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Sabrina Chen: Bay Area’s Best Secret by Don Schwartz
Sabrina Chen in front of a poster for her partner's last project, 'The Lady'. photo: courtesy S. Chen>
PRODUCER SABRINA CHEN IS BI-CONTIN-
ental. She’s spent a lifetime shuttling back and forth between Asia and North America—first with her family, then her entire adult life as a media professional crossing countless boundaries.
Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan. Her family immigrated to the United States in 1978, settling down in the San Francisco Bay Area. After graduating from Burlingame High School, and receiving her A.A. degree from Langara College in Vancouver, B.C., she worked briefly for her family business. When her family relocated to Houston, Texas, in 1994, Chen returned to Taipei and initiated her media career.
Chen’s global trekking became a bit attenuated when, in 2005, she got married, settled down in the Bay Area, and established her boutique production and distribution company, Jelly Bean Films, with her business partner, actress Michelle Yeoh. Their focus was on documentary film acquisitions, production, and distribution.
Like her life, Chen’s media production and distribution business has bases in the San Francisco Bay Area and Taipei, Taiwan. She has worked in virtually every behind-the-camera business: promotion and public relations, marketing, production, acquisitions, financing and licensing. In addition to her treks across the Pacific Ocean, Chen has attended—and continues to attend—film markets and film festivals around the world, seeking and selling movies and television shows.
I had the pleasure and honor of speaking with Chen telephonically at her Foster City headquarters in December, 2013. I learned that Jellybean Films is coming out of its cocoon in 2014, with a new name and greatly expanded production plans.
Sabrina hard at work at her Foster City studio. photo: courtesy S. Chen>
CineSource: Sabrina, would you talk about the forces in your life that brought you to the worlds of media—the influences, experiences, epiphanies?
Sabrina Chen: When I was young I’ve always wanted to be in the entertainment business. I wanted to be an actress, a producer, or a director.
How old were you when that impulse first emerged?
My first cameo role on television, I was six or seven years old.
How did you get that?
My uncle was a producer on a popular entertainment show on CTV, a free television station in Taiwan. There were many comedy segments in the show and quite often extras were needed, so I would always volunteer. We would play the role of kids that don’t listen, drive your parents crazy… it was fun.
I’ve also wanted to be a singer. I love singing. I would go with friends to Karaoke places, join singing contests, I even won several Karaoke singing contests in San Francisco. Because I loved singing so much, I formed a band with a few good friends and performed in special events around the bay area.
Any other influences?
No other special influences because no one in my family were actors or singers, it was just my dream, perhaps it’s because I love reading novels and love watching a lot of TV.
What happened, what did you do when you moved back to Taipei in 1994?
When I first went back to Taipei, I partnered with a few good friends and started a pub, I worked and bartended for about a year, it was fun at the beginning, but it wasn’t a lifetime career for me. Fortunately, I had a good friend who just returned from New York, studying in Media Broadcasting, who went back to work for her old company. It was ERA International. They specialize in film and video distribution, and have a joint venture with Hong Kong TVB on a few TV channels. ERA acquire film titles from independent producers like Miramax, Summit Entertainment, Lakeshore Entertainment, and many others. ERA was also the exclusive video distributor for all Columbia Tristar titles.
One day my friend visited me at my pub, learning that she was back in ERA International I asked her if there were any job openings for me. She replied, ‘I heard the video department was looking for a marketing manager but must speak English. She was kind enough to arrange for an interview and I got the job.
What was your geographical area at this point?
In Taipei, Taiwan. I started my job in ERA International as the Marketing Manager for the exclusive video release of Columbia Tristar titles. The General Manager that I was reporting to was also the GM for the theatrical department, so I ended up working for both. I remembered the first film promotion that I was involved in— ‘Cut Throat Island’ starring Gina Davis and Matthew Modine, and directed by Renny Harlin. The company invited Matthew Modine to Taiwan for the promotional release of the film.
My first job duty was to translate, assist, accompany, and facilitate Matthew Modine’s appearance schedule. It was a great start. Once I got familiar with the company I was full force in marketing the video releases and arranging all foreign delivery for the film department. Besides Matthew Modine, we also invited talents like Juliette Binoche, Anthony Minghella, Robert Rodriguez, Lawrence Bender, and many others.
About a year and a-half into my position in the film and video department, I was asked by the VP at TVBS to join her in attending the TV markets—like Cannes, MIPTV and MIPCOM—to go and acquire TV content to broadcast on our television station.
After one market with her, she was very impressed and made it my responsibility from then on for all markets. So, every year I would travel to Europe and Los Angeles to attend all the TV markets and screenings. I worked with major television distributors like Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal, Fox that were from the U.S.—and also acquired programs that were produced from Europe. While we also produced our own shows locally, there were needs for other various of shows from the foreign countries. We would acquire programs like ‘Party of Five’, ‘Suddenly Susan’, ‘Friends’, etc…
I started off with acquiring TV dramas, and later I added on sports and special events—in the ERA/TVBS group we have 5 channels, from news to entertainment to movies, and sports. We acquired programs from the NBA, NFL, MLB, PGA Golf, world soccer, and more.
By 1996, I was working with the theatrical and video marketing departments, in charge of the PR department at our sports channel, doing acquisitions for five TV channels, programming two stations, marketing the company baseball team, promoting special events like Johnny Walker Tour, Shaquille O’Neal Concert, and many others. Working for ERA/TVBS was a busy and challenging time.
That was a pretty quick ascent.
Yes, it was very quick. But I worked hard, put in long hours. I would work late during the day, go in early ‘cause of live baseball broadcast and feed, I worked on weekends to promote our baseball team at games, or be on site for a golf tour. In between all these daily events, I would also travel to Europe and U.S. for the markets and screenings.
At the time, my boss owned a baseball team, so I was also in charge of marketing for the baseball team—for all players. For marketing purposes I also started a cheerleading team. With the cheerleaders, I would look out for their appearance, coordinate their routines, get them dance lessons, and find them sponsors.
My work was my life.
What was the next big move?
I was at Era and TVBS for about four years. Because of my continuous efforts and work, I was getting a little tired. Within those four years I only saw my parents not more than ten days. Once a year when I would fly to Los Angeles for LA screenings, I would take an extra day so I could fly into Houston for a visit before returning back to work in Taiwan. This was my lifestyle, and when I arrived back in Taiwan on the morning flight I would go home, shower, and I’m back at the office work on the same day.
I did not have too many friends outside the ‘ERA family’ because my life was work. While I had friends in various departments and in the baseball team, I kept asking myself ‘is this what I want for the rest of my life?’
I’ve always been passionate about films. I love being a part of it. So, I took up an offer from CMC Entertainment to run their theatrical department, CMC is a major theatrical distribution company that had an output deal with New Line Cinema and was looking to expand into acquiring titles from other independent productions like Miramax, Summit Entertainment, and others. The company released titles like ‘Rush Hour’ starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, ‘Blade’, ‘Austin Powers’, ‘Final Destination’, ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘Blair Witch Project’, ‘U571’.
I now only attend markets to acquire films from the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Milan Film Festival, and AFM (American Film Market).
In 1999, I had another opportunity to join a company that was acquiring all rights for Asia, and selling them at the film markets, and it was in their interest to invest in and produce film projects. I left CMC and joined Pandasia because I believed it was time for me to learn about the other side of the films—production, and selling.
Did you continue to do acquisitions?
Through this company’s model I acquired for all of Asia, excluding Japan. I’m now becoming a sales company. For example, I would go to the markets and buy wholesale, for all of Asia, from Lakeshore Entertainment. I would then take the rights that I have and would go to the film markets, and I would sell it to Thailand, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other countries in Asia. At the same time, we were investing in films and other projects. So, I worked both in acquisitions, sales, and production.
How long were you with Pandasia?
I was not there long due to difference in opinions, but it was during this time I met Michelle Yeoh. Later I left the company and, for the first time in 6 years, I decided to take a vacation.
What happened with Michelle?
During my time away on vacation, Michelle and I stayed in touch as friends, and while they were shooting in Beijing for ‘The Touch’ Michelle asked me to visit her on set, and so I did. Once I got there she asked me if I really quit my job and what are my plans. She invited me to join her production company as the General Manager to work in production, sales, distribution, and marketing.
Was Michelle also in the business side of the business?
Yes, she had a production company in Hong Kong called Mythical Films with her partner Thomas Chung. Together they produced several projects like ‘The Touch’ starring Michelle Yeoh, Ben Chaplin, Richard Roxburgh and directed by Oscar winner Peter Pau; ‘Silver Hawk’ with Michelle Yeoh, Richie Ren and directed by Jingle Ma. Their third title was ‘Mulan’ to be directed by Peter Pau, but unfortunately the title never got produced.
In 2004, I left Hong Kong and moved back to Houston to help out with the family business and that’s when I met my current husband. We got married and settled in San Francisco. Over that year, Michelle and I stayed in touch as friends.
In 2005, she was in San Francisco shooting ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’. We had an opportunity to hang out again. Later in November, she attended my wedding and said, ‘Just because you’re not in Asia anymore or because you got married does not mean you can’t be in the film business.’ My passion hadn’t stopped, and if the opportunity was there, I would take it.
I remember clearly that I told Michelle ‘but film productions are mostly in Los Angeles, most of the filmmakers in San Francisco make documentaries. That was my impression back in 2004, 2005. And Michelle said, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter, we can do documentaries, we love documentaries. Why don’t we just start a company where we are not pressured to get investors, where we have no obligations? We will work on projects that make sense to us, that we are passionate about, aren’t time consuming, and that don’t take you away from your plan to have a family.’ Well that’s how we got into the business of documentaries.
So, Jellybean was set up in San Francisco, around the end of 2005. Since the set up I had my daughter in 2006, and I had my son in 2009. So, it’s been only the last few years I’ve really started developing and producing. We have come a long way in the last three to four years.
Is Jellybean exclusively documentaries at this point?
No. We did documentaries because I love this subject, and of course it’s also because of my time and availability. Since 2009, we have looked into feature film projects, short films, and documentary feature films. The last several years have been more about developing.
As you know, I produced a documentary on Burma, narrated by Anjelica Houston. Since then, we’ve done an International Asian short-film script competition—competitors submitted short-film scripts with Asian elements. We announced the competition last June, at a filmmakers luncheon, at the [2013] Palm Springs International ShortFest. We received scripts from China, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, and, of course, the United States.
We picked three winners. One from Japan, and two from the United States—from Maryland, and from right here, in Hercules, California. We have three great short-film stories. We’re working with the writers—a few of them want to direct their script. We are shooting all three short films right here, in San Francisco, starting in April.
We will take the completed short films to various short film festivals in the United States, Asia, and Europe. But, probably we’ll start at the Palm Springs International ShortFest this year.
Right now, when I go to your website, I see the documentary films.
The website’s going to be changed. In fact, our company’s name is going to be changed—around the first quarter of 2014. We’re no longer going to be called Jellybean, it’s going to be JBF Entertainment. You’re actually the first one that I told.
Jellybean Films has been fun, but it has always given people the impression that we are making children programs or comedy films. But we want to take the company to the next level because we’re also doing production, events, competitions—and we’re looking into doing talent management.
Besides the short films that we’re producing from the competition, we are also going to be producing a new show. It’s going to be a 30-minute TV program that we’re going to be producing in- house, it’s called ‘Pop-up Dining’.
That’s new to me?
(laughs) It is very new, but it’s really fun and fascinating. There is a new type of chef in town. These are chefs who are very talented, but unfortunately it’s not easy starting your own restaurant, it needs a lot of funding and capital. So they approach existing restaurant owners and propose space sharing, and/or they would be in farmers markets, or be a street vendor. For example: A popular ramen chef would pop up at a wings restaurant twice a week.
These pop-up chefs all have followers—through Twitter, Facebook, and everywhere. So, if they pop and say, ‘This coming Wednesday I am doing my Chinese fusion cuisine at Italiano restaurant downtown. It will take place from 5:30 to 9:00.’ He will have followers that will go to that restaurant to eat his cooking. Pop-up chefs will pop-up at different locations, at different restaurants, and you follow them.
And your show?
We’re going to be focusing on a series of pop-up chefs, or pop-up restaurant, or a pop-up idea. Right now, around the nation, they’re doing different kinds of pop-up themes. They’ll go and pop-up somewhere, say Golden Gate Park, where someone will pop-up for one night at the Japanese Gardens. We would do a feature story of that pop-up chef—where he came from, why he’s doing this. It’s like you’re doing an interview of my life. I’m doing an interview of their life—where they came from, how they started, and what they could accomplish now and in the future.
There’s a lot of these pop-up chefs around the United States. Just in San Francisco we already have over 6 chefs stories lined up. So, we’re doing a season of eight to ten episodes, and they’re all concentrated in the west coast—from San Diego to B.C. to start.
Do you have any more productions in mind?
Yes. We are also looking into management of Asian talent—either from Asia or who have Asian lineage. We also have writers, we’re now writing some of our own stories, and we’re going to make feature films. We’re planning a feature shoot in Las Vegas, in 2014.
Sabrina, to make an understatement, I’m impressed. I think we’re gonna do another interview in a year or so.
Don Schwartz is an actor, writer and blogger on all things documentary, and can be reached .Posted on Mar 13, 2014 - 11:15 PM