Director's Statement

After 20 years of learning the craft of storytelling from some of Hollywood's best as an ABC Entertainment Marketing writer/producer(as well as a few other places) I decided to officially take the plunge and produce one of the stories I had developed into this short film. Marketing other people's projects allows me to daily screen and study from very talented film/television creators - story arcs, plot points, character development, reveals, timing, the use of music and find the elements which pop and make compelling stories to attract a mass audience.

The script came to me through a friend whose brother had written a 6 page short about a Mom using the system to track down her missing daughter. It had a fabulous twist end and I was hooked. We developed the script and the characters adding contemporary settings/situations such as ripping off a medical marijuana dispensary, setting it in my hometown of Venice, CA, changing the Italian Mafia to the Triad, embracing my families diversity of American & Chinese and expanding on the story & characters.

Music is so important in my work as a storyteller. It inspires me from beginning to end and I thank all the artists who graciously gave us their music creating a tone and texture for Deadbeat.

We shot the film in 5 days, February 2010, with a couple of pick up days in May. Shooting on such a limited budget/schedule created many challenges, so we had to adjust our production goals accordingly. Our group of professional talent and crew made these compromises into a great looking piece of work. A week before production I broke my ankle and was in a cast up to my knee for the shoot. On our 2nd day our truck loaded with all our props broke down 100 miles away from our location. One of our key characters received a paying gig and their agent cancelled on us day of the shoot so our 2nd (actually my first) choice stepped in and gave a standout performance! Our biggest day of shooting, the entire cast was scheduled, our make-up artist was a no-show and put our production behind 2 hours in getting started until we found a replacement. Even with these minor issues production went smoothly.

We spent a lot of time on casting and found phenomenal talent who brought so much to the project. Producing this project in Los Angeles also gave us an amazing pool of talent behind the camera.

My husband and I have formed a production company, a bunch of productions, with a slate of projects from features, to TV and web series. Embracing our bi-cultural family some of them focus on American/Chinese themes.

Deadbeat is the culmination of so many amazingly talented people dedicating their time to this fun thrill ride. I humbly thank you.

Brenda Lee Lau

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