Palm Springs International Short Film Festival gave Hank a big opportunity.
I received an email from London Fair PR and we started to work together a week before the festival. Palm Springs International Short Film Festival is in the top three short film festivals in the world and it’s the biggest short film festival in North America so it helped my film get into a lot of bigger film festival programmers’ radar. Currently a lot of film festivals have sent invitations to us.
indieactivity : The Release?
Hongyu Li : So far, my short film is still running the film festival campaign and I am keeping in touch with some short film distribution companies.
indieactivity : Advice from the Filmmaker?
Hongyu Li : Tell the story you are passion about. Don’t make a movie about another movie. Making a professional film so that people will treat you as a professional. You can only learn how to make a film by making a film. Learn from your mistakes.
Tell us what you think of the Case Study for “HANK” What do yo think of it? Genre? More genre? Lets have your comments below and/or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! Or join me on Twitter @oladapobamidele
