Meet Lok Kwan Woo of Seven Look Productions Los Angeles and Error 404 Productions Hong Kong

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lok Kwan Woo.

Lok Kwan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I always have the passion for filmmaking and doing business. However, my parents didn’t like me to be in this industry because my dad was an actor back in my home in Hong Kong and he felt the film industry is too hard and that would be too much stress for me. I was planning to get into communication major to make them happy. But I got serious panic disorder in my first year of college and I couldn’t go to school or even eat. During my half year break, I watched even more movies and I felt like I should not give up my dream so I finally convinced my parents to let me go to a film school in LA to study film producing.

I shot my first short “Oedipus Complexinon my first year of school. I wrote, directed and produced the whole thing. It was super tough for me at that time but I look back now it’s really like nothing. It’s not the best thing but it’s the story that I have been wanting to tell for so long. It’s about a boy who has an obsession with his mom and he kills his dad after his dad figures everything out and kills his mom. I went to the 2016 American Film Market, I took it with me with a pitch deck and I got almost no distributor who is interested in it… I heard nothing else but ”we would like to see a screener when you’re ready”

It was a little bit discourage, but I didn’t give up. I used the next two years of school to do nothing else but to develop it into a feature, and that was my thesis project which were a teaser and a way better business plan. The story now became from the victim’s POV, and my short became the back story of the serial killer. I went to AFM again in 2017 with what I got. There’s a few distributors who were really like the project and they keep contact with me and help me through out the process.

After I graduated last year, I did nothing else but tried my best to make the movie happen which it’s a project that I have been working on 3 years.

There’s been a lot of difficulties. But I am also so lucky that I met people who believe and trust me which gave me support in different ways just want to make our dream come true. I finally was able to raise enough funds and got the perfect casts and crews for the film. I set up the company in LA, and finally decided to shoot in Iceland. And there’s a lot of really bad things happened which we almost weren’t able to shoot it. But my cast and crew were giving everything that they possible can. Especially the two most important Icelandic women in my life- the two Evas. The film wouldn’t happen without all the I truly believe there’s no way to make a good film with only one person. Filmmaking is really teamwork- have good people to believe, love and trust to the project. I am so lucky to have those people around me to push me to do what I believe from my heart. Whatever it takes, we have to finish the best movie.

And a fun fact that one of the distributors who told me there were not interested in my project emailed me one day just from seeing the trailer from IMDB. And they became my distributor now. Isn’t it amazing!

I believe there’s always a reason for something after all. Like because of my panic attacks I finally got into the film industry also inspired me to write my first feature film. I also met two very important people on my career in my worst set ever which they work with me on my first and second feature film. And my third film about narcissists which I have been working with a few of them which made me learned and inspired me a lot to this story. And we are making this movie finally in Asia and I just opened a Hong Kong company for that. It’s really crazy! I still can’t believe the fact that I have just made my first feature and now we are making the third feature at the same year.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s always so hard to make something from nothing. When you ask for money, people will ask you for stars and distribute – and same for the other ways. I have been getting a lot of discouragement and I would even call it insult. Most people just won’t believe a new beginner and the fact that I was only 21. I was also not talented at pitching which made it more difficult for me. Sometimes I almost felt embarrassing on myself. Practise makes perfect is really true. I am still not the best person to give a pitch but I would at least say it’s a pass right now.

Also, I found that it’s really important to stick with the right people and follow my own gut and it’s always right. There’s always a lot of people who just want to take advantage from you from this industry- and that can hurt you in so many ways. But you just have to say NO once you feel it’s not right. They might not be bad people but they are for sure not the right people for you which can totally harm your career. I almost lost my chance to shoot my feature because of I didn’t make the right decision to get rid of the wrong people so I’m really aware of that now. Just trust your own feeling- it’s always right!

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Seven Look Productions Los Angeles and Error 404 Productions Hong Kong story. Tell us more about the business.
Our mission is to produce superb genre entertainment with maximum audience appeal. We work on original feature films as well as full house post production service (only for narratives).

We have a great passion for psychological thriller films with women’s POV which touches on realistic and forbidden topics and strives to stretch the genre in an unexpected and intriguing ways. We are dedicated to high quality, los cost filmmaking. We are currently producing three psychological drama-thriller films, “Angels Never Cry”, “White Room” and “MANipulation”.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I think the film industry is going to be a lot more on platforms and pay per view in the future. And there will be a lot of new genre which are something that filmmakers didn’t have the courage to do before. But now everyone can make a movie with their phones and a movie can be easily made with no budget and self distribute is possible.

Pricing:

• full length feature (editing, color grading, sound editing, simple VFX) – $10,000-20,000 (depends on the project)
• short film below 15 mins (editing, color grading, sound editing, simple VFX) – $1,500-3,000 (depends on the project)
• movie trailer (editing, color grading, sound editing, simple VFX) – $700-1,200 (depends on the project)
• location scouting in Iceland – $500-1,000/ per location (most locations we got are free to shoot)

Contact Info:

• Address: 11709 Lambert Ave El Monte CA 91732
• Website: http://www.sevenlookproductions.com/
• Phone: 425-7723927
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sevenlookproductions/

Image Credit:
Edoardo Marino, Nicole Flax Tatlock, Atli Arnarsson, Jose Miranda

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