StudioLA's Suzanne Kai interviews Wayne Wang Director of Center of the World

Wayne Chang interview by Suzanne Kai.

Q: Did it make it more comfortable during the intimate scenes not to have a big camera and a big crew?

Wayne: That also probably helped because normally there would be four guys hanging over each other trying to get focused and you know the camera is huge. So in this case, we sometimes would have one camera on a tripod and the DP [Director of Photography] was on one camera and I was kind hiding behind the DP. So it was very, very private that way. But then thats also deceptive because those cameras are very, very invasive.

One of the things I like about the film is that it has this very voyeuristic, it makes you kind of uncomfortable because its such an intimate private moment and yet the cameras are right there with them. Which I think, because most movies obliterate this line between the audience as a voyeur and what youre watching. So youre almost completely brainwashed.

Here, at least theres sometimes where you have to question what you are watching and why am I sitting here enjoying it or being bothered by this.

Q: The scene where shes putting on her make-up, I think is really intense because you see her face and really...

Wayne: I wish even that we shot in real time, but to move the movie along, we had to cut it. But if we didnt cut it, there was actually even more interesting moments with her, but it would take like?

Q: Did you shoot it in sequence?

Wayne: I did shoot it in sequence. Ive always tried to shoot in sequence, because I think that there is a certain organic quality to it. Actors flipping around in scenes is like the worst thing that could happen to them. We also wanted to change things every step of the way depending on what they did the scene before and where they are at now. We are constantly asking those questions ourselves.

Q: Was the original decision to shoot the film in digital and was it a natural decision at first? Is this the future then, or not?

Wayne: No, well, I think its going to be a big part of filmmaking. I mean if you think that "Star Wars" was being shot on Hi-Dev 24 frame cameras, and all special effects would be easier with these cameras...But, I think that there is also a certain place with these smaller films, more intimate, personal films that can be done. I think film still has its place. The digital cameras, going back to earlier questions, on wide shots, it really is ugly. I dont know why, you know, you have a landscape shot that needs to look good, film is unbeatable.

Q: Was it an expensive movie to make?

Wayne: Its not. Its very cheap?laughter] You could make this film. Ill tell you, if I were a no-name directorThey were shot on these cameras that are no bigger than...the consumer kinds of cameras. It would probably cost you about a hundred thousand dollars easily.

Q: How about the lighting, was that a problem with a digital camera?

Wayne: Yes. The lighting, people dont think that you have to light with a digital camera but its not true. You have to light it a lot. You have to light just as much as film maybe if not more. You have to light it slightly differently, because it doesnt respond very well to white areas versus film that has a problem with dark areas. Things like that.

Q: Were you able to work quicker?

Wayne: I was able to quicker. But it was also a style that we defined for these cameras that made us able to. It freed us from a lot of things. Other than the lightsit was a little less equipment. And these cameras are very, very flexible.

Q: So the outside stuff, I imagine were very, very fast.

Wayne: Very, very fast. We stole the locations, so you know, it was on the fly.

Q: The filmmakers in our audience would like to know what kind of cameras you used.

Wayne: Wayne points to a video camera [Sony DSR 100] a journalist has on his lap]. Yes, exactly that oneYeah, thats a beautiful, wonderful camera you know... And we didnt shoot it to make it look like film. This can never look like film. We can never have the depth and the crispness and the richness of film. It has a certain artificial quality, it has a gritty quality to it.

Q: Were they all produced digitally or did you pull the color out to make those places.

Wayne: Well you know what you can do thats quite amazing, with that camera its a little hard to focus sometimes because that lens breathes on its own. So some of the shots were soft and what happens is you can actually go in there and electronically outline it to make it sharper. Its amazing. I mean you can draw and outline if you dont do it too extreme, it sharpens it and makes it look really crisp. But its still not film. If you put it up against film, youll see that film is so much sharper and has more depth and is richer.

Q: What are the pros and cons of working in digital? Would you do it again?

Wayne: I would do it again but only for certain kinds of films. You have to use it for what its good for. The cons is it can be too easy. It can fall into the student film-making trap. Say, Oh yeah, this is good because we have a lot of tape and can keep shooting." You still have to provide a structure to it, a certain formality to it and make it important. Or it can just fall into bad filmmaking, period.

Q: You edit it in the camera right?

Wayne: No, you take it and you go into a computer.

Q: What are you working on now?

Wayne: I better not talk about it. Ill jinx it, you know?

Q: Do you think that you will make more Asian-themed films since "Joy Luck Club?" There's a sudden rise in popularity with [Asian films] with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Wayne: I consciously wanted to step away from it a little bit, but Ive optioned Chang-Rae Lees book A Gesture Life, which I love. I think its a very important issue with comfort woman during the war with the Koreans, but its very hard to raise money for it, Ive been beating my head against the wall on that one.

Q: Do you think that "Crouching Tiger" [Hidden Dragon] was a huge success?

Wayne: Crouching Tiger only helps perhaps Kung Fu action films, and maybe a film like "Yi Yi," being a wonderful family film, a serious drama film that has been nominated by the national critics award, that helps, but "Crouching Tiger" only helps a certain kind of, I dont know, "Matrix," [genre] or whatever.

Q: Asian images in mainstream media have typically been stereotypical. What is your impression of where we are going for Asian images in the mass media?

Wayne: I think were creating new stereotypes, I mean, in a way, its difficult but there is nobody interested in making more realistic films about Asians. Its like "Crouching Tiger" is a new stereotype now just as much as Bruce Lee in a way was a stereotype.

One thing that bothers me is the stereotypes of "Memoirs of a Geisha," which is actually very well researched, and a very well written book.

I hear maybe Chow Yun-Fat and Maggie Cheung are going to play those two characters. First of all theyre Chinese, and second of all those two have probably no understanding of what the Geisha world is really about. I mean they could do their research, but its so far from it. Its like you take Chow Yun-Fat and put him in any Asian film now, you know. Chow Yun-Fat isnt every character so thats another stereotype thats kind of scaring me.

Q: Do you think that the Asian stereotypical images in the media will change?

Wayne: Its always changing, its always getting a little better. Ten years ago there were no Asian executives in the studios. "Joy Luck Club" wouldnt have gotten made. Now those things have happened, but whether we really make really truthful, interesting films that represent the Asians is probably still far away. I mean a book like A Gesture Life, I mean [they say] "this is a wonderful script, but we dont want to make the movie."

Q: So it's a matter of more time and effort [to bring positive change].

Wayne: Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Director Wayne Wang shoots his latest film "Center of the World" in digital video to capture a steamy eroticized portrait of love and sex in the technological age with the backdrop of the Dotcom Craze of 2000.

StudioLA.com's Suzanne Kai joins fellow journalists at a round table chat with Wang at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. Here are highlights of the half hour with the acclaimed director "The Joy Luck Club" (1993), "Anywhere But Here" (1999), "Chinese Box" (1997), "Smoke" (1995). Wang directed the MPAA unrated movie as well as the movie's official website. Please be advised the website has posted a warning prohibiting viewers under age 18 from entering due to the explicit sexual content.

Q: Was it the lure of working in digital that attracted you to this piece or was it the material?

Wayne: No, it was the year 2000. I was getting bored. The Bay Area was booming with Dot-Com Kids. I was hanging out with some of them and one night they said, lets go down to a strip club, a group of us are going. I went there with them. Its like watching kids being released from prison or something, theyre so full of energy. Lots of cash. And then beautiful young ladies selling a lot of fantasies. And I saw that interaction and I go, Geez this is amazing and this is really something that very much, in a way, [was about the] year 2000.

Q: But writing a film about sex in a society that is predominantly puritanical?

Wayne: Its very puritanical in a way. Its about the morality of the stripper. Its about the stripper defining what the line is all the time. And thats what happens in these strip clubs too. They give you a fantasy and they are constantly defining the rules. You cant touch me here, you cant do this, I wont do this. But you keep giving me money. So thats why I was interested in it. Its about the morality of sex in America and the fantasy that it projects.

Q: Is the American audience ready to embrace a film that deals with sexuality in relatively graphic detail?

Wayne: That I dont know. Some films I have to think of the audience. When Im making a studio movie and I know I have to go to a preview audience, I have to think of the audience. On this film I said that Im not going to think about the audience or whether or not they are going to accept it or what the box office will be. I try to just make an honest film.

Q: Is there a message here, I drove away from the film thinking about a lot of different things

Wayne: For me its what is real, what is real about sex and love, its always an issue I mean nobody ever asked the question after you make love, Was that real, Ive always been curious you know, so again it comes down to the fact that trust and communication and love, if you have those things then maybe those questions are not as important. You know its about those thingstrust, communication, and love and what is it about between people. And I think these days with kids who grow up in suburbs and on computers, those things dont mean anything to them, they dont understand it, and thats why I think its important in this film.

Q: Speaking about performances, lets talk about how you coaxed, well maybe not coaxed, performances I think everyone would agree were pretty amazing performances.

Wayne: Well those two are really good actors that are very interested in honesty and truth and constantly asking themselves the question of that. I mean they did their research of the characters and were very, very adamant, you know, about the truth of their characters every step along the way. My job was relatively easy once we got that together.

My job was putting the pressure on Molly so that she always feels the stress to having to have sex or having to go across the line. Because, I said from day one that this was my way of putting the pressure on her. I said I want real sex in the movie. Because there's only one scene that has sex in the movie. And that scene questions whether the sex was real or not.

So I want the sex to be real. And she said, I wont do it." But I kept putting that pressure on her, because I know thats what her character goes through. Peter was easier in that he really got into this mindset of the dot-comer who all believed that they were masters of the universe and really objectified the women that theyre dealing with in the computer. And he was thinking, Ill get to her and Im gonna get what I want."

Q: What he wanted was love in the end.

Wayne: Yeah, and thats what he couldnt get. So (laughter).

Q: He has it for about maybe twenty seconds.

Q: How did you select the cast?

Wayne: Peter came in, Peter wanted to do this really bad, and he was really good. Every time he came in he got better and better at it. And we did the scene where he raped her in the movie, and he was just wonderful. And then Molly, I went through a lot of possibilities, a lot of variations. And I felt Molly had an integrity about her that would translate into the character which I wanted. Shes not your typical stripper look. Shes beautiful in her own way and had a more down to earth quality about her, especially without makeup. So thats what I ended up finally going with.

Q: Did you find a difference [between film and] working with digital cameras with actors and their performances?

Wayne: Yeah, its freer. It relieves a lot of pressure. In film, especially with film cameras, big crews, time pressures, its always"I want to get that performance right, I dont want to make a mistake, I dont want to get my line wrong." Here, it seems a little more relaxed and tape is so cheap that you can improvise a little bit. You can be more real with it. You dont have to worry about making it in the next take. So I think that, for me, that freed up a lot of stuff. You know, we could even shoot the rehearsals and not worry, and sometimes rehearsals were better.