Film Producer is the 'Vital Element' for the Internationally Distinguished Drama 'Gnossienne'

    LOS ANGELES, CA, January 04, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The stalwart producing of the short drama film, "Gnossienne," has exemplified why Huanglizi Sun is earning recognition as a preeminent producer of some of today's most extraordinary cinema.

The Changsha, China native served as producer and executive producer for "Gnossienne," and employed a bevy of resources and effective production techniques to bring the film to life.

"Gnossienne" was directed and written by Abhijit Gajwani, who also works as a digital imagining technician in Hollywood and has worked on videos for the likes of Chris Brown, French Montana, Taio Cruz and more.

The film tells the story of a man who disconnects himself from the outside world as he grieves the loss of his wife. He finds some solace through an unexpected interaction with his maid, which helps him begin to let go of some grief and start moving on in his life.

"Gnossienne," stars Matthew Michael Collins ("Blindfold") as the protagonist, Dr. Jeremy Archer. Manuela Aston Osmont co-stars as his wife, Sara, and Paula Bellamy-Franklin, who acted in the award-winning short, "The Perfect Sacrifice," stars as Margaret, Dr. Archer's maid.

The film became an Official Selection and screened at the 2015 Cannes Short Film Corner, the 5th Pune Short Film Festival (India), the 12th Salento International Film Festival (Italy), the Roxbury International Film Festival (Boston), the 22nd Visionaria Fest (Sienna, Italy) and the Golden Diana Awards (Austria). It received an Honorable Mention at the 2015 International Film Awards (Berlin).

Sun, who in 2015 produced the award-winning Chinese period drama "Twin Lotus," "Fall" and the award-winning short drama, "Cara," went to work on "Gnossienne" at its early stages. After hearing Gajwani's initial pitch, she helped provide notes, develop and shape the script.

"Abhijit wanted a dramatic love story," Sun said. "He wanted to write a story about a couple, and about why they are miserable. The wife had lost her baby during pregnancy. The husband is a doctor and tries to help her. He becomes stricken with grief and confines himself to his apartment. His maid comes every week to clean up. She realizes something's happened and she tries to help Jeremy overcome his sadness."

After contributing creatively to story development, Sun spearheaded executive producing for "Gnossienne." The job is an especially challenging one in the world of short filmmaking because short films rarely are produced for commercial selling purposes, but rather for creative artistry.

Sun and Gajwani formed an early plan to raise money to shoot the film through crowdfunding via Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Those sources, often popular for short films and other creative ventures, take time and don't guarantee to deliver funds needed.

"Getting the money is the challenge and spending the money the right way is another challenge," said Sun, who works in critical producer roles Mob Scene Creative + Productions (Beverly Hills, Calif.), and began in the film industry by interning at China Lion Film Distribution Inc. and working at China's second largest TV station, Hunan TV.

After considering the project's time line and schedule, and after an initial investor withdrew from the project, Sun decided the only way to make the film a reality was vetting other sources for funding. In less than one month, she raised $15,000 that would allow for the complete production of "Gnossienne," an achievement of exceptional merit and critical importance to its production.

"Huanglizi's involvement in Gnossiene's productions was a vital element to our success," Gajwani said. "Huanglizi's vision and ability to keep her eye on the overall project goal is unmatched."

From there, the project had the spark it needed and pre-production spring boarded into action.

"We locked script pretty early," Sun said. "He knew what kind of story he wanted to tell. We needed to focus on the production itself."

Casting commenced and Sun said they found the talented actors they were looking for who could portray the characters the best in this compelling drama. "Huanglizi reserved audition space and coordinated time slots with over five hundred actors for the three roles in the film over a period of three months," said Gajwani. "She gave me wise suggestions and was very critical in short listing actors for the call back."

Location scouting, another palpable production challenge for any film, was next and didn't prove easy.

"We were looking for a loft in downtown Los Angeles," Sun said. "We drove around downtown for weeks. We spoke to location managers. I found one in downtown which was very reasonably priced. It was a huge loft. We locked that location for five days. It saved us a lot of money."

Expounding on the same notion, Gajwani added, "She found the ideal location for the film and helped negotiating the price so it would fit our budget. She talked to the coordinator at FilmLA and talked her way out of having two cops on set, thus reducing the burden of the budget immensely."

Sun and Gajwani worked together previously on "Cara," which is a short drama Sun also wrote and directed in 2015. For "Cara," Gajwani served as producer and digital imaging technician. Their collaboration proved fruitful as "Cara" won awards at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, the San Francisco Film Awards, the IFA International Film Festival, the Meet Film Festival, the Best Shorts Competition and the IndieFEST Film Awards. It screened at numerous other film festivals including the Short Film Corner at the world renowned Festival de Cannes (France).

"Over the two years of knowing Huanglizi, I can attest to her extensive production experience, organizational and communication skills, and ability to work under tight deadlines and on a budget," said Gajwani. "During production she not only creates an environment of high expectations and accountability, but also provides well-needed guidance and hands-on expertise, as also allowing enough freedom to the production team to add its own special brand of creativity to the mix."

Sun is becoming a fixture at film festivals around the world as pictures she's produced have screened before international audiences and received critical acclaim. Along with the sweeping success of "Gnossienne" and "Cara," Sun's producing of Yucheng Zhao's "Twin Lotus," helped the film win the 2015 World's Independent Film Festival (San Francisco) Best Narrative Short Award. "Twin Lotus" was named the Best International Film at the 2015 Los Angeles Movie Awards. It also received a Best Drama award at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival and the Asia Pacific Golden Award at the Asia Pacific International Filmmaker Festival.

For more information, visit:
http://www.huanglizisun.com
http://tinyurl.com/GnossienneIMDb
http://tinyurl.com/HuangliziIMDb

Huanglizi Sun is a film producer from Changsha, China.

# # #