January 2015
> 2 weeks ago
0
About Tao
Tao lives in Sacramento, California. Tao has written over ten shorts, including a sci-fi and post-apocalyptic action and four features: two supernatural horrors and two dramas. Tao is working on several feature projects including two action adventures.
At the age of ten, Tao and his cousin snuck into a traveling theater in Thailand and saw his very first silver screen picture: "Red Scorpion," starring Dolph Lundgren. Intrigued by its visual spectacles and the story of Lundgren's character Nikolai (hero) meeting the Bushman (mentor), Tao became infatuated with idea of the Hero's Journey and wanted to become a filmmaker.
Tao was influenced by the films of John Ford, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, and George Lucas.
Unique traits: I write drama, romance, action/adventure, science fiction and fantasy. I have a well round understanding of story. A story must have meaning as well as entertainment value. I have the ability to think outside the box. When I write, I think of marketing and target a universal audience. I am a scholar and proponent of Joseph Campbell's the Hero's Journey or mythic structure. I have created my own interpretation of the "Monomyth" called The Monomyth Tree, which breaks down the human psyche and emotions into different genres. Of all the film genres, my favorite is boy meets girl - the need to find our other half and feel complete, the anchor to make us whole like Adam (animus) and Eve (anima). This, I believe is the strongest of the human psyche. Whether it is an adventure/fantasy set in the past or a modern drama, the need to find our other half to feel complete is universal to all human cultures.
Certifications
Loglines
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The Damsel (short) Action When city thugs attack a young woman in a run-down neighborhood, a gentleman rescues her but then something unexpected happens.
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First Squadron (A Star Wars Fan Short) Budget: $0 - $100K | Sci-fi ⋄ Fantasy Sent on a secret mission to Kashyyyk, a team of elite Stormtroopers must capture Wookiees as slaves for the Empire while battling hidden Rebel forces on the planet.
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When We Were Boyz (feature) Comedy ⋄ Drama In the late-1990s, four Hmong brothers navigate the complexities of growing up in a tight-knit American community while striving to fulfill their own aspirations and maintain their immigrant parents' Hmong tradition.
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The Dress (feature) Horror ⋄ Mystery ⋄ Romance An unattractive fashion student discovers a beautiful dress that propels her to a night of fame but starts having haunting visits from a mysterious entity.
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Split Horns (feature) Adventure ⋄ Horror ⋄ Thriller A grieving American family relocates to a remote village in the hills of Laos to heal, but the family bond is threatened when the last surviving son is abducted by strange creatures from the surrounding forests.
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An Eastern Promise (Chinese language feature) Drama ⋄ Romance During China's economic boom, a farm boy who's in love with big city ideals leaves his village and the people he loves to pursue his dreams in the modern city-Shanghai.
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Inferno (feature concept only, no script) Fantasy ⋄ Horror ⋄ Sci-fi After a spaceship carrying a cargo of prisoners crash-landed on a planet called Inferno, the only two survivors, an Arab Extremist and White Supremacist must put aside their differences if they are to survive the hostile alien world.
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The Sunglasses (short) Crime ⋄ Thriller A door-to-door salesman, suffering from hemeralopia, schemes up a plan to catch the thief who stole his most precious personal possession - a pair of sunglasses.
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Don't Call My Name (short) Horror ⋄ Mystery ⋄ Thriller A middle-aged husband takes his estranged wife camping in the mountains and the husband mysteriously goes missing.
Education
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San Francisco State University
(2006-2008)
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