By M&C Movie News Mar 27, 2008, 15:51 GMT
The Seed, a short film produced and directed by Linkin Park DJ Joseph Hahn and presented by Shorts International has made its debut on iTunes.
Hahn, whose directorial credits include such award-winning videos as Linkin Park’s “In The End” (2002’s VMA “Video of the Year” winner) and “Somewhere I Belong” (2003’s VMA “Best Rock Video” winner), as well as music clips for Xzibit, Story Of The Year and Alkaline Trio, makes his first foray into directing short films with THE SEED. Hahn recently directed Linkin Park videos for the smash hits “What I’ve Done” and “Bleed It Out” off their double-platinum-selling Minutes to Midnight album.
Musically, The Seed features two untitled original compositions by Hahn as well as a track (“There They Go”) from Fort Minor, the side project fronted by Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda.
Discussing the film’s impetus, Hahn says, “I saw a homeless guy having an argument with someone who clearly wasn't there. I wondered what it would look like to see the fight through his eyes. What if what he was seeing was real? Who does he think is out to get him?”
The Seed tells the story of Sung, portrayed by Will Yun Lee (Torque, Elektra, Die Another Day, “CSI,” “Bionic Woman”), a homeless veteran losing his mind on the banks of the L.A. River. Pursued by unseen forces, fighting unseen foes, Sung is ostensibly “just another lunatic.”
But as his invisible war continues under bridges and in tunnels, the viewer is taken deeper into his nightmare—into a nightmare of conspiracy, cloaking and the government's unseen war. Sung struggles to fight through what is visible to him, yet invisible to the world around him.
The Seed premiered at the 11th annual Pusan International Film Festival in 2006. In addition to its premiere in Pusan the film has shown at numerous festivals such at the Festivus Film Festival in Denver, CO where it won "Best Short Short" in 2008 and the Veneration Film Festival in Newport News where Hahn took the award for "Outstanding Cinematography" in 2007.
In 2008 The Seed will compete at various festivals including The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, The Malibu Film Festival, The Beverly Hills Film Festival, The Los Angeles United Film Festival and the Swansea Bay Film Festival in England.
Joseph Hahn, best known for his work as the DJ for the multi-platinum selling/award-winning rock-band Linkin Park, was born to first-generation Korean-American parents in Dallas, Texas and raised in Glendale, California. After attending Art Center College of Design in Pasadena for illustration, Joe pursued a career in special effects in television and film before joining Linkin Park in 1996.
Hahn says, “My love for film actually comes from my love for comic books as a kid. I used to not eat lunch so I could spend that money on comics. Eventually, as I got older and wiser, I started to correlate the similarities of graphic storytelling to cinema.” Joe Hahn currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife Karen.
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