KOFFIA Short Film Comp Interview: "Asian Australian Gentleman" with Ezra Andres

Check out our exclusive interview with KOFFIA 2013 Short Film Competition finalist Ezra Andres below! Buy your tickets to what will be an exciting short film session, screening August 25th in Sydney!

1. What / Who inspired you to join this competition? Why did you get into filmmaking? 

Originally after seeing an advertisement at my college for this short film competition I was going to convert one of my already written scripts (Romance/Drama) into Korean and pretty much set a challenge for myself. But time went by and I had class projects I had to focus on, during this time I was finalising and publishing ‘Asian Australian’, and it fit the criteria, so I thought why not! I got into film making at a young age, but until now I haven’t really been happy with what I’ve accomplished. I love to tell stories (especially romance/drama) so hopefully one day I’ll be able to work on a feature film in the genre. Whether it be English or even Korean, as long as it touches people and evokes their emotions, that’s what counts for me. 

2. Can you tell us more about your film? There are themes of being an Asian living in Australia, what are the major differences between being Asian and Australian? 

I guess the major difference between being Asian and Australian can only be seen in physical characteristics. We live in a multicultural country and have grown to appreciate different aspects of each culture. Asian Australian is based upon the past times of todays Asian Australians, whether it be hanging out with your friends at a yogurt place, or having a love for bubble tea, everything that is green tea, anime, MI goreng noodles, JDM (Japanese Domestic Marketing, specifically Hondas and VTEC in this piece), karaoke, spending hours at an internet café conquering the unknown, the list can go on forever. But it isn’t limited to just Asians due to our multiculturalism and diverse group of social bonds. 

3. “PSY” is now becoming an internationally recognized world star, what do you think about the successful factors behind? 

I’ve always been a fan of KPOP, even before PSY made it mainstream, and after many years of trying to break into a wider audience I’m happy he has finally done it. I heard Gangnam Style before it even had 100k views and I knew it would become a viral success, why? Because it’s different and people are drawn to the unknown but once it becomes known they start to loose interest. In a time where the Internet plays an important role in society, it connects us on a global scale. One share to your friend on a video or movie you think is funny could result in thousands. That is the success factor behind everything these days. 

4. What do you think about the Korean culture (music/ drama / tv..etc) influencing people living in Australia nowadays? 

The Korean culture has definitely woven itself into Australia nowadays, with nonKoreans appreciating K-POP and attending concerts, watching drama and becoming fans of something or someone they might’ve not been a couple years ago. Most yogurt places play K-POP so when you go to enjoy your frozen yogurt you might hear Bigbang, SNSD or PSY etc. in the background. When you go onto YouTube often there are English covers for most Korean songs, and because of PSY when you ask people (who aren’t Asian) what K-POP is, he will be the answer. 

5. Do you think the k-wave will continue in Australia in the coming few years? 

I think the k-wave will continue as long as there are people there to support it. Like any boy band or musician it’s all our fans, without fans it’s like you never existed. Without people sharing your content, creating talk, there wouldn’t be you outside of your world. 

6. Were there any difficulties during the entire shooting? Which part did you enjoy most and why? Any difficulties? 

Yes, ending up at an Internet café to play League of Legends for some odd reason and leaving at 5AM in the morning, not being able to wake up again. Jokes, but it did happen and we were just staying true to the song (haha not really). Overall during the shoot of ‘Asian Australian’ the only technical difficulty was syncing up the dancing between everyone (in the end we never got it right, but it was fun), and a general time constraint between actors meaning we had to improvise some parts and leave some out. If I had to choose a favourite part it would be Circular Quay during an Indigenous Australian didgeridoo performance 3 members of the cast jumped in and started dancing, it was a good fill-in for the parts we didn’t manage to film. But if I think about it, every part was fun to film (especially the public ones) because it would draw attention and everyone was having fun!

Thanks to Ezra Andres for the interview!