With the stars recently in town for the Shanghai Internatioal Film Festival, we wondered if life was really that glamorous for documentary filmmaker Luis Tapia.

Home

8:40am Up and at 'em. Got home very late last night returning from a golf course in Songjiang. I was there over the last couple days filming a short documentary with my friend, writer Dan Washburn, about a golfer he’s profiling as part of a book on golf and China. I warm up water for green tea. I should eat a proper breakfast, but can never seem to get into the habit.
9:00 Conference call with potential investors in California for my proposed feature-length documentary about the growing popularity of Texas Hold 'em Poker in China. They contacted me last week after seeing the short version I made.
9:45 Call goes well. The investors will send over a terms sheet in the next couple days. Although I was stomping around the golf course yesterday, I didn’t get a chance for a proper work out, so I’m off for a quick jog on the treadmill. It’s nice to live across the street from my gym.

Exercise

10:30 Freshly showered, I’m on my way to our office on Taikang Lu, just a short bike ride from my house. I think a bicycle is the ideal form of transportation in this town. The weather is great, and I manage to continue my streak of not getting run over.

Office

10:45 At the office I’m wrestling with a mess of cables and hard drives. I have a couple more tapes of footage from the last few days to capture before I start editing.
10:49 Quick visit to the office hot water dispenser to brew more green tea. My plastic tea mug with built-in screen is as attractive as it is useful.
10:50 My editing station is hooked up and the footage is coursing through the FireWire from the deck into a hard drive. While Final Cut runs in the background, I alternate between responding to emails and catching up on news online.

Planning

11:45 Time for the weekly status meeting with my partners, Arnaud Kamphuis and Peter Kirby. We’ve got a lot of projects in the pipeline and this is our opportunity to organize our time and resources. Arnaud just finished a beautifully photographed piece about a taxi driver, and Peter is composing the music for an abstract film he’s working on.

Lunch

1:30pm Meeting is over, and it’ s time for a quick lunch. I love our location across the street from Tianzifang. Outside our building I notice both pirate DVD stores that used to be on the first floor are now gone. It’s still nice out so we settle into outdoor seats at Ginger Café.
2:40 Field a call from Dan, donning his Shanghaiist editor hat, about a Sichuan earthquake benefit they are organizing. We decide Daedalum Films can contribute by providing video coverage of the event to help promote the charity, the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation.

Editing

2:45 Back to the office, it’s time to start editing. I’m pleased with what I’ve got on tape so far-the golfer, Zhou Xunshu, is an engaging personality and he’s got a fascinating story.

Deadline

5:45 I need to switch gears and try to focus for a bit on the fourth and hopefully final draft of a feature film script, Furnaces. A producer in New York has given me a deadline, and I’ve put myself on a schedule of daily writing to complete the changes I’d like to make. Inspiration doesn’t always adhere to the same schedule.

Friends in Town

7:20 Pounding the pavement northbound up Sinan Lu looking for a taxi. My college roommate and his wife are in town on a trip through China, and I am taking them for some Shanghainese grub at Chun. It is one of the rare places I am willing to do battle with crab shells and extract snail innards. As always, the meal does not disappoint.
9:00 After dinner comes whiskeys at my favorite spot on Changle Lu, the dive-ish Yesterday Pub. My friends leave tomorrow for the U.S., and I want to show them a big night.
10:30 Arrive at Cotton’s, where several other friends are meeting up. We do the requisite “Chairman Mao” shots to welcome the travelers, and spend the rest of the evening and early morning hours enjoying the courtyard and Cotton’s famous hospitality.

Home

3-Something I fall into bed. Need to catch a little shut-eye before a long day of editing tomorrow.