Thanks to the success of shows like Sanctuary, The Guild and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the Internet has become a compelling source for high-quality content delivered directly from the minds of the creators to the eager viewers. While there is still a plethora of low-quality and lowbrow viral hits, the overall quality of content is steadily improving. As the web becomes a more desirable outlet to feature indie projects, the number of indie filmmakers using the web to deliver their content is increasing.
One such filmmaker is Jennifer Thym, the writer and director of the new dramatic web series Lumina. Lumina is a dark fantasy-thriller that was filmed in high definition with the RED camera on location in Hong Kong. After watching the trailer, I was immediately interested in the series. It appears to be unlike anything else I’ve seen produced for the web and I am looking forward to seeing it. Jennifer graciously took a break from her editing to answer a few questions for us about Lumina the Web Series.
ÜberSciFiGeek (ÜSFG) You are the creator of the new web series Lumina. Can you tell us a little bit about the story?
Jennifer Thym (JT) Lumina the Web Series is a modern fairy tale, a dark fable that has its foundation in the seemingly simple girl meets boy scenario. Only she meets him in a mirror, and afterwards, the world that once looked so familiar to her starts to unravel!
We have a terrific cast — the beautiful JuJu Chan as Lumina Wong, and the wild-haired Michael Chan as Ryder Lee. Vince Matthew Chung, the winner of the Amazing Race Asia 3, plays Lumina’s best friend, Teddy Waits. And we have a whole slew of mirrorspies, including the formidable and sexy Emilie Guillot as guildmaster Laetitia Ricou, Jacob Ziacan as the creepy Eben Sanchez, and Simon Yin as the aggressive Damien Wu. Maybe I delight a little too much in my villains, but they are deliciously real to me.
The series will span twelve webisodes, 4-6 minutes each, and will be available to view on YouTube and other online video portals starting in August 2009. The trailer is up now on luminaseries.com!
(ÜSFG) You have created an urban mythology as the backdrop for the story of Lumina. Can you tell us a little about this world you’ve created?
(JT) I love the idea of parallel universes, and of worlds that intersect and interplay with each other. Corwaith, also known as the Dark Realm, runs parallel to our world, also known as Earth or the Light Realm. In Hong Kong in particular, there has been an abundance of cross-universe cultural pollination: for instance, both worlds speak the same languages, people on both sides look approximately the same and have fairly similar living habits.
However there are differences between Corwaith and Earth, and they are significant ones: the people of the Dark Realm are nocturnal whereas we are are diurnal; their technological development has also taken a different path from ours, and the benefits of technology are only available to the aristocracy. Unlike modern day Hong Kong, Corwaith is ruled by a two branch government comprised of a monarchy and a legislature.
(ÜSFG) Is Lumina going to be the first of many such stories of this world?
(JT) Absolutely! I feel particularly drawn to the Dark Realm and its denizens, most of whom have not even been mentioned yet in this season’s story arc. There are a number of them already inhabiting a quiet corner of my brain, so it’s a matter of giving them voice in the right way, at the right time. They’re going to look awesome too!
(ÜSFG) I’m very familiar with RED because I was part of the Sanctuary Beta a couple of years ago and got to play with some raw footage. Why did you choose to work with RED and what was it like to work with?
(JT) That’s awesome that you were part of the Sanctuary Beta! It must have been very exciting to see a piece of web series history being made.
We got lucky with the RED. Our cinematographers XiaoSu Han and Andreas Thalhammer were going to shoot Lumina on their HVX 200A with an adapter and photo lenses. I’d seen their work before with that setup and I was perfectly happy with that since what they could do with that setup was a million times better than what a lot of other people can do with 35 mm film. Then one week before we were scheduled to start shooting, they bought the RED and that boosted everyone’s spirits even more.
For Lumina, the complete digital workflow worked great. My DPs gave me a hard drive with all the raw RED footage on it, and I imported it into Final Cut Pro with the RED Plug-In (it converts the R3D files to Apple Pro-Res files) and could work on it straight away with my editor. And we know our output is going to be digital as well, so when we’re compressing for YouTube, for example, we work on delivering the best balance of file size and picture quality. I think the digital workflow is an amazing step forward for the film industry — although the old adage about story being the most important thing still holds true, it certainly helps to have access to tools that both offer better production values and are increasingly more affordable.
(ÜSFG) What made you decide to shoot Lumina for the web?
(JT) The Internet is a wonderful modern resource that is, ironically enough, the first place that someone will look for information about a filmmaker, and the last place that a filmmaker thinks to exhibit his or her work. The cinema is still the ultimate sacred venue; television screening is next and then after that, DVDs. Distribution on the Internet is often either done illicitly via torrenting, or the film is put through a grinder and then spit out into someone’s poorly compressed showreel. There are some companies making inroads into the legitimate internet distribution but it is still a nascent industry. But the web can be so integral to testing your skills as a filmmaker and connecting to and growing with an audience.
Top that off with my quitting Final Fantasy XI after a five year stint, and then reading about Felicia Day making The Guild after playing World of Warcraft, and voila, I decided to start off with a web series. To me, each story needs its own format. Some things will lend themselves better to an episodic way of telling the story, some to a feature film length narrative film, some as an ongoing monthly comic, some as a stand-alone graphic novel.
(ÜSFG) You shot the story over a period of twelve days in Hong Kong. What were you looking for when choosing locations?
(JT) Before we started shooting, we spent quite a bit of time looking for “existing” sets — beautifully lit spots in Hong Kong which were public spaces and had cool reflective surfaces. I was amazed by how many reflections we found once we started looking — it seems like every corner of Hong Kong is decked out in a little bit of mirror, chrome, and shiny glass. In that sense, it’s an incredibly modern city.
My favorite location is a shiny black stone wall at a street corner in Causeway Bay. It’s not a traditional mirror, but in the evening and at night, it becomes this glossy dark mirror — where the colors of the real world and the colors of the mirror world are almost the same, but there are these tiny imperfections in the mirror world, little ripples and distortions. Seen from just the right angle, it is almost as if the dark world is breathing. And if you watched closely enough, maybe you’d find that way in, that way to the other side.
(ÜSFG) Is there an underlying theme you are trying to convey with Lumina, or are you just trying to tell a modern day fairy tale?
(JT) I like stories that are open to interpretation, stories where audiences can apply their experiences to get their unique understanding of the story.
For me personally, the Lumina/Ryder relationship was an allegory for online relationships. When I played Final Fantasy XI, I noticed that the players tended to fall in love rather quickly. Admittedly, when you have been intensely gaming with someone for six hour sessions at a time, you may think you know everything about them already. But how well do you know someone really? Half the time, the “girls” in MMORPGs weren’t girls at all. But the misrepresentations that occur in real life relationships can be just as egregious as or even outweigh the online ones, because they go beyond the obvious physical lies to the internal ones, the spiritual ones.
(ÜSFG) From reading a bit about you on the website, you seem to be a storyteller who loves a good fantasy. What were the influences and inspirations that led you to love the fantasy and sci-fi genres? Was there a defining moment or experience that drew you to it?
(JT) I remember sitting on the floor of one of the enormous Barnes & Nobles in New York as a child, with piles and piles of epic fantasy books around me (the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant from Stephen R. Donaldson, the Dragonlance novels from Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, the Dragonriders of Pern from Anne McCaffrey, the Belgariad from David Eddings.) My mother said I could get as many books as I wanted, but that the books would be parceled out to me over time, usually as a reward for good behavior. A week later, I snuck into the closet where the books where stashed and started secretly reading them.
Around the same time that I was discovering fantasy books, I was getting into comics. I had a friend in school who brought me tons of X-Men comics to read in class, mostly the Chris Claremont era. And then another friend showed me Elfquest, and I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. Wendy and Richard Pini rock.
In college came the Sandman from Neil Gaiman, and an array of cyberpunk novels from William Gibson, Pat Cadigan, Neal Stephenson, and Wilheminia Baird.
(ÜSFG) You started the production company RockGinger. It’s a great name. How did you choose the name and what kind of projects have you been up to, besides Lumina?
(JT) I wanted a fun name for my production company, something different and that would represent me. I love rock music and rock candy; after playing around with some combinations, I found that by adding “ginger” after “rock” it implies candy and at the same time gives the name a bit of an Asian spin.
As for what’s up next — I want to do a series of music videos for some of the great bands that are contributing music to Lumina, and I’m writing an action film script. I’m also producing Let Go, the new provocative thriller by the award-winning and very talented Doug Kin-Tak Chan!
(ÜSFG) This is your directorial debut. I can only imagine how excited you must be. What was it like finally bringing one of your stories to life, and how is the finished product comparing to your vision? Were there any surprises or changes that just seemed natural in the transition from page to screen?
(JT) I am very excited! And even more so when I read about other people’s reactions to the trailer — I think we’re going in the right direction!
Although I wore a lot of hats in this production — writer, director, producer — and that’s most certainly not uncommon for an independent effort, or in fact, for any small business — Lumina is very much the product of the collaboration of many, many talented and artistic people. I may have laid out the foundation and the framework, but everyone else gave it all the color and life. That’s the fun part of the filmmaking for me — exploring what everyone has contributed and then shaping it into something unique, something that has a life of its own. Knowing that, you realize how important choosing the right cast and crew is to your end result.
It’s hard to remember what my original vision looked like. For me, JuJu has been Lumina for almost as long as the project existed, and Michael was just Ryder as soon as I met him. And Xax and Andy have such a luscious visual style, I don’t think anything I originally conceived in my head would have been as beautiful as what they actually captured on camera.
(ÜSFG) Tell us a bit more about yourself. The information available on the Internet is sorely lacking. What have you been doing before now?
(JT) I have worked as a lawyer and an investment banker, and I’ve had the opportunity to work in the US and in Europe. About a year after I arrived in Hong Kong, I thought to myself “new city, new career!” and went into filmmaking. But seriously, I enjoy new challenges, whether it be figuring out a foreign city’s subway system or a new job’s rhythm and flow. Change keeps me on my toes.
(ÜSFG) How did you get into filmmaking? Is it something you’ve always wanted to do?
(JT) I always wanted to try it, but until last year, I think I wasn’t ready yet. Whether it was the indecisiveness of youth or the perceived lack of opportunity, I generally had managed to talk myself out of giving it a real go. That changed in July of 2008, when I just decided that I was going to give a real solid try and that I was going to make my first project by the end of the year. Once I had made up my mind, I started planning out what I needed to do to achieve that, and first up was get a better understanding of project workflow for films. The Internet as a collective resource is amazing — there are so many tutorials and how-tos and blogs simply detailing experiences that you can really teach yourself quite a bit online. And I have been really lucky with making friends who know a lot more than I do.
(ÜSFG) The Lumina website mentions “one of your stories”. Do you have another story already picked out for your next project and do you do a lot of writing?
(JT) I have dozens of short stories and half finished novels locked up in a box, and I know that they will come out someday, each needing its own form and its own evolution. Although I enjoy writing, I also enjoy collaborating with other people, and I’m hoping to find the right synergy with writers who love the same things that I do.
(ÜSFG) With the success of Internet produced content over the past few years, location doesn’t have such a huge influence on the success of a project because its fan base grows due to positive word of mouth. That being said, Internet fans anticipate a higher level of interaction with the creator and actors in the shows they follow. Do you have any plans for attending any conventions or showing any screenings outside of Hong Kong to help raise awareness of Lumina?
(JT) Conventions would be superb — once we’re finished with post-production on Lumina, I am hoping to attend some with my actors. If you have any suggestions as to which ones we should go to, that would be greatly appreciated! We’re also in discussion with a few film festivals as well about showing the trailer.
(ÜSFG) Is there anything else you want to share?
(JT) Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, Raven! And thanks to everyone who has taken the time to watch the trailer and help spread the word about Lumina — it’s an incredibly gratifying feeling for all the cast and crew to see that people are enjoying it and wanting to share it with their friends!
Lumina the Web Series will premiere in August 2009 on YouTube and other online media outlets so keep checking luminaseries.com for updates. While you’re waiting, don’t forget to check out these other Lumina-related links:
Lumina’s YouTube Channel
Lumina’s Facebook Group
Lumina News RSS
RockGinger
