We officially ended our production and now starting to editing the film. Our editor Barbara is on it and I think within a week we should have a roughcut of the film out.

What did I learn from this experience of "Drowning":

-Filmmaking is really really hard, esp. when you got 2 guys running a production. Luckily we got postproduction help.

-Better preparation. Ideally for my next film, I'd shoot the whole project once on DV cam and edit the film to see if the editing works, and then decide if I want to add/change stuff before finally shooting the sucker. Test shots are necessary for editing purposes. It's a lot of work, but in the end it's worth it in my opinion. I think we did fine in our project, cuts will mostly be smooth but if i had more time/manpower, i would prepare like that for optimal performance to get the smoothest transitions.

-It's not cheap making a film, even if your getting most of the stuff for free.

-The process is slow and i hate it. I hate waiting, but that's how it is. It absolutely kills me since i just want this thing to be over with, since in the middle all u can do is just wait.

-I'm definitely more well-prepared for my next project and will bring in all the things I've learned on this project and things i've learned from others on this production.

-I'm glad it's over... it's been a long process. With all the waiting and schedule problems of people and writing and everything, it's been maybe 4-5 months. I know most people do projects quick and try to get as many projects in as possible to get better. It's a little different for me since i like to take my time with a project and do it like a real production, I feel it's pointless to practice something your not 100% about, most of the time it's a terrible script anyways b/c good writing does take a while.

-Everyone's telling me not to worry, but I'm a lil nervous about how this film will turn out since we all spent so much time/energy into this film. I think i need to just let it go and we'll see what happens, if it sucks, then it sucks, learn to move on from that. If it's good, then great, *shrug*. can't put too much attachment emotionally into this project now and just let it go.

After this film, now the question will come: what's next? is it time to go back to China and resume where i left off there? or should I stay here a bit longer and keep writing for my feature film? or should I move to LA? I don't really know, we'll see what happens. As much as I wanna get out of suburbia here, I gotta make my decisions with a clear head, don't let heat of the moment effect my decision-makign abilities. And my career too, what am i gonna do? keep acting? directing? both? It's gonna be a lot of Q's and A's and some 'soulsearching' on my part after "Drowning" is complete finished. I dont know where life will take me but all I can do is go with the flow. It's taken me this far and I don't plan on changing my course.