ITVS has posted an extended trailer for the 11 films in the Futurestates series. The trailer includes clips from “Mister Green,” directed by Greg Pak and starring Tim Kang and Betty Gilpin. Check it out:
Greg Pak: Mister Green
Best Short Film, SciFi London Film Festival
2009. 15 minutes, color. In a world in which catastrophic global warming has become reality, a jaded government undersecretary (Tim Kang) flirts with a scientist (Betty Gilpin) and ends up embroiled in a radical conspiracy to save the planet — by transforming the human race itself.
A parable about change, both personal and political, from award-winning director Greg Pak, “Mister Green” launches online in March 2010 as part of the ITVS Futurestates series.
Mason Park – Tim Kang
Gloria Holtzer – Betty Gilpin
Man in Bar – Greg Pak
Staffer – Reyna de Courcy
President of the United States – Ron Scott
Answering Machine Voice – David Libby
Concierge Voice – Tina Marie Casamento
Written and directed by Greg Pak
Produced by Karin Chien
Executive Producer for ITVS: Sally Jo Fifer
Co-Producer: Blake Ashman-Kipervaser
Associate Producer: Derek Nguyen
Cinematography by Sam Chase
Production Designer: Ola Maslik
Visual Effects Artist: Robert A. Morris
Music by David Libby
Casting by Susan Shopmaker and Randi Glass
Colorist and Post Finishing Supervisor – Paul McCarthy
Sound Design and Mix – Daniel Perlin
“Mister Green” is a co-production of Pak Man Productions, Ltd. and the Independent Television Service (ITVS), with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“Mister Green” trailer now online!
ITVS has cut a trailer of Greg Pak’s new short film “Mister Green,” starring Tim Kang and Betty Gilpin.
Check it out!
2010.03.14 – “Mister Green” at SXSW
“Mister Green,” a new short film written and directed by Greg Pak and starring Tim Kang and Betty Gilpin, will premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, as part of the Futurestates short film program on March 14 at 5 pm.
Click here for more details.
FilmHelp interview: Betty Gilpin talks “Mister Green”
Betty Gilpin as Dr. Gloria Holtzer in “Mister Green”
A FilmHelp interview by Greg Pak
As we draw nearer to the premiere of my latest short film “Mister Green” at South By Southwest and the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, I’ll be interviewing a few of the key players for FilmHelp.com. First on the spot is the brilliant Betty Gilpin, who plays Dr. Gloria Holtzer, a scientist with special plans for a jaded government undersecretary for global warming (Tim Kang). Betty was born and raised in New York City and graduated with a theatre degree from Fordham College at Lincoln Center in 2008.
Greg Pak: You came into the audition and just nailed every little nuance in the script. Tell us a bit about the audition process. How did you prepare? And what makes for a good audition process from your point of view?
Betty Gilpin: I had never auditioned for a short before, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I guess something as simple as just knowing the lines really well helps me. An acting teacher of mine taught me a trick — when you’re memorizing lines to be careful to recite them monotonously, so you’re not married to a specific way to play the line. Then you won’t feel thrown if the director wants to change it up, and the lines will feel more natural. A bad habit of mine is to over-plan what I’m going to do in a scene, so that trick helps me. Is that what you mean by good audition process? Or do you mean the actual audition? A good audition to me is when everyone in the room — actor, director, casting director, etc. — are all in a good mood and an open, creative place. That’s when everyone does their best work.
Continue reading FilmHelp interview: Betty Gilpin talks “Mister Green”
“Mister Green” to premiere at the SXSW Film Festival
“Mister Green,” a new short film written and directed by Greg Pak and starring Tim Kang and Betty Gilpin, will have its festival premiere this March at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
The 15 minute short will screen in a program of other science fiction shorts funded by the ITVS Futurestates initiative. The entire series will also premiere online in March at Futurestates.tv.
Greg Pak will attend the screening at SXSW — check back soon for exact times and locations.
To see the entire SXSW film slate, visit the official festival website.
2010.03.17 – 03.18 – “Mister Green” at the SFIAAFF
“Mister Green,” a short film written and directed by Greg Pak and starring Tim Kang and Betty Gilpin, will screen as part of the “Futurestates” shorts program at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. The screening times and locations are:
WED 03/17 17th 6:45pm
Sundance Kabuki 5
THU 03/18 18th 7:15pm
Sundance Kabuki 5
Futurestates is a series of science fiction shorts commissioned by ITVS that explore the near future of the United States. Other Futurestates films in the SFIAAFF program include Amyn Kaderali’s “The Other Side,” Ben Rekhi’s “Fallout,” Tanuj Chopra’s “Pia,” and Tze Chun’s “Silver Sling.”
For more information about the program, click on the “Futurestates” link at the SFIAAFF website.
For more about “Mister Green,” visit www.pakbuzz.com/mister_green.
Greg Pak is AngryAsianMan.com’s Angry Reader of the Week
AngryAsianMan.com has featured Greg Pak as its Angry Reader of the Week! Here’s an excerpt:
I’m in the business of escapist entertainment. But I’d argue that the greatest escapist literature doesn’t just let us avoid our problems; it gives us a safe space to explore new ways to deal with our real world challenges. One of the reasons I’ve been so drawn to the Hulk, for example, is that he’s insanely fun because we can all vicariously enjoy his anger and smashing. But what makes him a truly great character is that his stories almost always explore the price of all that anger and smashing. There’s a process of emotional discovery in those stories that’s incredibly attractive to me as a reader and a writer.
Greg Pak and other comics creators reveal 2010 resolutions at MTV’s Splash Page
Filmmaker and comic book writer Greg Pak drops a few hints about what he’s working on and looking forward to in 2010 at MTV’s Splash Page blog.
Check it out.
Pak Talks Comics: Reader Q&A on filmmaking!
Welcome to Pak Talks Comics, wherein comics writer and filmmaker Greg Pak answers your questions. Click here to submit your own questions — and read on for the latest answers!
Jeffrey Thompson: What attracts you to filmmaking?
Greg Pak: Filmmaking lets me flex every muscle in my body and brain. I grew up drawing, writing stories, doing black and white photography, and performing with school drama groups. All of those interests come together in making movies.
Also, I just plain love movies.
Finally, I love the process of filmmaking — particularly working with actors, the cinematographer, and the sound designer and composer to find the emotional core of a scene. There’s something absolutely beautiful about figuring out what a scene’s really about and being able to support that from every angle.
JT: Does a background with comics help with film making?
GP: It actually worked the other way around for me — I started off in film and then became a professional comics writer. Then again, when I was a kid, I was drawing cartoons long before I ever had the chance to make a movie, so I guess it works that way, too.
So the answer is yes — going in both directions. Working in film definitely helped me get my sea legs in comics. I’d written dozens of shorts and a few feature films before I ever wrote a comics script. And since the basic principles of dramatic storytelling are the same, I suppose I had a pretty good foundation. Of course, there were a ton of comics-specific quirks and techniques I had to learn (and continue to learn to this day). But all that practice in thinking about how to tell stories visually was incredibly helpful.
And now, moving back into filmmaking with my latest short film, “Mister Green,” I’m finding that there are some things I’ve learned from comics that are helping me with filmmaking. I had a great time working with my cinematographer Sam Chase on the “Mister Green” set largely because the two of us found a really great vibe and in the face of some insane scheduling pressures, we were willing to take some big chances regarding the look of the picture that paid off in a big way. (That’s Sam and yours truly to the right there, thinking big thoughts on the set of “Mister Green.”)
I think working in comics, where there’s always an insane deadline that forces a constant series of nearly instantaneous creative decisions, has helped me become a little more fearless about taking the big creative leaps necessary to find beautiful solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems.
Thanks for reading and click here to submit your own questions for the next column!
ITVS announces Futurestates series — and Greg Pak’s “Mister Green”
The Independent Television Service has released preliminary information about the Futurestates series, which includes the short film “Mister Green,” directed by Greg Pak and starring Tim Kang and Betty Gilpin.
From the official press release:
The series, which will be made available online beginning March 2010, will consist of 11 mini-features each 15 minutes in length, created by independent filmmakers exploring diverse visions of what life might look like in an America of the future. Initially, the series will be accessible exclusively online via ITVS’s redesigned website (launching in early 2010) and be available for free—via streaming video—on the new site’s enhanced broadband video player.
…
ITVS worked with over 20 of today’s best and emerging indie filmmakers to complete the 11 films to make up FUTURESTATES. Contributors include acclaimed director Ramin Bahrani, whose mini-feature entitled PLASTIC BAG is narrated by the legendary Werner Hertzog, Greg Pak ‘s MISTER GREEN and Tze Chun’s SILVER SLING.
Click here to read the whole thing.
For more information about “Mister Green,” visit pakbuzz.com/mister_green.