An interview with Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”
ReelHeART: Hi Scott U There..?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: I’m here. Hello!
ReelHeART: How are you today? My name is Ben. We’re going to play a little game called “20 Questions”. Are you ready..?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: Shoot.
ReelHeART: What are you seeing on your desk right now while we’re chatting? Give me a list…
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: Wow. I’m cleaning my studio at work right now. It’s a very small editing room. I see DVDs, coffee cups, external hard drives, two speakers, numerous boxes, a camera case, a shotgun mic, and lots of pens. and my glasses case.
ReelHeART: Whew. I read “shotgun” before I scrolled down and saw the rest
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: yeah, no firearms in my office today.
ReelHeART: That’s good to know. Please tell our ReelHeART visitors who you are, the title of your film, the genre and what your contribution is on the film.
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China Ok, let’s see..
I’m Scott Riehs, and my film is called “Finding God in China.” It’s a documentary (58 min) and I am the co-director and co-writer, producer, director of photography and editor.
ReelHeART: Wow, Scott that’s a lot of hats to wear. Sometimes that means the crew was VERY small. Was that the case with your film…?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: Yes. But when we were filming the movie in Southern China in the summer of ’08, I was surrounded by many, many family members of Emmy’s. (my co-director.) So we had plenty of help while we actually shot the film. But I worked alone or nearly alone for large parts of the post-production process.
ReelHeART: When does your film screen? And Is this a Canadian premiere?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: It screens at 4pm on Wednesday afternoon June 22nd, in the MAIN PROGRAM B theater. And yes, it is its Canadian premiere.
ReelHeART: That’s excellent. I’ve got the link here http://reelheart.org/wednesday/wednesday-main-program-b-4pm/
How did you hear about ReelHeART?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: Through Without-a-box on IMDB. The festival definitely sounded like a great fit for our film, and I’m very happy and grateful to be a part of it.
ReelHeART: Thanks! We’re glad you to have you with us this year.
When you mention “Emmy” you are referring to co-director Emmy Walker. What was the inspiration for the film? Did she come to you with the story..?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: The story was inspired by Emmy’s family in Seattle. They had just returned from a family reunion in Guangzhou, and were convinced they needed to document their family’s history on film before their oldest living generation passed on.
Emmy was studying drama at NYU at the time, where I met her. Emmy’s family asked her to make a film, she recruited me, and things began to snowball down the mountain from there into something much, much larger.
Three years later, here we are. What I mean was Emmy’s family in Seattle was inspired by their extended family in China.
ReelHeART: Even though it follows Emmy and her journey exploring her family’s Christian culture and faith, is this a “religious” documentary?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: it definitely has a spiritual quality to it, but it’s not a preachy film in any way.
While watching the film, you get to experience what we saw in China. Some things are left to be open to interpretation.
ReelHeART: Scott, please tell us a little more about the story that unfolded with Emmy researching back into her roots. How did you “buy into it” her journey being an outsider. Did it happen organically while on the shoot or in pre-production?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: It was pretty wild. It might have been easier logistically if I had been Chinese.
I stuck out a lot. My camera acted as a people-magnet wherever we went, they were very curious about what we were up to. As for the story, I got very close with her family quickly. They were all so sincere, open, and genuine.
Everyone involved knew I had an important job to do, to document. So they did everything they could to help us get into a position to tell their story in an interesting and cinematic way.
ReelHeART: Did Emmy’s 86 year-old Grandfather live in the US and go back with Emmy, you and the crew to China?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: yes. His name is Yu An Lo, but we all called him Y-kon, or grandfather. When he retired, he moved to the United States and settled in Seattle with some of his family. He was the one who brought us to China.
He’s like the Godfather.
ReelHeART: I noticed on one of the scorecards that the screener says “”Excellent Chinese exteriors. Gorgeous” . Can you tell us where you shot it in China? And were there any places that left you personally breathless …?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: We shot in about seven cities in Guangdong province, and in many rural villages. We shot at the tops of mountains, the tops of skyscrapers, in tiny, pristine churches, on huge, monstrous and busy intersections. I love skyscrapers.
But the space that was the most special was a small Hakka village outside the city of Xingning. We got there near the end of the day, and watched the seemingly ancient buildings get swallowed up by the night sky.
ReelHeART: WoW. Very descriptive Scott. I can almost see it.
How long did “Finding God in China” take from pre-production to post production ?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: It took 2 and a half years. The film went through numerous different cuts last year, until we settled on the finished version that will screen at ReelHeART.
ReelHeART: Where there any pitfalls during any of the production phases?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: Yes, the translation process.
Due to the potentially sensitive nature of the content of the interviews, Emmy’s family in the US did not want me to reach out for help with the translations.
So I ended up beginning the editing process by listening to the loose translations on the camera by our translator, Emmy’s cousin. Meanwhile, the tapes needed to be translated from Hakka to Mandarin, and then to English.
Because we didn’t know anyone close enough who knew Hakka and English well enough to translate.
The film would have turned out VERY differently if I had began the editing process with a complete transcript. Instead, it morphed into a story centering on Emmy learning about her family, rather than a documentary ABOUT her family.
I really made the film backwards in lots of ways.
ReelHeART: I’ve read that before in other interviews about making the film backwards. If it turns out a good end product, that that’s the way it should’ve been done.
It sounds like Emmy’s family was very protective about their contribution from their cultural perspective.
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: It was much more about their openness about their Christianity that they were worried about. Emmy’s family in China wasn’t worried about it, her parents in Seattle were.
We also did not screen the film publicly until Emmy’s family in China saw the final product and gave it their seal of approval.
ReelHeART: I’m glad everyone’s happy with the end product. Were there any happy surprises while making the film?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: Yes! The food.
Lots and lots of food. And it plays a big role in the film.
I gained 5 lbs every day from eating, and sweat it all out each day in the humidity.
Wherever we went, it was a big deal. And there was lots of food waiting for us.
ReelHeART: Lol! What pleases you most about your film?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: Wow. Well, I’m very proud of how sincere we were able to make the film.
It could have been so easy to make it tongue-in-cheek, a story about a clueless westerner traveling to china, where all they talk about is Jesus. In the end, I’m confident that EVERYONE will get something out of this film, whether you’re religious, atheist, a historian, or if you don’t even know where Guangdong is.
And I’m very happy with the visuals, which were all shot on the SD Panasonic dvx100b. My baby.
ReelHeART: Is there anything that displeases you about your film?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: For my first feature-film, I set the bar pretty high. I’m not upset with any of it.
ReelHeART: So this is your first outing as a filmmaker..?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: my first feature, yes. I studied Drama at the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU, where I met Emmy. I had always been interested in film, and made digital films for fun. But once this opportunity came, my focus of my career shifted quickly to documentary production, and now hopefully into narrative features.
ReelHeART: Okay Scott, we’re moving onto a 2 Part Question:
What do you HATE most about being a filmmaker ?
What do you LOVE most about being a filmmaker?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: I hate having to do the legwork to promote a film after I’ve made it. It’s so hard to concentrate on that after putting so much energy into its creation. I strive to work with a larger team with more producers next time.
And what I love…
I love the adrenaline of shooting something special, which I know can never happen again or be duplicated. And I love editing, when a moment is linked seamlessly with another moment and forms something that could never have been imagined beforehand.
I love surprises.
ReelHeART: Shooting and editing is something special. Editing especially. being in that dark room, things come to life.
ReelHeART: On the flip side of creativity, I’d hate to see a film I made sit on the shelf and no one knows it exists. I think in the realm if indie filmmaking, promoting the film goes hand in hand with making the film.
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: Which is what I need to learn much, much more about.
ReelHeART: Well, ReelHeART will teach ya! Lol!
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: We’ll see what happens!
ReelHeART: On that note, Do you have distribution for the film yet?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: no, we don’t. I’d love to find an online distributor so people can stream the film.
And I need help.
I’m really in this one on my own, and am not even sure where to start.
ReelHeART: Well ReelHeART is the “Mentoring Film Festival” and often referred to as “The “Filmmaker’s Film Festival”. So, hopefully if you come to Toronto, you’ll sit in on the Distribution workshop during the Lunch n Learn sessions.
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: Unfortunately, that one’s on Friday, correct? I’ll be in Toronto for the first full three days of the festival, from Monday till Thursday afternoon.
It’s killing me that I’m going to miss that.
ReelHeART: We’re in the home stretch now Scott. Some questions borrowed from the great James Lipton.
What sound or noise do you hate?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: I hate large, scary dogs barking and growling.
ReelHeART: What sound or noise do you love?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: Fireworks, led zeppelin, and foghorns
ReelHeART: What’s your favorite curse word?
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: That’s fuckin’ tits!
ReelHeART: Finally Scott,
Is there anything you’d like to mention in this chat, knowing that it’s published on the Internet and will live on forever…
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: oh, that’s great to know after I told you my curse word.
ReelHeART: 😀
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: *
I want people to enjoy the film, and I hope to be blessed in the future with opportunities to be a storyteller for the rest of my life.
ReelHeART: I just want to remind our visitor that I’m chatting to day online with co-director Scott Riehs. His film with co-director Emmy Walker is “Finding God in China”
it premieres
4 PM – WEDNESDAY June 22
MAIN PROGRAM B
Theater 222, Innis College
2 Sussex Street, Toronto
Tickets are $10 and more information is at this link http://reelheart.org/wednesday/wednesday-main-program-b-4pm/
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: And tell your friends! It’s gonna be a great show.
ReelHeART: Thank you Scott! We’ll see you at your film. Hope you have a lot of great anecdotes for the Q&A after the film!
Scott Riehs, co-director “Finding God In China”: I’ll be there, too. Yes I will.
Thanks, Ben!