Interview: Old Kid Productions Talks New Web Series ‘The Streets’
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With Chinese immigrants now the second largest foreign-born group in the city and soon to overtake Dominicans for the top spot, they are reshaping neighborhoods far beyond their traditional enclaves, particularly in Brooklyn. Yet, when I first watched Episode 1 of the exploding new web series “The Streets,” I was a little embarrassed of how little of I knew of Asian gangs, both immigrant and native – in New York City.
At Heard City recording studio in Dumbo, the executive producers of the new series took some time off to chat in between re-recording, editing, and other post production tasks. Writer, director and lead actor, Will Hue, comes into the room as the man you want to immediately befriend and work for; he’s a self-confident man, a visionary, a creative, but also a leader and someone who wants to spark a movement in his generation. Not too far away was Norman Lam, Director of Photography and Producer, juggling a few tasks — he’s the group’s crucial COO, the guy who lays out the map for the journey that is Hue’s destination. Jeremy Remix aka Yung Sun, Producer and Audio Director was re-recording a laugh for a scene for one of the actors, Jordan Ng, and making final touches on it. It wasn’t too hard not to laugh in this room. These guys are fun.
In talking with them I was impressed not only with the quality of post-production and “visual literacy” as they kept saying but also the unity of the goal of inspiring fellow Asian minorities and minorities in general to know that nothing is beyond reach if you work hard enough for it. The key is the discipline of really thinking it first in your mind. And I can tell these guys bring that discipline to their work.
These three young men met in college and have always worked together even if they might not have first liked each other. They share so many great memories and you can tell the brotherhood you see in “The Streets” somehow mirrors their own brotherhood. Hue explains how the idea for the web series started with him and then Lam added the dialogue and the script, and Remix was the sound master. A fourth Producer, Pin Lin, isn’t present in body but you can tell he is a needed part of the team and also the editing guru.
“We didn’t want to Hollywood this shit. We [as Asian Americans] are not the model minority. We have the same struggles. We go through the same things. We have gangs and violence. We too want dope fresh gear,” Hue said.
“The streets have a different set of rules. You really need a mental rehabilitation to get out of the streets. A lot of people struggle with this though. Even when you’re not in the streets. This series is for everyone,” he continued.
Although the series is about the main character, Chinese-American Benny (played by Hue), and his struggle between the brotherhood of the gang he was raised in and trying to leave that life behind and be a better person for his brother, it’s very much meant to be a story we all can relate to: struggling between letting go of something while pursuing another; wanting to change the past while paving the way for the future. Hue says, “In a way, we’re all like Benny. Everyone is Benny struggling in their day job just trying to make it.”
The series is different from “Money & Violence” which broke the internet earlier this year in the sense that “The Streets” for Old Kid Productions addresses the struggle of the streets that every race, color, city experiences. You see this especially in Episode 2. The story is completely fictional but Hue did grow up in the extremely diverse LES of the 90s. “I’ve seen people get shot; stabbed. Even if people weren’t in gangs and you got involved in the wrong situation, you needed to know someone to get out of it,” Hue said. “We were black and Hispanic too. We all struggled. We all saved up money for that quarter water and the corner store.”
However, some things are different and culturally specific in this series. Hue recounts of how in Episode 1 of “The Streets”, OKP wanted to show Benny not talking back when he’s getting bullied at his corporate job even though he’s a gang member in the streets because culturally, Asians aren’t ones to talk back many times. Often they’re the ones who get picked on and don’t speak up and one of the goals of this web series is to encourage Asian American to speak up and fight for respect.
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Another goal for this series is to highlight Asian American talent in NYC. A lot of the actors are up-and-coming and the music at the end of each episode is from rising musicians; so far we hear from Izzy Man, Lyricks, Dumbfoundead, and Yung Sun. “We wanted to work for a good cast and we wanted it to be believable. We made this on no budget but with the quality to be on Netflix,” Lam said.
The filming took place in Brooklyn (Episode 3 includes an important scene in King’s Lounge), Manhattan, and Queens but all the post sound work happened with Remix at his studio in Brooklyn. For every episode of “The Streets,” Remix did 40 hours of self-taught sound work. “I hold myself to the same standards for this project as if I’m working for my clients like Exxon or Google,” Remix said.
Lin is also self-taught. He was the magical editor in this process, and it took him about a year to learn how to edit video, the same amount of time it took to produce “The Streets.”
The drive for depicting a story of struggle and honesty while also working to make it as quality as possible seemed all too real for these three young producers as I spoke with them. “For every 1 minute of footage, it’s like 5 hours of work behind it. We know we’re going in the right direction when it feels like it’s 100% impossible to do.” Hue said.
Why all the work, you say? “I have a daughter and I want baby girl to know she can do anything and nothing can stop her,” Hue said.
Lam also shared, “I cannot not do this.”
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Check out Episode 1 below and follow the rest of the series on YouTube:
