I’ve been watching the anime Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, reading the manga and loved it a lot. Here is a quote from an analysis video that I love a lot!
“He loved her in the past. She loves him in the present. It’s a love story without being a love story and that gives the story room to breathe and be so much more than a romance.” – Frieren the Slayer (of Basic Shounen Girls) – Let’s Watch Some Anime
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Quotes I Love, Video | 
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Posted by kempton
I recently decided (*1) to find and rewatch my DVD copy of Sofia Coppola‘s Lost in Translation (2003). Ended up finding and watching a bunch of YouTube videos to try to understand things and learn more.
Sofia Coppola winning Best Original Screenplay (Oscars 2004)
Scarlett Johansson reflects on the 20th anniversary of ‘Lost in Translation’
Note *1: Directors Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich (1999) and Adaptation (2002)) were former wife and husband and they divorced in 2003, the same year Lost in Translation came out. Some say Jonze’s Her (2013) was a reply to Coppola’s Lost. I once watch a great Vimeo short video by Jorge Luengo Ruiz showing images from both films, simply stunning! Have a watch.
Lost in Translation // Her: An Unloved Story by Jorge
//Three persons. Two cities. One feeling.
Directed by Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson
DoP: Lance Acord and Hoyte Van Hoytema //
P.S. Some other clips.
You know It’s a Sofia Coppola Movie IF… (The Take ~2017)
Sofia Coppola Shares Her Rich Film Archival | W Magazine (2023)
Sofia Coppola & Spike Jonze at the ‘X-Girl’ Fashion Show (1994) 🛹 From the Vault
P.P.S. OK, and this too.
Spike Jonze winning Best Original Screenplay for “Her” (2014)
Well, and this too.
The Jon Stewart Show – Sofia Coppola & Zoe Cassavetes
Also this, Academy Conversations: Her
OK, I love the film so this is now random! :) Spike Jonze on Being John Malkovich
Well, I’m adding these two.
Sofia Coppola: On Directing (Nov 2017, THE BEGUILED)
An Evening with Sofia Coppola (June 2017, Film at Lincoln Center)
xxx
Leave a Comment » | politics | Tagged: bill-murray, insightful, Japan, joaquin-phoenix, Movies, scarlett-johansson, sofia-coppola, tokyo, YouTube | Permalink
Posted by kempton
What a lovely ad featuring Maggie #SelfCare #MeTime by Olay! Wonderful & cool to see Maggie well! And congrats to the Olay’s ad agency for the success! [HT MingPao] Does anyone know which ad agency and creative team created this ad?
好久不見，來自張曼玉的一封信，一直是她，OLAY (#Ad)
P.S. I love good ads and used to subscribe to #AdAge. Over the years, Dove Evolution remains one of my most loved ads. And Dove’s 2013 ad campaign Real Beauty Sketches (70 million views on YouTube) is still a great ad video that makes me cry a little 10+ years later after it moved me those years ago.
Comments Off on #MaggieCheung #張曼玉 #SelfCare #MeTime #Ad by #Olay | politics | Tagged: advertising, YouTube | Permalink
Posted by kempton
Are you as heart broken as I’m seeing the widespread flood damages (暴雨水浸) in HongKong? Well, maybe distract yourself a little with this little not very well-known HK filmed RomCom “Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong (2015)“? I had fun watching it and remembering HK before all the widespread damages! (Free with ads)
Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong (2015 YouTuvbe Free w ads)
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Posted by kempton
I was lucky and got tickets to watch Oppenheimer (trailer) on opening Friday morning 10am IMAX screening (Sold Out at the end) and then Barbie (trailer) on Saturday morning 1030am. I’m amazed to know some PEOPLE magazine staffers were tasked to watch to watch the two films on opening weekend and some of them watched the films back-to-back for 5 hours, OMG! They share their interesting and insightful experiences in this article (including some unexpected crying, like I did).
Thanks to this Barbenheimer phenomenon, The Hollywood Report reports this is the fourth-biggest weekend of all time at the domestic box office (Barbie takes US$155M and Oppenheimer takes US$80.5).
While both movies are very thought provoking and touching at places, I think I cried more watching Barbie because the messy challenges are more “men made”, literally problems made by us men, the beeping Kens! While the ~12 or ~8 year old girls watching in the theatres around the world may not get all the jokes, I hope by watching how the Kens behave in the second half of the movie, the girls learned something and maybe even get “vaccinated” a little and learn to better deal with us men! Will see.
I’m hoping to watch Barbie again with my better half at some point. And I will try to avoid another wardrobe mishap and dress up wearing my light pink shirt to watch Barbie because real world Barbie needs all the men stop being Kens to flight injustice along with Barbies! By the way, what mishap? Glad you asked. The last few Xiaolongbao I tried to chow down before leaving for the theatre ended up splashing balsamic vinegar on my shirt and I had to change (like any Ken would) before leaving for the show!
To quote myself in longish multiple parts Facebook comment to a random stranger asking why I cried watching Barbie,
“The many throw-away jokes (including 9-women supreme court joke), if one think deeper about one or more of these jokes and go on a tangent a bit like I did about our real world 2023, I couldn’t help but cry a little. Yes, a 9-women supreme court may be #amazing until one ask what if the 9 women were appointed by President/Accused/Indicted/(may be Prisoner one day?) 45 because that would not help a tiny bit and Roe v. Wade would still have been overturned like it has been today in 2023. Yes, Gerwig didn’t mention Roe v. Wade but it wasn’t too big a step for me to take.“
OK, to end this post (for now) on a positive note, I was sitting with a group of amazing women who dressed up as Barbies in their own lovely ways and I shared with them that I cried and they said they cried a bit too. They were quite awesome in letting this stranger took a selfie with them.
Update 1: By the way, “Moviegoers who scored elusive tickets to “Oppenheimer’s” premier screenings were met with disappointment as technical issues plagued the “gold standard” IMAX 70-millimetre format in Ontario.” Same problem in Alberta for both Calgary and Edmonton Cineplex theatres! I ended up getting a free movie pass to watch the movie (or anything else) plus after I show great eagerness to find out what went wrong, a special treat of a tour (thanks Scott, Executive Director, Alberta South Operations, Cineplex) seeing the computer that led to audio out of sync problem and the four IMAX projectors (two for IMAX 1570 film, and two for IMAX Digital) in the projection room! See pix in the slideshow.
Update2: I checked with Calgary Chinook and was told they fixed the audio sync problem by Saturday morning before my Barbie screening.
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Posted by kempton
Before watching the insightful interviews with James Cameron, I was misled to think certification was not necessary/needed on “cutting edge one of a kind” sub but I was very wrong. Have a watch of the following interviews with Cameron and other expert. As Cameron put it, two tragedies Titanic & Titan now next to each other where both captains ignore repeat warnings …
“Titanic” filmmaker James Cameron weighs in on the ‘catastrophic’ Titan sub implosion | ABC News
CNN (Anderson Cooper) – James Cameron on ‘fundamental flaw’ in design of Titan submersible
CTV News – ‘Titanic’ director James Cameron says he should have raised OceanGate concerns in public
Titanic expert Bob Ballard reacts to ‘catastrophic implosion’ of missing submersible
BBC News – ‘OceanGate were warned’ about Titan sub safety, says Titanic director James Cameron
BBC News, Titan sub CEO dismissed safety warnings as ‘baseless cries’, emails show
xxx
Comments Off on Titanic filmmaker James Cameron weighs in on the ‘catastrophic’ Titan sub | politics | Permalink
Posted by kempton
====
The following is my version of a Verbatim Transcript 逐字稿 after carefully & repeatedly (6+ times) viewing and listening to the words of the 41st Hong Kong Film Awards Best Film acceptance speeches. This Verbatim Transcript 逐字稿 serves as my Congratulation Gift to 《給十九歲的我》”To My Nineteen Year Old Self” because truths still matter to me plus To My 19 is a documentary that I have called National Treasure of Hong Kong when I video interviewed the film’s co-director Ms. Mabel Cheung 張婉婷.
====
[t=82] 我係呢套戲嘅聯合導演郭偉倫 [K’s note: William Kwok]。
好幸運呀我哋。突然間好緊張、好刺激唔知講乜嘢好。
我首先想感謝我哋呢套戲 [《給十九歲的我》] 嘅靈魂，係張婉婷小姐。 [ 現場觀眾拍掌 ]
[t=110] 亞 Mabel 係電視可以見到我哋，我諗你應該好開心。
OK, Mabel 同我地講︰
[t=122] 「過去一段時間，由羅啟銳死亡嘅黑洞到《十九歲》面世，瞬間令我躲進一個可以栽種美麗植物嘅小花園，再因為一場風波，將我一頭掉進一個漆黑嘅森林。這一切，令我領悟到人生嘅無常。但係坂本龍一臨終嘅一句說話，畀我好大嘅啟發︰『藝術千秋，人生朝露』。
多謝呢段時間仍然給我支持同鼓勵嘅人。多謝業界對呢部電影嘅肯定。
令我黑暗當中漸漸見到曙光，讓我知道雖然人生處於低谷，但仍然意味着前路只有向上嘅可能性。
感謝石校長交畀我哋呢個任務，我哋今生無悔。
感謝所有參與拍攝嘅同學們，感謝你哋面對自己，面對觀眾嘅勇氣。
感謝10年來同我哋同甘共苦嘅團隊。人生有幾多個10年呢？可以畀大家追逐一個夢想，一齊面對高山低谷，最寶貴嘅係，呢10年嘅磨練，令我哋成為莫逆之交。多謝大家。」
[t=209] 另外一位我哋嘅監製黃慧，因為佢今日身體抱恙，所以黎唔到。
咁由我哋嘅 [ 分組導演 ] 李淑嫻小姐 [K’s note: Edith]，代表佢講一番感言。
[t=222] 我哋黃同學，黃慧監製嘅致謝辭︰
多謝金像獎各位評判對《十九歲》嘅肯定。
感謝石校長嘅遠見，以學校重建為基礎，見證一群少女的成長，
交織成一個反影時代令我哋可以近距離觀察成長嘅歷程。
見證到教育、家庭、及社會對成長嘅影響。
好感謝佢對我哋嘅信任，交呢個咁艱巨同埋咁奇特嘅任務比我哋。
令呢個製作能夠開始，以令我哋經歷呢十多年既奇妙旅程。
感謝多位同學嘅慷慨，願意分享自己成長嘅過程，以自己嘅生命鼓勵同影響萬千觀眾嘅生命。
亦多謝一班傻勁嘅製作團隊。有佢哋嘅不離不棄，呢個製作先能夠完成。
最後請大家同我一齊祝福我哋嘅張導演，我嘅婉婷同學，經過咗咁多個月，無可理喻嘅折騰，
祝願佢明天就走出幽谷。再接再厲，後勁更凌厲。多謝。
[t=305] 郭偉倫︰跟住係我短短嘅說話啦。我要感謝嘅係英華女校啦，比咗信任我哋去拍呢部橫跨10年嘅一部紀錄片。我哋特別多謝 MBS。MBS 係後期公司，佢地十年來對我哋嘅支持。呢班兄弟姊妹，不離不棄，感謝佢地。另外 One Cool, One Cool 嘅專業團隊令我地套電影可以好靚。好優美。另外我哋要多謝係有啲無名英雄啦，包括幫我地抄十年 transcript 嘅一啲英華女校嘅同學。
咁到最後我個人想講一句就係：「香港拍紀錄片嘅導演，請你繼續努力去拍紀錄片。唔好驚，因為時代需要拍紀錄片，用鏡頭去紀錄我哋發生嘅事。記住唔好熄機，繼續拍，唔好驚，拍咗先算，剪咗先算，上咗先算。」
====
Extra
《給十九歲的我》聯合導演郭偉倫 William Kwok – 《第41屆香港電影金像獎》「最佳導演」及「新晉導演」提名人專訪片段
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我諗我哋呢套紀錄片原本嘅主題係關於成長。
成長係我哋可以真實噉樣面對我哋嘅過去。
不論好與壞，接受、唔接受既嘢。
咁當真正面對嗰一刻呢，我哋就會搵到乜嘢答案。
回顧番呢一個紀錄片，不論係佢個時間、個規模、同埋個主題，
同埋佢而家引伸出嚟嘅呢一個討論，都係前所未有嘅。
呢個參選會刺激到某啲人，咁所以大家都要好小心、好謹慎咁去講每一個字。
我哋都係好卑微咁拍緊紀錄片，同埋做緊一啲我哋認為啱嘅嘢，去記錄真實囉。
當然大家對真實嘅睇法可以好唔同，特別係係畫面背後發生咩事。
呢種真實觀眾或者好多 party 都有唔同嘅理解囉。
咁啊，可能有啲嘢要留待時間，留待空氣，留待大家去思考嘅嘢黎嘅。
畫面嘅嘢睇到 嘅真實，係最珍貴囉。
==== P.S. Press Release from YWGS 英華女學校 (Internet archived 20230425 version link) ====
本校得悉，由本校製作的紀錄片《給十九歲的我》，剛獲今屆香港電影金像獎評選為「最佳電影」，我們對評委的肯定表示感謝，但由於校方於二月已決定退出遴選，故今晚沒有派代表出席頒獎禮。本校就此向金像獎主辦方表達真誠歉意，並感謝主辦方連月來的協助和體諒。
《給》片拍攝時間長達十年，拍攝初衷是透過紀錄學校重建和學生的成長經歷，探討教育的意義。本校感謝擔任本片導演的張婉婷校友、監製黃慧校友和她們的製作團隊，在資源極有限的環境完成艱巨的拍攝，亦要感謝片中六位年輕校友多年來的參與。另外，拍攝團隊多名成員，是張、黃兩位的同期校友，她們都是出於對母校和學妹的愛護，多年來也一直無償參與拍攝工作，她們的付出值得充份肯定。本校重申，在本片拍攝過程中，團隊是本着被拍者同意和知情下的原則進行拍攝，絕無意進行強迫拍攝或偷拍，我們亦容許同學在拍攝期間退出。
英華女學校 謹啟2023年4月16日
====
For the record. 7 March 2023 – 有關紀錄片《給十九歲的我》聲明（2023年3月7日）(pix)
本校上月決定，由本校製作的紀錄片《給十九歲的我》，停止公開放映和退出本屆香港電影金像獎（下稱金像獎）「最佳電影」獎項的遴選。
《給》片在金像獎遴選總共獲得三項提名。金像獎早前向本校表示，要求我們提供《給》片，讓主辦單位在第二輪遴選向評審放映。
本校經過審慎考慮，亦先後與六位參與拍攝的校友、製作團隊和金像獎進行了深入的溝通，探討有關放映事宜，惟最後未有達成共識，故未能向金像獎提供影片放映。本校已將有關決定通知六位校友、製作團隊和金像獎。
校方尊重電影行業頒發有關獎項的目的、宗旨和慣例，惟校方考慮到各持份者的意願，因此重申本校不會以版權持有人身份參與任何形式的獎項遴選、接受或領取獎項。
《給》片拍攝時間長達十年，拍攝初衷是透過紀錄學校重建和六位校友的成長經歷，探討教育的意義。在簽訂同意書時，考慮到《給》可能帶來收益，故表明放映有關收益將撥入「學校重建基金」。
本片拍攝過程期間，拍攝團隊本著被拍者同意和知情下的原則進行拍攝。對於個別被拍攝者其後反映被拍攝情況及對剪裁後內容有所顧慮及擔憂，校方極度重視，故果斷地停止公映，並持續與各持份者溝通和跟進有關情況。
本校感謝製作團隊在資源極有限的環境完成艱巨的拍攝工作，以及片中校友們多年的努力及付出。《給》片得到電影界和其他界別的正面迴響和肯定，校方完全尊重製作團隊接受個人獎項的意願。
《給》片引起的公眾關注，以及有校友對電影公演表達困擾，我們非常重視。對事件引發的社會爭議，校方再次表達我們真誠的歉意。校方正進行深切的檢討，持續聽取各持份者的心聲，並會尋求專業意見，檢視我們在整個過程中的種種不足，總結經驗，繼續秉持英華女學校作為教育機構的理念和價值觀。
英華女學校 謹啟
2023年3月7日
Comments Off on Congrats 給十九歲的我 – 香港電影金像獎 – 最佳電影 致謝辭逐字稿 + Extra | politics | Tagged: Documentary, Hong Kong, Letter to Hong Kong | Permalink
Posted by kempton
Related: “Kempton & 張婉婷 給十九歲的我 (National Treasure) To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self – Mabel Cheung 2.5 hrs chat”
Related: “多謝《給十九歲的我》的參與者。 #終身學習 Thanks Participants of “To My 19 Year Old Self” #LifelongLearning”
多謝張堅庭導演(Alfred),算係張婉婷導演(Mabel)的多年朋友,說話比較中肯. Alfred你嘅分析有些地方我同意,但有些地方我作為一個鍾意睇紀錄片,拍過三套紀錄片嘅導演,就絕不能同意.今日我想同你誠心,不亢不卑咁討論,問一問你,同你探討一下一啲紀錄片嘅問題,可以嗎?
附筆:我唔可以話係任何野嘅專家,有幸我响冇讀過任何電影學院的情況底下,我第一套自資拍攝嘅紀錄片得到加拿大國家博物館(Canadian National Archive)嘅錯愛同埋收藏.
1) 你話 >> “我認為用父母簽的consent 作為法律手段並不合理。”
Alfred,請問你有無睇過英國經典紀錄片Up (film series)嗎? 你知道 Up (film series)由七歲開始拍攝一班小朋友 (大約14個小朋友), 每七年拍一次, 拍到63歲 (63 Up (2019)), 橫跨56年, 你明白拍紀錄片的專業操守, 需要有法律/合約為依歸,同埋保護嗎? 你明白法律,不是你所謂的”法律手段”嗎? 我想問一問你點解英國就可以有 Up (film series) 呢一啲國際級 National Treasure, 今時今日可憐可悲嘅香港就有 “新香港式文革批鬥” Mabel 張婉婷導演, 參與電影拍攝各位人士, 甚至學校同老師都受到前所未有”用詞惡毒”的人身攻擊? Alfred, 我想請問你睇完我的所謂例子同分析,有啲咩不同嘅意見同睇法,可以比我地參考討論嗎?
2) Alfred你話 >> “況且她不是演員，但記錄了的片段在這年代有如月球上的石刻，是一生的印記，演員是永恆的榮耀，於一個普通女學生是長久的傷痕。”
Alfred, 我再以 “Up (film series)” 為例子, 其中一位成員 Neil 長大成人之後, 有數年時間成為 unhoused 人士, 無家可歸, 如你”傷痕”的說法, “Up (film series)” 以後可以永世不得見其天日, 因為Neil一個人嘅”演員是永恆的榮耀，於一個普通**男**學生 (Neil in Up (film series)) 是長久的傷痕。” 合情合理嗎?
Alfred, 剛巧九年前, 2014 年我視像訪問了台灣紀錄片導演楊逸帆先生 Adler Yang. 當年19歲的 Adler 的學習的理由 (If There is a Reason to Study) 在香港藝術中心 agnès b. 電影院播放. Adler 從他14歲開始便拍攝他同班的多位同學, 用你”長久的傷痕”的見解, Adler 任何一位當年家長或監護人同意拍攝, 只有 14, 15, … 歲的同學, 便隨時可以因為長大成人之後覺得影片對他們任何的”傷害”, 便要 Adler 以後永世不能播放他的電影 “學習的理由” 嗎?這對一個用心拍攝紀錄片五年的電影導,電影演製作人公平,公道,公正嗎? Alfred, 我想請問你睇完我的所謂例子同分析,有啲咩不同嘅意見同睇法,可以比我地參考討論嗎?
P.S. 錦上添花易, 雪中送炭難. 多謝袁國勇教授. “《給十九歲》中受訪 袁國勇稱拍攝程序恰當惟未知會否公映 讚張婉婷照顧學生” See For the record (2)
P2.S. 錦上添花容易, 雪中送炭難, 一沉百踩嘅香港人周街都係! 多謝黃秋生先生出來講下一啲公道說話. “給十九歲的我｜黃秋生維護張婉婷 留言反駁跟網民開火” See For the record (3).
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For the record (1), Mr. 張堅庭導演(Alfred)頻道 (20230208) full post for full context in case I missed something.
//這陣子有關19歲的討論鋪天蓋地，但有關張婉婷的描述，脫離了討論、辯論的範疇，用詞惡毒，我認識她40多年，她是一個天真的人，有時我會心問，有冇咁懵呀，都過知天命之年了。
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Posted by kempton
Thanks Participants of “To My 19 Year Old Self” #LifelongLearning
多謝《給十九歲的我》的參與者。 #終身學習
Related: “Kempton & 張婉婷 給十九歲的我 (National Treasure) To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self – Mabel Cheung 2.5 hrs chat”
Related: “回應張堅庭導演 #給十九歲的我”
0) Thanking ALL participants and not just the leads (“主角”)
1) Dear Shirley (best friend of 「阿佘」Britney),
2)「阿佘」Britney and family
** 2a) Dear Britney’s Mom,
** 2b) Dear 「阿佘」Britney,
3)「阿聆」Ling and family
** 3a) Dear「阿聆」Ling,
** 3b) Dear Ling’s Parents,
** 3c) Dear Ling’s brother Mr. Wong Lik Tin 王力天,
4)「阿雀」“Birdy” Chloe and family
** 4a) Dear Chloe’s Parents,
** 4b) Dear 「阿雀」 Chloe,
5) Dear「香港小姐」“Miss HK” Katie
6) In Closing
0) Thanking ALL participants and not just the leads (“主角”)
Many have thanked the “lead participants” (“主角”) of the Hong Kong award-winning documentary 《給十九歲的我》“To My 19 year old self”. My thanks go to all appearing in front of camera and behind the scenes, you have taken precious time in these 10 years to shine light on the most precious thing in life, which is life itself.
After taking some time to reflect after watching 給十九 ToMy19 for 6+ times, I’ve found many “Teachable Moments“. I will try to share a few scenes in the film and people that I was deeply touched by. Each of us of course will have moments that touched us more than others because of our own live experiences. And I think that is expected. Here are some of mine.
I will put my thanks in the form of letters addressed to some of the people I watched in 給十九 ToMy19 directly in no particular order. Due to space and time limitation, I’m only able to share small parts of what I want to say so my apologies in advance.
1) Dear Shirley (best friend of 「阿佘」Britney),
Dear Shirley, I wish 給十九 ToMy19 is longer and we audiences of 給十九 ToMy19 get to see more of you on screen in your own words, telling your own stories, including more of you talking about your passion in music. Were you studying conducting in that scene near the end? One thing we got to watch clearly is that you were such a good and loyal friend of 「阿佘」Britney (more on Britney later) in her times of greatest need. Your firm and unwavering support of Britney showed us hope and possibility for goodness in a “Mean Girls” movie-style school environment. Shirley, Have you heard of the “Anne Frank Test“? No? Before I explain it, I want to say you passed the “Anne Frank Test” with flying colours! The Anne Frank Test as told by a Holocaust survivor years ago, is actually a single question: Which non-Jewish friends would risk their lives to hide us should the Nazis ever return? To me, you passed the “Anne Frank Test” when 「阿佘」Britney became an outcast for those periods of time in school and you stood by her all those years when she most needed your support. So much so that years later, Britney remembered your kindness and told others including the Former Principal Ms. Ruth Lee (前任校長 李石玉如) who recognized the good job that you did for your classmate in need. I often quote the Chinese saying, “錦上添花易, 雪中送炭難” and it is rather true for you. These days, I see too many HongKongers who are willing to 落井下石 because they have been primed to quick “Like” and even quicker “Hate” thanks to Social Media (like Facebook) algorithms that have been designed to maximize engagement (another word for “angry”/”hate”/”dislike”).
Thanks Shirley for giving us viewers (young, old, and very old) opportunities to learn to behave like you did for your good friend Britney. In case you and others are interested, I first read about test/concept in The Atlantic, “John McCain Would Have Passed the Anne Frank Test” after the passing of Senator McCain.
2) 「阿佘」Britney and family
2a) Dear Britney’s Mom,
Watching you showing your love of Britney by scheduling and limiting her activities (including limiting her TV time) reminded me very much of the love my own parents showed us when we were little. My parents were busy working like you and Britney’s father and they did not want us children to watch too much TV either “for our own good”. And in the summer holiday, my mom would plan my schedule a little so I would take time to study. You were like my parents, you tried and that was kinda “Universal Truth” of how some parents show love!
2b) My Dear 「阿佘」Britney,
Dear Britney, I wish 給十九 ToMy19 is longer and has more time to explore (even briefly) your current work in nursing. I worry the nursing profession in HK has also been decimated by the Covid19 pandemic like in Canada (shortage of nurses) and US (more shortage). How are things in nursing? Now back to the documentary. Thank you so much for sharing your stages of growth with HongKongers of all ages including students’ parents. So some (not all, but some) of those parents may learn to better love & spend quality and quantity time with their HongKongers students/children. I think every little bit makes a positive difference.
Speaking about parents who didn’t want us children watching too much TV “for our own good”, may I share something with you? Well, when my dear parents weren’t home to stop us from glued to the TV, at one point, they would unplug the TV, tied the TV’s electric cord into a knot, then my dad would tape the whole electronic cord knot onto the side of the TV and signed his name onto the tape itself, yes, as a tamper-proof security feature! Very inventive father! That invention stopped us from watching TV for a few days until I bought an electric extension cord to power the TV! 💞🤔😃💞 Of course, 道高一尺, 魔高一丈, soon they would start to “feel” the back of the TV, and if the TV was hot, it meant we were watching TV “illegally”! And then I discovered water would cool TV down so I just poured cups of water right into the back of TV minutes before they arrived home. Thank goodness TVs weren’t made in China and were more reliable then, and us children did not die from TV explosion from all the water poured into the back of high voltage cathode-ray tube TVs! Kidding aside, we can see in the documentary, your parents worked hard to provide for you. And your parents didn’t get their “training manuals on parenting” as neither did my parents get theirs.
Britney you are so brave in sharing your mental health condition (Depression) and Serotonin medication that may help many HongKongers’ (young and old) in discussing and treating their mental health condition, something that you now know as important given your nursing profession. Mental health condition is something many HongKongers including HongKongers students may have but aren’t brave enough to face or share like you. Britney, you have my deep admiration and I cried (ok, I cry easy) in support of your bravery! In Canada, we are a bit more enlightened as we have the awesome Clara Hughes, a beloved Canadian cyclist and speed skater who has won multiple Olympic medals in both sports. Britney, Our dear Clara wasn’t as brave as you because Clara could only share her mental health condition (Deep Depression) in 2011 after she was a full grown adult and a highly decorated successful Olympian winning multiple medals! Britney, you opened up when you were in secondary school and some of your classmates weren’t your most supportive friends except your best friend Shirley which I think we can agree as super cool! Britney, would you agree that Shirley has passed the “Anne Frank Test” as I described above? By the way, have you studied from your nursing training, the concept of Neurodiversity, a term I much prefer? I recently learned about it from the CBC podcasts “Neurodiversity and the Myth of Normal” (part 1) and (part 2). With stories like yours more widely shared, do you think we can be hopeful that HongKongers will be more enlightened in the coming months and years?
3) 「阿聆」Ling and family
3a) Dear「阿聆」Ling,
Dear Ling, It was a breath of fresh air watching your open, fair, and hard fought school election that determined which of two teams would get to lead the Ying Wa Student Council. Documentary film doesn’t exist in a vacuum. And 給十九 ToMy19 exists in 2022/2023 when the Hong Kong 47 are being accused of breaking National Security Law of Hong Kong for their election related activities and some had been put in prison without bail for 700+ days. Under this context, watching your open, fair, and hard fought school election campaign and the insightful & emotional speech given by Vice Principal Ms. Siu-Fung Chow 周小鳳 became deeply touching & insightful as good documentaries can do sometimes. Maybe I cry too easily, but I cried watching you and your schoolmates’ school election campaign. I want you to know those election campaign scenes touched me.
And watching the clear love between you and your younger brother Mr. Wong Lik Tin 王力天 is an example of the “Universal Truth” that is the unconditional love that exist between siblings. Which led me to fondly remember some experiences with my own sibling. We love each other unconditionally. You and Mr. Wong also taught me more about the further need for inclusivity in Hong Kong which I will expand below.
3b) Dear Ling’s Parents,
Dear Ling’s Mother, You showed and taught me about unconditional motherly love in every frame you appear in the movie. I’m not a smart man but I think and hope your on screen actions has inspired and give solace to other HongKonger mothers who have their own life experiences to live.
Dear Ling’s Father, We got to watch you in a few places in the documentary and I appreciate your special fatherly love. As us children (we are ALL children of our parents, so this includes you, Mr. Ling’s Father) get older, we learn that parents are not given “training manuals” of how to be good parents and sometimes even our own parents make mistakes and that is another “Universal Truth” I myself discovered when I got older. My own parents tried their best. And so did you. The difference is that, I now understand that fact of “parents make mistakes too” better, the change of understanding happened inside me.
3c) Dear Ling’s brother Mr. Wong Lik Tin 王力天,
Dear Mr. Wong Lik Tin 王力天, Thank you for sharing precious moments of your life with us. Thanks especially to you, I have taken the initiative (a few hours) to learn more about Neurodiversity. In the film, your mental health condition is described as autistic (自閉症), of which I’m now more comfortable in using the term Neurodiverse to describe after listening to the CBC podcasts “Neurodiversity and the Myth of Normal” (part 1) and (part 2). And I’ve put a library hold on the book “Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity” (see also audio NPR segment). I know some HongKongers are more progressive than others, and as we learn more about ideas like Neurodiversity so we can, ultimately, bring out fuller potential of Neurodiverse HongKongers to contribute to communities in unique ways as Prof. Temple Grandin (who is neurodiverse herself) talked about in details in the CBC podcasts “Neurodiversity and the Myth of Normal” (part 1) and (part 2) that I hope readers of this post will take time to listen. To quote Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” I will tell people reading this to not take my words blindly for it, have a listen to “Neurodiversity and the Myth of Normal” (part 1) and (part 2) and decide for yourself.
4) 「阿雀」“Birdy” Chloe and family
4a) Dear Chloe’s Parents,
You both show your clear unconditional love of Chloe. And in the documentary, Chloe even explained she is not going to leave Hong Kong so she can take care of you both. So sweet.
Dear Chloe’s Dad, You got up everyday to give Chloe rides to school (until the school moved to the Sham Shui Po) reminded me of how my loving late dad took care of us by driving us around to where we needed to go. The pair of scenes that touched me deeply were the ones you held Chloe’s hands when she was little. And then on that rainy day when Chloe was older, she pushed your wet hand away. This is another moment that I call “Universal Truth” as we children all do “this” at some stage of us growing up. Inevitable. Part of “growing up”. This scene made me cried a little as my own 80+ years old dad passed away last year. I wish I had more years to hold my dad’s hands but Covid19 and Hong Kong’s isolation policy robbed us of the final years, final months, final days, and final hours as I watched him over video as he passed on.
4b) Dear「阿雀」Chloe,
Dear Chloe, Watching 給十九 ToMy19, I feel (rightly or wrongly?) you are easy going and yet very principled. Your scenes bought lot of joy and insight to me personally. After watching your wonderful role in “The Nightingale”, I even Google to find and sample longer segments of “The Nightingale” Part 1/2 and Part 2/2 to watch for fun! And watching the scene of you, “Madam” Karen, Ying Wa’s First Police Inspector Ms. Sheila Tong (湯玉英, 英華首位警務女督察), and others discussing the then “Live” Hong Kong protests (“佔中” in the words of Karen) also show your independent minded personality which I admire deeply. I’m almost certain that when I was your age, I would not have the clarity of mind and wouldn’t be able to explain my reasons as clearly as you to a person as experienced in policing as Sheila.
5) Dear「香港小姐」“Miss HK” Katie
Dear Katie, It was heartbreaking watching many scenes of you growing up alone in Hong Kong as it also shines light on real life experiences that more and more families of blended families and parents not living with the children. Of course, it was heartwarming to see you adapted to your American life really well.
6) In Closing, I wish I have more time and words to write about more people in 給十九 ToMy19 that touched my heart and taught me insightful lessons. I think the nice thing about good documentaries is not unlike other things in life, we ultimately decide what we see as “Teachable Moments” to learn from. Good luck and I hope you find your own valuable “Teachable Moments” in life.
Comments Off on 多謝《給十九歲的我》的參與者。 #終身學習 Thanks Participants of “To My 19 Year Old Self” #LifelongLearning | Democracy, Documentary, Hong Kong, insightful, Love, Movies, people, politics | Permalink
Posted by kempton
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Related: “多謝《給十九歲的我》的參與者。 #終身學習 Thanks Participants of “To My 19 Year Old Self” #LifelongLearning”
Related: “回應張堅庭導演 #給十九歲的我”
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10 years in the making, 300,000 hours of footage, and 3 years editing
It was my great honour and pleasure to have an extensive ~2.5 hours four parts insightful video interview (watch here) with Ms. Mabel Cheung 張婉婷導演 , an award winning director from the start of her career including her first student film (the famous “Migration trilogy“: The Illegal Immigrant 非法移民 (1985), An Autumn’s Tale 秋天的童話 (1987) and Eight Taels of Gold 八兩金 (1989)). My previous “record” of longest film interview was ~2 hours with Taiwan director Mr. Shen Ko-shang 沈可尚 to talk about his documentary LOVE Talk 幸福定格 which he took 7 years to film 8 couples.
Mabel and I chatted last Sunday Hong Kong time (2023/01/15) to talk about her documentary (10 years in the making, 300,000 hours of footage, and 3 years in the editing room) 給十九歲的我 To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self (in short 給十九 ToMy19). And then the film won 2022 Best Film from Hong Kong Film Critics Society 香港電影評論學會 one day later on Monday (2023/01/16). Perfectly timed for Mabel‘s words of thanks to be appended to Part 4/4 of the interview clips.
My extensive ~2.5 hours chat with Mabel covers many topics, including scenes I love in 給十九 ToMy19 from the perspectives of movie viewers and also things that documentary filmmakers like myself or aspiring filmmakers want to know. Some viewers and filmmakers maybe curious how Mabel worked with 300,000 hours of footage to create a film that is loved by many? Or when the student interviewees didn’t want to be interviewed anymore, what did Mabel & team do to keep things going? What kind of advices does Mabel have for documentary or drama filmmakers or aspiring filmmakers wanting to create their first film?
Have a watch of all four parts of the interview. Mabel & I were originally scheduled to chat for 2 hours and those time flew by in the blink of an eye. And Mabel was so kind in giving me a 30 minutes extension. I used my additional time to ask questions I previously collected from a photographer friend interested in filmmaking and three questions by Norris Wong 黃綺琳 (note: Norris 黃綺琳 is Mabel’s former university student and current filmmaking project mentee 香港電影發展基金「薪火相傳計劃 ((2022?)-(3) 張婉婷 / 黃鐦 黃綺琳)」).
Calling 給19歲的我 To My 19-Year-Old Self a “National Treasure“
Right from the start, I mentioned to Mabel that I’ve watched 給十九 ToMy19 6+ times and I love it. In the same way that many Brits now love the Up (film series) (a series of docs featuring group of ~14 people in UK when they were 7, 14, 21, 28, … all the way to 63 years old) and consider Up (film series) a National Treasure, I love 給十九 ToMy19 a ton and also consider it a National Treasure.
Love is hard to explain. In some sense I started falling in love with longitudinal documentaries in 1988 as I was lucky to discover and watched the first four Up (documentary series) when the subjects/interviewees were 7, 14, 21, and 28 years old, at the SigSam audio-visual library of my alma mater University of Toronto. To my knowledge, the Up (film series) produced by Granada Television for ITV is the oldest, most famous, and most successful longitudinal documentaries of all time. Hoop Dreams (1994) is another longitudinal doc I love. There is also longitudinal dramas like director Richard Linklater‘s Boyhood (2014) (same actors filmed from 2002 to 2013) and the Before trilogy (Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013)) of romance films featuring the same leads.
And now you see why I’m primed to LOVE Mabel’s 給十九 ToMy19 which has become my latest favourite. Yes, a National Treasure. If I were a betting man, the 2022 Best Film mentioned above may just be the first of many awards. Of course, “winning awards” should never be any good filmmaker’s goal and definitely wasn’t Mabel’s as she told me. But a good film about HongKongers should be watched by more HongKongers.
What good can documentaries do? Can you imagine documentaries changing lives or society?
Many documentarians (good and even bad ones) aspire to capture their times for history. You may ask what good can documentaries do? Is it even possible that documentaries can change lives or society? Let me share two examples to illustrate.
Oscar winning director Errol Morris‘s documentary The Thin Blue Line (1988) was instrumental in Randall Dale Adams‘ (wrongly convicted of murder) exoneration the following year. Dear Zachary (2008) is a documentary that is instrumental in changing the legal system (specifically, bail reform) in Canada which I had the heartbreaking honour to video interview David & Kate Bagby when they attended the 2008 Calgary International Film Festival screening.
I hope a good documentary like 給十九 ToMy19 can lead to self and collective reflections, follow by positive changes in minds and actions of Hong Kong students, parents, teachers, school admins, education system, and even Hong Kong society in general. I wonder can and should 給十九 ToMy19 be screened at Ying Wa for all incoming new students in future years? Or will other Hong Kong schools want/plan to screen the film for teachable moments and learning purpose? I think the film contains many universal truths and can be used as good teaching aids in the hands of wise and loving teachers, vice-principals and principals. I think. I hope.
One scene that breaks my heart into a million pieces is the one that Vice-Principal Siu-Fung 小鳳 talked about some school where students (and their parents?) were thrilled to burn their school books after public exams were over. How tragic? Joi Ito (伊藤 穰一), former director of the MIT Media Lab, said this in a cool TED talk which I love, “Learning over Education. To me, Education is what people do to you. And Learning is what you do to yourself.”
For the books burning students, their cheering teachers & parents, I wonder what were they thinking? Do they think all their learning were “finally over” once they got accepted into university or graduated and got their undergrad degrees? Have they ever heard of or aspire to the idea/ideal of “Lifelong Learning“?
I want to especially thank the student interviewees and their families for their open sharing of a wide range of topics, including public health topics like mental health, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and many other topics that we can all learn more about and become better members of our communities. Be kind, be caring, and be loving of others.
Director Mabel’s “Final Cut” & Ying Wa’s “Final Decision”
As Mabel told me in our chat, she has the Director’s Final Cut on the documentary so that means anything that is on screen (or not on screen), the length, etc were all her decisions to make and her decisions were final. And “luckily”, the Hong Kong film censor did not have to cut one frame off her film.
And if my memory serves me, Mabel in one of her many interviews with media directly said (or implied) that it is always Ying Wa‘s “Final Decision”, in it I took it to mean that Ying Wa could have nixed the whole documentary after Mabel had done all the hard work. But Ying Wa did not. And for that, I thank the higher-ups at Ying Wa for letting 給十九 ToMy19 have her own life with us HongKongers and viewers around the world.
re Mabel and her filmmaking & loving life partner the late Alex Law 羅啟銳
My heart was broken into million pieces as I watched hours & hours of YouTube videos of insightful interviews of Mabel and her filmmaking & loving life partner the late Alex Law 羅啟銳. (see links below) The sudden passing of Alex last year came as a shock for Mabel and HongKongers and deeply saddened us all. Many in the film industry and media lovingly call the duo “雌雄大導” (for directors) drawing parallel to the saying “雌雄大盜”. To me, Mabel & Alex were 形影不離, the duo were actualization of the word inseparable for their creative & personal lives (see this 美紙 Art & Piece 2022 Nov cover (FB link)).
Some day I would love to ask Mabel about her & Alex’s creative process. Hopefully Mabel will let me interview her again in the future. Will see.
Recommended YouTube videos: a) 書展2013：移民3部曲 – 羅啟銳、張婉婷 (2013, 76 minutes), b) 影談系列——張婉婷 · 羅啟銳《秋天的童話》映後談Movie Talk—Mabel and Alex “An Autumn’s Tale” Post-screening Talk (2022, 105 mins), c) 影談系列——張婉婷 · 羅啟銳《玻璃之城》映後談 Movie Talk—Mabel and Alex “City of Glass” Post-screening Talk (2022, 88 mins)
Has Mabel thought of donating Alex’s and her creative archives to her alma mater HKU or NYU like Canadian author & living national treasure Margaret Atwood had donated 600+ boxes to create the Atwood archives at U of T?
Knowing how precious Mabel’s and Alex’s creative archives can be of inspiring values to filmmakers of this and future generations, I asked if Mabel had thought of donating Alex’s and her creative archives to her alma mater HKU or NYU like Canadian author & living national treasure Margaret Atwood had donated 600+ boxes to create the Margaret Atwood Papers at U of T that anyone can access digitally and freely?
Mabel thought who (no one really?) would be interested in Alex’s and her creative papers? I promptly said I would and think many people would too! And I suggested the papers should be digitized for easy and free global access. (Yes, I’m selfish and thinking of making sure me in Canada can access easily.) Mabel wasn’t thrilled of the amount of work involved. Of which I said it would totally be the receiving institution’s job (in fact, a pre-condition) to make sure these precious papers and creative materials of Mabel’s and Alex’s are as easily, digitally, and freely accessible for research purpose as the Margaret Atwood Papers at U of T that people can access and have a look anytime, like now.
If and when Mabel has decided to donate more of their creative papers, I would love to chat with Mabel to talk more.
Sending my thanks & love to Mabel & team, student interviewees, and Ying Wa Girls’ School 英華女校 staff
I want to send my thanks & love to Mabel & team for their hard work in the last 10 years. Without their dedicated and persistent hard work, 給十九 ToMy19 would have been impossible to make. My special thanks to the so called “師奶兵團 (義務導演) C9 Army corps (Volunteer Directors)“!
And I want to send my thanks & love to all 30+ Form 1 student interviewees, all 13 student interviewees that appeared on the film credit list that, I understood, to have participated till the end. And in particular the 6+3 interviewees that we got to know a little in the film.
In order of featured appearances
「阿佘」Britney
「阿聆」Ling
馬燕茹 Jenny
“Madam” Karen
「香港小姐」“Miss HK” Katie
「阿雀」“Birdy” Chloe
plus
“Ken” Myra
Shirley
Angel
And I also want to send my thanks & love to all of Ying Wa Girls’ School 英華女校 teachers, vice-principals, and former & current principal.
To all who appear in front of the cameras, I again thank you for making 給十九 ToMy19 possible.
Concluding thoughts
After watching 給十九 ToMy19, a National Treasure, that took 10 years to make, it is easy for us viewers to think we, all of a sudden, “know” all of the interviewees “deeply” because we watched them “grew up” in front of our eyes for 10 years, right? 10 years flew by in the blink of an eye. Some of us may think we know something or even a lot about them, right? I’m afraid that will be wrong. I think, all documentaries, no matter how good, can only capture some very small parts of people. In fact we only know very little about our beloved student interviewees as there have been a lot of growths and changes happening off cameras. Especially since the film finished shooting in 2019 which was over 3 years ago.
If I may use a “musical tangent” of a song example to illustrate growth and changes. Do you remember in the first few minutes of the film 「阿佘」Britney sang an excerpt of “Think of Me” from Phantom ? I love it. But Britney didn’t. Britney wasn’t too happy as she told Mabel, because she thought she kinda sang off-key (走音) for a few words and would rather see her singing cut. But I (we) love it, right?
Thing is life is all about growing & learning. We all mature in time. Our singing. Thinking. Now here comes my “musical tangent” from me doing “too much research”. This is a clip of the talented Emmy Rossum singing “Think of Me” in The Phantom of the Opera (2004). And in 2012, eight years later, Emmy on a late night comedy talk show singing “O Mio Babbino Caro” impromptu and it was, to me, 20x better than her 2004 movie singing because her voice has more practices and time to mature. I’m no expert in music. Maybe Britney can have a listen and tell me? Or better, maybe we all can have a “listen” to the “music” of growth, learning and maturity with our “ears” in our hearts.
Postscripts 後記:
P1.S.) 張堅庭 Alfred Cheung’s take ===> I read from Facebook that Mabel’s director good friend Alfred Cheung 張堅庭 watched 給十九 ToMy19 in Taiwan twice in three days. Alfred shared a story of an interesting encounter with a 2x viewer concluding with the comment “這就是「給19歲的我」的另一種吸引，有時紀錄片比劇情片更讓人刻骨銘心。近期的心水推薦。”.
P2.S.) 小鳳 Siu-Fung is #cool ===> Check out this interview of Vice-Principal Siu-Fung 小鳳 shared by the movie Facebook page, “我要用上帝的愛浸死他們——訪《給19歲的我》英華女校副校長“
P3.S.) Words about translation of National Treasure and pandas 熊貓 ===> I’ve decided to keep on using the English words National Treasure and not translate it to Chinese for this article. For my generation, it feels easier to say “love you” to my parents instead of saying the words “我愛你” which feels very 肉麻. To me, the words 國寶 should ONLY be used to describe pandas 熊貓 like the adorable Jia Yueyue (加悅悅 ‘Canadian Joy’) and Jia Panpan (加盼盼 ‘Canadian Hope’). So 給十九歲的我 To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self will always be a National Treasure to me. :)
P4.S.) 金成 + 張婉婷 ===> Of the many recent interview videos of Mabel I’ve watched, 金成 has done one of the most comprehensive and insightful interview and I highly recommend watching, 叔叔的愛（番外篇）：金成、張婉婷對談.
P5.S.) Unprofessional to call 給十九歲的我 “National Treasure”? ===> I can always count on my Better Half being frank with me and call my bull beep out. She warned me that by calling 給十九歲的我 To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self a National Treasure, I appear rather “unprofessional” and appear to “suck up” to Mabel and others. But did I? Did I NOT ask some tough questions during my extensive interview with Mabel? Did I NOT try to correct Mabel about some minor factual info (about the Up (film series)) when I could easily have said nothing? I felt important to ask questions in a respectful manner as Mabel is an accomplished filmmaker and yet, to do a good job, good (and sometimes tough) questions must be asked. While I was typing this, I kept thinking of Alex telling Mabel that her 1st and 2nd versions of 給十九歲的我 To My Nineteen-Year-Old Self was “boring” 好悶啊. Something only an honest and loving partner can and must keep on telling each other. I continue to mourn the passing of Alex, one half of a beautiful creative duo. To expand, “雌雄大導” focus on their creative work, while “形影不離” transcend work and become encompassing of work and life with love. Me think.
P6.S.) Ming Pao’s insightful interview with video ===> worth a read and watch, “花十年拍紀錄片變「老頑童」 張婉婷面對生活像快要崩潰的牆｜張婉婷專訪” [HT YWGS]
P7.S) 張婉婷想做飛機師 ==> I love this interview a ton, “(端傳媒) 導演張婉婷專訪：用十年紀錄香港千禧世代之後，她想做飛機師” [HT YWGS] I wish I had more time to chat with Mabel about her dream (or desire) to be a pilot (想做飛機師). You see, my US Wyoming based political talk show host friend Glenn is a private plane pilot and owns a small plane. With my previous CAATS – ATC (Canadian Automated Air Traffic Systems – Air Traffic Control) Software Engineering experience, we love to talk shop sometimes including topics like glass cockpit, Boeing 737 MAX tragic crashes & groundings, … and sometimes Glenn shares beautiful made-by-pilots cockpit YouTube videos like “Vancouver Island Series – Tofino, Long Beach – Can’t believe this is allowed! – Part 4 – (S3:E4)“. I would love to ask Mabel if she really wants to fly herself? Or would she be just as happy (like me) to watch beautiful clips like Vancouver Island Series – Tofino, Long Beach – Can’t believe this is allowed! and be amazed? Or Mabel really want to fly in the air?
P8) 說自己想說的話 ==> Check out am730 “張婉婷是香港的童話” as I love this line a lot, “然後，張婉婷輕輕笑一笑：「我們拍電影，不是為賺錢，是為說自己想說的話呀！」” [HT YWGS]
P9) 20230128 Ming Pao 明報OL, (with video) “《給十九歲的我》成績超乎預期 張婉婷盼成功為母校籌錢建泳池” 20230128 香港01, “優先場票房600萬 張婉婷面對負評︰不能客觀評價“
P10) 20230129 “文化誌，人物記 時日再變 樂天不變 《給19歲的我》阿雀：啲人笑我似林敏聰” (Youtube video) & “時代論壇 – 英華女校榮休石玉如校長專訪“
Update history: 20230128 6:28am Minor editorial changes + adding news links. 20230125 11:20pm Minor editorial changes + adding internet links. 20230121 12:25pm Created Internet archive saved page to properly and permanently link info to 香港電影發展基金「薪火相傳計劃 ((2022?)-(3) 張婉婷 / 黃鐦 黃綺琳 project. 5:52am Added P8 and reworded the beginning of each Postscript a little. 20230120 12:50pm Title change to match video clips and few other editorial changes. 11:22am MST Style and top picture position change. 5:18am MST – Add a pix up top which links to YouTube list of all 4 videos. Add P6.S., P7.S. and other minor updates. 20230119 10:25pm MST – Added P4S 金成 video interview recommendation. Added P5S My Better Half challenged me and asked: Did I “suck up” to Mabel and others by calling 給19 ToMy19 a National Treasure? P5S is a reply to her legitimate question. 20230119 9:47pm MST – Fixed typos and making minor changes
First published: 20230119 ~8pm MST
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Posted by kempton
First published: 20221224 Latest Updates: 20230118 (Work-In-Progress version, I hope to add more, including useful links to the full text entry at the bottom. And hopefully add a few more tweets to make it to the promised Eight Lessons! :)
I recently tested Covid19 positive. Two weeks later (20221224), I live to share my stories.
Lesson 1: Covid #RAT test before attending events with friends & loved ones (or even strangers). You don’t want to spread Covid to people and get them seriously sick or even dead. The guilt I would have felt if I got any one of them seriously sick. I don’t want to risk that.
Lesson 2 Backstory: In the recent months, I’ve elderly friends & relatives testing #Covid19 positive. Sadly, their friends, loved ones, family members & even their medical doctors had NOT heard of the potentially #lifesaving (+major risks reducing) Covid therapeutics #Paxlovid…
Lesson 2: If my elderly 65+ loved ones were to test Covid positive, I’ll make sure their MDs look at using #Paxlovid to reduce risk of serious cases/death. MDs’ “never used Paxlovid before” are bad reasons. Find trusted MDs that have prescribed it & know how2 use it properly…
Note: Link to #JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) – Original Investigation – Infectious Diseases research “Incidence of Viral Rebound After Treatment With Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir and Molnupiravir” (Note: Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir = Paxlovid)
P.S. Sorry4 taking longer than I hope2 share my #Covid19 lessons. So far (as of 20230118), I only had time to share two good lessons so far. In the mean time, wishing you all the best & good health in 2023! #Covid19 is NOT over. But we (countries w good supply of mRNA vax & effective therapeutics like #Paxlovid) are in good positions 2fight #Covid
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Full text version (minus pix) of the above highlight version with pix on Twitter.
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My Brand of Poison #SARSCoV2 – Eight #LessonsLearned from 22 #Covid19 Rapid Tests
I recently tested Covid19 positive. Two weeks later, I live to share my stories.
When my friend/mentor share his insights, he loves to add that is only his “Brand of Poison”. So I’m going to steal from him. And these stories and lessons learned are my “Brand of Poison”, nothing more. I think there are still lots of #ScienceInProgress with Covid19 (have you listened to the podcast #TWiV This Week in Virology?), so when in doubt of what I say, do NOT blindly trust me (I’m an expert in nothing), fact check me with your own doctor, expert doctors, Covid19 researchers, and especially peer-reviewed published research papers with solid data from reputable scientific journals.
Lesson 1 Backstory: I’m four doses vaccinated with Dose 4 in September 2022 (Pfizer-BioNTech original and Omicron BA.1 bivalent Covid19 vaccine). I fully understand vaccines protect us (greatly reduce risks) from seriously illness and deaths but the vaccines are NOT designed to give sterilizing immunity (100% protection) so there are always some risks.
So after 3 years of not hanging out with my MBA classmates, I was seriously missing them and looking forward to our Potluck Party. I try to be responsible and without any symptoms, I RAT (Rapid Antigen Test) test myself the night before the party while I prepared my dish (pork ribs with pineapple). I just didn’t want risk my classmates getting Covid from me or not having enough food. So I RAT tested myself once and I got a positive reading. Beeping beep! Just to confirm the first test wasn’t faulty, I RAT tested myself a second time. Sure enough, the 2nd test still had a faint line on T, so I had no choice but concluded myself Covid positive and called my MBA classmate/host to cancel and apologize. I originally thought I could deliver the food to the party but I’m glad my friend said they have enough food. I was also worried about contaminating the food with my beeping Covid. It turned out I was pretty tired the following morning plus it was rather cold outside so I was glad I didn’t have to go out and have a long drive.
Lesson 1: Covid #RAT test before attending events with friends & loved ones (or even strangers). You don’t want to spread Covid to people and get them seriously sick or even dead. The guilt I would have felt if I got any one of them seriously sick. I don’t want to risk that.
Lesson 2 Backstory: In the recent months, I’ve elderly friends & relatives testing Covid19 positive. Sadly, their friends, loved ones, family members, and even their medical doctors had NOT heard of the potentially lifesaving (+ major risks reducing) Covid therapeutics Paxlovid. Some medicinal doctor and even infectious disease specialist (in US) claim to have heard of “Paxlovid rebound” and baselessly recommended against taking it.
I’m NOT a medical doctor nor expert of anything but in the last ~3 years, I’ve listened to Dr. Daniel Griffin’s weekly clinical updates on the great #TWiV “This Week in Virology” podcast. Should you blindly trust me? Absolutely NOT. Because blind trust is NOT scientific & dangerous. Covid19 is a disease that is still #ScienceInProgress in the recent months and years as we keep on learning new things.
So back to Paxlovid. Remember I said do NOT blindly trust anyone, including me, a NO expert of many things? In this case, even some MDs & infectious disease doctors are misguided to think “Paxlovid rebound” is a thing to NOT recommend lifesaving #Paxlovid to very elderly (like 70+ 80+ or even 90+?). Well, take a quick look of the Key Points, Findings, and Meaning published as a peer-reviewed JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) – Original Investigation – Infectious Diseases research paper that is based on a CUHK cohort study of 12,629 adults in Hong Kong with Covid19: “Incidence of Viral Rebound After Treatment With Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir and Molnupiravir” (Note: Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir = Paxlovid)
Lesson 2: If my elderly 65+ loved ones were to test Covid positive, I’ll make sure their medical doctors look at using #Paxlovid to reduce risk of serious cases/death. MDs’ ignorance or “never used it before” are bad reasons. Find trusted doctors that have prescribed Paxlovid & know how to use it properly & know its contraindications to use it safely.
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Posted by kempton
I’m adding a new addition to my collection of Quotes I Love.
Werner Herzog Question: “I would like to hear what should be on your gravestone?”
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931 – 22022) Answer: “We tried.” – Meeting Gorbachev (2019) (Trailer)
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Posted by kempton
Reading this #CoolInterview of #EmiliaClarke: ‘The best place in the world is backstage at a theatre’ by @kathryn42 //Ahead of her British stage debut in The Seagull, the Game of Thrones star talks about her self-doubt as the hit show took off, her decision to write about her brain aneurysms – and showing her love through baking//. And I’m adding a new addition to my collection of Quotes I Love.
“In stage work, it’s every cell of your body, it’s a 360 feeling. On screen, it’s so often your left eyeball, your right shoulder – it fractures you as a human.” – Emilia Clarke (1986- ) (interview)
Comments Off on “… it fractures you as a human.” – New Quote I Love | insightful, interviews, Quotes I Love, Television, theatre, UK | Permalink
Posted by kempton
Watching a reporter’s tweet video of a pianist playing “What a Wonderful World” outside Ukraine Lviv Station amongst many refugees escaping Putin’s War put me to tears. Less than 6 hours later after that first tweet, I tweeted my wish to chat with/interview the pianist, a near impossible (NOT impossible) wish. Less than 48 hours after that, I chatted with her and here is my interview with her.
P.S. If you like there are a bit more of additional background and my “journey” in telling this story here.
xxx
Comments Off on “What a Wonderful World” #Lviv #Ukraine Pianist video interview | politics | Permalink
Posted by kempton
Video Interview Current Status: Video interview completed this morning. Editing in progress. Brand new entry to be written. This will take me some time. Stay tuned. Near Impossible (but one tiny step closer)
NOTE: Video being worked on & new entry being written.
Last (and no more) Update for this entry (NEXT one will have the video interview, yeah!): 5:50pm, 2022, March 7th
Previous Updates: 5:59am, 5:43am, 3:58am, 3:00am, 2:53am, 2022, March 6th
6:30pm, 12:49pm, 12:31pm, 2022, March 5th (all times MT)
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NEW Post Title: #PianistFound “What a Wonderful World” #Ukraine #Lviv near #impossible video interview
Brief Note:
the pianist’s beautiful playing of “What a wonderful world ” 🎼🎶#Ukraine 🎹 #Lviv put me to #tears😭💔! [HT lyse] I know it is near impossible (NOT impossible) but I wonder if there is video interview of the pianist? I for one would #LOVE to interview her & chat.😭
As tweeted on 11:25am MT, Mar 5th, 2022
I would love to find the pianist to video interview her & chat. I know it is near #impossible but I would LOVE to video interview her & chat. Would love any help I can get, can you help add some missing details? Or help connect?
Pianist: Olya Olyusia (Olya’s Instagram) (Major thanks to @BigBenDeCastro’s tweet for solving the mystery in his reply to @ScooterCasterNY’s tweet of Olya playing another song)
Location: Lviv Railway Station (Google Map)
Piano playing time/date: ~March 4th, 2022 MT (based on Susan’s Tweet1)
Olya played What a Wonderful World at 1:45
Video #2: Tweet2 [HT lyse & Andrew]
Song used in Movie: Many movies have used “What a wonderful world “, Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) starring the late Robin Williams is possibly one of the more famous one. Someone was kind enough to post a clip of the song/movie on YouTube and here it is. (BTW, the clip has another great song “Over the Rainbow” (not in the movie as far as I know)).
Time for some shut eye.
(To be continued)
xxx
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Posted by kempton
Watch this Global TV segment and I think you will find it Dr. Steffanie Strathdee‘s experience saving his husband’s life very uplifting and yet has great potential impact to our world of #Superbugs!
Global TV, 2022 Feb 12, “Superbugs: The global health crisis that threatens modern medicine“
Here are a bunch of other resources, articles, videos, etc I found & enjoy.
Time Health Care 50 (2018?), Steffanie Strathdee, Solving Superbugs (K’s note: I added important and useful links to the following text not presence in the original article)
“In 2015, her husband contracted an antibiotic-resistant bug on vacation and almost died. But Strathdee, a University of California, San Diego, epidemiologist, saved him by appealing to researchers of an obscure treatment that uses special viruses called phages [Bacteriophage] to kill the bacteria. In June, she helped launch the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics Useful Twitters: IPATH, Dr. Steffanie Strathdee, UCSDMedSchool], which she hopes will make more superbug treatments possible. —Mandy Oaklander”
In Steffanie‘s own words in a 2017 posted TEDx Talk, “How Sewage Saved My Husband’s Life from a Superbug | Steffanie Strathdee | TEDxNashville” (ref wiki, Acinetobacter Baumannii)
What Steffanie did was kinda “#SaveTheHusbandSaveTheWorld” moment for me which is a phrase I borrowed from the “Save The Cheerleader, Save The World | Heroes” scene.
Also check out Steffanie & Tom’s book The Perfect Predator – A scientist’s race to save her husband from a deadly superbug (book website, book review).
Will try to add more over time. To be continued.
xxx
Comments Off on Uplifting #Superbugs #ThePerfectPredator #Phage #SaveTheHusbandSaveTheWorld story told by Steffanie Strathdee, PhD @chngin_the_wrld | Health Sciences & Medicine, insightful, YouTube | Permalink
Posted by kempton
Jan 19, 2022 Update: Legendary & WarAdd video of “Dolby – Director Denis Villeneuve and Sound Team on Dune | Sound + Image Lab“
Oct 26, 2021 Update: #GreatNews Legendary & Warner Bros are officially moving forward with Dune: Part Two (THR) (FB)! [HT Seastar]
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Watched Dune on IMAX during opening weekend. What an amazing film and world that Canadian director Denis Villeneuve has created! Following is a collection of Dune Goodies that I watched/read (many with #SPOILERS so considered yourself warned), enjoyed, and tried to learn from. I will start with Denis breaks down the Gom Jabbar scene and this cool quote I love by Denis that I’m adding it to my collection of Quotes I Love,
“For the first time, I think I did this movie for a single audience member, which is me. I read the book 40 years ago. I deeply fall, felt in love with it. I was aware that there are millions of hardcore fan of the book out there, but I took up in my shoulder to deal with the one that I was the most afraid of, which is me. I was a teenager. That was a totalitarian dreamer. I was arrogant. I was pretentious. I had big dreams. It was kind of frightening for me. And I will say that the truth is as any movies, it’s movies are made of victories and failures. There’s some moments in Dune that I knew I was not good enough. There’s others that I feel that it was very close to the original dream. And the Gom Jabbar scene is definitely one that I knew that at 14 years old, I will have been okay with that.” – Denis Villeneuve
(17 mins) Oct 22, 2021 ‘Dune’ Director Denis Villeneuve Breaks Down the Gom Jabbar Scene | Vanity Fair
(33 mins) Q on CBC, “Dune director Denis Villeneuve on adapting Frank Herbert’s notoriously unfilmable sci-fi epic“
(12 mins) BBC Radio 1 , ““Amazing actor, amazing” Director Denis Villeneuve on Timothée Chalamet, Dune & cinema’s importance.“
(23 mins) Denis Villeneuve and Hans Zimmer on Dune | NYFF59 (Film at Lincoln Center)
(29 mins) BFI At Home | Dune Q&A with Denis Villeneuve (“One day somebody else will make a new adaptation.” was what Denis felt after watching David Lynch’s adaption.)
xxxx
Articles
Sept 4, 2021, TorStar, “A lot of people warned Denis Villeneuve not to make ‘Dune’ — he refused to be deterred and this is why“
“I read the book when I was around 13 or 14 years old,” Villeneuve says, smiling at the memory. “I wanted to make movies back then. I remember drawing with my best friend, Nicolas Kadima … We were drawing storyboards, drawing costume designs, dreaming about making (‘Dune’) all this time.”
Oct 22, 2021, NYT, “The Man Who Finally Made a ‘Dune’ That Fans Will Love How Denis Villeneuve broke the curse.“
“Josh Brolin, who plays the warrior-minstrel Gurney Halleck in the movie, took a lifelong “Dune”-fan friend to a screening in New York, and at the end of the movie the friend started screaming: “That was it! That was it! That’s what I saw! That’s what I saw when I was a kid!””
“Villeneuve’s insistence on filming in real-world environments was shaped by his early work as a documentarian. In the early 1990s he traveled to Ellesmere Island as part of a small unit with the Québécois filmmaker Pierre Perrault to shoot a poetic natural history documentary, called “Cornouailles,” about musk oxen defending their tundra territories. [K note: Stream the doc Cornouailles (French only, no English sub?) for free at NFB.] “It’s about French Canadians and America,” he told me, wryly. He was there to bring the tripods and make the soup, but the experience was transformative. “I saw things there,” he said, “that I will never see again in my life. And that I will never experience again. To walk inside a glacier, things that are difficult to describe — but it was like being on another planet.” Like the desert, the tundra had a deep psychological impact on him, instilling a sense of humility, the feeling that he was “seeing the earth without any skin. It’s like you are at the core, you are in contact with time … with infinity and time.”
The “Cornouailles” shoot taught Villeneuve to embrace the exigencies of a real-life location where “every day the landscape in front of you is totally different, according to light and the nature of the elements” — and in a more existential sense, the tundra revealed to him how small and insignificant we are, an experience familiar to many of those involved with “Dune.””
2021 Nov 6th update: (fascinating) Why is Dune’s Score Like That?
2021 Dec 21 Update: James Cameron & Denis Villeneuve on ‘Avatar’, ‘Dune’, and Pioneering CGI | Directors on Directors
2022 Jan 19 Update: “Dolby – Director Denis Villeneuve and Sound Team on Dune | Sound + Image Lab“
xxxx
Comments Off on #Dune 2021 Goodies – Watched & Love it on #IMAX – New #QuoteILove | Canada, movie review, Movies, Quotes I Love | Permalink
Posted by kempton
Canadian comedy giant Norm Macdonald passed away yesterday.
(CTV video) (source: tweet) //Worth watching the entire interview. Norm is hilarious, but he’s also whip smart and politically insightful. It was producer @Gray_Mackenzie ’s idea to book Norm on @ctvqp knowing he would never say no to his beloved sister-in-law.//
(source tweet) Love this bit of Tom Power sharing the story behind Norm doing ‘the moth joke’ on Conan.
The Story Behind the Greatest Joke Ever Told
Mr. Macdonald had a deadpan style honed on the stand-up circuit, first in his native Canada and then in the United States. By 1990 he was doing his routine on “Late Night With David Letterman” and other shows. Then, in 1993, came his big break: an interview with Lorne Michaels, a fellow Canadian, for a job on “Saturday Night Live.”
“I knew that even though we hailed from the same nation, we were worlds apart,” Mr. Macdonald wrote in “Based on a True Story: Not a Memoir” (2016), a fictional work with occasional hints of biography mixed in. “He was a cosmopolite from Toronto, worldly, the kinda guy who’d be comfortable around the Queen of England herself. Me, I was a hick, born to the barren, rocky soil of the Ottawa Valley, where the richest man in town was the barber.”
In any case, he got the job, and by the next year he was in the anchor chair for the “Weekend Update” segment. In sketches, he impersonated Burt Reynolds and Bob Dole and played other characters.
Mr. Michaels, in a telephone interview on Tuesday, said that Jim Downey, the show’s head writer at the time, had first brought Mr. Macdonald to his attention.
“Jim just liked the intelligence behind the jokes,” he recalled.
And Mr. Michaels saw it, too.
“There’s something in his comedy — there’s just a toughness to it,” he said. “Also, he’s incredibly patient. He can wait” — that is, wait for a punchline.
That, Mr. Michaels said, made Mr. Macdonald different stylistically from other “Weekend Update” anchors.
“I think it took some getting used to for the audience,” Mr. Michaels said. “It wasn’t instantly a hit. But he just grew on them.”
Rolling Stone (with video “Moth Joke”), “Norm Macdonald, Stand-Up and ‘Saturday Night Live’ Star, Dead at 61 Comedian had been privately battling cancer for nearly a decade“
“He was most proud of his comedy,” Hoekstra said. “He never wanted the diagnosis to affect the way the audience or any of his loved ones saw him. Norm was a pure comic. He once wrote that ‘a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.’ He certainly never pandered. Norm will be missed terribly.”
Deadline (with video), “Norm Macdonald Dies: Influential Comedian & Former ‘SNL’ Weekend Update Anchor Was 61“
THR (with video), “James Corden Pays Tribute to Norm Macdonald: “There Was Nobody Quite Like Him” – During the ‘Late Late Show’ segment, Corden said that he felt privileged any time he got to be in Macdonald’s orbit.“
UK Guardian, “Norm Macdonald was pure funny – he made you laugh by doing almost nothing“
Love this heartwarming segment: Seth Meyers Remembers Norm Macdonald
Fascinating to learn about what Norm had been trying to do with his craft and pushing the boundaries of the creativity of how to be funny. I’m going watch Norm’s shows on Netflix in this light to see how he was trying to achieve. Norm will be missed but his shows, jokes, etc will live on.
Comments Off on Norm Macdonald (1959 – 2021) | Canada, Comedy | Permalink
Posted by kempton
Let’s walk down memory lane. Almost 15 years ago in November 2006, I had the joy of writing and publishing my first business case study about iStockphoto, a Calgary based company acquired by Getty Images for US$50 million in cash in February 2006. If was amazing meeting, interviewing and learning from iStockphoto founder and first employee/ex-president to write the case study for the site Startup Review thanks to its editor Nisan Gabbay.
Before I repost my 2006 case study, let’s put “Stock Photo” in a bit of 2021 fun context by sharing screen captures of search results of “stock photo simu liu”. Yes the same star Simu Liu of Kim’s Convenience and Marvel Superhero Shang-Chi fame appeared on the covers of way too many accounting textbooks if you ask him! HuffPost article “Simu Liu Was A Stock Photo Staple Before He Was A Star” quoted Simu screamed well in an adorable tweet, “PLEASE STOP USING MY FACE FOR YOUR ACCOUNTING MATERIALS!!”
Here is a version of the iStockphoto business case study that I rediscovered thanks to the trusty internet archive. I hope you learn as much as I wrote it in 2006 and as I re-read it now in 2021! 15 years have gone by since I conducted the interviews and wrote the case study, it is an insightful read even for me now in 2021, if I may shamelessly say so. Enjoy!
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written by Kempton Lam and Nisan Gabbay, posted on November 26th, 2006
Note from Nisan Gabbay: I am pleased to announce that this week’s case study is the first to be authored by a Startup Review reader, Kempton Lam. Kempton is a management consultant who specializes in assisting start-ups. Please see Kempton’s background and blog for more information. Kempton followed the same process that I take in creating these case studies, and I served as editor to ensure that the format is consistent with the Startup Review format. If you’d like to become a guest author for Startup Review, please contact me.
iStockphoto is both an online community for photographers and a source of high quality, low-cost stock photos. As of October 2006, iStockphoto’s stock photo library contained ~1.1 million images contributed by 23,000+ photographers. In 2006, iStockphoto expects to sell 10 to 12 million photo licenses from this library, at prices ranging from $1 up to $40 per image. iStockphoto’s success opened up a new market segment for stock photography, catering to customers who could not afford traditional, high cost stock photos from the likes of Getty Images and Corbis. This success caught the eye of Getty Images, who acquired iStockphoto for $50 million in cash in February 2006.
Interviews conducted: Bruce Livingstone, founder & current CEO of iStockphoto. Patrick Lor, first employee and ex-President of iStockphoto. Paul Connolly, independent consultant specializing in digital media and the stock photography market. Special thanks to Kara Udziela and Yvonne Beyer of iStockphoto for helping to support the creation of this case study.
Offered a free alternative for a previously high cost service
iStockphoto established the market for “microstock” photography by providing high quality stock photos at extremely low price points. iStockphoto’s innovation was offering all its photo licenses royalty-free, available via easy download over the Internet. The notion of high quality photos licensed for free was a game changing development in the stock photography market in 2000. iStockphoto enabled the distribution of photos from budding and semi-professional photographers to reach a large market for the first time. iStockphoto also drastically reduced the cost of stock photography for a slew of customers (graphic designers, small businesses, non-profits, etc.) that could not afford traditional sources of stock photography.
As iStockphoto increased in popularity, hosting and bandwidth fees for the site grew proportionally, forcing a decision upon Bruce as to how to pay for bills approaching $10,000 per month. Bruce opened the discussion to the iStockphoto community, ultimately allowing the community to determine an acceptable solution. In February 2002, the community decided to charge $0.25 per photo mainly to cover site maintenance fees, with 20% of charges going back to the photographer.
iStockphoto has since gone through several iterations of its business model, but continues to offer photos at a relatively low price point. The first iteration occurred in 2004, when iStockphoto officially became a for-profit entity. At that point iStockphoto charged 1, 2, or 3 “credits” (priced at $0.50 per credit) for photos of different sizes, offering a 20% commission to the contributing photographer. Today, iStockphoto offers photos at a myriad of price points and has a more robust photographer commission structure. For example, photos are offered at price points of 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, or 40 credits (priced at $1 per credit). Commissions vary from 20% – 40% based on sales milestones reached and whether the photographer grants iStockphoto exclusive use of images.
Fostered a loyal and active community
iStockphoto was started as a hobbyist site by founder Bruce Livingstone and it remained so for several years. The fact that iStockphoto wasn’t created as a business venture from the start was a big factor in iStockphoto’s success. In many ways it parallels the start of another popular online community, Craigslist. Just as Craig Newmark’s personality has had an influence on Craigslist, so too has Bruce’s personality and passion for photography had an influence on the iStockphoto community. Bruce was always a core user of the site, and as such attempted to nurture the needs of its users.
iStockphoto consciously fostered its community from day one through forums, emails and face-to-face meetings. iStockphoto has many active online forums where new users can post questions and get help from experienced users. These active forums have made the iStockphoto community welcoming to new users and engaging for experienced users. Secondly, iStockphoto makes a point to provide very prompt responses to user questions submitted via e-mail. Even as CEO, Bruce routinely takes the time to send emails to users to offer encouragement or help. Thirdly, iStockphoto hosts a series of trips (called iStockalypses) where users can shoot photographs of interesting places and share knowledge about the stock photography trade.
The iStockphoto site itself has many features that help to get users engaged with the service. For one, it provides transparency around how active certain members are with the site, specifically around number of photos uploaded and number of paid downloads. This enables new users to learn from the success of power users, providing examples of the types of photos that get the most traction. iStockphoto also creates a sense of positive psychological exclusivity amongst users by only approving photos that meet certain quality standards. This process helps users improve their photo taking skills and makes them feel that they have “earned” their place within the community.
Emergence of low-cost “prosumer” digital SLR cameras
In the winter of 2003, the Canon Digital Rebel (a 6.3 mega pixel prosumer digital SLR camera) became available at a price under $1,000. Both Bruce and Patrick viewed the availability of these cameras as a turning point for iStockphoto because they created a great influx of high-quality photos. iStockphoto was in a great position to capitalize on this emerging trend through the infrastructure they had developed over the previous years.
Took measures to ensure that submitted photographs met quality standards
As the popularity of the iStockphoto service grew, the number of photos submitted exploded. At the same time, customers came to expect a certain level of photo quality from iStockphoto. As such, iStockphoto developed detailed guidelines for what constituted acceptable photo submissions. iStockphoto views this both as a quality control mechanism and a means to provide feedback to photographers. iStockphoto takes time to explain to contributors why their photos are rejected. According to Patrick, sometimes a new user may only start with a 25% acceptance rate but with constant feedback and guidance are able to improve their acceptance rate to 75% – 90% within 6 months.
iStockphoto was originally started as a hobbyist site in May 2000 by Bruce Livingstone. Bruce created the site as a means to share and publicize his portfolio of photographs. Initially seeded with 1,600 of Bruce’s photos available for free download, the popularity of the site prompted Bruce to open the site to other photographers who also wanted to contribute their photo collections. This transformation took place 6 months after initial launch, creating a thriving community of contributing photographers.
Bruce initially marketed the site by word of mouth, telling friends via e-mail. One of Bruce’s friends, web design guru Jeffrey Zeldman helped publicize the site from its early days by blogging about it and using iStockphoto images in magazines like Macworld. Mr. Zeldman’s influence in the designer and photographer communities was highly instrumental in popularizing the use of iStockphoto for royalty-free stock photos.
As the iStockphoto community evolved, its photographer base served as the main marketing vehicle. By promoting their own iStock photos, these photographers create publicity and word of mouth marketing for the service. iStockphoto provides them with some interesting marketing tools (like free, customizable business cards) to help them self-promote their portfolios. Today iStockphoto has 23,000 photographers that are the cornerstone of the company’s marketing efforts.
Later on its lifecycle, iStockphoto began advertising its service on the Internet, in print, and at trade shows. An extension of this advertising strategy was to maintain good long-term relationships with influential book authors within the design community who could provide increased awareness for the iStockphoto service.
iStockphoto was able to support its operations for many years from the revenue generated by photo sales. However, during business planning in late 2005, the company realized that they needed about $10 million to meet their future growth expectations, including $3 million for hardware expansion costs. With this new capital requirement, the iStockphoto management team sought venture funding for the first time. After securing a term sheet from a VC, management became hesitant that this was the best option for the company. The team feared that they would not be able to maintain product control or nurture the community in the same fashion that iStockphoto had been built upon. Thus Bruce decided to seek other options, and contacted Jonathan Klein, CEO of Getty Images. After some positive conversations regarding company strategy and cultural fit, iStockphoto was sold to Getty Images in February 2006 for $50 million in cash. This represented a valuation substantially higher than the valuation placed on the company by the proposed VC investment. Hence the sale to Getty Images made both financial and cultural sense for Bruce and the rest of the iStockphoto team.
I was surprisingly struck by the parallelism between iStockphoto’s company history and evolution, and that of another successful online community, Craigslist. Both began as a hobby fueled by the passion of their founders: for Bruce it was photography and for Craig Newmark it was local events. The popularity of both services grew beyond anything the founders had envisioned, largely driven by creating a free service where only high cost options existed before (high end stock photography and print classifieds respectively). Both grew to a point where the services had to be sustained by incorporating small fees into the service, all with the support of the community itself.
Some great lessons can be learned by the examples set by these two successful companies. For one, the needs of the user base will tell you when is the right point in time to add fees, rather than implementing a revenue model prematurely. For iStockphoto, as the level of sophistication of its users grew, so did the necessity for more advanced pricing and commission models. For Craigslist, they began charging for some categories of online classifieds to improve the user experience. In both instances, it was actual user needs that drove the revenue model and timing of the revenue model.
Secondly, you have a sustainable company on your hands when you have created or contributed to the financial livelihood of a segment of your users. One reason that iStockphoto has such an active community is that their power users have personal, financial ties to the overall success of the company. For example, the top iStockphoto photographers have had hundreds of thousands of their photos downloaded – that’s real money that iStockphoto is putting into the pocket of its users. eBay and Google are probably the best two examples of Internet companies that have also created significant personal wealth for individual users. iStockphoto has created it as well, albeit on a much smaller scale. Can you create a service that contributes significant personal income to your users? If you can, chances are you’ll have a successful service.
On a separate note, both Bruce and Patrick credited much of their success to having great mentors and advisors involved with iStockphoto. Both Bruce and Patrick have been reading, learning, and applying business concepts and ideas from the business guru Guy Kawasaki for years. After meeting Guy in 2003, he became a close personal mentor for the iStockphoto management team. Having great advisors and mentors can be critical to the success of any company, but particularly a start-up. No entrepreneur can possess all the skills and experiences necessary to succeed themselves; it helps immensely to have the right mentors to act as a sounding board.
Additional thoughts on iStockphoto at Kempton Lam’s blog.
“The Rise of Crowdsourcing”, Wired, June 2006 (the paradigm shifts initiated by iStockphoto and others)
“2006 Fast 50 nomination of Bruce Livingstone”, FastCompany.com (a glowing nomination, and a long list of supporters’ endorsements that make for a fascinating read)
“Interview: Bruce Livingstone, CEO istockphoto.com”, Decker Marketing blog, January 2005
Nice interview with Bruce who has some insightful responses on what makes the istockphoto different from the competition and why it was initially successful.
“The stock photo community”, DesignMentor Training website
Has a few detailed paragraphs on Bruce’s background and how iStockphoto got started.
Comments Off on Joy of Business Case Study Authorship – iStockphoto US$50 million Calgary success story | Business, Calgary, Canada, insightful, InterviewByKempton, InterviewByKempton-Business | Permalink
Posted by kempton
Oscar Best Picture Nomadland‘s Chloé Zhao (who also won Best Directing) made the following insightful observation about directing and I’m adding it to my collection of Quotes I Love.
“It is about putting the right people together. […] Cast your crew like you cast your actors. […] I’m talking about everyone from the studio level to the PA [Production Assistant] have to be excited about the risk you want to take. [special note re: grandmother with ring … hurricane]“ – Chloé Zhao (1982 – ) in a Conversation with actor/director Olivia Wilde
Comments Off on “It is about putting the right people together.” – New Quote I Love #ChloéZhao #Nomadland | Oscars, Quotes I Love | Permalink
Posted by kempton
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