How did we pull off "Stay Awesome China?" (Patreon)

Making a documentary in China is both incredibly difficult and challenging yet at the same time easier than in some other countries.

I've been shooting on the street for years and so I'm very attuned to what's going on around me, I know how to feel the room, when to stop filming and more importantly when to move on. You see in China, although there are very strict rules and laws, no one really wants to enforce them because it's a hassle and so security guards or police will tolerate a foreigner walking around filming to a certain extent (it's not illegal to film in public btw) but if you hang around too long or happen to have a camera out near an important person's house or any sort of government building, you're asking for trouble, not only that but the suspicious nature of the older generation towards foreigners (you've all seen the Evil Uncles in my videos) leads to all sorts of annoying situations as some of them are still stuck back in the past where they were instructed to report suspicious foreigners to authorities immediately. I've often been filming myself and had the police or security guards turn up at the behest of an Evil Uncle who ran to tattle tale on the foreigner who dares have a camera in China only for them to realise that I'm not doing anything wrong or illegal and so they move on.

Filming a documentary is taking things to another level and sometimes you don't have the luxury of moving on as your director wants the perfect shot and needs you to re-take shot after shot, also having tripods, big microphones and bigger camera setups also makes you stick out like a sore thumb, inviting suspicious onlookers and often gathering a crowd.

Now the easy part is that China is all about relationships and if you know the right people or have the right people on your team, things are far easier to do, also hiring a Chinese cameraman helped immensely as the locals seem to think it's okay for Chinese people to film but get very suspicious if foreigners are filming (it really is that whole "all foreigners are evil spies" mentality), we managed to pull this off because we had a fantastic team and each one of us had our strengths which allowed us to make Stay Awesome China a reality.

Firstly, Xixi was our fixer and co-producer, it was through her tireless efforts and connections that most of the meetings and scenes were set up and organised.

Secondly, Rik, the producer and director is so bloody pedantic and a perfectionist when it comes to the shots, storyline and camerawork (he's the reason we get into trouble because he takes his time) that we end up with a quality product that doesn't look cheap or rushed. 

Thirdly, having Lianning on the second camera diverts attention away from the fact that this is a foreign production.

Finally, me making sure that we all stay out of trouble (and of course I fly the drone and organised a fair few meetings and scenes too).

All in all I'm seriously happy with the way it came out and I hope that you all get a chance to watch it. 

Next time hopefully C-milk won't be having another kid and he can join us.   

- Stay Awesome

SerpentZA