Rent or Buy SIJI:DRIVER on Amazon

SIJI:DRIVER is an independent feature film which explores the issue of human trafficking through the eyes of a driver who inadvertently gets sucked into that world when he rescues a woman from her abusive boyfriend. He falls in love with her, but when he discovers her tragic background, he has to sacrifice what he loves the most to rescue her.

SIJI:DRIVER started off as a friendly challenge between me and a fellow filmmaker friend, Eddie Augustin who lives in Montreal. We were both frustrated with the slow progress of trying to get our feature films made with multimillion-dollar budgets. So I looked to legendary filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Robert Rodriguez who both made their debut feature films on a shoestring. Eddie decided to join me in the challenge. The first step was to write ten concepts / loglines in three days then pitch each other. Eddie ended up with seventeen loglines and I had fourteen. We pitched each other and gave a rating out of ten. Out of the top three ideas, we each had to pick one and write an outline in a week. We then shared the outlines to each other and gave notes before writing the first draft in two weeks. I pitched the idea to my good producer friend was looking to make a feature. He liked the story and came on board as producer. He found an investor within two weeks and the film was green lit.

From there it was straight into casting and pre-production. I did all the casting myself in just over five weeks. I used Breakdown Express in the NY area, Backstage, NYcastings and IMDB. Over fifteen hundred people applied for the lead role of Sam. I ended up watching all the reels and pictures of everyone as I didn't want to miss out on the next potential star and narrowed the list down to around eighty people. I sent out sides for the actors to self-tape, then brought the top ten in for live auditions in a studio and eventually cast Patrick Duke Conboy as Sam.

For the female lead role of Lily, I wasn't happy with the options I found in New York, so I extended the casting search beyond New York to LA, looked at over two hundred girls and eventually landed Candice Zhao. From Inner Mongolia in China, Candice's big break came as a walk-on in Transformers 4: Age of Extinction. She was selected out of ten thousand entrants in a Chinese reality series to be featured in the film. While on the set, the producers at Paramount suggested that she move to Los Angeles to study acting and improve her English. While she was studying acting in Los Angles, her manager saw the casting for SIJI:DRIVER and put her forward. Candice auditioned via self-tape and I intuitively knew she was the one. She had such a magnetic screen presence, even though her acting skills were still raw. Since her first lead role in SIJI, Candice has starred in four Chinese TV drama series and two movies.

The main antagonist in SIJI was played by Richie Ng in his first lead role. He is a powerhouse of raw talent and subsequently went on to star opposite Liam Hemsworth in the film Killerman. Veteran actor Lou Martini Jr (Soprano's, Vinyl) played a supporting cameo role of Detective. Another actor who auditioned for the Detective role was JR Carter. JR impressed me enough that even though I cast Lou as the Detective, I wrote a new small part for him so he could still be in the movie.

Christopher Raymond came on board as the Director of Photography. He has worked as a DP on various independent films including The Hudson Tribes and The Inquisition of Camilo Sanz. He was camera operator on The Greatest Showman as well as 2nd Unit camera operator on Avengers:Infinity War, Logan, Ghostbusters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Pre-production took around a month, then shooting commenced August 1st with a crew of fifteen people. The 87-minute film was shot in twelve days mostly in New York City with some parts in upstate New York and Long Island.

The film's composer, Tasos Eliopoulos had found out about my film from IMDB and sent me an email. I listened to his work and was really impressed by his music. At the age of 7, Tasos entered into the Athens Conservatory studying classical violin, piano, Harmony, counterpoint, orchestration and composition. He is well versed in traditional orchestral music, modern electronic dance music, rock, metal and almost everything in between. He did a fantastic job and his music won Best Original Score at the Long Island International Film Expo.

The Long Island International Film Expo was the first official selection film festival for SIJI:DRIVER and was awarded Best Feature Film and Best Original Music. I was also nominated for Best Director.

The Montreal International Wreath Awards Film Festival 2018 nominated SIJI:DRIVER for 6 awards and it ended up winning Best Cinematography, Best Actress and Best Director. The other nominations were for Best Music, Best Actor and Rising Filmmaker. Awareness Film Fest in Los Angeles presented SIJI:DRIVER with the Merit Award of Awareness.

The film so far has sold to China, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and Africa. Additional distribution including North American will happen in 2019. I found my sales agent at the American Film Market, been going there for years to learn about the business of film and network with sales and distribution companies. It's also where I met my current producing partner and lots of creative and inspiring filmmakers who are in various stages in their careers. One of the best perks of this business is just how many great and creative people you can meet, so take advantage of that but just be wary of the sharks in the waters...

What about Eddie? He is currently in post-production on his first feature and will seek distribution in 2019. With the democratization of technology, there really are no barriers to prevent filmmakers from going out there and making a film. If you can write, then write the best story you can. If you're not a writer, find a good writer to work with. Spend enough time casting to find great actors and look for crew that are experienced. I'm living proof that you can make a feature film if you put your mind to it. Realize it's not going to be easy, it's not, but if this is your dream then you just have to go for it.

As for what the future holds, I have several projects in development including a romance drama, a grounded sci-fi project and a very cool spy-action film. Stay tuned...

Rent or Buy SIJI:DRIVER on Amazon

David Chai