KOFFIA Short Film Comp Interview: "La Croyance" with Chase Lee

Check out our exclusive interview with KOFFIA 2013 Short Film Competition finalist Chase Lee 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? 

I was the screenplay writer/producer and main actor for “Remorse” in last year’s Korean Film Festival. I believe as an actor KOFFIA helps me grow as an actor/director. I am powered to present myself to a community that may be interested in working with me in the future. 

2. Can you tell us more about your film? What made you want to tell such a story?

As an actor/director I wanted to express the fears that I have which consist of many things. Through this film I wanted to somewhat make a leap of faith in myself and remind myself that I should keep moving forward. I know there is many people such as myself in various cases and I would love to see someone grow by taking that leap in which I am taking. 

3. The name of the film is La Croyance, is it a French name and what does it mean? 

Yes, La Croyance is French which translates to “the belief” 

4. The film feels like a self-reflection and there's a big contrast of the music playing in the second half of the film, what's the key message? 

I am constantly battling with myself as an actor and thinking always about a plan B. I guess a lot of people around me fear what will be the outcome of plan A. There are many stories about perseverance and I constantly read them to help inspire me and move forward such as one from Michael Jordan “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 30 0games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed”. 

The music contrast is to remind me that the more I keep knocking on the door through rain or shine it will eventually open up. 

5. There's a sign (a finger pointing up) on the wall, does this imply anything? 

Originally when I did location scouting I was trying to find a nice place to shoot with minimal traffic. When I arrived at the set location for “La Croyance” everything seemed perfect. The finger pointing up was part of the artwork on the wall which I thought would complement my script and vision very nicely. 

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

The main difficulty with shooting the film would have been the weather. It rained multiple times on shoot dates and had to delay the production almost a month. I would say I enjoyed the preproduction phase where I storyboarded the film and had meetings with my Director of Photography (Steven Kerr) and Editor (Francisco Lee). We shared very similar visions on how to make the film.

Thanks to Chase Lee for the Interview!