An Unspoken Story
Dragon City: A simple short story that was meant to be a quick 20-minute short later evolved to become a feature film that represents Asian and Asian American hidden voices with media. At the time, Maythavee Tjhang was a full-time employee at a local startup company in Atlanta, GA, and pursued the filmmaking industry during the weekends. The biggest turning point of the story’s evolution was when Tjhang read through a particular Reddit post highlighting Asian Americans’ experiences with their families and their pursuit of art as a career. “Being an Asian American who moved to Atlanta through my own volition and against my parent’s wishes, the commentary within Reddit resonated the same feelings and emotions that I felt through my transition as an artist. I felt there was a lack of media representation of that, so I went back to the ‘writing board’ on my story,” said Tjhang.
Realistic Story References
For 2 years, the “Dragon City” script was drafted and formatted on a decrepit laptop while Tjhang searched for several references and story points to create the characters to what they are today. ” I wanted the story to set a raw and realistic character of an Asian American. The personalities of each of the characters in the story are both based on real people in my life and outside sources that I have found. There are definitely some fictional aspects as well,” said Tjhang. During the initial brainstorms, Tjhang reached out to several peers and communities to hear about their experiences on family relationships and their struggle for any artistic pursuits. “It’s a common theme to see the generational divide between parents and their child when it comes to the pursuit of art. I wasn’t the only one,” said Tjhang.
After many sticky notes up on the wall and previous “white” drafts, the “Dragon City” script finally completed the first draft for initial distribution for location production companies.
Life-Long Friendships – Howling Warlocks Productions
While drafting Dragon City, Tjhang networked and developed relationships within Atlanta’s hardcore filmmaking industry. Tjhang entered into the 2018 48 Hour Film Festival with hopes to find like-minded individuals to create unspoken narratives. It initially started out as an obscure group called the Howling Warlocks, however, after the first 48 Hour Film project, the team decided to keep collaborating over and over again until it became a collective group. Morgan Szymanski, Reginald Cineus, John Fitzpatrick, Josh Dollison, Cameron Wingo, and Maythavee Tjhang became the founders of the Howling Warlocks Productions group, which was later named the Howling Warlocks Productions.
The Start of Dragon City Family
Collaboration and production were kickstarted by both Director, Maythavee Tjhang and Executive Producer, Morgan Syzmanski. In 2020, casting and crew commenced and the Howling Warlocks Productions was able to collect over 20 crew members and 80 actors/actresses for the film. Originally the first shoot date for Dragon City was set to start in Summer 2020, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the production date was pushed to Fall 2020 for the safety of the team. “The extra three months were not in vain. I’m honestly glad that we pushed it back because it gave me the chance to talk to my main cast about their characters and to answer any diehard questions,” said Tjhang, ” By the time the production date set in, the crew and cast were more than prepared for the shoot. I’m extremely proud and grateful.” All team meetings were set to a virtual call where the cast and crew collaborated, planned, and hung out.
Dragon City is currently in post-production and is set to premiere in Summer 2022.