Filmmaker Interview — Colma: The Musical
Two weeks ago, we highlighted Colma: The Musical, the impressive, spirited debut film from director Richard Wong and mega-hyphenate screenwriter / songwriter / actor H.P. Mendoza.
We spent some time with H.P. (left) and Rich (below, right), talking about filmmaking, musicals and the little movie that’s become a darling of the critics.
THE LOBBY: First, I should tell you guys
your STARmeters are up on IMDb.
Rich: That’s cool! I haven’t checked that in a while actually.
H.P.: Yeah, I checked Colma’s yesterday, and we were up 26% so… something happened.
THE LOBBY:The idea for the movie started as just one song. How?
H.P.: A childhood friend who lived in Colma, his birthday was coming up and I didn’t have any money to buy him a gift. I thought “I think I’ll write him a song.” And so I wrote “Colma Stays” (listen). I thought it kind of led into another song, so I wrote a second song which eventually became “Things Will Get Better.” It was awkward having only two songs — you either write one or you write ten. So I ended up writing an entire concept album called “Colma: The Musical” based on the two of us growing up.
Rich: H.P. and I knew each other in college but hadn’t spoken for like eight years. When I ran into his childhood friend, we kind of reconnected. H.P. played some of these songs for me and at the time I had just quit my job working on TV shows for Fox. I didn’t know what I was gonna do next. I thought H.P. and I always wanted to do something together and this might be a great thing to do.
THE LOBBY: It’s pretty unusual for a debut film to be a musical. Rich, did you have reservations?
Rich: H.P. and I always talked about musicals — it was one thing we really bonded over. It was also a thing we were kind of ostracized for a little bit in school. I’ve certainly always loved musicals and even during our 8-year “hiatus” I always wanted to do something with H.P. It seemed natural that when we did something it would be a musical. There really was no second guessing that. I asked him to write a script. Seven days later, he had a first draft. We kind of just steamrolled from there.
THE LOBBY: In the movie, the transitions from dialogue to music are really seamless. Did you do the traditional playback and lip synch or am I missing something?
H.P.: We did record the music first and ended up lip synching off Rich’s boombox. People know musicals as being jarring when it goes from dialogue to music. Just because we’re so used to it now, we know when it’s going to happen. For example, as I’m talking to you now, I just… might… break into song! And the sound quality is different. And Rich said he didn’t want there to be a difference in sound quality. So we recorded the music with a production mic so it has the same audio quality as the dialogue.
THE LOBBY: You had me. You guys are all pretty damned good lip synchers.
H.P.: Thanks. In order to keep it really seamless for some numbers we even lip-synched some of the dialogue in between music, just to make sure.
THE LOBBY: Rich, you guys had a budget of $15-20K for the whole movie?
Rich: Uh huh.
THE LOBBY: What went on so you could feel comfortable with the cost?
Rich: I don’t think anyone on this movie just wore one hat. This is a movie made by very few people, but all those people really did make the movie. H.P. must have worn 20 hats. Everyone did a lot of stuff — anytime there was a gap, someone filled it in. We didn’t have a business plan. It kind of was a glorified version of a bunch of friends getting together and making a movie.
THE LOBBY: When you were making the film, what were your expectations?
Rich: I’m kind of a self-deprecating pessimist I guess. I always hoped we’d do festivals, but I wasn’t really sure. I didn’t know anything about the independent film world at all. When it came down to finishing the movie and knowing what to do with it, I just lucked into a lot of things. We didn’t get any major festivals initially, so I decided to premiere at a smaller festival, SF Asian. It’s a great festival. Maybe we lucked out because we got a lot of good press, a lot of good buzz, and it led to great things.
I can honestly say I didn’t expect it to go this far. We just set out to make a movie that H.P. and I would both love. We were the target audience. Us liking it was all I hoped to accomplish and everything else would be gravy.
THE LOBBY: What about the sequel I’ve read about?
H.P.: It’s about Maribel (played by L.A. Renigen in Colma), she’s the lead character. It’s about her life working in retail in Colma. It’s called Serramonte: The Musical. The script is done, the opening song is done. Depending on who wants to fund it, we’ll do it whenever the time arises. But the people playing the parts are ready.
THE LOBBY: Would you guys want to do it with the same money and schedule you had for Colma?
Rich: I would want to do it exactly the way we did Colma, but with enough money to pay everybody. Short of that, I think I’d still shoot it with the same kind of camera — I like the way Colma is on DV.
We’re also working on another musical right now. We just finished the script and about 3/4 of the music. As soon as we get funding for that, we’re probably going to work on that first. Unless we get money for Serramonte first… It’s funny that’s what kind of controls all of it.
THE LOBBY: What can you tell us about the other film?
HP: The working title is On Sundays. It’s hard to describe. It’s like Chinese Whale Rider (laughs). It’s the story of two brothers, two Chinese guys who normally visit their grandfather on Sundays. One Sunday evening, they go and the grandfather’s gone. The whole movie is about trying to find him. It’s a simple scaffolding, and without that structure, there’s a lot of character study. It’s a treatise on youth taking over a dying culture. And… it’s a musical comedy.
Share comments with H.P. and Rich
Other Posts of Interest
- An Indie Film Hit in the Making? Colma: The Musical
- Review: MAMMA MIA!
- MOVIE POSTER MONDAY: Bob Dylan Biopic “I’m Not There”
- MOVIE POSTER MONDAY: Be Kind Rewind
- Trailer Tuesday: MAMMA MIA!
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Funny, I did an interview with them, and they seemed well spoken. Did they really leave out all of those words or was this interview just not transcribed properly?
Hi David-
Yes, well being that they’re educated guys with degrees and jobs and filmmaking experience and everything, they are definitely well spoken.
Like any writer, I edited while transcribing and did, upon another read, notice a missed word in two instances. Thanks for the sharp read — I’ve made those corrections.
For what publication did you interview the Colma guys?
-Norm S.