Tom La always thought that “A Christmas Carol”, the film which we made back in grade 11 was one of the best MOONLiTE films ever. It was always his favorite. What drew me into the project of Memories, (originally titled “Christmas in Vancouver”) was the magic behind the whole Christmas season and the big question of “What if…”

I had just finished production on 2008’s “Into the Black Woods” and was looking for a nice short and simple project. I was also looking for another opportunity to work with Lee Majdoub, who I found was a pleasure to work with on our previous film. One day, while sitting around my house I found an old scrapbook that was given to me by a friend in high school. Looking through the pictures, I began to remember the moments, and the pictures in the scrapbook sort of came to life for me. Soon, I found my inspiration for the Christmas film my team and I had been longing to do for so long. The story is a loose adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s “Little Match Girl”, a short story which I was read every Christmas. I wanted to keep the production cheap by having minimal crew, yet I wanted high production value.

Lee Majdoub and Tom La were committed to the project right from the get go. I was lucky enough to work with Jimmy Hsu this time around who was my long time good friend and photographer on the set of “Into the Black Woods.” He became the assistant director. When we went into casting, we needed to cast for two characters as the lead role of JOHN, I had given to Lee Majdoub already. Although we had about sixteen girls come in for the role of MICHELLE, JOHN’s wife, Melissa Demmers really brought something to her audition. She was sweet, intelligent, and beautiful, exactly how I had originally written the character of MICHELLE. There was a sincerity to Melissa’s performance, a truth which definitely made her stand out. There were no call backs for her, as we knew she was the actress for the role right away. I was really excited when T.C. Dickinson from “Into the Black Woods” came in for the role of the SNOW ANGEL. She had played ANNIE in the previous film, and had already worked with Lee Majdoub, so I knew the chemistry would be there, even though they had actually shared no screen time together. T.C. was the last of the three main characters to be cast in this film. We started production of MEMORIES, which was then know as “Christmas in Vancouver” on November 16th. This was an interesting production as there were more new commers than MOONLiTE alumni crew members. Our new crew members included Jimmy Hsu as Assistant Director, Kelly Yeh as our Key Make-Up Artist, and Jacqueline Liu as an assistant. Jenny Lewis also came on-board this project, designing and creating the red scrapbook for the film.

We first shot the very last dinner scene first, as it consisted the most extras and setup. My mother had actually prepared a very nice Christmas dinner for us in the middle of November for the scene! I also wanted to shoot this scene first as I felt it would help Lee get into the character of JOHN. I wanted to show him that this was what he had, and then he lost it when he lost his wife. I had a very distinct look for this film, I wanted all the flashbacks and memories to be warm, like the flame that brought it to life, and all the other scenes taking place in the present to be cold and bitter. We worked with many gels on the lights to achieve this look. During the dinner scene, if you look closely, you can see my cameo. I’ll give you a hint, its during the part where MICHELLE calls JOHN to come over. We had the largest crew during the dinner scene, as the next two days were very minimal.

Day two consisted of shooting the first flashback scene, what we like to call the proposal. During this scene, it was really only me and Jimmy Hsu working the lights and camera. We had so many things running, we set decked, set up the snow machine lights, and operated the camera. It was literally just the two of us, and I think it’s one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Jimmy was amazing.

On the last day, we shot the second flashback scene, and the outdoor scenes, which would be the majority of film. Jimmy had found a very nice location for us to shoot the outdoor scene in downtown Vancouver, right near the Pacific Coliseum. The trees were lit up already, and the location was just beautiful. Tom La joined us on set and operated the Little Blizzard Snow machine.

We wrapped shoot right on schedule on November 18th at 11:30PM. I think that the actual coldness really helped Lee get into character. It was like -8 or something that night, and it was freezing. His wardrobe didn’t really keep him warm. It was funny though, we went through all this work to make fake snow, and the next day, it actually snowed. All the snow in this film is artificial.

The film entered post production very quickly, and was edited and scored within a time period of four weeks. Another new-comer to the MOONLiTE crew was Michael V. Wilson, who composed the hauntingly beautiful score for the film. This was the first collaboration with Michael and I. His music really captured that magical feeling I was looking for, and captured the loneliness and isolation that JOHN was going through. Working with Michael was one of the best experiences I have had with a composer. I believe that he is truly one talented composer who will go very far.

I learnt quite a bit from this set. Compared to my last film, this film was very small and contained. I felt real close to this project and had quite a bit of control over everything. Even with a small crew, we were able to pull it off. I was very lucky to have such good people like Jimmy Hsu, Tom La, Lee Majdoub, and Kial Natale who stuck it out that night we were in the ally.

Memories will always be a special film for me because it will always remain as one of my most personal films.

Glen Chua
May 26, 2008