American Cinematographer - January 1995 - 65

Left: The Chu

family enjoys

a

typically
elaborate meal.
Below: Scenes

involving food
necessitated
the

participa¬

tion of several

experts to
ensure

that the

various dishes

would retain
their

appeal
throughout
filming.

CPMCoriepcontuattriaennl

courtesy

Phot s

lings for her boyfriend required
six hours of shooting. For a scene
in which she makes Chinese pan¬

cakes, there

were

two chefs mak¬

ing pancakes with three assis¬
tants. "A male

the

chef would throw

dough on the griddle," recalls
for

Lee, "but it wasn't possible
him to double his hand for

JiaChien's, so a woman chef, a pan¬
cake expert, had to be on the set."
In that scene, the pancakes are

val. He

packing to return to
got a call from
an agent who'd seen his work
and urged him to stay. "I spent
six years writing scripts, pitching,
and learning the basic screenplay
structure, which they didn't teach
me in school." While honing his
filmmaking skills, Lee did all the
was

Taiwan when he

a small part of a 10-course
meal. Five backup dishes were

just

prepared for every dish that was
to

appear on camera.
Lee's

food

experience with
preparation precedes his

Ang Lee's work and planned to
contact

the filmmaker about

working with them. But he beat
them to it, calling them first. To¬
day, Good Machine is renowned
as a leading production company
in the independent scene. "No
money was our strength at first,"
Schamus reflects. "We kept the
company going by living off fees
from co-productions and service
deals. We made

a

conscious deci¬

sion to avoid commercials and

primary exposure to cinema
was Hollywood movies

projects carefully."
The relationship be¬

came

as a

makers with promising short
films who had not yet made a fea¬
ture. The co-principals, James
Schamus and Ted Hope, liked

in film. Born in Taiwan, he
to America to study film.

career

His

duction company called Good
Machine was looking for film¬

music videos. We chose

child

tween

and Taiwanese melodramas. "I
was a

movie freak when I

child," he recalls. "I liked

screw¬

comedy, I liked Billy Wilder,
Italian neorealism, early Fellini,
De Sica and Bergman."

ball

Lee earned

New York

an

MFA from

University and won

cooking while his wife worked.
"From a production standpoint,"
says the director, "food is the
talent I've ever
worked with."
Around the time Lee was
most difficult

Best Director and Best Film at the

looking for

New York

film

University Film Festi¬

Good Machine and Lee

remains solid. "With almost

was a

a

producer for his

Pushing Hands,

January 1995

a new pro¬

our

ev¬

filmmaker we work with,"
says Schamus, "we make a first
feature with that person and stick
with that person. The real reason
is that in the low-budget world,
the writer-director is the key fig¬
ure in terms of marketing." He
ery

adds that

American

cinematographers often

Cinematographer

63
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