The Parent Revolution is getting early feedback (from some awesome people)

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The past Monday, I just emerged from a grueling few weeks in the Final Cut isolation chamber and proudly gave birth to my latest video, the Parent Revolution.

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The Parent Revolution is coming…as soon as we get these lights set up.

So at this point I’m thinking that I won’t have to hear about it for a while, since the official launch isn’t until May.  But before I can even kick up my feet, my inbox starts going crazy!

I started getting e-mails filled with great feedback (no hate mail yet, knock on wood) from some very awesome people; people who are way too important to be watching my videos.

Like Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez, the CEO of Goodwill, who “used your video as an example of low cost messaging that sticks.”   She said she dreamed about it last night and cannot get it out of her head.”

And Mary Jane Stevenson, Obama’s statewide Field Director, who wrote, “That is simply awesome.  I’m forwarding it on.  Really, really good.  I love it.”

Even the first Executive Director of The Gates Foundation chimed in!  Tom Vander Ark wrote a blog post about the Parent Revolution and titled it, “This video will change LA, then USA”

Wow, just wow.  For someone who spent the past few months working his butt off to make this, those kind words felt really, really good. I’m still convinced that they saw another video by accident, but for now, I’ve still got a goofy smile plastered on my face.  Thank you guys so much, that meant a lot to me.

Parent Revolution +viral video

12 Comments read Made by Jaemin

4/14/09 Update – Check out the early feedback from the CEO of Goodwill, the former CEO of the Gates Foundation, and Obama’s statewide Field Director!


The Los Angeles Parents Union contacted me to help them launch the Parent Revolution, a grass-roots campaign to transform the schools of Los Angeles within 3 years.

To jumpstart the campaign, LAPU wanted an online video that would get the message out to parents and start to spread virally. Working closely with LAPU, I decided that the video needed to incorporate the following strategy:

Purpose – To engage parents on both logical and emotional levels, ultimately inspiring them to: learn more, sign up for, and become further involved with the Parent Revolution.

Target Demographic – Los Angeles parents with children currently attending the LAUSD.

The video needed to be:

1) Accessible – LAPU’s complex and detailed strategy needed to be explained in a clear, easily digestible message.
2) In-Depth – The message also needed to be detailed enough to convince parents that this campaign had a viable plan and was a legitimate effort to reform education.
3) Emotional – Parents needed to connect with the message on an emotional level, to realize that this movement would directly affect their own children.
4) Shareable – To facilitate viral sharing between parents, the message needed to be presented creatively, stay under 3 minutes, and emphasize immediate action.

So with all that in mind, I decided to go with the ‘whiteboard and words’ approach, being heavily influenced by numerous dynamic typography videos online.  Since the Parent Revolution needed a lot of explanation, I thought, what better tool than a classroom whiteboard to easily guide the audience?

I loved the idea of taking dynamic typography, which is always done digitally, and bringing it into the physical word. So I worked with artist Kassie Funcell, who brought a distinct hand-drawn approach, while simultaneously writing the script to make sure the visuals and the message were developed hand-in-hand.

I also felt it was crucial to have the visuals perfectly synced with the music, so I worked closely with composer Will Lam who created a custom-fit soundtrack in which every note matched the words and emotions being shown onscreen.

And after a month of intense preparation, a hectic 12-hour shoot, and a few long weeks of editing and motion graphics work, the video is done and ready to go.  I hope you guys like it, and most importantly, I hope the parents of Los Angeles do.

Client: Los Angeles Parents Union
Title: ‘Parent Revolution’
Length: 2:57
Director/Writer/Editor: Chris Yi
Cinematographer: Matt Bass
Crew: Britt Brzoza, Kassie Funcell
Art Director: Kassie Funcell
Composer: Will Lam

Just finished this Marriage Equality video

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Wanted to share this project I just finished for Liberty Hill this morning, they’ve already got it up and running online! For such a quick turnaround, I’m pretty happy with how this turned out.

I was asked to make a slideshow but I wanted to make sure it DIDN’T look like a Powerpoint presentation.  So I threw in some motion graphics, used one of my favorite songs, and edited everything to the music…what do you think?

And in case you’re wondering, the song is “Falling” by Nitin Sawnhey feat. Matt Hale (Aqualung). What a beautiful track. I’ve been wanting to use it for a while now and then this project came along, and it was just the perfect fit. Seriously, even the lyrics are right on.  I love it when random pieces just come together.

My Doritos spots are getting some blog love

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Now while we didn’t win the Doritos competition with our three commercials, I did get two pretty awesome surprises outta this whole thing.

First, these Doritos spots got me mentioned in two of my favorite blogs! No joke, I first found out about getting featured on AngryAsianMan.com last Tuesday. My friend left me a post on my Facebook saying, “You’re on angry asian man, props!” Lo and behold, I checked and there my “silly Doritos commercials” were.

No way! I’ve been reading this blog (just like every other Asian Am studies minor) for years, thinking to myself, “Man, wouldn’t that be sweet to be on there as an up and coming Asian filmmaker?” For my first ever blog mention, this was just perfect.

And then for the kicker, two days later I noticed traffic to my website was just skyrocketing. What was going on here? I started to investigate and found that all the hits were coming from this post at Adrants.com, one of the biggest advertising blogs out there and one of my personal favorites!

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Don’t you love how they called me and Jesse “Creatives”? Makes me feel all official-like. But seriously, it was such a trip for us to see that. I remember when the two of us used to write a weekly newsletter for Chiat\Day, we would always start our research with the one and only Adrants.com. Seeing our names on that site was that beautiful cherry on top of a crazy experience.

Thank you big name bloggers, you helped make my week. And I promise I’m gonna do my best to make sure this isn’t the last time either!

And as for the 2nd surprise, Doritos sent me a nice little consolation prize as a thank you for entering our commercials.

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A free t-shirt, hat, free coupons, and a letter. Pretty nice of them huh? Thanks guys, you really didn’t have to, but it was a nice touch on an already awesome contest. Hmm, maybe I’ll enter again next year…? You never know.

Change has come…to my blog (or “Yes I can”)

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It’s a beautiful new year and while I don’t believe in New Years resolutions (I’m more about anytime-you-want resolutions, why wait?) it’s definitely a good time to make some changes to my blog.

I’ve had a lot of fun over the past 6 months setting up my site and getting my first blog going (that Xanga from high school doesn’t count!), but for the last month I’ve been thinking a lot about the direction I’m taking it in. As a beginning freelancer, I was worried about being taken seriously so I made sure my blog was as “professional” as can be. I decided that its only purpose was to help supplement my freelance career and maintain my “professionality”.

Well I’m done with that.

No that doesn’t mean I’m gonna start swearing every other word, it just means I’m gonna loosen up this pressure and start having some more fun with my blog. I remember the whole reason I decided to get a blog in the first place was because I wanted people to not only see my work, but get to also get to know me.

So from now on, less “news-ish” type stories, and more of me. I’ll start to post more on what I want to post, not what I should post. Have more fun with my blog after all, it is my blog. I also really want to open a “non-work” section of my site for little films and fun shorts that I’ve made over the years. And hopefully with all this you guys will get to know more about me, what my life is like as a freelancer, and what makes me tick as a filmmaker.

And about that professionality thing? Eh, I’ll just let my work speak for itself. Seems to be working so far!

What I learned from my Doritos commercials

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Wow, this feels good. I just posted all three of my Doritos commercials online (‘The Red’, ‘First Date’, ‘The Breakroom’, and check out behind the scenes pics right here) and now I can call it a wrap. Done. Finito. My first personally funded, professional shoot is now officially in the can. Ahhhh.

But before I can move on to the next project, I need to wrap up my thoughts and so here we are at this blog post. How convenient.

So this shoot was a big deal for me for a few reasons:

1. It was my first professional shoot that wasn’t funded by a client. Meaning me and my creative partner Jesse had to front $2,000 ourselves. Now a lot of you filmmakers are scoffing at that, but for a guy who just graduated into this horrible economy without rich parents, that’s a lot of rent and spaghetti right there.

2. It was my first time really working with dialogue. If you take a look at most of my work, I’m definitely more of a visual filmmaker. Dialogue has always scared me, but I really wanted to learn so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to stretch my wings.

3. It was my first time seriously working with a production team. I’m usually on my own when it comes to my personal projects, but not this time. My creative partner, Jesse Epstein, and producer, Jenny Ahn, were right there with me every step of the way. For a straight month of craziness, these guys were pulling long hours and late nights to make our commercials the best they could be, and no way in hell could I have pulled it off without them. Continue reading →