The subject of the “Worst Date Ever” brings many images to mind. It may incur images of a rude waiter at dinner, a bad movie or even just a lack of connection with the other person. However, for UCLA student and amateur film director Kelly Li, the “Worst Date Ever” would include insane interrogations from a talking teddy bear.
A third-year Asian American studies student, Li started making “What the Flip?” videos when MTVu approached him earlier this school year.
“They called me up and asked if I wanted a free small camera,” he said. “The only catch was that I had to make a film using the small camera and if they liked it they would put it on their Web site.”
Li was assigned to create a film with the theme of “Worst Date Ever.” According to him, the idea for the short video series just came up.
“I knew that I only had this tiny camera so I couldn’t do anything super extravagant with it.”
However, over a few days of thinking, Li thought that it might be better to not tape the stereotypical bad date but rather start at the end.
“It’s kind of like when the guy goes to meet the girl’s parents and there is a little interrogation ““ but taking that to the extreme with the bear as a surrogate for the parents,” Li said.
The clips for the “What the Flip?” Web site were all improvised.
“It ended up working out really well though. It kind of scarred me a little bit … what if there was someone who was actually like that out there,” Li said.
Li was one of 100 college students across the nation that recorded videos for MTV’s “What the Flip?” Brian DeCubellis, the executive producer of the project, said each member was then assigned a particular theme that would be posted to the Web site in short snippet episodes.
Although with different equipment, Li has worked with MTV before.
“The summer before my freshman year I won this music video contest for this artist that was playing on Sony and they played it on MTVu,” Li said. Also through MTV, he was able to interview Oscar-winning actor and director Robert Redford for MTV’s “My Shot With…”
“I think we have a pretty good relationship going,” Li said.
However, Li’s passion for film started long before his work with MTV.
“The first time I remember that I wanted to be a director was when my grandparents bought an old VHS video camera that weighed like 20 pounds,” Li said. “I was five or six when my grandparents first got it and I was the most annoying little kid when it came to that camera because they wouldn’t let me use it.”
The passion followed him into high school where he really started to get into short films, and the rest is history.
“I try to shoot one short film every quarter, and I am writing my feature film right now which will probably be done in the next couple years before we graduate,” Li said. Other such projects include the film that he and his friends did for Campus Movie Fest last quarter which also, ironically, touched on relationships and romance.
“It’s about this guy and this girl who are both in different places but want to say something to one another that might be kind of difficult. So they are both trying to figure out how to do it without potentially messing things up,” Li said.
According to Li, what made the film exciting was the variety of shooting locations.
“It was all shot at night so lighting was crazy but it was my favorite shoot ever because I got to explore the city and completely capture the sense of Los Angeles.”
Li described his cinematic style as “feel-good.”
“My overall theme that I want to show in my body of work is that even though the world is harsh and cruel, there are these really beautiful moments in life. As crazy as things get, as absolutely horrible as things get, there are still these good moments to look to,” he said.
Although he realizes that some directors today would think of this as cheesy and non-realistic, at the end of the day Li just doesn’t want to see a depressing movie.
“I know that life can get really bad sometimes so I want to go make a movie that will make me remember that life is beautiful.”
Until then, future goals include compiling all his work, 20 films and short clips thus far, on his soon-to-be-launched Web site.
Even with this impressive resume, Li’s main goal is to keep pushing himself and to not ignore any opportunities.
“I have the mindset where I am just going to go for what I want right now and not going to wait. … I’m in Los Angeles,” Li said. “I am in love with doing film … I try to keep busy because I am afraid if I don’t I will lose the creativity.”