Trinh's heroic opening-scene entrance was shot in a Hollywood alley, which happened to be the one location that the filmmakers had to pay for. Says Lin, "We had to pay $200 for two hours, and that was to cover the use of power from one of the buildings." The power went to several HMIs which were used to cross-light the scene, supplementing an overhead streetlight. Offers Wiegand, "We used a 1.2K Par, a 1.2K Fresnel, and a couple of Kino Flos. We always used whatever was there, too. We had a lot of conflicting color temperatures, and sometimes that scene bothers me when I see it now. But we just had to work with whatever we had. If we could get an exposure, it was a great thing."
A tricky sequence in which Phil becomes the victim of hit-and-run accident photographed on Traction Avenue in downtown L.A. entailed a rather inspired choice of equipment. "I had planned this very ambitious scene when Phil gets hit by a car," explains Lin. "I wanted to have this slow-motion shot of him flying through the air with just blue sky behind him. So we went to Price Club, bought this 20-foot trampoline, and carted it over to the location." The filmmakers had a permit to shoot dialogue on the sidewalk, but they went ahead and set up the trampoline in the middle of the street to serve as a springboard. Luckily, the traffic was light. The weather, wasn't quite as accommodating, however. "Even though it was the middle of the summer, there were clouds," says Wiegand. "But we didn't want the clouds." To get around them, the cinematographer sought out patches of blue and had actor Radmar Jao positioned on a ladder to strategically flail as she lined up the clear sky in the background. She adds, "There's another fun shot in that sequence where we see the car's POV. We put the camera on a dolly and, without using track and running at six frames per second, we just rolled over all the potholes and bumps in the street to get this crazy, shaky shot moving all the way up to Phil. We froze when we got up into a close-up and then switched to slow-motion just as Phil turns and looks at the camera."
Although Lin, Lee, and Wiegand all confess to being a bit frustrated by the budget limitations on Shopping For Fangs, the filmmakers are pleased with what they accomplished given their restricted resources. However, a few problems were beyond their control. For example, one roll of film was ruined by a lab in processing, requiring a full day of expensive reshooting. But these difficulties were worth the hassle; the picture earned the Audience Award at last year's Seattle Asian-American Film Festival, scored a coup as the opening night film at 1997 Vancouver Asian Film Festival, and was presented at this year's Singapore Film Festival. It will be seen in limited U.S. release this May through director Lee's own distribution company, Margin Films.
