What is your film Yellow Sticky Notes about?
JCS: Yellow Sticky Notes is a funny, lively and insightful look at the life of a working artist and activist – all told through thousands of yellow sticky notes. 

After realizing that yellow sticky note “to do” lists were consuming my life, I decided to visually self-reflect on my filmmaking journey by animating on the same sticky notes that caused me to ignore major world events for the last nine years.  Animation meditation is blended with image, text, and an original musical score by Genevieve Vincent through the creation of a classically animated experimental film that was drawn straight ahead with only a black ink pen on over 2300 yellow sticky notes.

Why did you decide to animate on sticky notes rather than regular 12 field animation paper?
JCS: Since becoming an animation filmmaker, my life was getting busier and busier.  I was swamped with "to do" lists written on sticky notes that I used to organize my life.  After cleaning up my desk of old sticky notes, I realized that I was going to take revenge on these sticky notes.  So I decided to make an animation using the same sticky notes that made me ignore major world events because I was so busy worrying about what I had to do every day.

The best thing about animating on sticky notes, is that they are portable.  Being just 4x6 inches, in size, made it easy for me to pack them up and animate anywhere.  Since I was traveling a lot to film festivals and speaking at conferences and workshops around the world, I could take them on a plane and to the hotel and animate whenever I wanted without a bunch of equipment.    Some of the disadvantages to animating on sticky note was that it was hard to register them to line up just right.  Although, this added to the low-tech characteristic of the film.  One other advantage I should note, is that the yellow sticky note pads and black pens were pretty cheap, considering I only spent $150 to make Yellow Sticky Notes. 

Was the story laid out from the beginning or were you making it as time progressed?
Making this film was one of the most liberating filmmaking experiences of my life.  I had no budget, no deadline, no broadcaster breathing down my neck.  I animated only when I felt inspired.   It was amazing just to make a film for me and not have to worry about anything else.  The straight ahead animation style I chose was really freeing.  If I made a mistake with the black pen I had to throw out the sticky note and start again.  I could just self reflect through the process of animation meditation - a stream of consciousness.  As I animated, I had no idea of the sequencing the film would take.  All I wanted is for the animation to flow from text to imagery.  It's a high concept film where I had no idea when I would be finished because I really had no ending.  One day I just decided I was done and I laid out all the piles of sticky notes and arranged them in an order that made sense to me.  I can't wait to create another film using this method!

What was your feeling when you were buried with awards?
When I premiered the film at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, it was one of the most nerve racking experiences I've ever had.  I thought everyone would hate the film or not understand it.  Although to my surprise, the audience really responded well to the film.  I even ended up winning the first ever Animasian Award for Best Animated Film at the festival.  It was a great honor especially considering the film had $150 budget and was competing against films with $150,000 budgets.  Yellow Sticky Notes speaks to the busy and hectic lifestyle many North Americans live and urges people to slow down and observe the world around us.  From audience responses, many people have told me how much they relate to the film.  So far the film has won some pretty large awards at film festivals competing against some big names in animation.  YSN recently won the Best Animated Film Award at the Calgary Int. Film Festival beating out Bill Plympton's latest short, Hot Dog.  I couldn't never have anticipated this kind of success!  YSN has even qualified for a Genie Award after winning the Golden Sheaf for Best Animation at the Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival. 

Your films had taken you to unexpected directions, one of them an "activist", can you tell us a bit more?
I couldn’t really imagine the success I had with “What Are You Anyways?” People all over the world who saw the film would email and share their own stories with me and tell me how much they could relate to the film because they too were multiethnic.  The film caught on at universities and schools and I was being asked on a weekly basis to lecture and speak about multiethnic identity and Hapa issues.  Being the Hapa spokesperson was consuming my life and for a while I felt strange about having the spotlight shift from my filmmaking work to my advocacy work in the area of multiethnic identity.  Therefore, my direct response to how busy my life had gotten was to create my animation Yellow  Sticky Notes as a way to reflect on my changing life and to get back to filmmaking.  A small focus on Hapa-identity and how I was feeling about my own identity at the time made its way into Yellow Sticky Notes because that was what I was going through while I was subconsciously animating the film.  I still love the topic of multiethnic identity and this is something I’m exploring in my new 45 minute documentary One Big Hapa Family where I explore my Japanese Canadian families high rate of intermarriage and the children who are a product of these mixed unions!  Watch out for it in the Spring of 2009!

As a filmmaker, I realized I will always be an activist because I believe films should inspire, enlighten, educate, inform, but most importantly entertain because if it's' entertaining it won't appeal to people.  The one thing I'll never do in my films is preach to people.  I want the audience to form their own questions, think, and go out and seek their own answers.

Is there anything you would like to add?

List of Film Festivals and Awards for Yellow Sticky Notes:

Film Festivals:
2007 11th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2008 7th Tribeca Film Festival – New York City, New York, US
2008 31st Asian American International Film Festival  – New York City, New York, US
2008 Spike and Mike’s Festival of Animation  - International Traveling Animation Festival
2008 3rd DisOrient Asian American Film Festival of Oregon – Eugene, Oregon, US
2008 Dawson City International Short Film Festival – Dawson City Yukon, Canada
2008 12th Freeze Frame International Festival of Film for Kids of All Ages – Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
2008 9th Newport Beach Film Festival – Orange County, California, USA
2008 24nd Los Angeles VC Asian Pacific Film Festival – Los Angeles, California, USA
2008 Solstice Film Festival  – Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
2008 61st  Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival – Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada
2008 New Asia Film Festival  – Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
2008 Maui Film Festival  – Maui, Hawaii
2008 Pangea Day  – International Film Event
2008 Animation Nation  – Singapore
2008 Fantasia International Film Festival  – Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2008 ANIMANIMA – âaãak, Serbia
2008 Calgary International Film Festival  - Calgary, Alberta, Canada
2008 15 Short Film Festival  - Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
2008 9th San Diego Asian Film Festival  - San Diego, California, USA
2008 28th Hawaii International Film Festival  - Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
2008 28th Atlantic Film Festival  - Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
2008 Powell Street Festival  - Vancouver, British Columbia, USA
2008 2008 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival International Digital Animation Short Films Competition – Taipei Taiwan
2008 9th DC APA Film Festival  - Washington, DC, USA
2008 12th Vancouver Asian Film Festival  - Vancouver, British Columbia, USA
2008 6th International Film Festival on Peace and Human Rights  - Barcelona, Spain
2008 8thWhistler Film Festival  - Whistler, British Columbia, USA
2008 27h Vancouver International Film Festival – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
2008 9th Ojai Film Festival  - Ojai, California, USA
2008 Hell’s Half Mile Film and Music Festival  - Bay City, Michigan, USA
2008 Shutter 2 Think Film Festival - Terrace, British Columbia, Canada
2008 Tallgrass Film Festival – Wichita, Kansas, USA
2008 Anchorage International Film Festival – Anchorage, Alaska, USA
2008 Spokane International Film Festival – Spokane, Washington, USA
2008 New Asia Film Festival – Japanese Film Night - Richmond, British Columbia, Canada

Awards and Accolades:
2008 Best Animated Short Film:  Calgary International Film Festival 
2008 Best Animated Short Subject : Canadian Awards for the Electronic & Animated Arts
2008 Youth Jury Honourable Mention: 12th Freeze Frame International Festival of Film for Kids of All Ages
2008 Platinum Remi Award Winner for Best Animated (Classic Cel Animation): 41st WorldFest - Houston Remi Awards
2007 Animasian Award for Best Animated Film: 11th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
2008 Golden Sheaf Award for Best Animation and Nominated for Best Director Fiction: Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival
2008 Official Competition – Nominated for Best Documentary Short: 7th Tribeca Film Festival
2008 Golden Reel Award for Short Film - Nominee :  Los Angeles VC Asian Pacific Film Festival
2008 Five Best Short Films Playing at the Tribeca Film Festival: Voted by New York Magazine
2008 Special Mention for Animated Short: Fantasia Film Festival
2008 Opening Night Short Film: Hell’s Half Mile Film and Music Festival