This interview was conducted in December 2021. Meet Justin Bruce Lee, an Associate Story Artist at Lucasfilm, who just finished and released his short film “First Born”. Keep scrolling for martial arts action, the story behind the story, and meet the incredible crew! The team had a MASSIVELY successful festival run (and not to forget, plenty of awards and recognitions!) and we are so excited that the short is finally available to watch online! CONGRATULATIONS to the team and thanks to Justin for the incredible behind the scenes look. To watch the full short, head over to JAeD House Production on YouTube 💥🥋 First off, tell us about yourself! Hi! I’m Justin Bruce Lee (he/him) and I’m an Associate Story Artist at Lucasfilm Animation. Through school, I recently finished directing an animated short film called “First Born.” What inspired you to make your short film “First Born”? I grew up loving kung fu because of my dad. In the beginning, my dad was training me in the basics of kung fu. Then, he introduced me to his old kung fu school called Yau Kung Moon that is located in San Francisco Chinatown. From that day forward, I was training since I was 13 with my instructor, Richard Ow, and participated in kung fu tournaments, which led to the inspiration of “First Born” from my side of the story. I’m excited and proud that “First Born” has been getting accepted and received awards from over 50 film festivals. I’m going to walk you through the making of our film! That’s Justin and his dad, who is also a story artist/director! What is the story of “First Born”? The story revolves around Arthur, a young boy with a passion for kung fu. However, his younger sister, Aurora, has a natural talent for the sport. As a result, she received most, if not all the praise from their father. In an attempt to prove his worthiness, Arthur must put on a near perfect performance at the upcoming competition. What did the early process of writing the story look like? It all started with me and my co-writer, Aerik Bertulfo, creating a screenplay inspired by both of our life experiences. Aerik: As the first born child, I felt that there were a lot of expectations placed on me to be the most successful in school or academics. But growing up, I was never the top student in any field. When my younger sister told our grandparents that she was the top of her math class and her dance team was winning a lot of competitions, they were very impressed and excited. Hearing them congratulate her hurt, but I didn’t really mind. My mom saw my disheartened expression and, in an attempt to cheer me up, said, “Oh Aerik, it’s okay if you’re not first place.” I know she meant goodwill, but that phrase really sunk my heart a bit. I felt that I didn’t live up to those expectations since I didn’t rise to the level my sister was at. After telling Justin this story, he felt that we could use the emotions of that moment for our short film. So by combining his kung fu background and my family story, it ultimately led to the creation of “First Born”! Who was responsible for the art direction for your film? David Diba, our art director, collaborated with our vis dev team and created all the backgrounds for our film. David had to make 3D sets for our film to execute the 3D camera moving shots and to lower the cost of time for backgrounds! He also did all the compositing! Then it went to Aerik, who oversaw the animation, cleanup, and color phase! Lastly, who took care of the film’s soundtrack?
Our composer, Arnie Sainz Co, was able to make our film complete by composing the whole music score. To finish off the film, I had my friends Samantha & Ezekiel aka Just Two create an original song to end our film! I’m so grateful for all the hard work from the “First Born” team and the short that we produced! Everyone was so fundamental to make the film what it is now! Thank you so much for reading and hope you can help support our film when it releases to the public this year! YouTube: JAeD House Production Facebook: @firstborn.jaedhouse Writers: Jordan (@deadswampsofsadness) | Point Person: Gaby, AIA Team Comments are closed.
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