Introduce Yourself : Storytelling addict, music lover and fashionista by Bo Teng Chea

Bo Teng Chea

Storytelling addict, music lover and fashionista

Hello to the Stage 32 community,

I'm new on this platform. As you can notice I didn't put traditional pro titles because I don't feel like I deserve it yet.

Here, you'll read about myself, my background, my artistic goals, favorite genres and inspirations.

As a young adult, I came up with this weird anatomic equation that can describe me : take a French brain, a Khmer (Cambodian) heart and an American (USA) soul and there you have 80% chance to end up with me.

Born and raised in the surburbs of Paris, France, from two Cambodian parents, my 10 first summers were spent visited my mom's side of the family spread all over California.

I learnt how to ride a bike and rollerblade in LA surburbs, on La Mirada streets to be precise, along side with my monkey cousin and fantastic uncle.

My three main passions are Music, Film & Televison and Fashion. In high school I specialized in Literature and my dad wanted us to have musical training so I studied classical music and the piano for 10 years. Taught myself how to "play" the guitar and I'm currently learning the ukulele and bass guitar.

Dancing is also a hazardous hobbie (western ballet, contemporary dance, Khmer ballet and Cambodian folklore dances, Tap dance, Tango among others). I also went to an art school for two years while attending high school.

During my three years in a Parisian film school, I trained myself script and postproduction supervision. My school has a partnership with Stonestreet Studios in NYC so I studied there in 2013-2014. David McKenna, Danielle Treuberg and Jeff Peretz were the most inspiring teachers for me we had the chance to learn from.

Selfishly I wanted my work to be seen on screen so production and costume designs as well as music supervision where among my main interests while studying in NYC.

Thanks to my landlord/roomate I got the chance to meet a great community in Upper Manhattan where I got to share thoughts with aspiring actors, musicians/singers and filmmakers. Some of them have become quite successful in the American film industry or in theater.

After 4 years of studies in filmmaking, perfection and commitment were sources of stress and sleepless nights during shooting schedules, I didn't picture myself pursuing this lifestyle so filmmaking was put aside. Education, Tourism and recently Retailing are fun jobs but I just died slowly until a former film schoolmate litteraly saved my life by reminded me that I can't ignore the fact that I eat, breath and sleep features films and television series. So with his help I decided that screenwriting would be my main goal and that I'll focus on telling stories we don't really see on French screens. We are in 2018 and I realized all the script ideas I accumulated in notebooks throughout the years were mainly around characters already displayed on Western media.

French screens are not really diverse so I decided to create my own production company called Clownmonkey Films that will focus on story from "minorities"' perspective in order to avoid as much as possible wasting time knocking on doors that would highly reject my projects.

While figuring out the administration and business details, I'm trying to make this project visible on Instagram @clownmonkeyfilms but again it takes loads of work to properly feed a social media.

Finishing the first project called "Le Printemps du Lotus Violet" (I forgot the Engligh title) is the main focus right now. Studiyng the Script Reader Pro Hack Modules is actually how Stage 32 came up on my radar.

Apart from horror films, I enjoy watching all genres. Animation wouldn't qualify for me as a genre (more of a visual storytelling technique) but I get why it has its own section. It is way easier to find a feature that way if you're in for a particuliar kind of visual experience.

(Some of my favorite animation features The Boy and the Beast by Mamoru Hosoda, From Up on the Poppy Hill by Goro Miyazaki, Funan by Dennis Do, April and the Extraordinary World by Christian Demares and Franck Ekinci, Aladdin by John Musker and Ron Clements, Finding Nemo by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich and Zootopia by Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Jared Bush)

The kind of projects I'd like to foster are either indie films about coming-of-age stories around family members for example or big adventure journeys. Time travelling and paralelle universes are themes I am particularly excited about. Detective stories/Crime is the main genre I consume either through books, comics and mangas or tv series (no real documentaries on real cases).

Recent movies I watched or re-watched worth pointing out are Tel-Aviv on Fire by Samed Zoabi, the Farewell by Lulu Wang, Love and Monsters by Michael Matthews, Love at Second Sight (Mon Inconnue) by Hugo Gélin, Ballsy Girl (Forte) by Katia Lewkowicz, Midnight Runners by Kim Joo-hwan and The Personal Story History of David Copperfield by Arando Iannuci.

Recent Tv shows (USA/European) : The Young Wallander, Ragnarök, The Bay, Mallorca Files, Never have I ever, Home for Christmas, L'art du Crime, L'école de la vie, Grantchester, the Mindy Project, Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Recently got into K-Dramas thank to a N*tflix suggestion : 100 days my Prince, Start-Up, Hospital Playlist, Crash Landing on You, Two Cops just to name a few. The structure are so refreshing from what I am grew up watching : a 16 hour "film" and rarely a second season ! You don't really have to wonder if another season will be made based on the show's popularity so you are most likely to have closure with the characters and their arc.

Printed series I'd love to see adapted on screen : Inspector Singh Investigates by Shamini Flint, Tannie Maria by Sally Andrew (how to read the 3rd installment when out of SA??!!!), Hermux Tantamoq by Michael Hoeye and any Eric Senabre books especially the Sublutetia trilogy. Calvin & Hobbs, Marion Duval, Blake & Mortimer, Le Chef de Nobunaga, Yoko Tsuno and Ewilan/Ellana books and comics (but I know that Pierre Bottero was against any film adaptation before his passing) would be very interesting to see on screen.

Blake Edwards, Billy Wilder, Eric Rohmer, Katherine and Audrey Hepburn and of course Cary Grant are my heroes from another era.

If you had the patience and interest to read all this, thank you and you are quite amazing ! :D

Looking forward to participate in the 32 Stage community and Lounges (ahah this sounds so retro in a sense)

BO T. Chea

Jason Mirch

So wonderful to have you on Stage 32 Bo Teng Chea! It sounds like you have so much to add to the community and I look forward to connecting with you and hearing updates.

Bo Teng Chea

Hi Jason, thank you for your message. I am pretty excited to have found Stage 32. Looking forward to share thoughts on upcoming projects with you!

Abby Verste

Welcome Bo Teng Chea!

John Ellis

You are a storyteller, your post proves it! :)

Bo Teng Chea

Hi Abby, Hi John. Thank you for your kind messages. Looking forward to getting to know the projects you are working on ! :D

Sarah Gabrielle Baron

Bienvenue, Bo Teng. I think you should put your beautifully written bio, above, into your bio on your main Stage32 page. Build that out. You have an excellent career so far! I'm so happy to meet you! If you are ever looking for a writer for a short, please feel free to reach out. I like to write shorts on important topics (see the last offerings in my loglines page). Also, please consider looking up the group Strong Asian Lead. My friend Kelly Krause told me about it. If you are ever looking for production partners on a larger project this is absolutely the best place to get live-time pitches with executvies. Reach out to Jason Mirch (above) for more ideas on that. Bon Chance!

Prema Rose

Bo Teng, for such a young woman you have generated a lifetime of rich cultural impressions and experiences. You have a talent for spilling it all onto the page so, just hone your stories and write away!

Bonne chance!

Bo Teng Chea

Hi Sarah Gabrielle, Hi Prema, thank you for your advises and well wishing. Let me return the sentiment. Hope to hear from you again in the future ! A bientôt !

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