Georgia Lee
Ladies Who Launch LIVE in San Francisco on September 21, where you can meet Georgia and many women who are living their dreams and can help you to do the same.
Not Wanting to Be an M.D. or Ph.D.
Georgia: “I had always grown up being a good little Asian girl and studied biochemistry as an undergrad at Harvard. I thought I was going to go off and be a scientist or a doctor. I thought my career options were kind of limited. If I were really adventurous… I would become a businesswoman. I never realized how narrowly I viewed my choices. I didn’t even think about being an artist or anything else.”
Discovering Her True Love
“My mother always brought home classical films she borrowed from the library - like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies. While I was an undergrad at Harvard, I discovered the Harvard Film Archives, where they play a wonderful collection of movies - everything from classic films, to esoteric Japanese films, to artistic films that became popular like ‘Strictly Ballroom’. I always loved movies, but never conceived of pursuing it as a profession.”
Bucking Expectations and Becoming a Management Consultant
“Deep down I knew I didn’t want to be a doctor, so I decided to become a management consultant. I know… hardly letting my hair down. I graduated from Harvard in three years and went to McKinsey (management consulting firm) as a business analyst. The folks at McKinsey are intellectually curious, passionate and intelligent, but after a couple of years there, I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do ultimately.”
Filmmaker’s Fairy Tale
“I knew I loved film, but I didn’t know what to do with it. I took a course at NYU and made my first short film, ‘The Big Dish,’ about (the Chinese government’s crackdown on student demonstrations for democracy at) Tiananmen Square in 1989.
“It got into hands of Martin Scorsese and he invited me to be his apprentice on the set of ‘Gangs of New York’ in Rome. It was a fairy tale come true for a young filmmaker. I ended up in Rome for five months studying under the master himself. I came back to New York and made a few more shorts and then continued to work at McKinsey.”
Back to Business, School, Then Finally Quitting
“Rather than do the seemingly natural thing, which would have been quitting my job and making a feature film, I ended up applying to Harvard Business School and going, again because of my cultural background that places a huge emphasis on education.
“It wasn’t the right place for me. After one semester there, I just felt there was this burning desire in me to make a movie, that had been growing over the past couple years. I realized that life was too short and I wanted to pursue what I wanted to do, which was to be a storyteller. I took a leave of absence, moved into my friend Mia Riverton’s house and in her kitchen wrote ‘Red Doors. ‘ We started shooting in June 2004.”
Where She Found the Courage
“Making all the short films helped me to better understand myself and know that I really, really love filmmaking. I don’t mind staying in the edit room until 4 a.m., but I didn’t like staying at the office past 9 p.m. People have to tell me to eat and sleep when I’m making movies - I don’t even realize when I’m not.
“That slow process of getting to know your true grain and what makes you happy is what finally gave me the courage to take that leap of faith, because I was more comfortable that the leap I was making was the right one. I was constantly asking myself what is it that I want and how badly do I want it. It gets to the point where you cannot not do it anymore because it will drive you crazy.”
High Praise for Low-Budget Film
“Independent films don’t have the distribution that the big studios do… you hope to find a big studio to do that for you. You take (the film) on the film festival circui. Tribeca accepted us. We were thrilled just to be at the festival. We were the underdogs - the film was made for so little money. We were surprised when the jury ended up awarding us the Best Narrative Feature award. That led to a lot of great things. Tribeca was a great launching pad for the film.”
Funding from Friends
“The average Hollywood film is made for about $60 million, the average independent film, about $5 to $15 million. Our film was made for $200K. We have had to make that go very far. Raising that was through friends and family… actually a lot through friends who are professionals and who are gainfully employed… a lot gave $1000 or $2000. We cobbled that together, and to make up the balance, we put it on credit cards.”
Marketing on a Shoestring
“We went to local film festivals for about a year and tried to generate buzz within the insider crowd first. We had very little money, so the challenge was, ‘How do you make your little resources stretch very far?’ We decided to target people who we thought would be most immediately interested in the movie and target them via the Internet.
“We realized the Asian American market might be interested. The gay and lesbian community had also been very supportive. And we thought women professionals would be interested because both elder sisters are professional women in their twenties going through the trials and tribulations of that stage of life… so we really tried to target those groups.”
Advertising by E-Mailing
“We used viral marketing - emailing our friends helped the word of mouth to grow. We had no money for traditional advertising, so (our advertising) was almost completely on-line. We weren’t sure whether it was going to work or not, but people came out in droves (to the movie’s premiere weekend in New York). It’s really been great.”
Greatest Challenge
“There are three mountains for filmmakers. Get your film made. That’s hard already. The second mountain is finding distribution. The last mountain is the one we’re climbing now, which is trying to find your audience. The first and second weeks are the most critical for independent films. If you don’t perform during the first weekend, the theatre will just pull you off the screen.”
Words of Advice -Partner with Friends
“I felt very lucky to have aligned myself with two women who are so wonderful, Jane Chen and Mia Riverton. The three of us banded together to make this movie. Taking a leap of faith with other people, with friends or partners who believe in what you’re doing, that makes it easier.
“Having partners is strategically helpful to come up with the right course of action, but it’s also emotionally helpful. It’s unusual that all three of us are down on the same day. At least one of us can give the pep talk that everyone needs to hear and maybe carry the weight of the day.”
Seeking Inspiration? Georgia Recommends Being ‘Spirited Away’
“(A great movie for women entrepreneurs is) an animated film called ‘Spirited Away’ by Hayao Miyazaki, a wonderful Japanese filmmaker. There’s something so beautiful about that movie. It’s a story of a girl coming into her own… by the end of her journey, she’s no longer this whiny spoiled brat. but an independent strong woman.”
LIFESTYLE LINKS
Fall Handbag Trends at www.shefinds.com
Buddha Beet at www.theweeklybeet.com
Organize your life with easy-to-use advice and inspiring solutions from The Spacialist. This week’s SPACE TREAT: SPACE TREAT: Is that the weight of the world on your shoulders?
