all the world's a stage , at least nationally, vurtually

It has been so long since I have had an article printed in the paper, Last time I think was in the MX in 2010 or something. So Sydney writer and performing arts career coach Pete Malicky hosted the World monologue games and I entered with a monologue by another filmmaker friend Forest Lin.

It was a piece I auditioned with for his short film sometime last year, I didn't get the part perhaps because of my awkward kidult demeanour but the script resonated with it enough to think it would be good for this worldwide Lockdown online talent quest. The monologue is titled point of difference and explores perhaps a coming of age mixed with Asian Australian social identity dilemma. This racially charged subject matter is a niche market but an opportunity for unique drama and with the right execution could stir thought and easily be the next GET OUT.

BLivestream and time-coded for your viewing pleasure. But it is 14:20 if it doesn't work

Above is the live streamed video, I was a finalist for the Nationals, I didn't go on to represent Australia though but I enjoyed the Vurtua lockdown limelight for that week.
I got my old Film maker mate Vinh to film my video with my newly acquired A7rii (no longer a Panny boy guys). And after being Selected as a national finalist I still was like Meh'. I knew I was going to be competing against the country's best performers so was not really expecting to get much further, hakuna matata at least till the battle dawns right. Turns out I was the only Asian face to compete at this stage too. ​

More details after the jump.

As the day for the livestream loomed I did get more anxious and eventually decided to do some marketing for myself, like 2 weeks before the event. Finalists were sent a media kit and I barely remember working with such in the past despite having a media degree, basically it is a template with some wiggle room to edit and write your own story for paper to consider publishing. It's kinda a secret that media outlets can prefer you to write the article for them or something, makes it easier for them to decide to publish it surprisingly close to word for word.

I figured I should target a supportive audience here so I emailed several local Chinese papers and didn't really get a response, maybe cause the media release was in English? But my old town local paper was very warm and responsive. I remember when they told me they were going to be publishing the article I was buzzing or on a high of sorts going to work, I work in merchandising and planograming now and I can tell you it grinds my gears usually. 

The Torch Auburn council published the article the next week, literally 2 days before the livestream. Aside from judge's choice was the only other way to get to the next phase of the competition which is international was by peoples choice and although I'd rather let my performance get votes itself from strangers, FB was my only known audience. I strategiezed to Post the news on my FaceBook that Thursday during lunch for that newsfeed traffic and got a steady wave of likes for roughly 3 days, but I doubt that the friend audience that is FB carried through to actually watch, read or vote, I know I wouldn't expect my self too. Voting link was only given after the stream and open over the weekend for 48 hours.  Had I posted the FB local paper update when voting was live I might have had more hits. Timing seem to be everything when you are offered 15 seconds of fame and asking for follow-up action without a devoted fanbase. This window was tight and earlier seemed like the better choice at the time.

Originally I wanted to do a 5 minute piece written by Pete himself about working at a Coles checkout cause it had a lot of substance although emotionless and comedic. But not only was 5 minutes of monologue astronomically harder to memorise than 2 minutes, that piece also required mental arithmetic and multi-tasking. This was aiming for the endurance category, I thought would have had less competition and that piece has room to demonstrate some serious talent. Turns out someone actually did the same piece even had I be able to surmount it and alas I went for the everyday subtle but not, emotionally charged but just personal racial angle in the supermarket. 

Anyway... that was cool. 

Performance Rating: 6/10